idle process hogging cpu bandwith

The windows task manager's list of processes shows a "System Idle Process" that has recently been recently been using anywhere from 60 to 98 percent of the CPU power. It does this all the time and I don't know what settings to change....help...thanks in advance

 

I have wondered at times about that too. But my idea is that is the amount of processor that IS NOT being used.

I just checked my TaskManager and it shows System Idle Process at 98%.

I am sitting here watching it fluctuate as I mess with this post. And get on and off of this BBS.

BillyBob

PS
It just dropped to 90% when I subbmitted this post.

It also dropped to 60% As I scroll around.

BB

 

bcm

Open TaskManager and set it to be always on top.

Open up IE and watch Iexplorer.exe change in Task manager. It and Idle change in relation to each other.

I also watched my Anti-Virus files CPU usage change as I was on the Internet.

BillyBob

 

The idle process is meant to "soak up" any unused CPU.

Thus, when your PC is "idling" this process should be approaching 100%.

 

That's a measure of how much of the time the processor has nothing to do. Of course it should be as high as possible but that's an ideal and won't happen if you are doing any work at all. All other processes deduct from the idle time, as you can imagine.

When you sit and watch the numbers, if you don't move the mouse or use the keyboard, the system idle process should equal 100% ideally.

Edit: Hi Whitphil, I was going to add that this process is used often to determine if some malware is doing work on the system in a stealth mode.

 

Well, having idle not in the high 90's indicates that something is running. These days Malware is certainly one culprit, but it could also be XPs indexing service, background Defrag or some other "normal" application.
But, since it IS your PC, one should make every effort to try and understand a bit more about what is actually running on it.

 

I don't run that stuff so when I rest, so does the rig.

I flat line at 99% idle process and 0% CPU usage indicated after a short wait and it stays there until I do some work. Makes for a nice "tattletale. "