System Idle Process?

[MZB]

Sometimes my disk drive seems active, more than it should be. When I go into
Task Manager/Processes it always says System Idle Process as taking about
95% of the CPU time.

What is this and how can I figure out what is going on?

MB

 

[neil]

Well the system idle process just means your computer CPU is idle. (not
doing anything) Sometimes windows will access the disk when the system isn't
busy.

Neil

 

[Wesley Vogel]

"Note The System Idle Process indicates the unused percentage of the CPU."
from...
Task Manager may not calculate CPU usage correctly on Windows 2000, Windows
Server 2003, or Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/873289

System Idle Process reference...

<quote>
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.
<quote>
from...
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/strangeservice.htm

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Sometimes my disk drive seems active, more than it should be. When I go into
Task Manager/Processes it always says System Idle Process as taking about
95% of the CPU time.

What is this and how can I figure out what is going on?

"System Idle Process" is not any problem at all. That's just the name
for what the system is doing when it's not doing anything. It's there
to make the total add up to 100%