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How can I fix a low system idle process? It's running at about 0 to 90%
How do I fix a low system idle process, I know that a system idle process is running at about 98 to 99% and recently over the past five days I've had slow internet and other computer operations such as opening software and games... so I looked at my system idle process and it'll run between 0 and 90%... of course, when it's at less than 20% you generally can't do anything. It's very frusterating, please help!
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Inappropriate?Hi Donald, you are looking at the wrong process. The System Idle Process just shows the amount of time your system is idle - doing nothing. If this % is lower than usual, just look to see which other process is busy.
You may need to "show processes from all users".
Once you have found it, you may need to search the Internet to find out what the program is for and if you need to take any action.
Cheers
John Breakwell (MSFT) -
Inappropriate?well... the system idle process takes the CPU % UP the lower the system idle process. For example... if the system idle process is at 60% then the CPU % WILL BE at 40% or higher and under no circumstances can be lower than 40% if the system idle process is at 60%. ALL the processes and the system idle process MUST add to 100%. For example, system idle process 98%, iexplorer.exe 1%, tskmngr 1%... and if the system idle process is running at 60%, the CPU is probably running at 40% or higher. IF the CPU is running at 40% or higher it WILL slow down the computer. So computer speed is definately caused by the low system idle process. The other processes are running at 1 to 4% for about 3 of the processes from iexplorer.exe, explorer.exe, and taskmngr... this wouldn't slow down the computer except the fact that the CPU is running at 40% or higher because of the low system idle process which is suppose to run at 98 or 99%. -
Inappropriate?Hi Donald,
This statement IS false:
"So computer speed is definitely caused by the low system idle process."
Here are a few links that are worth a read:
"System Idle Process" Explained
Why Is The System Idle Process Hogging All The Resources?
If you are only seeing a few other processes with 1-4% each then you need to make sure you select "show processes from all users" (or similar) in Task Manager.
Cheers
John Breakwell (MSFT) -
Inappropriate?i was told that this is a feature to stop viruses from running, i wasn't convect much of it, but that's ok . the real question is : shouldn't this feature go off or take less cpu cycles when i try to run some heavy.
the feature do that but it do it slowly, which causes the slow down -
Inappropriate?Hi Omar,
The feature you describe does not exist.
Anti-virus applications are the only software that can stop viruses from running.
If a machine is infected with a virus then the virus code is running just like any legitimate program or application. The operating system cannot distinguish between applications that are supposed to be there and those that are not.
The System Idle process does not cause a system to slow down.
Cheers
John Breakwell (MSFT) -
Inappropriate?Then why is my system slow ONLY when the System Idle Process is at 80 - 100%. The CPU only dogs when this is what is showing in the task manager?
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Inappropriate?HI Ceotammyjo,
Hopefully you've had a read of the links I mentioned in an earlier post:
"System Idle Process" Explained
Why Is The System Idle Process Hogging All The Resources?
Let's try approaching this from a different angle. In my car there is a little light that comes on when my fuel tank is down to 15 % full. The light is indicating the absence of fuel. It is not, though, the cause of the absence of fuel.
Similarly, if the System Idle process shows a high number, this indicates the absence of any other processes asking to use the CPU. It is not, though, preventing those processes from using the CPU.
Ignore the Idle Process numbers - they are only there to make the Task Manager column CPU usage column add up to 100%.
If your system seems unresponsive and System Idle is high, this shows you that the CPU is under-used and not the cause of your problems. There are a number of other causes - for example,, does the hard disk light flash a lot when the system is unresponsive? If so, it could be the drive needs defragmenting. Or disk activity could indicate the machine is running low on physical RAM (which means more use fo the pagefile and results in increased disk activity). There are many possible causes for poor performance and a lot of resources on the Internet to help you fix them.
Cheers
John Breakwell (MSFT)
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