System Idle Process Running At 92-99%?

Question

I just installed Windows XP Service Pack 2 about 10 minutes ago. I restarted my computer and it was extremely slow. I looked up to how fix it on google and it brought me to look at the Task Manager. It says that System Idle Process is using 92-99% of my CPU. The Toolbar at the bottom of the screen keeps freezing. The computer is a 2002 HP Pavilion with 1 GB ram, 71 GB harddrive and runs on XP. Other things i've downloaded in the past day was Mixmiester and ITunes. Also on the laptop which runs on Vista System Idle Process isn't even on the task manager list.

Answer 1

System Idle Process is 100% minus the percentage of CPU time being used by programs. IOW, it's how much of the CPU *isn't* being used. The more it "uses", the better. System Idle Process was taken out of the Vista Task Manager because of the confusion it caused in XP. (And it was put back into 7.)



The higher that number, the more CPU is available for running more programs. Your problem is probably that 1GB of RAM. Programs keep getting larger, so you keep needing more RAM to run them in. If there's not enough room, something has to get swapped to disk, and the computer can't do anything else while it's doing that.

Answer 2

You can reduce the System Idle Process by running more applications. You see, computer processors have to be doing _something_. So when it has nothing to do, it runs the system idle process, which is simply a little piece of code that does nothing while the CPU waits for its next instruction. Don't blame the System Idle Process for a slowdown. It has nothing to do with that. Your freezes are most likely caused by a driver interrupt conflict, a virus, or some code that leaks memory or writes to the system heap (a coding no-no). Before you spend cycles trying to eliminate processor idling, find out what's really causing your slowdowns.

Answer 3

The System Idle Process is what the computer runs when there's nothing more important to do, in other words, when it's Idle. Computers have to execute machine instructions constantly, the way sharks have to (or were believed to have to) constantly swim to keep water passing over their gills. When a computer stops executing machine instructions, it's stopped dead. Period.



In other words, when the computer's really working, the SIP uses very little of the CPU. (SIP time doesn't show in the CPU Usage total, by the way, or in the little green box or the CPU Usage History on the Performance tab of Task Manager.)



By the way, to see the System Idle Process in Vista's Task Manager do this:



1. Click the Show processes from all users button.

2. Pass through the UAC checkpoint.

3. Check the Show processes from all users checkbox. (Redundant, ain't it?)



Hope that helps.

Answer 4

Have a read of this:



http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000873.html



In short, the system idle process isn't the problem.