CPU Usage Always High?

[new2overclocking]

Just noticed something that I think is strange. If I open up System Monitor while my computer sits at idle, I see that the CPU Usage % is very high... sometimes up to 80% just watching my computer sit and do nothing. When I move the mouse around the screen, the CPU % goes down.

I would imagine that the CPU % would be zero if nothing's happening, and maybe go up when the mouse is moved... but it's not that way at all.

I'm running Windows ME, but I've seen the same thing happen on Windows 98SE. Anyone else notice this? Is this really a problem, or just something quirky?

I don't notice that my CPU temp goes up at all.... it still stays very low during idle, even if the CPU % meter in System Monitor shows 80% usage.

Any thoughts?

[Sohryu Asuka Langley]

what processes do you have in teh background? i know my systems minumum load is around 40% ALL THE TIME (100 with FAH). that becase i have about 90Mb of ram loaded with background apps :)

[Krakn3Dfx]

new2overclocking (Mar 18, 2001 09:00 p.m.):
Just noticed something that I think is strange. If I open up System Monitor while my computer sits at idle, I see that the CPU Usage % is very high... sometimes up to 80% just watching my computer sit and do nothing. When I move the mouse around the screen, the CPU % goes down.

I would imagine that the CPU % would be zero if nothing's happening, and maybe go up when the mouse is moved... but it's not that way at all.

I'm running Windows ME, but I've seen the same thing happen on Windows 98SE. Anyone else notice this? Is this really a problem, or just something quirky?

I don't notice that my CPU temp goes up at all.... it still stays very low during idle, even if the CPU % meter in System Monitor shows 80% usage.

Any thoughts?

I had the same problem, turned out to be my virus software performing a real time scan all the time, and it hiked my CPU usage up to 90% every 5-7 seconds. I turned off the real time scan, and the problem went away.

[new2overclocking]

What OS are you running? I've noticed that Windows95 does not do this.

I'm not running anything else in the background. Just system monitor to show me the usage %. Also, like I said, the temperatures are extremely low during idle, even with the "reported" CPU at 80%.

My temps are:
22 deg C for room
26 deg C CPU idle
24 deg C case

But the CPU still shows 80%. I doubt that it's really at 80%, because the temps would not be that low (I'm using the stock HSF which looks VERY much like the old Vantec (not the FCE-62540D). My temps at full load are around 36-38 deg. C