Why is the System Idle process using 80% of my CPU all the time?

[Jack Flash]

I'm running XP Home SP2 in Bootcamp 1.4 and it seems the fans are always soaring because the System Idle process is always at 80%+

What is wrong with my Windows installation?

 

[Eidorian]

System Idle Process

 

[Jack Flash]

In my case it seems to be tying up my entire CPU usage, though. I'll have nothing but McAffe running and my MacBook will be blaring at 6,200 RPM with a real 80% processor usage.

 

[contoursvt]

I think the way it works is this. The process list shows CPU usage in % for any process thats running. Now all processes other than "idle" are actually using up cycles. Idle process means just that. The computer is idle meaning doing nothing. So 80% idle process means 80% time doing nothing. That means all other processes on the computer that are doing something add up to 20%.

At least thats what I understand. So 80% idle shows that its doing little work. Its kind of like you saying "80% of the time I've got nothing to do".

I'm running XP Home SP2 in Bootcamp 1.4 and it seems the fans are always soaring because the System Idle process is always at 80%+

What is wrong with my Windows installation?

 

[Eidorian]

The entire purpose of the System Idle Task is to issue the halt state to your CPU in order to conserve power and generate less heat. If System Idle Task is using a lot of processor time it's actually sending additional halt commands to the processor. It also has a priority of 0 so any other process will preempt it. If another process needs CPU time then the System Idle Task will send fewer halt commands and allow the processor to dedicate more time to higher priority processes.

 

[Peace]

The System Idle Process is actually showing you the percentage of the CPU that is not being used.


basically

 

[Eidorian]

The System Idle Process is actually showing you the percentage of the CPU that is not being used.


basically

That works too.