Idle Noise

[Hans-Peter Diettrich]

Sometimes my HD becomes active, but as soon as I try to identify the
according process in the task manager, the activity stops, and the Idle
process consumes almost all the CPU time.

What can this be?

DoDi

 

[Wesley Vogel]

System Idle Process is when the system is idle or doing nothing.

2 : to run at low power and often disconnected usually so that power is not
used for useful work
<the engine is idling>
Definition of idle - Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

System Idle Process reference...

[[Idle: This is a generic process that is used when no other program or
process is requiring CPU resources. It is not a bad thing if it is using 99%
of your CPU! This process is a 16 k loop that the CPU processes while it is
not doing "anything" else. If you computer is called upon to do any other
task than nothing, the idle process allows that to happen and the % used
will decrease accordingly. You can not disable the idle process. If it is
using 97% CPU, which only means that the other 3% is used by real programs.
If your idle process is constantly at a low rate (for example, 3%) something
else, an application or process is using the CPU.]]
http://web.archive.org/web/20041125021602/www.blackviper.com/WinXP/strangeservice.htm

[[Note The System Idle Process indicates the unused percentage of the CPU.]]
Task Manager may not calculate CPU usage correctly on Windows 2000, Windows
Server 2003, or Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;873289

[[System Idle Process - You cannot end this process from Task Manager.
* This process is a single thread running on each processor, which has the
sole task of accounting for processor time when the system isn't processing
other threads. In Task Manager, expect this process to account for the
majority of processor time. ]]
Default Processes in Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;263201

[[Description:
the System Idle Process is not a process, more a counter which is displayed
in WinTasks used for measuring how much idle time the CPU is having at any
particular time. This counter will display how much CPU Resources, as a
percentage are 'idle' and available for use. Cannot be killed]]
http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/System Idle Process/

[[System Idle Process
An option in the Windows XP Task Manager that indicates what percentage of
time the CPU is currently doing nothing but waiting for work. If no
applications are running that the user is aware of (although there may
always be some tasks running in the background), the percentage can be in
the high 90s. ]]
http://www.answers.com/topic/system-idle-process

[[System idle process
In computing, The System Idle Process is a process in the Microsoft Windows
operating system that displays, as a percentage, how much CPU resources are
"idle" and available for use at any given time. The name of this "process"
may be a misnomer, however, as the System Idle Process is more of a counter
and less of a process that actually uses the resource percentage that it
displays.]]
http://www.answers.com/topic/system-idle-process

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[TOM]

System Idle Process is when the system is idle or doing nothing.

2 : to run at low power and often disconnected usually so that power is not
used for useful work
<the engine is idling>
Definition of idle - Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

System Idle Process reference...

[[Idle: This is a generic process that is used when no other program or
process is requiring CPU resources. It is not a bad thing if it is using 99%
of your CPU! This process is a 16 k loop that the CPU processes while it is
not doing "anything" else. If you computer is called upon to do any other
task than nothing, the idle process allows that to happen and the % used
will decrease accordingly. You can not disable the idle process. If it is
using 97% CPU, which only means that the other 3% is used by real programs.
If your idle process is constantly at a low rate (for example, 3%) something
else, an application or process is using the CPU.]]
http://web.archive.org/web/20041125021602/www.blackviper.com/WinXP/strangeservice.htm

[[Note The System Idle Process indicates the unused percentage of the CPU.]]
Task Manager may not calculate CPU usage correctly on Windows 2000, Windows
Server 2003, or Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;873289

[[System Idle Process - You cannot end this process from Task Manager.
* This process is a single thread running on each processor, which has the
sole task of accounting for processor time when the system isn't processing
other threads. In Task Manager, expect this process to account for the
majority of processor time. ]]
Default Processes in Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;263201

[[Description:
the System Idle Process is not a process, more a counter which is displayed
in WinTasks used for measuring how much idle time the CPU is having at any
particular time. This counter will display how much CPU Resources, as a
percentage are 'idle' and available for use. Cannot be killed]]
http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/System Idle Process/

[[System Idle Process
An option in the Windows XP Task Manager that indicates what percentage of
time the CPU is currently doing nothing but waiting for work. If no
applications are running that the user is aware of (although there may
always be some tasks running in the background), the percentage can be in
the high 90s. ]]
http://www.answers.com/topic/system-idle-process

[[System idle process
In computing, The System Idle Process is a process in the Microsoft Windows
operating system that displays, as a percentage, how much CPU resources are
"idle" and available for use at any given time. The name of this "process"
may be a misnomer, however, as the System Idle Process is more of a counter
and less of a process that actually uses the resource percentage that it
displays.]]
http://www.answers.com/topic/system-idle-process

Think of it as your computer playing Solitaire between tasks... :>))

 

[D. Spencer Hines]

Nice Analogy.

