CPU Usage 50-60% -- Vista x64

[churin]

I have just installed Vista x64. I checked Task Manager and found it
indicated that the CPU usage was 50 to 60%. There is even no
application installed yet. There could be certain background activity
but it appears too high because the CPU Usage for Vista x86(installed in
the same box - dual boot system) when no app is running is about 2 to
3%. What could be wrong with this Vista x64 install?

 

[Peter Foldes]

New install is maybe indexing. What do you think

 

[churin]

Click on the processes tab and find out what is using the CPU.
(you might need to also click on "show processes for all users")

Thanks for your response.
What I see in the processes tab are as follows:

Image Name User Name CPU Memory Description
System Idle Process System 93 24K Percentage of time the
processor is idle

Is the above causing 50-60% CPU usage?
Is this normal? Why 32bit Vista does not show this high CPU usage %?

 

[lforbes]

Umm System Idle means that all is good. The higher the better. It should be
almost at 99% when the machine is doing nothing. As the other processes use
up CPU the System Idle goes down.

Cheers,
Lara

 

[John Barnes]

System Idle process is the unused cpu cycles. You show only a 7% usage, not
50-60.

 

[churin]

Thank Lforbes and John for your responses.
Your post indicates that unit of the number under CPU column is
percentage and the percentage is that of unused capacity of the CPU.
Then what does the CPU Usage in percentage as shown in Performance tab
means? These two percentage numbers appear contradict with each other.

 

[churin]

I have just noticed that the CPU Usage is no longer 50 to 60%, instead
it is now 6 to 10%. Does this mean that the initial high CUP Usage
indication was due to indexing activity as Peter Foldes' post stated?
I still wonder how the CPU for "System Idle Process" relates to the CPU
Usage percentage.

 

[John Barnes]

Most likely it was the initial indexing and defragging you experienced. The
System Idle Process is the inverse of the used cycles. It is the Idle
percentage.

 

[churin]

What I am wondering is that the System Idle Process was 93 when the CPU
Usage indicated 50 - 60%. Aren't these two numbers contradictory?

 

[churin]

Let me update the situation: The CPU Usage of 50-60% is back again. The
System Idle Process is still around 90-94.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Let me update the situation: The CPU Usage of 50-60% is back again. The
System Idle Process is still around 90-94.

Exactly where are you seeing these numbers? What you report isn't
possible. All System Idle Process is is 100% minus the percentage
actually in use.

 

[churin]

The CPU Usage I am referring to is on the second from the left on the
status bar of the Windows Task Manager. The CPU Usage is also shown
graphically on the Performance tab.

 

[churin]

The CPU Usage I am referring to is on the second from the left on the
status bar of the Windows Task Manager. The CPU Usage is also shown
graphically on the Performance tab.

 

[John Barnes]

Look in the processes section of task manager and add the cpu column if it
isn't there. Sort on that column and see what processes are using your cpu
cycles.

 

[churin]

In the Process section there are Image Name, User Name, CPU, Memory and
Description. The number shown under CPU column for System Idle Process
is 90 to 93. And yet the CPU Usage shown on the status bar is 50 -
60%(This is also graphycally shown on the Performance section). My
question is that why the CPU Usage is over 50% when the CPU Idle Process
is 90%. Isn't the CPU Idle Process of 90 the percentage of the CPU
capacity NOT BEING USED?