Question on CPU usage %

[eVe GiiDiiOn]

I have a system with an Intel Celeron 330 CPU @ 2.66 gHz.
I have a gig or ram.
Many times when I run some single apps, or even multiple apps, the
system crawls. When I check out the CPU % Usage it is generally less
then 25% and if I check out the Processes, usually the one using the
most is System Idle Process.

Anyone know what is the deal with this?

Thanks
eve

 

[beenthere]

I have a system with an Intel Celeron 330 CPU @ 2.66 gHz.
I have a gig or ram.
Many times when I run some single apps, or even multiple apps, the
system crawls. When I check out the CPU % Usage it is generally less
then 25% and if I check out the Processes, usually the one using the
most is System Idle Process.

Anyone know what is the deal with this?

System Idle Process is the exception to the rule.
It`s telling you what is Free, or Idle.
The lower that number, the more load your machine is
under. OK ?.

 

[John Doe]

I have a system with an Intel Celeron 330 CPU @ 2.66 gHz.
I have a gig or ram.
Many times when I run some single apps, or even multiple apps, the
system crawls. When I check out the CPU % Usage it is generally
less then 25% and if I check out the Processes, usually the one
using the most is System Idle Process.

Anyone know what is the deal with this?

Run Performance monitor and watch CPU usage, unused physical memory,
and (I always monitor) the modem bytes sent and received.

Probably also good would be some disk activity measurement.

The performance Monitor cannot be minimized like the old System
Monitor, but it rests comfortably in my secondary monitor nowadays.

Good luck.

 

[Brad Houser]

I have a system with an Intel Celeron 330 CPU @ 2.66 gHz.
I have a gig or ram.
Many times when I run some single apps, or even multiple apps, the
system crawls. When I check out the CPU % Usage it is generally less
then 25% and if I check out the Processes, usually the one using the
most is System Idle Process.

Anyone know what is the deal with this?

Thanks
eve

System Idle Process is a low priority "do-loop". It is what the system does
when it has nothing else to do. (It doesn't stop.) Everything else in the
world will have a higher priority, so pay no attention to it, it is always
the difference between cpu busy and 100%.

Things that can slow down a PC: Check for viruses, spyware, and other
stuff. Also check your hard drive with HDTUNE. Defrag your disks. Move your
swap drive to the fastest drive. Defrag your swap drive.

BH

 

[Sylvain VAN DER WALDE]

System Idle Process is the exception to the rule.
It`s telling you what is Free, or Idle.
The lower that number, the more load your machine is
under. OK ?.

Thanks for that _useful_ answer. I'd often wondered about that process
result, and found it confusing.
Now, I can ignore it.Sylvain.

 

[Mxsmanic]

I have a system with an Intel Celeron 330 CPU @ 2.66 gHz.
I have a gig or ram.
Many times when I run some single apps, or even multiple apps, the
system crawls. When I check out the CPU % Usage it is generally less
then 25% and if I check out the Processes, usually the one using the
most is System Idle Process.

Anyone know what is the deal with this?

If the processor is not 100% busy, either the network or the disk
drive is holding the system back. Look at statistics for network I/O
and disk I/O to see what's up.

 

[Mxsmanic]

System Idle Process is a low priority "do-loop". It is what the system does
when it has nothing else to do. (It doesn't stop.)

The system idle process will actually halt the processor if there is
no work to do. Only the old Windows 9x and 16-bit versions would
actually spin the processor in a do-nothing loop.

 

[Brad Houser]

The system idle process will actually halt the processor if there is
no work to do. Only the old Windows 9x and 16-bit versions would
actually spin the processor in a do-nothing loop.

I don't think that is the default behavior. Can you provide a reference?

BH
<not speaking for Intel>

 

[Mxsmanic]

I don't think that is the default behavior. Can you provide a reference?

Well, it's in the source code.

But it's easy to check even without source code: just look at the CPU
temp when the system is idle. If it were not halting the processor,
the CPU temp would always be pegged near its maximum. In fact, the
temp drops to its minimum when the system isn't doing anything.

All NT-derived Windows systems do this. The old Windows 9x and 16-bit
Windows systems just spin, as far as I know.

 

[John Doe]

I don't think [shutting down the CPU when idle] is the default
behavior. Can you provide a reference?

Well, it's in the source code.

Mxsmanic is making a joke.

"Oh, well, it's in the source code."

<pffft>

 

[Mxsmanic]

Mxsmanic is making a joke.

No, I'm serious.

 

[John Doe]

No Mxsmanic, you're not serious.


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NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 00:31:04 -0500
From: Mxsmanic <mxsmanic gmail.com>
Newsgroups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Subject: Re: Question on CPU usage %
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 07:31:04 +0200
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Mxsmanic is making a joke.

No, I'm serious.

 

[Bret Miller]

System Idle Process is the exception to the rule.
It`s telling you what is Free, or Idle.
The lower that number, the more load your machine is
under. OK ?.

I apologize for not making myself clear, sorry.
I guessed that the System Idle Process was more or less a report of
the % of the CPU that was free.
So, to rephrase my original question, why, with the Idle processor
using the highest amount of resource, is my system dragging?
I could understand if my CPU usage was 99% and stuff was slow, but why
25% usage and the system is dragging?
An example might be with Agent News reader. When I compress the
groups when I am about to close, it takes forever. The CPU usage is
very low but I cannot do anything. Agent is frozen and is reported as
NOT RESPONDING until it is finished.
There you go....I did my best to make myself better understood, but
perhaps I don't know enough to ask the correct questions.
Computer use certainly is not as easy as it should be.

eVe