DSH

 

[Nepatsfan]

(e-mail address removed),

Sometimes my HD becomes active, but as soon as I try to
identify the according process in the task manager, the
activity stops, and the Idle process consumes almost all the
CPU time.
What can this be?

DoDi

If you see hard drive activity, indicated by the hard drive
light on the front of your computer blinking, when you think
the machine should be idle, it may be Windows performing
"housekeeping" chores such as,

Create automatic system restore points
Index your files if you have enabled this through Search
Background defragging
Populate the Prefetch folder

Here's the best article I could find with info about this
process:

Windows XP does not enter standby after the exact period that
is configured in the Power Options profile
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899975/

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[Hans-Peter Diettrich]

If you see hard drive activity, indicated by the hard drive
light on the front of your computer blinking, when you think
the machine should be idle, it may be Windows performing
"housekeeping" chores

Okay, but even then I would like to know, exactly *what* is going on.

It might be a virus as well, and only a list of the active system tasks
can help to distinguish between legal/wanted and unwanted activities.

DoDi

 

[Nepatsfan]

(e-mail address removed),

Okay, but even then I would like to know, exactly *what* is
going on.
It might be a virus as well, and only a list of the active
system tasks can help to distinguish between legal/wanted
and unwanted activities.
DoDi

First off, if you haven't done so already, you might want to
post this question to a newsgroup devoted to security or
viruses. Someone there with a whole lot more experience in
these matters than I have may be able to provide an easy way to
accomplish your goal.

That said, if I suspected something had slipped by my antivirus
and antispyware programs, my first course of action would be to
visit several of the free online scanners to see if they found
anything that my programs missed.

If I still was concerned, I'd leave the following programs
running and check the output.

Filemon
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Filemon.html

Process Explorer
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html

Regmon
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Regmon.html

Plan on doing some detective work to translate the information
you get from these programs.

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[Hans-Peter Diettrich]

First off, if you haven't done so already, you might want to
post this question to a newsgroup devoted to security or
viruses. Someone there with a whole lot more experience in
these matters than I have may be able to provide an easy way to
accomplish your goal.
Right.

If I still was concerned, I'd leave the following programs
running and check the output.

For now I'll try to let the task manager run, so that I don't have to
start another application when the noise should occur again. Of course a
log will be helpful to determine the source of the noise, even after it
stops.

Thanks
DoDi

 

[Wesley Vogel]

I think of it as my computer sitting on the front porch drinking beer. ;-)

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

System Idle Process is when the system is idle or doing nothing.

2 : to run at low power and often disconnected usually so that power is
not used for useful work
<the engine is idling>
Definition of idle - Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

System Idle Process reference...

[[Idle: This is a generic process that is used when no other program or
process is requiring CPU resources. It is not a bad thing if it is using
99% of your CPU! This process is a 16 k loop that the CPU processes
while it is not doing "anything" else. If you computer is called upon to
do any other task than nothing, the idle process allows that to happen
and the % used will decrease accordingly. You can not disable the idle
process. If it is using 97% CPU, which only means that the other 3% is
used by real programs. If your idle process is constantly at a low rate
(for example, 3%) something else, an application or process is using the
CPU.]]
http://web.archive.org/web/20041125021602/www.blackviper.com/WinXP/strangeservice.htm

[[Note The System Idle Process indicates the unused percentage of the
CPU.]] Task Manager may not calculate CPU usage correctly on Windows
2000, Windows Server 2003, or Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;873289

[[System Idle Process - You cannot end this process from Task Manager.
* This process is a single thread running on each processor, which has
the sole task of accounting for processor time when the system isn't
processing other threads. In Task Manager, expect this process to
account for the majority of processor time. ]]
Default Processes in Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;263201

[[Description:
the System Idle Process is not a process, more a counter which is
displayed in WinTasks used for measuring how much idle time the CPU is
having at any particular time. This counter will display how much CPU
Resources, as a percentage are 'idle' and available for use. Cannot be
killed]]
http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/System Idle Process/

[[System Idle Process
An option in the Windows XP Task Manager that indicates what percentage
of time the CPU is currently doing nothing but waiting for work. If no
applications are running that the user is aware of (although there may
always be some tasks running in the background), the percentage can be in
the high 90s. ]]
http://www.answers.com/topic/system-idle-process

[[System idle process
In computing, The System Idle Process is a process in the Microsoft
Windows operating system that displays, as a percentage, how much CPU
resources are "idle" and available for use at any given time. The name
of this "process" may be a misnomer, however, as the System Idle Process
is more of a counter and less of a process that actually uses the
resource percentage that it displays.]]
http://www.answers.com/topic/system-idle-process

Think of it as your computer playing Solitaire between tasks... :>))

 

[TOM]

I think of it as my computer sitting on the front porch drinking beer. ;-)

Or maybe sitting in a rocking chair, drinking iced tea...

 

[Wesley Vogel]

In the shade of course.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In