Windows 10: System Idle Process while CPU under load

I understand why Task Manager / Details will show System Idle Process taking a large share of the the CPU activity when the CPU activity is very low. But that is not what I am experiencing at the moment.I am currently running some Excel VBA macros, which will take a few hours to finish. While they are running, Task Manager / Performance shows the CPU working at between 50% and 60% of capacity. If I now switch to Task Manager / Details, it shows Excel using 20% to 25% and System Idle Process using 75% to 80% no other significant usage.So it looks like System Idle Process is using around 4

:)

 

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.

 

System idle process spike

Although you may have a problem that is causing fps drops, "System Idle Process" isn't what's causing it.

When "CPU usage" for System Idle Process is high, that means that your CPU is not doing much useful work.

Idle, noun:

• not working or active; unemployed; doing nothing: idle workers.
  
• not spent or filled with activity: idle hours.
  

When System Idle Process shows as 30%, what's taking up the majority of the rest of the CPU cycles? That's probably the source of the problem.

 

System Idle Process High CPU Usage

OK, your CPU is running flat out but, as I mentioned before, the cause is something other than the System Idle process. Assuming that you killed Google Chrome before taking this snapshot, it must be some background process that's responsible. I recommend
you do this:

1. Run msconfig.exe.
2. Click the Services tab.
3. Tick the box to hide all MS services.
4. Disable the rest.
5. Reboot.
6. Check if the CPU loading remains at 100%.