System Idle Process

Thursday, September 19, 2002 by Jafo | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk

Anyone know what it is and why it would be 20k and be using up to 54% of the CPU?

P111/500 is no longer 'cutting edge' but this is weird....OK...so LiteSTEP is 'very beta' and ticking up to 42%, and 36,944k ram [been recycling a lot]...now if I 'kill' LS and reload it....

LS mem use now 11,356k.....CPU at 6%....Idle processes at up to 87%

Jafo thinks perhaps an 'older' dev build may be the 'go'....
17 Reply 3 Referrals
migellito
Reply #1 Thursday, September 19, 2002 10:19 PM
are you running litestep neat, or over windows? yeah, i think we know the answer, but i had to ask..

migellito
Reply #2 Thursday, September 19, 2002 10:26 PM
System Idle Process - You cannot end this process from Task Manager. This process is a single thread running on each processor, which has the sole task of accounting for processor time when the system isn't processing other threads. In Task Manager, expect this process to account for the majority of processor time.

snipped from the net...

Koasati
Reply #3 Thursday, September 19, 2002 10:44 PM
I've always wondered about that........thanx mig, and thanx Jafo, for asking.

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SkinneRyan
Reply #4 Friday, September 20, 2002 12:26 AM
jafo: system idle process is (from my understanding anyway) just a little thing in windows 2k/XP (maybe NT4, I've never used it, so I woouldn't know for sure) and it tells you how much of your CPU resources are free (as a percentage).

I have no idea what migellito meant because I can't translate M$-ish to English at the moment (I've been up since 7:30 but I only woke up an hour or 2 ago) but I've got the feeling he said exactly what i just said

MikeB314
Reply #5 Friday, September 20, 2002 6:08 AM
System Idle process is actually a measure of free resources, rather than used resources. It's confusing, because it sits there on a list that shows what things are using up, so it appears that it is using up 87% of your resources. Actually, it's saying that 87% of your resources are available. Microsoft apprently couldn't think of a better way to express this.

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UBoB
Reply #6 Friday, September 20, 2002 6:47 AM
Well, a negative sign ( - ) comes to mind. Basic mathematics.

so therefore, list it as -87%

Seems logical to me.

Jafo
Reply #7 Friday, September 20, 2002 9:00 AM
Ah....I guessed as much...simple case of math.....as I freed more resources the % went up, not down...

Yes, mig....obviously a clean 'STEP...althoughI have been known to run it with Exploder....and Hoverdesk....[and other more 'obscure' shells]...

I keep an eye on process 'use' because I'm messing with shells and modding themes....which reminds me...must try that 24.7 'pre-release'....

craeonics
Reply #8 Friday, September 20, 2002 1:58 PM
System Ilde is your CPU picking its nose, waiting for you to give it something to do. It's best to shift one tab to the right if you want an impression on how busy your machine is.

Fuzzy Logic
Reply #9 Friday, September 20, 2002 2:17 PM
If your pc is not doing anything system idle process should be running at about 99%, giving way to any other program when required. It's a harmless feedback loop.

Contrary to popular belief processors don't just work when running a program, they work at 100% all the time - either running something, or running system idle process.



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UBoB
Reply #10 Friday, September 20, 2002 3:25 PM
System Idle is Eric's older sister.

Bangkokboy
Reply #11 Friday, September 20, 2002 4:36 PM
Fuzzy is precisely right - the CPU has never heard the word "rest". For our next bizarre executable, we should discuss the NULL_SWAPPER.

feline
Reply #12 Friday, September 20, 2002 4:57 PM
feline writes programs like that now and then
however, it isnt normally intensional, and they tend to crash quite quickly

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Bangkokboy
Reply #13 Friday, September 20, 2002 5:33 PM
motion is like the human equivalent of the system idle process - never stops to rest!!

UBoB
Reply #14 Friday, September 20, 2002 7:31 PM
If 'idle hands are the devil's playhthings', then perhaps 'system idle is MS's plaything'.

SkinneRyan
Reply #15 Saturday, September 21, 2002 3:12 AM
@ motion

Splash0453
Reply #16 Wednesday, October 2, 2002 5:38 AM
Ryan: I'm @ college, wher some of the pcs run NT4, and yes, there is a system idle process on it tooo.

Bangkokboy
Reply #17 Wednesday, October 2, 2002 1:49 PM
The System Idle Process is a human algorithm inversion: appears to be idle while actually performing useful work.

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