System process works with 16% CPU

[Cmat]

Hi all,

It's been about 3 days my pc acts weird. Even when I do nothing the system process works with 16-19% CPU, is that normal?

(P4 3.2 Prescott
MSI M/B
512 DDR 400)

 

[zephead]

no, it's not normal for a system to be running that high with no programs running. my CPU use is beetween 4 and 10 percent, and ive got music on whilst i type this. based on your picture, your System processes is too high, should be at about 3.

 

[Samstoned]

My dual cpu goes from 0-1 and back again clocking pretty regular
I remember somewhere's I had a hardware issue that made the sys. go high
windows is looping out looking for something to do and can't finish ?

 

[Cmat]

Zephead: The truth is that the System process used to work at 0-1%, when I was doing nothing, and very rarely at 3%

Samstoned: I can't really find anything going wrong with windows, except one thing: Sometimes when I'm trying to play a media file I get a message about Sound Hardware or Sound Device not found, Please reinstall drivers, I restart windows and the files play normally, Now this sound thing appeared toghether with the System process problem.

Do you guys think that it might be a DirectX problem?
Thanx for your answers

(Soundblaster Platinum Live
DirectX 9.0c
Win XP Pro)

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Hello Cmat.

Click start run and type "msconfig" without the quotes, click on the startup tab, and have a look to see whats running. Uncheck anything that you don`t want or need.

Then click on the services tab and check the box that says hide all microsoft services. Again uncheck anything that you don`t require.

click apply ok you will be pompted to reboot your system.

Once your system has restarted you will receive a dialogue box saying that msconfig has been used to make changes etc. Check the box that says don`t show or run this again or something like that.

Now check your task manager again and see what your cpu usage is.

Also check in your system tray(bottom right of the task bar) exit anything that you don`t need and check the task manager again.

The reason I`m suggesting all this, is because you obviously have something running in the background that is using your system resources.

I hope this helps Regards Howard :grinthumb

 

[Cmat]

Hi Howard, thanx for your help,

I did what you told me but the problem remains. I had only 5 (non Microsoft) services running, two of them for my graphics card, one for the antivirus, one for my sound card and one more COM+ Alterer Service, don't know what this one is, I disabled the four of them (except the Antivirus one) but nothing changed

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

High CPU usage in System process is usually caused by IRQ conflicts / sharing, as far as I know.

 

[Cmat]

Mictlantecuhtli I don't know much about IRQ's, is there something I have to change about that? Can you give me specific directions on what to do please?

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

You can see the current IRQ setup from System Information:

Unfortunately Win2k and newer seem to prevent changing them, so pretty much the only way seems to be swapping PCI cards to different slots.

Maybe you should check your mainboard manual to see what kind of IRQ routing table it uses - most boards assign the same IRQs to some onboard devices and PCI slots.

 

[zephead]

IRQ conflics are are nowadays. if you need to check so to start>programs>accessories>system tools>system info. you can see everything about your computer by browsing, including IRQ,DMA,and COM information.

 

[Cmat]

Well, that's how my IRQ's look like but I have no idea if something is wrong :knock:

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

If I was you, I'd disable all unneeded USB ports from BIOS.

 

[Cmat]

Thanx for your help people, problem solved. I had this Sonny ericsson thing installed, a PC Suite, that was causing the problem, I removed it and everything works fine

Thanx again :grinthumb