[SOLVED] CPU High kernal 100% usage

[DeadExcuses]

As the title says my Cpu is always at 100% and i'm fairly confident I know what the issue is. If I understand CPU's the way I think I do in the 1 hour I looked into this topic is that a CPU is actually always running at either 100% or 0% its just that in task it doesn't show you the percentage that is being allocated to nothing. Well as you can see from this picture I am seeing the % being used on nothing

My question is, is there a way to make that not show so I don't always see 100% when I Open task.

 

[Obakasama]

Who told you a CPU only works at either 100% or 0%? At 0% it wouldn't be working, so the system has to be switched off. And at 100% it's being fully utilised by whatever software is running. I would ignore that advice wherever it came from. For example this is my CPU usage which contradicts that:

As such I would direct attention towards what is using your CPU. From your Task Manager picture it shows the usage for each particular task, and added together they account for the 100% usage. I don't see a problem with the arithmetic in Task Manager.

If closing down one of those processes, like Spotify (for example) and the CPU usage is still at 100% for whatever reason; then it would require more investigation how it occurred and why. As it is I don't see anything wrong. I would question why Google Chrome uses so much of the CPU though. I certainly wouldn't have expected an i7-7700k to be at 100% with the tasks you're running. I would want to scan for viruses and malware just to be on the safe side.

 

[DeadExcuses]

Who told you a CPU only works at either 100% or 0%? At 0% it wouldn't be working, so the system has to be switched off. And at 100% it's being fully utilised by whatever software is running. I would ignore that advice wherever it came from. For example this is my CPU usage which contradicts that:

As such I would direct attention towards what is using your CPU. From your Task Manager picture it shows the usage for each particular task, and added together they account for the 100% usage. I don't see a problem with the arithmetic in Task Manager.

If closing down one of those processes, like Spotify (for example) and the CPU usage is still at 100% for whatever reason; then it would require more investigation how it occurred and why. As it is I don't see anything wrong. I would question why Google Chrome uses so much of the CPU though. I certainly wouldn't have expected an i7-7700k to be at 100% with the tasks you're running. I would want to scan for viruses and malware just to be on the safe side.

Yes, 0% was to mean off and 100% being on but that doesn't seem important anymore. I would like to note that right after I took the picture most of the CPU was allocated to shareX at around 77%. As for the Anti-virus I had already ran RougueKiller and HitmanPro that got 15 hits which can be found here. Most of the stuff removed seemed to be my ace stream.

I closed every application (except shareX to take the picture) and this is what I got. Final note is that somehow this doesn't seem to heavily affect games I play, I think it started to stutter a little due to this but I can still get 100 fps in most of the games I play.

For comparison here is me playing Conan Exile. 100 avg fps and hardly any stutter from maxed out CPU (Thought there is a little stutter in certain situations though that may be the game and not the CPU I cant be sure)

 

[Obakasama]

It seems like when gaming, or at least for that one specific game, the CPU correctly prioritises it. If infected would expect the virus/malware to still run affecting gaming performance.

ntoskrnl.exe usage seems to be quite high, as well as other Windows related processes. I would want to check on a GPU graphics driver update.

If usage remains high I'd check which particular processes are using so much CPU resource. May want to highlight a particular one by right clicking and seeing the details of it.

 

[DeadExcuses]

It seems like when gaming, or at least for that one specific game, the CPU correctly prioritises it. If infected would expect the virus/malware to still run affecting gaming performance.

ntoskrnl.exe usage seems to be quite high, as well as other Windows related processes. I would want to check on a GPU graphics driver update.

If usage remains high I'd check which particular processes are using so much CPU resource. May want to highlight a particular one by right clicking and seeing the details of it.

I have already updated GPU through Nvidia's Ge-force Experience. I did as you said and looked into a program I could make take high usage. As expected it was showing it using an insane amount of CPU while not using remotely that much at all when looking underneath the hood.

Here is a picture showing how much Path of Exile is using

Then less than a second later here is a screen shot of what Task shows it using from the Processes Tab (ShareX got in the way because the 2nd pic was taken before the 1st finalized and uploaded)

 

[Obakasama]

Be careful on one aspect of checking usage. Some programmes lower the usage when tabbing out to check other things (like Task Manager) and skewer results. I would consider using (something like) MSI Afterburner to check on usages while gaming, and have it record/log the results during play.

Also consider what minimal usage for the CPU is like (eg. at start up). Usually I'd expect it to be around 15% depending on the system and software.

 

[DeadExcuses]

What are Kernal times exactly? That is almost always running at 98-100% when Task shows System Idle Process at CPU 99 or so. I think the issue lies in there somewhere because Kernal Maxing out cant be good.

I'm very firmly confident the issue is the CPU on processes tab is 100% because it isn't taking into account the idle CPU not being used, so its taking what is being used and distributing that out of 100%. Not sure what could have caused it since I check it religiously (for some reason) and noticed it after I switched from American Truck Simulator onto Dragon Age: Origins and that was all I did. FPS isn't being hit at all so I don't think the CPU is messed up or broken.

Edit: Also when those pictures were taken it was snapped on a 2nd monitor while the game was still open not minimized.

 

[Obakasama]

I'm more inclined to think it's either some form of Task Manager error or misunderstanding of an error.

With the things you've snapped at 100% full load, the processes account for it. As such, I don't see anything untoward in those figures. There are instances where it seems odd for software to be so CPU heavy (Chrome and ShareX). I still think it's odd for an i7-7700k to be technically struggling with such meagre tasks (according to Task Manager). This is why I suggested opening Task Manager when you haven't opened anything else to see what is happening at the PC's minimal state; it gives us the basic state in which to compare with.

The only thing I can think of software-wise is whether a power performance setting plays a part in the readings. As my own snap of Task Manager suggests, typically the amount of resources used by the CPU is dependent on what's running at a base level, and the additional usage of software I've opened. I'd be tempted to boot into safe mode just to see what the readings are for comparison too.

Hardware-wise I would start looking at temperatures to rule something else going on. Sounds unlikely as you haven't mentioned performance being an issue.