hyperthreading processor running at 50 percent on idle

G

Guest

can you help - related question about similar setup, hence the post her

do anyone know why i'm getting a 50%(ish) use figure from my windows task manager/ cpu performance meter with only xp, and hardware apps/drivers installed at idle (base processes only, fresh install on new system)

Is it the hyperthreading dual processor trickery
from what i understand hyper-threading makes use of idle processor cycles, so in part thats an explanation and everything still works, but wheres the point in running on the spot - thats not even remotly idle

anything would help at the momen

i'm runnning
P4 3gz 800fs
intel 875 boardt
1g ra
raid 0 (2xsata7650rpm
9800pro radeon graphic
latest microsoft auto updates and intel firmware
 
D

David Hollway [MVP]

andy_n said:
can you help - related question about similar setup, hence the post here

do anyone know why i'm getting a 50%(ish) use figure from my windows task
Click to expand...
manager/ cpu performance meter with only xp, and hardware apps/drivers
installed at idle (base processes only, fresh install on new system).
Is it the hyperthreading dual processor trickery?
from what i understand hyper-threading makes use of idle processor cycles,
Click to expand...
so in part thats an explanation and everything still works, but wheres the
point in running on the spot - thats not even remotly idle!
anything would help at the moment

i'm runnning.
P4 3gz 800fsb
intel 875 boardth
1g ram
raid 0 (2xsata7650rpm)
9800pro radeon graphics
latest microsoft auto updates and intel firmware.
Click to expand...

Hi Andy,

With a Pentium 4 processor with Hyper-Threading, you should see the same low
CPU usage in Task Manager when idle as with normal systems - i.e, 0-5%.
I have a 3.2GHz processor here with HT, and it's hovering between 0 and
10% - mainly because it's not truly "idle", as I have several low-level
tasks running like an FTP server, a couple of browser windows, a comms
application, etc.
If HT has been correctly identified by your BIOS and Windows, you should see
two processor entries and a computer type entry of "ACPI Multiprocessor PC"
in Device Manager, and the Task Manager -> Performance tab should show two
CPU Usage History graphs.

The way that HT works is that it allows Windows to schedule two threads
("program tasks") simultaneously on the processor core, in cases where the
threads' resource requirements don't overlap. As a simplified example, if
you have one thread that needs the Integer unit of the processor, and
another that needs the floating-point unit, a system with HT will execute
the two simultaneously. A traditional non-HT processor would have to run
just the Integer thread, then the FP thread, i.e taking twice the time and
having half of the processor's resources idle in each case.

In your Task Manager -> Processes list, is any one task taking a large part
of the CPU time?
Which motherboard do you have - have you installed the latest BIOS?

Hope this helps.
 
G

Guest

SOLUTION.

incase anyone comes across this thread with a similar problem, I found that the solution was not only simple but confussing too as i can't really explain why this was the case...

the processor's cooling fan was not TIGHTLY plugged in, it was spinning correctly and the hardware monitors in xp knew it, but i guess the system was somehow confussed somewhere.

as soon as i pushed it down tightly and rebooted, everything was fine, and has been since, even with the machine physically being moved.

my machine is now not only twice as fast but running approx 10 degrees C cooler.

NB* don't let anyone tell you that the system idle process is meant to take up cpu cycles to the amount of 30+ percent, when nothing else is runing, the above may not be the solution for you, but any compatable system (hardware vs software) should be ticking over at less than 10% ideally 0-5% intermittenly.
remember if you where idle you would be running on the spot ;-)

hope this helps
 
G

Guest

David
i did sort the problem in the end (see my previous post), but thought i'd post a thanks for your reply to my plea
All the bes
Andy
 
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