Windows 10: High CPU usage due to System and System Idle.

With the Diagnostic Policy Service running and its companion Diagnostic Execution Service I get a consistent 67-73% CPU usage depending what other tweaks are made to the system. With just System (ACPI.sys) and System interrupts usage falls to ~40%. The biggest help was Pci-E Power Link state being set to Max which dropped usage by about 3%. I've tried a number of software fixes all the way to a full diskpart /clean and re-installation of Win10. I have tried a replacement power supply, swapping my old RAM back in, with and without my graphics card, secondary hard drive, DVD drive and no peripherals attached. My SSD says it is in good health and I do not have any logs that speak to the contrary.


Along with the high CPU usage the System process continually pegs my SSD with 4MB/s 'disk' usage. This goes away when the UserNotPresentSession Event trace is turned off.


Prior to re-installing I updated the Intel Management Engine Firmware to its highest version and tried all sorts of lan, graphics and chipset drivers. Currently lan, graphics, and storage driver are on their latest iterations.


The same issue appears present in WindowsPE if I bring up the Task Manager, as well as Safe Mode, and a clean boot.


Windows Performance Analyzer log: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YE-jrkKzphLew1WDbrkikX0EAXuu6Qv0

Oldie but alright specs:

Asus P8H77M-LE BIOS 1501 (latest)

Intel I5-3330

16GB DDR3

Intel X25-M SSD

2tb WDC HDD

EVGA 1060 SC

700w PSU

:)

 

High CPU usage when idle - System and System interrupts

I've been trying to find a solution for a while and decided to ask here for more help. I've noticed that my CPU usage is pretty high when idle, even after a cold reboot of the computer:

Task Manager View showing "System" and "System interrupts" causing a high CPU load:




I've tried to dig deeper and used Processor Explorer to get more information, which, strangely enough, shows that "System interrupts" uses up more % of the CPU than the "System" process:

Process Explorer showing that "Interrupts" is taking up 20% of the CPU load:




Next I've tried to narrow down the causes of the interrupts by using the Windows Performance Recorder and analyze the graph using the Windows Performance Analyzer (can't post the screenshot due to not having enough rep, but it looks like hal.dll is causing the most interrupts, but less than the 20% seen with Process Explorer)

Any suggestions how to proceed?

Information about my computer:

• Windows 10
  
• Intel Core i5-4790k
  
• AMD R390 GPU
  
• 8 GB Ram
  

I've updated the GPU and sound drivers and Windows is up to date.

 

High CPU usage due to 'System'

Hi Jack,

There are several reasons why this issue occurred. For us to provide the best resolution for you, kindly provide the following information:

• When did this issue occurs?
• Did you make any changes on your PC prior to this issue?
• Can you provide us a screenshot?

Meanwhile, we suggest checking this article
and see if it helps.

We're looking forward to your response.

 

System Idle Process CPU Allocation?

Hi,

I am Sumit, an Independent advisor and a Microsoft MVP here to help.

System Idle Process, as the name suggests is a process that indicates CPU is idle and is not being used, aka is at rest. This is done to totalize CPU usage to 100 between the processes.

So you do not have to worry about anything.