High CPU usage, System Idle Process @ 99 again

Hugh51

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Mar 6, 2013
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Hello,
I am also having problems with massive hardware interrupts as quoted in "High CPU usage, System Idle Process @ 99 ....????"
I have Process explorer, but cannot find the programme called RATT that was used to identify which thing was causing the interrupts (Nor any other interrupt logging/monitoring prog).
 

Hugh51

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Mar 6, 2013
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I have solved this, IDE ATA/ATAPI driver problem. A loose SATA connection caused the HDD driver to revert to slowest mode: PIO. I went to control panel> system> Hardware >device manager and looked at the properties of eachIDE channel under advanced settings. The second Primary IDE channel had "PIO only" under Current Transfer Mode. I uninstalled the driver and rebooted. Windows XP automatically repaired the driver and set it to Ultra DMA mode 6, and the problem was solved.

I owe this to 5 hrs searching google to find Jim Holmes on FrazzledDad blogspot in 2006, and later plagiarised by another blogger, unless Jim has become "Maverick".
 

Hugh51

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Mar 6, 2013
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Dear Hafijur,
"System idle" means that the "system" is idle, the CPU was running very hard to stand still responding to queries from the hardware driver, and this was shown by high CPU Usage data on the bottom of the Task manager window while "system idle was 98%, in total about 150% so obviously wrong, they don't add up.

System idle is just 100- (the time used by processes detailed in task manager processes), it doesn't include background interrupts. If you run "process explorer" which provides more detail than task manager it shows the interupts as well.
In my case the CPU was so busy talking to the HDD instead of allowing direct memory access that it had not got time left to respond to the mouse.

Anyway, it is fixed now by reinstalling the IDE controller driver. There was one account of a usb driver doing something similar.

There are lots of examples on the web, but scattered all over the show, and only one with the answer in 2006:
FrazzledDad: Lousy Performance, High Hardware Interrupt Usage
Google it or go to
frazzleddad.blogspot.com/..search for lousy-performance-high-hardware.html
 

Nelson_Donnell

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Feb 3, 2016
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4,510
I had the same problem with an Acer Aspire 9500 that has XP Pro SP3 on it. At first, I tried using the System Properties/Performance Options/Visual Effects and set it to "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer". It dropped my CPU usage from 97% down to 3% instantly and it appeared to work fine, but after a couple of reboots, it resorted back to its over-usage symptoms again.

I then used Hugh51 approach and uninstalled my drivers for the IDE controllers 1 and 2 (even though they were set to DMA mode 5) and restarted the machine and allowed Windows to reinstall those drivers. After I rebooted the machine level out to 3% again and stayed there, until I activated the WiFi, then it jumped up to 75% and went back down to 3% when I turned off the WiFi circuit. So, I went back to Device Manager, opened the Network adapters, then opened the Atheros AR5005 Wireless Network Adapter and rolled the 2013 driver back to the 3/21/2012 driver and the CPU usage instantly dropped back down to 3% again and has stayed there since then.