CPU usage questions

[SneakyStuff]

I own a Dell Dimension 4500, when i check my cpu performance usage, it is ALWAYS at 100%, even when im not running anything in windows, is there a reason for this? and will this affect the life of my processor in any way? AND, is there a way to safely stop this?

 

[myocardia]

It sounds to me like it's time for an upgrade, man! I've had a computer continously for 23 years now, and I've never heard of anything like that. Are you sure that booting into Windows isn't all that proc. is capable of doing? That 1.8 Northwood was an awfully weak chip! Uhoh, I shouldn't have said that, now Duvie's gonna come looking for me!

 

[MegaWorks]

that is very bizarre, try to see if you're running any processes in the windows task manager and try to end some of them then see what will happen

------------------------------------------------
AMD Athlon XP T-Bred B 1700+ @ 2.3GHZ (1.75v) 400FSB = 3200+
Abit NF7-S V.2 (nforce 2 400U)
Corsair TwinX XMS 3200LL 512MB @ 2-3-2-6 (2.6v)
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Maxtor 91531U3 15GB
2x Western Digital WD400BB 40GB serials
Antec PlusView 1000AMG
Cambridge SoundWorks MegaWorks THX 550 5.1

 

[SneakyStuff]

My pc has no trouble handling any workload tho, the memory usage bar is at 1 when the pc is dormant, im really confused. Something else interesting, when i go to check the little green graph that displays the usage, it shows a really steep spike up to 100% just when i look at it, according to the green line it went from 0 to 100% usage, when i looked at it.

 

[SneakyStuff]

things that go BUMP in the night

 

[pspada]

Is your screensaver active? If you are bringing the system out of sleep, hibernate or screen save mode, there is likely to be a jump to the system resources while the system comes back up. Try a different program that continuously monitors CPU usage to see if it's real or so sort of problem with the program you are using.

 

[screw3d]

At least let us know which process is taking up the CPU cycles?

 

[mechBgon]

On the Processes tab in Task Manager, is there something using all the CPU? Do you have antivirus software (and up-to-date virus-definition files)? When's the last time you did a full antivirus scan of all drives? How about a hardware or software firewall, particularly if you have an always-on Internet connection? Then there's spyware/adware, do a sweep with Spybot S&D.

Spybot S&D
Grisoft AVG Free Edition antivirus
ZoneLabs ZoneAlarm free firewall software

and make sure to get the updated virus database for AVG right away because the MyDoom worm has achieved the rare High-Outbreak rating at McAfee and is spreading fast (it went from unknown to Low to High-Outbreak in the space of about six hours today :Q). I think pspada musta cooked it up, 'cause its goal is to DDoS the SCO.com domain (J/K, bro! )

 

[SneakyStuff]

"cpuidle.exe" is taking up 98% of the CPU according to the list, any thoughts?

 

[screw3d]

LOL.. I think cpuidle is a program that runs a command that supposedly helps to cool down the CPU when it's idle. So you are not having any problems. If you decide to disable the program, you'll get back your normal CPU usage percentages.

 

[Haden]

You can remove it, in XP/2000 system idle process does its job like it's supposed to. Such apps where used in 9x.