CPU idle

[Guest]

I just upgraded to Vista Premium, I have 2 gigs of RAM, and a 3500+ Amd
Processor, I am curious why my computer never Idles? Is there anything I can
do to remedy this? I know its probably not very good for the CPU to be
running this much.

 

[Steve Thackery]

I know its probably not very good for the CPU to be

running this much.

Nonsense, it's designed to run. It's "running" even in the idle loop.

To answer your question, there are all sorts of things that occupy the
processor and disks on a new Vista installation, the most likely being the
search indexing. This takes several days to settle down.

Vista also preloads files into RAM that it thinks you're going to use next.
Also it defrags the disk once a week and sometimes fiddles around optimising
the files to speed up the boot time.

It will calm down in due course, but it will never be as "quiet" as an XP
installation because it's busy doing more things (useful things).

Steve

 

[P. Di Stolfo]

Hello,

what do you mean by CPU idle? That the processor usage is 0 %? For a 3500+
AMD CPU it's quite normal to never idle under Vista. Even the best CPU
should be at about 1% usage.

Greetings,
P. Di Stolfo

 

[Guest]

Like the other guys said, 3-5% CPU usage would be normal. If you idle at
30-50% CPU usage it is most likely from a program which is not compatible
with Vista. This is not unusual for people who have used upgrade discs. If
this is the case, first make sure you have all the latest drivers and BIOS
installed. Try to uninstall some programs. If all else fails, you may need
to clean install Vista.

 

[Guest]

It could also be caused by the feature that lowers the CPU speed when it's
idle, to lower the power usage and temperature. (AMD Cool'n'Quiet)
If this is the cause of the 'higher' CPU usage, it's really no problem,
because if you cpu speed is at 50% of it's normal speed, the CPU usage just
looks twice as high.

It could be wrong, but you can check in the Resource Monitor how fast your
CPU runs. (open Task manager, under the tab Performance, click Resource
Monitor)

 

[Lord Takyon]

I just upgraded to Vista Premium, I have 2 gigs of RAM, and a 3500+ Amd
Processor, I am curious why my computer never Idles? Is there anything I
can
do to remedy this? I know its probably not very good for the CPU to be
running this much.

Vista seems to do more stuff in the background, but as a rule I am happy
that mine uses between 1 and 4% CPU when idling. The only time it works
more is when I switch indexing on to update, but that gets disabled again
when it has indexed. I do this about every 3 or 4 weeks.

 

[Travis King]

My OC'd Sempron 64 2800+ (1.99GHz) always hovers between 0% and 4% at idle.
Normally 1% or 2%.