system using 50 percent cpu ALWAYS

[LordPolo]

I am running a dual cpu celeron system. I just reinstalled windows 2000, and after I installed all the device drivers, the system is using 50 percent of the cpu time. I checked the task manager, and the system idle processes is hovering around 98 percent, nonetheless the total cpu percentage is around 50 percent all the time. I ran InnoculateIT and I didn't find any viruses. Any ideas? thanks

[Jeffbx]

Perhaps one of these articles may help:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q237/5/56.ASP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q234/5/58.ASP

[coleslaw]

It seems to me that this situation does, in fact, sound correct. The 50% reading is the measure of the total cpu cycles available; however, since you are running dual processors, only one of them is being used during mediocre and mundane tasks. Therefore, your cpu reading will report in the 50% range until that other processor needs to kick in. It may sound strange, but if, for example, you were to render a scene in a 3D program such as 3D Studio MAX, you might notice that your cpu resources may actually rise to something in the range of 70 - 80% as your second processor becomes available to system processes. I may be flawed in my reasoning about dual processors, but I believe that both of them are not running at all times.

[hapoo]

i'm not sure if this makes sense but if your cpu is always showing that its in use, even though your not doing anything, it might be cause another program (similar to cpuidle) might be running just to cool the cpu by sending it idle commmands. just an idea

[LordPolo]

The deal with the 50 percent is that it is total. That is, the second processor is always around 80 percent usage, while the first is around 20 percent usage. I used to run around 3 percent cpu, and I have no idea what the deal is.

[Leon]

That's very odd. My Dual-Celeron idled at 1-3%... Are you sure nothing is running in the background? Do you have a really crazy screensaver?

[LordPolo]

no screen saver no nothing. It is a fresh install of 2000. All i did was load device drivers and aim, nothing else. also, I checked those articles, jeffbbx, and they seem to be for upgrading from a single to a dual processor system. I fresh installed on the dual system, so that shouldn't be a problem. THanks for looking though :-)

[Jeffbx]

Oops, my fault. I didn't read very carefully - I didn't see that you installed W2K after the 2nd proc.

Are you using an ASUS MB? If so, this KB article appears to solve your problem:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/misc/kblookup.asp?ID=241532

[LordPolo]

abit bp6 motherboad
voodoo 5 agp
sb live value
hollywood realmagic pro dvd decoder
linksys 10/100 ethernet card

plextor 12x10x32
pioneer 8x dvd rom
floppy
and a couple maxtor hds

I tried reinstalling, just with a couple maxtor hds and a floppy and the plextor, and i still get 50 percent cpu usage ... I hate computers so much :-)

[LordPolo]

not sure who cares about this besides me, but I fixed my problem. I updated the bios at abit and everything was fine. (Which is what I should have done in the first place .. but I didn't think to check, I thought it was a windows issue) Anyway, there are three recent bioses. The one I installed windows 2k on, the one I upgraded to while running 2k, and the new fixed one. On the one I upgraded, it had the issue that if you install with it, it'll run at 50 percent cpu. So it is fixed, my computer is happy, and now I can scour the web for deals once more :-)