System process always using 25% of processor!

[mbodall]

hello all,

i was given a very nice computer recently and to be honest, i'm kind of nit-picking, but this is irritating me nonetheless. specs are as follows:

Mobo: Asus L1N64-SLI WS
Processors : (2) AMD Athlon 64 FX 72's running at 2800 MHz
RAM: (3) 2GB of PC...something-or-other speed lol sorry cant remember
Video: (2) NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS's
OS: Win7 Pro 64-bit

i got it with no HDDs so i formatted 2 drives i had and did a fresh install of 7. that was... less than a week ago. anyway, here's the thing: there is a constant usage of 25% of the processors at all times by the 'System' process. and whats even more confusing is that most of the time processor 1, core 2 is the only core doing it. just pegged at 100% while every other core is more or less idle... BUT some of the time it's evenly divided up between all 4 cores. again, it isn't affecting my computer''s performance. i've yet to call upon all 11.2 GHz from my processors so i can't say i'm terribly upset this is going on, however i'd like to know what's causing it.

help?

 

[manojgj]

for 2 or 3 Gb or ram you may stick with 32 bit, it will do best,
check this site for minimum requirements
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/system-requirements.aspx

using 64 bit with 2 gb ram it like overloading the machine..(bcz 2 GB ram in only a minimum requirement for windows 7 given by Microsoft)

what are the process taking more memory..

 

[mbodall]

for 2 or 3 Gb or ram you may stick with 32 bit, it will do best,
check this site for minimum requirements
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/system-requirements.aspx

using 64 bit with 2 gb ram it like overloading the machine..(bcz 2 GB ram in only a minimum requirement for windows 7 given by Microsoft)

what are the process taking more memory..

i believe you might have misread. i have 6GB total ram. (3) 2GB sticks.

svchost 68mb
explorer 24mb
svchost 17mb
svchost 15mb
etc etc...

 

[manojgj]

you have put it in braces usually people mention it as 3x2, so i thought it as 2 or 3 GB..
.. the process you have given is normal & it default MS process..
go to task manager & double click on "CPU", it will give it in decreasing order or your process that use most of cpu in first..
if possible take a picture

also check this
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7performance/thread/b5c79a15-781b-455a-9003-6d305695fce0

 

[mbodall]

yes i know computers quite well and know those to be M$ processes. i know what each and every process that runs on my computer is/what it belongs to. they are not the issue. like i said, the 'system' process is the one using the CPU - not any other process. here's a screenshot per your request:

oh, btw double clicking the 'CPU' column results in ascending order, not descending 😉

edit: i didn't even bother clicking your link at first because i figured you didn't quite understand my problem, and i was right. those people's problem is completely different from mine. they are having issues with their processors being pegged completely at 100% and causing performance issues. i'm having neither of these issues. you did read my first post, didn't you?

 

[Ijack]

Have a look at this article for some suggestions about tracing problems with this particular process.

 

[mbodall]

Have a look at this article for some suggestions about tracing problems with this particular process.

oh thank you! someone with something worth clicking on!

lol sorry i'm an ass. that utility looks very handy. his entire first paragraph sums me up:

I like knowing exactly what my systems are doing. I want to know if a process is running away with the CPU, causing memory pressure, or hitting the disk. Besides keeping my computers running smoothly, my vigilance sometimes helps me spot performance and reliability problems in Windows and third-party code.

 

[Ijack]

What Mark Russinovich doesn't know about Windows internals isn't worth knowing. If you're interested in what's going on in your computer you'll want to check out all of the utilities at Sysinternals. The site was so good that Microsoft bought it.

 

[mbodall]

What Mark Russinovich doesn't know about Windows internals isn't worth knowing. If you're interested in what's going on in your computer you'll want to check out all of the utilities at Sysinternals. The site was so good that Microsoft bought it.

you and mark are my 2 new best friends

cheers

edit: the culprit is ntoskrnl.exe. now to find out why...

and holy crap this utility is a godsend! i can even view remote connections and ports... love it!

while we're sharing things, have you ever heard of PC Wizard? i think it's very handy - it provides a PLETHORA of information about your system. however i mainly use it to make sure my hardware is configured right, monitor my all my voltages, run benchmarks, and make sure all my temps are happy happy. check it out if you haven't before

 

[huron]

Another useful utility, since it seems we're sharing, is SIW - great for figuring out what's exactly in a system - I use it all the time for upgrades for people.

 

[mbodall]

Best answer selected by mbodall.

 

[mircea_de_arges]

I had the same problem with Win 7 and an ASUS N53S Series, and I finally find the fix for this:

Go to Device manager > Network adapters > Intel WiFi Link 1000 BGN > Properties > Power Management and uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power."

 

[hashimjamal]

Thanks Mircea. You were right, as soon as I disabled power management on the NIC cards, the 'system' process cpu util came down to 0.

Thanks a lot man.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

This topic has been closed by SR-71 Blackbird