CPU usage 80%, System Idle 70%

[rhuarc29]

On the task manager. Aren't those two supposed to add up to 100?

My computer's been running a little slow lately and sounds like it's trying overly hard. I'm getting CPU usage 4-5 times what the process list tells me it should be, showing processes from all users. I've had trouble in the past with one program going crazy and utilizing 100% of my cpu, but I could always find the culprit in the list. This one baffles me.

 

[Anynym]

If you have a dual-core system, the tasks (plus System time) would add to 200.

On a quad-core, 400.

If I recall correctly, Windows doesn't include all of the System time (e.g. waiting for disk i/o) in the process time.

I'm not an expert in Windows systems, but I would start to wonder if my hard drive is having trouble reading various sectors (and having to retry numerous times before succeeding), given the symptoms you describe.

 

[rhuarc29]

Thanks for the input.