CPU Load Always 40%+

[fmlizard]

Ok, so I have a brand new system I built with the following specs:

Core 2 Duo E6600
MSI P965 Neo Motherboard
2GB DDR2-800 RAM
GeForce 8800 GTS
2x 160 GB Hard Drives, one SATA one USB
Running cool with aftermarket cooling at 40c
Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit OS
Latest BIOS and chipset drivers


I formatted and did a fully clean install of Vista Ultimate and only added in basic drivers and had no programs running and got 40% CPU load, minimum, doing absolutely nothing according to both a sidebar gadget and the Task Manager. There were no processes in the task manager which were showing to be using CPU, and the System Idle Process was over 90%. This quickly escalates into the 75%+ usage range with minimal activity.

I built a very similar system to this a week ago and took everything back except the case, PS, and video card for the exact same problem and I cannot figure it out for the life of me. I've tried absolutely everything I can think of and no matter what, even with totally swapped out components, I still can't get this load to go away. Its bogging my system down massively - I can't even play most newer games like this.

 

[olmer]

Ultimate, eh? Connected? Conflicts? Event log?

Try posting on os forums.

 

[Smilin]

If it's a new install you are indexing, prefetching and all sorts of things. Use resource monitor (via perf tab in task manager) to get a better picture of what's happening.

This is the important thing: Even though it may be at high CPU it should still be very responsive. Vista will work the crap out of your computer with background tasks but they are set at a low priority so you should have a very responsive computer even if cpu load appears high. If this is not the case then yes, something may be wrong.

If things are sluggish (again, as a whole ignore the cpu meter in sidebar) and *resource monitor* (not anything else) shows no processes using the cpu then you are very likely burning resources servicing interrupts, which never show in resource monitor. Could be a sign of a poorly written driver.