Windows 7 - high CPU usage at idle *solved*

[thomsbrain]

Running Windows 7 on an Asus laptop with an Intel i7 2 Ghz.

It was fine for a while, but now at idle it's at 16% processor usage and the power management is running the CPU at full speed all the time instead of throttling down. Task manager reports NO processes using processor resources. So everything reads zero down the list, yet system usage is stuck at 16% minimum. I don't think I installed any new software, but who knows what Windows Update is up to in the background.

Any ideas or places to look for the hog?

Edit: Ran a virus scan, nothing, and memory is around ~2 GB usage, which is normal. I have 12 GB installed.

 

[(sic)Klown12]

Use Process Explorer instead of Task Manager. Much more informative and useful.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653

 

[thomsbrain]

Solved. Microsoft support link:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/presentationfontcacheexe-uses-50-of-my-cpu/4200fe85-458f-4f19-b791-1fe5395304da

Had to delete some hidden cache files deep in the Windows file tree.