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Is this normal?


I noticed it a couple of weeks ago. Basically completely idle. When I first got the computer, the usage on each core would track each other. Any ideas why this might be happening?

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+.

It'll go to full usage, but won't come down from that.

Something is using up CPU time. Any processes being a hog?

No, process list shows system idle process to be 99%.

Braedley wrote:No, process list shows system idle process to be 99%.

I've seen that when overclocking; its a sign the CPU doesn't have enough voltage. Also, did you install the AMD driver?

How can the system idle process be using 99% while cpu usage is at 35% or so? Something is using power, and it's probably single threaded.

Tried reinstalling the driver, shouldn't have a voltage issue (hardware monitor says 1.35V), not overclocking, I don't have any idea other than maybe windows rot. I installed a tv capture card a while back, but I don't think that's when it started. And that shouldn't affect it anyways.

Beowulf wrote:How can the system idle process be using 99% while cpu usage is at 35% or so? Something is using power, and it's probably single threaded.

Oh, you'll also notice that it's only the second core. the first is working fine.

Try using Process Explorer. It shows a lot more of the processes in your system that Task Manager does not. Hopefully you can see what's wrong. I used to have issues with some sort of infinitely recursing RPC that never showed up. But using Process Explorer let me figure things out pretty quickly.

Braedley wrote:

Beowulf wrote:How can the system idle process be using 99% while cpu usage is at 35% or so? Something is using power, and it's probably single threaded.

Oh, you'll also notice that it's only the second core. the first is working fine.

Doesn't really matter. Both numbers are out of total processing time. If task man says 35% of the cpu is being used, something is using 70% or so of one core, and the process tab should say something about a process using 35% CPU. Use Process explorer.

Process explorer is saying hardware interrupts. So I have really shitty drivers for my tv tuner card because they don't turn off the interrupt line when the card isn't in use. Not much I can do about that unless I want to go searching for third party drivers.

Braedley wrote:Process explorer is saying hardware interrupts. So I have really shitty drivers for my tv tuner card because they don't turn off the interrupt line when the card isn't in use. Not much I can do about that unless I want to go searching for third party drivers.

Well, at least you know the problem now. I had a Linksys USB wireless adaptor that did the same thing, and I ended up returning it. There's really nothing else I could do and rebooting after every gigabyte transferred was not an option.

You might want to consider the same thing... having one core cranking away like that could have adverse long-term conseqences, if not short-term ones due to possible overheating.

UPDATE:
After doing some research, I found out that it's not just my TV tuner card, but my BIOS and PCI bus. A quick BIOS update and everything works fine.

So, if you happen to have a KN9-SLi from ABIT, do a BIOS update before you install a PCI device.