System Idle Process?

**rworkman83** · 04-17-2007, 10:08 AM

My computer has been running really slow this past few days and I haven't done anything different. It appears that I don't have any virus or anything, as I've done all the checks for that. When I go into my task manager, the System Idle Process is running at 98%. Anyone know what that is?

**bos** · 04-17-2007, 10:11 AM

That is about right. I wouldnt worry about that one. You may need to look elsewhere for issues. Did you run any spyware checks?

**thunderdave** · 04-17-2007, 10:15 AM

I've had the same problem, mostly with the internet being super slow.

**brianhos** · 04-17-2007, 10:23 AM

Originally Posted by rworkman83

My computer has been running really slow this past few days and I haven't done anything different. It appears that I don't have any virus or anything, as I've done all the checks for that. When I go into my task manager, the System Idle Process is running at 98%. Anyone know what that is?

It is a silly windows thing (that entire OS is a POS) anyway, system idle is your idle time. That means you are only using the cpu 2% of the time.

A more important thing to check is the size of your page file. Is that large? that would mean you are swapping out to disk.

--Brian

**bos** · 04-17-2007, 10:26 AM

I smell a Linux kisser!

**brianhos** · 04-17-2007, 10:31 AM

Originally Posted by bostinelosd

I smell a Linux kisser!

I just get so annoyed by how windows handles things, so I bought my wife a mac, which is actually more of a pain in the butt than a windows box.

**rworkman83** · 04-17-2007, 10:37 AM

Originally Posted by brianhos

A more important thing to check is the size of your page file. Is that large? that would mean you are swapping out to disk.

--Brian

How do I check that?

**bos** · 04-17-2007, 10:44 AM

Originally Posted by brianhos

I just get so annoyed by how windows handles things, so I bought my wife a mac, which is actually more of a pain in the butt than a windows box.

LOL, I hate Mac's but I am trying to get my parents to buy one, because I thought it just might be a little easier on them and it would be harder for them to screw it up. Who knows though with them.

Sorry to get off topic. I will stop now. =)

**AirWalke** · 04-17-2007, 11:08 AM

I've noticed my computer slowing down lately, too, and I think it's because one of my RAM chips has gone bad. It's supposed to have 1 GB installed, but now it's down to 512 MB. Both chips are installed and secure when I check the inside of the computer.

This may be a bit dumb, but have you checked to see if your computer recognizes all the RAM that's supposed to be installed? Sometimes a computer noticably slows down because it's missing half of its memory. Also, a computer can get bogged down by a full hard drive.

Maybe part of the problem is that the hard drive is extremely fragmented. I'm a Mac user myself, so I know that OS X automatically defragments the hard drive when a new program is installed, but I'm not sure if Windows does this.

When your hard drive starts to fill up, the computer automatically "splits up" new files and fills in the empty spaces, making it a longer retrieval time for the computer to find these files again and piece them together. A defragmentation tool can fix this, and should be in some sort of hard drive or hard disk utility on your computer.

**brianhos** · 04-17-2007, 11:17 AM

Originally Posted by bostinelosd

LOL, I hate Mac's but I am trying to get my parents to buy one, because I thought it just might be a little easier on them and it would be harder for them to screw it up. Who knows though with them.

Sorry to get off topic. I will stop now. =)

That is what I thought, so I bought my wife one of those new macbooks. That thing is really hard to figure out, I know it is supposed to be easier, but now she asks me more questions about it...