System process 100% cpu; Fresh Media Center install

I have an emachines T6520 model PC here which I just completely reformatted and installed Windows XP Media Center 2005 SP 2. I haven't installed any drivers or updates. It is a completely clean install, but in both regular and safe mode the System process uses up 100% CPU. I've searched around the internet and have found a few similar cases and even another person who had the same problem on a clean XP install, but I haven't found any answers. I was wondering if you guys could help me.

I've run msconfig and there are no non-microsoft services running and I turned off the only startup item. Still no luck. What could be causing this on a clean install? Could something along the lines of maybe a bad processor cause something like this?

 

Sounds like the install disc may be missing some things, causing services to install incorrectly. Also possible is network set up. The OS may be searching for network drives and folders and not finding it, or searching for Media Center Related Software/Hardware and not finding it. To figure out if it is the hardware, install another operating system.

 

When I had a similar problem (not on a fresh install) where cpu was at 100 percent on windows xp from bootup to shutdown. I was able to trace the problem to the motherboard onboard audio, when I installed a PCI audio card the problem went away.

It could be some onboard device/driver problem giving you the problem. That's just something to look at.

 

Well this media center disk has been used many times. It's an original disk. Not copied or anything. And I did try installing XUbuntu but it won't even boot of that disk. I don't know why not.

 

... and your fan, it is clean, dust-free?

 

Yep, cleaned out all the dust. Still doing the same thing. Any other ideas? I mean I really can't think of anything that could do this on a clean install other than faulty hardware. It's probably cheapest and most time effective to just throw the damn thing away XD