Windows 10: CPU usage 100% but system idle process says otherwise

Hello, So I was copying a large group of files (400 gigs) to an external drive, it was about 150 gigs in when the PC crashed ( i believe due to MSI usb speed up), i've since removed the MSI program but CPU usage stays at 100% from the moment the PC turns on, however system idle process shows it's using most everything which is good, and PC perfomance is normal and unlike if CPU usage was actually 100%, but I can't figure out how to fix this, any suggestions or tips would be so helpful, I've attached screen shots showing 100% usage but every program running doesn't add up to near that and system idle showing everything mostly idle. Thanks!!!!!







:)

 

windows 10 Cpu

Exactly where are you seeing that you are running at 100% CPU Usage? Is a large portion of that 100% System Idle Process? If so, that's just the name for what the CPU is doing when it's not doing anything. It's no problem, and it's nothing to worry about.

 

Windows 10 Task Manager shows 100% CPU but Performance Monitor Shows less than 2%

I think I can explain this problem but I don't have a fix. Perhaps the explanation will spur someone to figure out a fix.

The System Idle Process is missing from the task manager. As a result, 100% usage is always shown because the sum total of actual processes excluding idle time will always be 100% by definition. Therefore what you see instead is 100% total usage, and the
individual processes in the list are reflecting a percentage of processor usage of what would normally remain after idle time is excluded.

For example, suppose this is the actual usage that would normally be shown:

System Idle 96%

Process Explorer 2%

Task Manager 0.2%

Total CPU: 4% (100% possible - 96% idle = 4%)

But we don't see System Idle. Instead we see the following:

Process Explorer 50%

Task Manager 5%

Total CPU: 100% (100% possible - 0% idle = 100%)

and so on. In other words the total possible CPU is 100%, so if System Idle is 96%, this leaves 4% being actually used by processes. In this example Process Explorer is using 2%, so it displays as 50% because 2% is half of 4%. In effect, total CPU us being
miscalculated because System Idle is missing and so programmatically it is being treated as if it is 0%. This then breaks the calculations for total CPU time as well as the percentage calculations for each individual remaining process.

To resolve the problem, it must be understood why System Idle is not being displayed by the task manager, which probably involves some damaged registry setting. If anyone can figure this out, please post a fix.

p.s. This problem appeared for me in Windows 10 preview after one of the final pre-release updates. I was hoping it would be fixed by updating the RTM release of Windows 10 but that did not do it. No doubt a clean re-installation of Windows 10 would fix
it but I'd rather avoid that. Googling the issue reveals that this problem has been seen before in Windows 7 and Vista, though the conversations are minimal probably because it is a difficult problem to frame for a search engine. The fix no doubt is extremely
simple once it is located, and that would be preferable to a full reinstallation of the operating system.

 

If its worth noting performance manager also only shows ~10% usage

 

What build are you on? as I had this on two PC's prior to the Anniversary update at a guess system Idle is missing from the list?
I put it down to a Microsoft bug at the time as Sysinternals Process Explorer was not showing 100% and was showing system Idle.
As the Anniversary Update seemed to have fixed it I assume it was something related to MS as never been able to find a 100% reason for it, just lots of half cock theories.

 

maxatv do you use windows indexing and cortana? And something tells me you have a lot of start up program set to run that doesn't need to be

 

If it's System Idle Process taxing your CPU then you don't need to worry because it means that the cpu usage isn't hogged at all but at idle state.

 

Right, I know CPU usage isn't actually high and performance was still great, trying to fix it I put the computer in diagnostic mode and couldn't get it out, I reformatted it since files were on D and E drives, all seems good now, not sure what caused it. But did get a boot up crash so maybe i'm not clear just yet