Shopsmith Forums

What goes on within your computer that consumes CPU time when there are NO APPLICATIONS RUNNING.

When idle, I see 1%-3% CPU usage but periodically it spikes much higher. This seems to happen only if I am connected to the internet. It is significant enough that I simultaneously see an increase in core temperatures.

Some processes will be running just to keep the OS active. Things like refreshing the screen, and checking for input from the mouse, and keyboard, the utility that lets you check the cpu usage and other background tasks. It's a guess but the video refresh is probably one of the more intensive of those tasks and may be what you're seeing raise the temp.

I think all more recent OS's postpone a few "housekeeping" task and do them when idle. Are you seeing any HDD activity? One thing you can look at is "search indexing". You can Google that. Here is a page on how to disable it on XP.
http://www.mydigitallife.info/turn-off-and-disable-search-indexing-service-in-windows-xp/
Different folks have different opinions on whether it even matters or not. I guess it is kind of like catching the sawdust at the source on your Shopsmith or sweeping it off of the floor sort of thing...


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Also, apps like Adobe Reader and Flash Player have background tasks that periodically check for updates. Many other apps do similar things where they are calling the mothership to check for updates. MS Windows is a good example.

dusty wrote:What goes on within your computer that consumes CPU time when there are NO APPLICATIONS RUNNING.

When idle, I see 1%-3% CPU usage but periodically it spikes much higher. This seems to happen only if I am connected to the internet. It is significant enough that I simultaneously see an increase in core temperatures.

If you really want to know, install Process Explorer. IIUC, it was originally developed by a company called Systernals, which has been acquired by Microsoft. All the reviews are practically glowing, and my IT guy at work also endorses it. You can download it from Microsoft here.

In addition to applications, the typical PC has many "services" running. Under XP, you can see a long list of them at Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Without something like Process Explorer, it can be really difficult to tell what is going on with these.

I have a couple of good old XP machines that had become really slow and balky over the last year or so, and I couldn't tell what was hogging the resources. Process Explorer showed me exactly what is going on. Each of my machines needed a different fix or two, but both are now purring happily.

I think a lot of people would be shocked at how much is happening with your system while you think nothing is going on.

Just bring up "Task Manager" on a windows system to see what your system is doing.

In my case I have 4 apps running and 71 background processes.

CPU intensive operations are like video transcoding which will tax almost any computer as it takes all that it can get of the cycles. In fact that is a problem I'm dealing with right now. I'm getting alarms at 60 degrees C on the processor. The fan seems to be working correctly on the cpu but still not cooling enough. Rather then spending $ for a better fan there I have a case fan on order that I hope will solve the issue. The case has 2 front 120mm fans, one top 140mm, a side fan 120mm, and a back fan 120mm. At this point none of those are heat aware and run at a fixed speed. It is a nice quiet system but can lack the ability to run at very high cpu cycles. The new fan will have the 4 pin connector that I can plug in to the motherbd and will still be quiet most of the time (cpu 27 degrees) and then speed up along with the cpu fan as things get hotter. It will be here on Wed. so time will tell if this will be enough.

So give the task manager a try and see what you have going on.

Ed

BuckeyeDennis wrote:If you really want to know, install Process Explorer. IIUC, it was originally developed by a company called Systernals, which has been acquired by Microsoft. All the reviews are practically glowing, and my IT guy at work also endorses it. You can download it from Microsoft here.

In addition to applications, the typical PC has many "services" running. Under XP, you can see a long list of them at Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Without something like Process Explorer, it can be really difficult to tell what is going on with these.

I have a couple of good old XP machines that had become really slow and balky over the last year or so, and I couldn't tell what was hogging the resources. Process Explorer showed me exactly what is going on. Each of my machines needed a different fix or two, but both are now purring happily.

Last night I downloaded and run Process Explorer . Looks like a very useful tool. Thank you Thank you for the tip.

dusty wrote:What goes on within your computer that consumes CPU time when there are NO APPLICATIONS RUNNING.

When idle, I see 1%-3% CPU usage but periodically it spikes much higher. This seems to happen only if I am connected to the internet. It is significant enough that I simultaneously see an increase in core temperatures.

Dusty, I recently had a problem with my system where as the hard drive showed constant activity. I went through all the Task Manager, etc BS and could never find the culprit. It finally dawned on me that I had a 1T USB hard drive connected with back-up software. That was the culprit. The back-up software was constantly accessing the HD, so I disabled the software and darned if it didn't fix the problem. Now my system is quiet as a mouse and actually runs a little smoother.

BuckeyeDennis wrote:If you really want to know, install Process Explorer. IIUC, it was originally developed by a company called Systernals, which has been acquired by Microsoft. All the reviews are practically glowing, and my IT guy at work also endorses it. You can download it from Microsoft here.

GREAT STUFF!!! This software was instrumental in finding some old drivers that had long since become useless, but were still running, accessing the internet (scary ) and hogging CPU time.

Thanks for the link!

Be well,
Ben