Can anyone help me solve this?

I have set up a new machine (ASUS P4P800-VM, Celeron 2G,
512MB DDR400) running Win2k SP3. Machine feels very
sluggish. With no program other than Task manager and
perf mon running, they both report 80%-100% cpu
utilization, with 99% of cpu time being eaten by system
idle process. Funny thing is, CPU time used by System
idle process does not increment in real time despite
supposed use of CPU by this task ie. it takes 5 seconds
for this process to use 1 second of cpu, while it is
supposedly using 99% of the cpu.

I have already run spybot to search for trojan horses
etc.

Thanks

TC wrote:
> ... with 99% of cpu time being eaten by system
> idle process.

Okay, so what's your problem? Your machine is 99% *IDLE*. That means,
conversely, that everything that is currently loaded and running is
eating up a mere 1% of the CPU's time. Idle and busy are opposites.

99% system idle means the pc is doing nothing.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]

"TC" wrote:
> Can anyone help me solve this?
>
> I have set up a new machine (ASUS P4P800-VM, Celeron 2G,
> 512MB DDR400) running Win2k SP3. Machine feels very
> sluggish. With no program other than Task manager and
> perf mon running, they both report 80%-100% cpu
> utilization, with 99% of cpu time being eaten by system
> idle process. Funny thing is, CPU time used by System
> idle process does not increment in real time despite
> supposed use of CPU by this task ie. it takes 5 seconds
> for this process to use 1 second of cpu, while it is
> supposedly using 99% of the cpu.
>
> I have already run spybot to search for trojan horses
> etc.
>
> Thanks

Thank you for your reply but I think that either you have
misunderstood me or this information is incorrect. If I open a perf
mon, it tells me that the cpu utilization is 90%. That would not be
correct if the system were idle. The task manager performance tab
gives the same info. On other windows OSes such as NT4 for example,
if nothing is running, these graphs show cpu utilization <5%

The fact that the system is very sluggish corroborates my suspicion.

The fact that the System Idle Process is taking up most of the cpu,
while the cumulative cpu time spent by this task only increments by
one second every ~5 seconds, implies that something else (not a task
listed by the task manager) is taking up 4/5 of the cpu - like maybe
the kernel or something else. Since I am new to Win2k and have not
been able to find an answer in any reference source, I am posting
here.


"*Vanguard*" <no-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed)>...
> TC wrote:
> > ... with 99% of cpu time being eaten by system
> > idle process.
>
> Okay, so what's your problem? Your machine is 99% *IDLE*. That means,
> conversely, that everything that is currently loaded and running is
> eating up a mere 1% of the CPU's time. Idle and busy are opposites.

Thank you for your reply but I think that either you have
misunderstood me or this information is incorrect. If I open a perf
mon, it tells me that the cpu utilization is ~90%. That would not be
correct if the system were idle. The task manager performance tab
gives the same info. On other windows OSes such as NT4 for example,
if nothing is running, these graphs show cpu utilization <5%

The fact that the system is very sluggish corroborates my suspicion.

The fact that the System Idle Process is taking up most of the cpu,
while the cumulative cpu time spent by this task only increments by
one second every ~5 seconds, implies to me that something else (not a
task listed by the task manager) is taking up 4/5 of the cpu - like
maybe the kernel (why?) or something else. Since I am not familiar
with Win2k and have not been able to find an answer yet in any
reference source, I am posting here...


"Dave Patrick" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed)>...
> 99% system idle means the pc is doing nothing.
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
> Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]
>
> "TC" wrote:
> > Can anyone help me solve this?
> >
> > I have set up a new machine (ASUS P4P800-VM, Celeron 2G,
> > 512MB DDR400) running Win2k SP3. Machine feels very
> > sluggish. With no program other than Task manager and
> > perf mon running, they both report 80%-100% cpu
> > utilization, with 99% of cpu time being eaten by system
> > idle process. Funny thing is, CPU time used by System
> > idle process does not increment in real time despite
> > supposed use of CPU by this task ie. it takes 5 seconds
> > for this process to use 1 second of cpu, while it is
> > supposedly using 99% of the cpu.
> >
> > I have already run spybot to search for trojan horses
> > etc.
> >
> > Thanks

The information is correct. When nothing is despatched the System Idle
Task is in control. I'd say that what you see may be I/O delays. When
the system needs to read from the disk, unless it is cached the system
has to wait a very long time (on the timescale of the processor) for
I/O to happen.

Does you disk need defragging? Do you have any other problems? Are you
cosntantky fetching data over the network?

Cheers,

Cliff

On 2 Dec 2003 13:29:11 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) (TC) wrote:

>Thank you for your reply but I think that either you have
>misunderstood me or this information is incorrect. If I open a perf
>mon, it tells me that the cpu utilization is ~90%. That would not be
>correct if the system were idle. The task manager performance tab
>gives the same info. On other windows OSes such as NT4 for example,
>if nothing is running, these graphs show cpu utilization <5%
>
>The fact that the system is very sluggish corroborates my suspicion.
>
>The fact that the System Idle Process is taking up most of the cpu,
>while the cumulative cpu time spent by this task only increments by
>one second every ~5 seconds, implies to me that something else (not a
>task listed by the task manager) is taking up 4/5 of the cpu - like
>maybe the kernel (why?) or something else. Since I am not familiar
>with Win2k and have not been able to find an answer yet in any
>reference source, I am posting here...
>
>
>"Dave Patrick" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed)>...
>> 99% system idle means the pc is doing nothing.
>>
>> --
>> Regards,
>>
>> Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
>> Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]
>>
>> "TC" wrote:
>> > Can anyone help me solve this?
>> >
>> > I have set up a new machine (ASUS P4P800-VM, Celeron 2G,
>> > 512MB DDR400) running Win2k SP3. Machine feels very
>> > sluggish. With no program other than Task manager and
>> > perf mon running, they both report 80%-100% cpu
>> > utilization, with 99% of cpu time being eaten by system
>> > idle process. Funny thing is, CPU time used by System
>> > idle process does not increment in real time despite
>> > supposed use of CPU by this task ie. it takes 5 seconds
>> > for this process to use 1 second of cpu, while it is
>> > supposedly using 99% of the cpu.
>> >
>> > I have already run spybot to search for trojan horses
>> > etc.
>> >
>> > Thanks

--

The complete lack of evidence is the surest sign
that the conspiracy is working.

(E-Mail Removed) (TC) wrote in
news:(E-Mail Removed):

> The fact that the System Idle Process is taking up most of the cpu,
> while the cumulative cpu time spent by this task only increments by
> one second every ~5 seconds, implies to me that something else (not a
> task listed by the task manager) is taking up 4/5 of the cpu - like
> maybe the kernel (why?) or something else. Since I am not familiar
> with Win2k and have not been able to find an answer yet in any
> reference source, I am posting here...
>

There are some tasks that do not show up in the Task Manager.
Try downloading "TaskInfo" Shareware (I think it has a free 30-day
trial) and see if it reveals something that the Task Manager doesn't
show.
<http://www.iarsn.com/taskinfo.html>

HTH,
John