High CPU Usage

[trevordixon]

When I open Windows Task Manager and go to the processes tab, it says
System Idle Process is using 100 percent CPU. That means the CPU is
free, right? But when I go to the performance tab,

 

[trevordixon]

Oops, sorry about those previous two posts. Here's what I meant to
submit:

When I open Windows Task Manager and go to the processes tab, it says
System Idle Process is using 100 percent CPU. That means the CPU is
free, right? But when I go to the performance tab, it shows CPU usage
at a constant 50-60 percent. How can I find out what process is using
my CPU? By the way, I have checked the box "Show processes from all
users" in the processes tab.

Thanks!
Trevor

 

[Jon Scott]

When I open Windows Task Manager and go to the processes tab, it says
System Idle Process is using 100 percent CPU. That means the CPU is
free, right? But when I go to the performance tab, it shows CPU usage
at a constant 50-60 percent. How can I find out what process is using
my CPU? By the way, I have checked the box "Show processes from all
users" in the processes tab.

Click on the CPU column twice on the Processes tab to sort on the CPU usage
descending. The processes at the top are using up your CPU.

 

[JS]

You need to find the specific process or application that's taking
50% of the CPU resources.

To do this try Process Explorer:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/SystemInformation/ProcessExplorer.mspx

Once you have Process Explorer installed and running:
In the taskbar select View and check 'Show Process Tree' and 'Show Lower
Pane' options.
(This will provide the detailed info you need)
Next click on the CPU column to sort processes by %CPU usage.
Then click on the process that's using most or all the CPU %,
once it's highlighted, right click and from the options listed select:
Search Online
This should display what out there on the web about that process.

Note: some entries like Explorer and svchost may need to be expanded to show
the detail,
(sub processes), in this case click on the + located to the left of the
entry.

Still another tool is What's Running
http://www.whatsrunning.net/whatsrunning/main.aspx

JS

 

[trevordixon]

Click on the CPU column twice on the Processes tab to sort on the CPU usage

descending. The processes at the top are using up your CPU.

And it shows System Idle Process at the top with 100 percent CPU. The
performance tab shows that the CPU is at 50-60 percent usage. Why the
discrepancy?

 

[Jon Scott]

And it shows System Idle Process at the top with 100 percent CPU. The
performance tab shows that the CPU is at 50-60 percent usage. Why the
discrepancy?

I personally never saw that before. You can try Process Explorer to see if
it reports the same thing:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/ProcessExplorer.mspx

 

[Patrick Keenan]

And it shows System Idle Process at the top with 100 percent CPU. The
performance tab shows that the CPU is at 50-60 percent usage. Why the
discrepancy?

Try looking with Process Explorer, instead. It will give much more detail
than Task Manager.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/ProcessExplorer.mspx

HTH
-pk

 

[trevordixon]

Process Explorer shows that a proccess called Interrupts is using
50-60 percent CPU. The description is "Hardware Interrupts" and
apparently has no owner (there's nothing under the username field).
When I right clicked it and clicked debug, it shows drwtsn32 or
something starting up and then the mouse and keyboard stopped
responding, so I had to do a hard reboot. It's my boss's computer, and
apparently the computer started slowing down when he installed the
software that came with his new camera. Does anybody have any
suggestions to solve this?

 

[Jim]

Process Explorer shows that a proccess called Interrupts is using
50-60 percent CPU. The description is "Hardware Interrupts" and
apparently has no owner (there's nothing under the username field).
When I right clicked it and clicked debug, it shows drwtsn32 or
something starting up and then the mouse and keyboard stopped
responding, so I had to do a hard reboot. It's my boss's computer, and
apparently the computer started slowing down when he installed the
software that came with his new camera. Does anybody have any
suggestions to solve this?

Drivers use hardware interrupts to do their job. Drwtsn32 is the system
debugger Dr. Watson.
Back out the camera software via system restore. If there isn't a restore
point just before the
new software installation, then you may be in for a system restore.

What does the camera maker have to say about this situation?

Jim

 

[JS]

Are you using an NVIDIA GForce 6800 Video Card by any chance?

JS

 

[Kelly]

Run the Task Manager, go to View/Select Columns, and turn on the following
columns: "I/O Read Bytes" and "I/O Write Bytes." This will give you details
as to which process is accessing the disk.

Although many processes will be accessing the disk, look for one with a high
total or a fast rate of increase, especially when you hear the drive being
accessed.

One further suggestion regarding Task Manager stated by Ron Martell:

In the Processes tab if you click twice on the column heading for any
column then the list will be sorted in descending order based on the
value for that column. This helps to identify which processes have
the highest values for any given item.


--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP/DTS&XP)

Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm