Ok I bring up Task Manager, list the Processes, it shows System Idle Process at 99% but if I look at the bottom or show the Performance graph it shows 3-5%, but theres nothing running!
Now I know Microsoft ain't the best mathematicians in the world (we all know thier Progress bars eh) but what the duck is going on here.
I've stripped all the unnecessary processes out (Anti virus, Firewalls, print spoolers etc.) and it's still the same. Wasn't after a fresh install so at some point something went [insert fart noise]

EDIT: FOUND SOLUTION! see page 2 - http://www.warp2search.net/forums/viewto...c&start=15

I suppose it's trivial but it nags me and makes me wonder if there some little bugger in there stealing my precious CPU cycles?

I'm sure Mertsch will respond.

no I won't

no, first it would be nice to have a screenshot of the taskmanager maybe you havesomething strange there ... also it MAYBE the refresh rate of the task manager since it only refreshed every 1 sec ?
and 2nd a screenshot of your running services would be very interesting maybe you got something running there which causes this ...

and btw since I read firewall .... im am pretty sure that the firewall causes this ... yeah yeah even if its shutdown it can cause serious trouble I know this very well since I have tested much firewalls some weeks ago ... shut it down uninstall it and have a look again

Blimey Mertsch, you must be browsing these forums 24/7.

Next time my machine is idle i'll chuck in a screenshot (if I find out how), although I don't see what difference it will make, the System Idle and CPU usage are refreshed at the same time and even I know that 99+4 does <> = 100.

I did have a theory that since I had overclocked my machine since original install XP was using some calculcation based on original speed of CPU and getting a bit confused, but I went back down to original speed and no difference.

And BTW I use Tiny personal Firewall which is just an NT service, having written a service myself I know that stopping removes it and any threads from memory.

press print screen button top right open paint STRG+V and save u may reduce the screen to the most important

yeah thought that, too but .... when I tried kaspersky firewall ... my system totally sucked as soon as I opened a little more connections then only internet ... hey I even removed the autostart ... rebooted and it was the same ... stange huh ?

hehe I was one of those who clicked 25+ in the poll some time ago ...

Mertsch <--- W2S Maniac I am not active in any other forum or what so else ... but here ...

When you move the mouse, your using CPU, when the graph updates your using CPU power, my 2800+ does the same thing. Its normal, dont worry about it.

remember taskmanager uses some ressources to display the graphs and stuff

Zing!

The drawing of windows (esp mouse pointer) uses cpu time, which shows in the total usage down the bottom, but it won't show in the task list, because the use isn't coming from any running tasks. So the system idle display gets confused and just continues showing 99%. Task manager also uses some, and dosn't report properly either. Same with IDE transfers and a few other things that arn't linked directly to running programs...

Off Topic:
Mertsch i read that u did test a few Firewalls latlely.Which one u use now and what Firewall u think is the best? I'm currently using Sygate Professional.
thanks in advance and sorry for disturbing the thread.
PS: hope u can answer me Mertsch and help me in this dilemma i have

no one ... I am firewall free again .... I always hated firewalls ... but since I am open to new things I said to myselfe ... years passed why not try it again ... so I tested nearly any popular firewall outa there ...
result ... 80% suck extreme (zonealarm was the most disappointing one) some are OK but (including winXP SP2 firewall) and Sygate is the only real firewall
but all firewall have the same problem ... they block more than they should ... as soon as there are more connections than only Internet
and that sucks ... If I say to a firewall .... lets ANY app access ANY port and it still block .... and if I go further and disable all protection options and it still blocks ... UNINSTALL! thought this may be a bug of Sygate but all firewalls did same ... if they did anything ...

and so I go one and say to anyone ... firewalls SUCK and if a hacker wan't to hack you its equal if ya have a firewall or not ...

but for those who only surf internet and want some fake-protection go sygate or XP SP2 when its ready

use a router or AP with hardware firewall
theres a great one in my linksys 208.11g WLAN AP, but currently im behind a linux based Astaro firewall ( http://www.astaro.com/ )

sounds like you configured them horribly wrong. even a software firewall is better than no firewall. and if you can configure them properly you wont get problems litke the ones you describe - actually i never seen the problems you describe even in unconfigured firewalls.
zonealarm never blocked anything if you disable the protections on my box additionally there was excellent portforwarding options and oppertunity to block individual services and ports.

and that is just not true. a cracker would still need to get connections to ports they wish to exploit services on and if you block those ports - no hack. then they could possibly use exploits in the firewall or crash it(but that would close the connection to the internet as well).
if a cracker is greeted by a firewall he will jump on to the next on his list - unless he really needs soething on the machine.

sorry but i dont give a flying hoot for your results as they seem rash and unqualified as you dont seem to know much about firewalls and how they work.

Seems like the most logical explanation, thanks. This phenomenon is more common than thought, as I noticed it at work also today on a fresh install of W2KServer, so I guess maybe i shouldn't worry. Although after fresh install on XP and drivers,SP etc. I had 0% usage now it never drops below 3%.
UPDATE: It appears to be something in the Kernel, which I guess like you say doesn't have a 'Process' as such, which explains that, I just would like to know what the kernel is doing now, that it didn't used to.

New Topic:
I still prefer the older verion of Tiny personal firewall, it's small, effiecient, powerful, and doesn't use much CPU.

Cheers all.

But i'm not, and come on, how much CPU% does it take to move a hardware mouse pointer anyway? If it required 3% of a 3Ghz CPU to move the mouse then the old Pentium 100 would have ground to a halt whenever you moved the mouse :o

thats why my mousepointer is a 1600x1200 D3D animation with 16xAA and 8xAF reduced to a 16x16 window .... for maximum pleasure .... OK I need to OC my GPU to get 25 FPS but HEY its the mousepointer !!! the most important thing in every day use