system idle process

[sam]

My computer is running really slowly at the moent, and
has been for ages. In task manager there is always SYSTEM
IDLE PROCESS using between 70 and 99% if the cpu.
You cannot terminate it "The operation could not be
complerted. The operation is not alidfor this process"

I have done a recent virus ccheck. what else could it be?

 

[Crusty \(-: Old B@stard :-\)]

Do you know what doing nothing - being lazy - screwing off - doing
nothing - f***ing off means? Do you think that's what idle could mean,
waiting for it's boss to tell it to get back to work!

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Break out a dictionary and look up the word "idle," sometime. ;-}
The "System Idle Process" metric is the amount/percentage of time that
your CPU has *nothing* to do. A reading of 98-99% is generally
considered a good thing, and readings above 90% are normal. Think of
it like a car's engine idling in your driveway before you place the
car in gear.

If your System Idle process is logging percentages as low as 70%,
something else is severely bogging down your CPU. Primary suspects:
any other process(es) using more than 2 or 3%; any process(es) (other
than System Idle) pulling more than 10% is almost definitely a
problem. Odds are that you'll find that one or more of the
Svchost.exe processes are involved. It's perfectly normal to have
several instances of Svchost.exe running simultaneously.

A Description of Svchost.exe in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314056

However, if Svchost.exe is using a large portion of your CPU
cycles, it has most likely been "hijacked" by a worm, Trojan, or
scumware. Have you tried using a decent antivirus application with
the most currently-available virus definition files? A strong
candidate would be W32.Welchia.Worm.

W32.Welchia.Worm a.k.a. W32/Nachi.Worm
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.welchia.worm.html

Because many of the newer viruses and worms can disable antivirus
applications whose definitions weren't up-to-date, try using one or
more of the free on-line scanners to double-check your system.

Trend Micro - Free online virus Scan
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

McAfee Security - FreeScan
http://www.mcafee.com/myapps/mfs/default.asp

Symantec Security Check
http://security.symantec.com/ssc/home.asp

Additionally, there are countless varieties of scumware (adware or
spyware) that could be consuming your CPU cycles. Most antivirus
applications do not scan for or protect you from adware/spyware,
because, after all, you've installed them yourself, so you must want
them there, right?

To deal with issues caused by any sort of "adware" and/or
"spyware,"such as Gator, Comet Cursors, Smiley Central, Xupiter,
Bonzai Buddy, or KaZaA, and their remnants, that you've deliberately
(but without understanding the consequences) installed, two products
that are quite effective (at finding and removing this type of
scumware) are Ad-Aware from www.lavasoft.de and SpyBot Search &
Destroy from www.safer-networking.org/. Both have free versions.
It's even possible to use SpyBot Search & Destroy to "immunize" your
system against most future intrusions. I use both and generally
perform manual scans every week or so to clean out cookies, etc.

Additionally, manual removal instructions for the most common
varieties of scumware are available here:

PC Hell Spyware and Adware Removal Help
http://www.pchell.com/support/spyware.shtml


Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH

 

[Tom]

My computer is running really slowly at the moent, and
has been for ages. In task manager there is always SYSTEM
IDLE PROCESS using between 70 and 99% if the cpu.
You cannot terminate it "The operation could not be
complerted. The operation is not alidfor this process"

I have done a recent virus ccheck. what else could it be?

It isn't a virus, and you are OK with this. It is simply the CPU having
nothing to do, and the percentage result is idleness with the CPU not
processing anything. Think what "idle" means. Do a search on Google with
your subject line and read about it.

 

[Guest]

I'm no expert, but maybe I can help you from my experiences with slow computers

System idle is the process which keeps your cpu warmed up and ready for action (I always think of it as the computer twiddling it's thumbs in anticipation of real work!)

About your computer running slowly, you might have a lot loading upon startup, which could cause that,
or you might need new drivers, or you might need to change startup settings, or a number of other things can cause slowdowns

Did you download anything or make any changes immediately before you noticed the slowdown? Virus software is a big drain on resources, so are a lot of the services which are by default set to start during startup, but not necessary for daily use. Many of the services (processes) can be set from 'automatic' to 'manual' startup, and they will only start when needed. Tweaking your services and process lists is dangerous unless you research each one and understand dependencies. Blackviper.com has a lot of help in that area. Pacs-portal also has a great search feature to help you identify processes by their cryptic filenames (google them, but make no changes unless you're sure of what you're doing.

To determine which service is using your cpu when your system idle is only at 70% , open task manager, processes, you might have to go to the top to 'view' select columns, then pick 'cpu' (pick 'cpu time' too while you're there) then while looking at the processes, click on the cpu at the top of the column to sort by cpu usage ascending, if you see all zeroes at the top, click again. Mine usually has system idle, then task manager, try highlighting task manager in the process list, then when something takes over the cpu you will see the task manager jump down the list, if you're fast enough you can highlight whatever it is that has jumped above the task manager (so you can see which process it is even after it stops using the cpu and moves back down the list) then research it with google to see why it is using the processor.
You can also sort by cpu time to see what has been using your cpu the most

Event viewer can also be a big help for troubleshooting slowdowns

For any of the experts who visit this site to be able to help you, they will need to know your system configuration, including memory, ram, motherboard and processor specs, pagefile size, HD size and free space, etc. as well as any changes you made to the computer before the slowdown

Always make sure your computer is finished logging you off before initiating shut down, and also be sur
your computer is finished loading the operating system before logging on.

Post back here for help from the experts
Hope this helps
Liz M


----- sam wrote: ----

My computer is running really slowly at the moent, and
has been for ages. In task manager there is always SYSTEM
IDLE PROCESS using between 70 and 99% if the cpu
You cannot terminate it "The operation could not be
complerted. The operation is not alidfor this process

I have done a recent virus ccheck. what else could it be

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

My computer is running really slowly at the moent, and
has been for ages. In task manager there is always SYSTEM
IDLE PROCESS using between 70 and 99% if the cpu.
You cannot terminate it "The operation could not be
complerted. The operation is not alidfor this process"

I have done a recent virus ccheck. what else could it be?

From the scant information you've provided, I don't know what
your problem is, but it's *not* "System Idle Process." "System
Idle Process" is not any problem at all. That's just the name for
what the system is doing when it's not doing anything. It's there
to make the total add up to 100%.