system process cpu spikes

new hp dv5000 laptop vista premium 2gb memory blah blah..

cannot track down cause of random high cpu spikes, its always system or
svchost processes busy doing something? i have safe mode scanned with spybot,
kaspersky, registry fixers and no change. safe mode gives level 1-4% cpu use
at rest but full boot and cpu is all over the place. i found in the events
logs alot of criticals! with " <Data
Name="Path">C:\Windows\system32\drivers\ntoskrnl.e xe</Data>" constantly
reffered to in the performance section of windows.

anyone have any pointers? other than re-install vista (i have done that one!)

thanks in advance to any braniacs that can help!