Abnormally high CPU usage by System Idle Process

[metahydronium]

Hi,
Its my first post here. Greetings to everybody.


I run a Windows XP SP3 based system with all updates and latest drivers installed, and the software maintained for optimal performance (stuff like a clean and defragged registry, defragged file system, minimal background processes and disabling of non-essential windows services, no malware/spyware, absence of junk files, etc etc). The hardware config consists of an Core2Duo E6750 CPU, Corsair XMS2 2GB memory, Gigabyte X-38 DS5 motherboard, Gigabyte 8800GT based GPU and a Seagate 320GB HDD.

Since a past few days, I've been noticing abnormally high CPU usage under idle conditions. The processes "System Idle Process" and "System" occupy anywhere from 40% to 70% CPU usage. I have the Enhanced Halt (C1E), Thermal monitor 2 and Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology enabled in the BIOS - in case this information is relevant. Hardware Interrupts, Deferred Procedure Calls under System Idle Process seem to take up cpu cycles for most of the time, possibly indicating a driver bug. I have not installed/removed any software, hardware, nor updated any device drivers which would lead to such a problem suddenly. Normal workloads are not affected, however stuff like playing video with PowerDVD 10 and running the Milkdrop Visualization are badly throttled.

Please Advice.

 

[FoxMcCarther]

I'll think on your problem for a while, but I wanted to comment that Milkdrop is the best visualization software ever, and it can definitely take its toll on any processor or gfx card lol. Are any of your processes using more resources than normal? It would appear you have a firm grasp on what is usually running on your system, so is anything out of the ordinary?

Ideally though, the "System Idle process" should be as high as possible, as that is where your excess cycles are going. So, the higher the number, the less resources your usual operations are using (so 99% idle process means 1% in use) (Also, that is my understanding of it, if I am incorrect in this assumption, somebody please correct me, I have not really ever thought about that process before).

I don't think your bios settings will interfere with that, but I could be wrong, again somebody correct me if I am wrong (making another assumption).

Are you using a laptop? Sometimes slower processing can mean the battery is going bad (Though not always)

Try running some form of monitor to find out if your processor is running up to par (cpu-z works alright for quick checks). But I think it is probably something else. Gfx card going bad or underclocked perhaps?

I am not really sure what could be causing it, you seem to sound like you already checked for abnormally running processes, so I am at a bit of a loss. Perhaps it could be hard drive slowing down or something? I am sure MoM will come in here and correct any information I got wrong as well as provide you with some potentially better answers (Though, this is also an assumption lol, may not even come in here, but I've been corrected twice now, so he knows his stuff!)

 

[KSoD]

Okay there is a key word.

IDLE

That means it is doing nothing. You want that process to be eating up the most of your "CPU Cycles". Cause that means that your process is not doing a single thing and is waiting for commands.

 

[patonb]

You need to check your gpu tempeatures. As only video things seem effected, I'm wondering if your gpu is overheating and throttleing back. Ideally your gpu should be under 60C, but at loads can be up around 90C and still be okay.

 

[metahydronium]

Thanks everyone for their replies.

The system Idle Process should be as high as possible, but the "Deferred Procedure Calls" and "Hardware Interrupts" are the ones that are causing my cpu usage to remain as high as 90% while I'm working on applications. With Firefox that I'm using right now to write this, the cpu usage isn't dropping below 70%. I just mentioned the video decoding and visualizations as these tasks are both cpu as well as gpu intensive, and particularly tasks that are affected and I can see the effects.

I'm aware of the usual processes that are running on my system and idle conditions do not let the cpu usage reach above 5% under my daily usage patterns. Did check the gpu as well as hdd usage patterns - no problems with temperatures or clocks, as well as disk reads or writes.

Though I don't call myself quite a geek, I'm sound with computers, so asking - is there any way to pinpoint which driver (or perhaps the corresponding dll) could be the culprit? High amount of Interrupts and DPCs normally indicate faulty drivers or conflicts between devices as far as I can see.

 

[KSoD]

Yes the Idle process should be as high as possible. That means that there is nothing sending commands to the CPU.

You cant gage this when operating something, especially something like Firefox. As that is known to be a resource hog. I have gotten Firefox to eat up 3GB of RAM and spike my CPU at 100%. It got so bad i had to force shut down my PC.

Video Decoding is CPU intensive unless you have a program that is designed specifically to use the GPU. But that would show up under that programs name on the Task Manager, not under System Idle Process.

The same goes for the Visualizations. They would show up under that program, not Idle.

I am more than sound with Windows and its processes. Everything you mention is not part of the Idle Process. Everything you mention would show up under a different process listed in task manager. Everything has its own name and nothing, and i do mean nothing, latches on to the System Idle Process.

If you check the event viewer you will see that if there is a problem, it is latched to a specific program and its own process, not the System Idle Process.

 

[patonb]

Ight be a good idea to post up a screen shot of the task manager, and the load temps of the cpu and gpu.

 

[carnageX]

Though I don't call myself quite a geek, I'm sound with computers, so asking - is there any way to pinpoint which driver (or perhaps the corresponding dll) could be the culprit? High amount of Interrupts and DPCs normally indicate faulty drivers or conflicts between devices as far as I can see.

Process Explorer