CPU usage 25%, system idle 99% ???

[Bourgogne]

I'm baffled. Pausing a certain game for too long, "Company of Heroes Opposing
Forces", causes drastic slowdown that continues after quitting the game.
Checking the Task Manager I find that CPU usage (on the bottom gray stripe)
is 25% or so, and kernel seems to be all of it (all red on the red/green bar
graph.) However, sorting processes by CPU in that same display shows system
idle taking 99% of cpu... and no game-related processes seem to be running.

I've restricted the .exe to processor affinity only on core #0 on my very
new quad-core Dell XPS system, but the problem repeats - all the load hitting
CPU zero.

 

[Jim]

I'm baffled. Pausing a certain game for too long, "Company of Heroes
Opposing
Forces", causes drastic slowdown that continues after quitting the game.
Checking the Task Manager I find that CPU usage (on the bottom gray
stripe)
is 25% or so, and kernel seems to be all of it (all red on the red/green
bar
graph.) However, sorting processes by CPU in that same display shows
system
idle taking 99% of cpu... and no game-related processes seem to be
running.

I've restricted the .exe to processor affinity only on core #0 on my very
new quad-core Dell XPS system, but the problem repeats - all the load
hitting
CPU zero.

The cpu may be servicing interrupt requests. These events are associated
with drivers, and drivers do not report to the task manager.
Jim