CPU usage 25%, system idle 99% ???

I'm baffled. Pausing a certain game for too long, "Company of Heroes Opposing
Forces", causes drastic slowdown that continues after quitting the game.
Checking the Task Manager I find that CPU usage (on the bottom gray stripe)
is 25% or so, and kernel seems to be all of it (all red on the red/green bar
graph.) However, sorting processes by CPU in that same display shows system
idle taking 99% of cpu... and no game-related processes seem to be running.

I've restricted the .exe to processor affinity only on core #0 on my very
new quad-core Dell XPS system, but the problem repeats - all the load hitting
CPU zero.

"Bourgogne" <Bourgogne@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:90E210F1-E28F-4F6D-9BCF-5845DF859ECD@microsoft.com...
> I'm baffled. Pausing a certain game for too long, "Company of Heroes
> Opposing
> Forces", causes drastic slowdown that continues after quitting the game.
> Checking the Task Manager I find that CPU usage (on the bottom gray
> stripe)
> is 25% or so, and kernel seems to be all of it (all red on the red/green
> bar
> graph.) However, sorting processes by CPU in that same display shows
> system
> idle taking 99% of cpu... and no game-related processes seem to be
> running.
>
> I've restricted the .exe to processor affinity only on core #0 on my very
> new quad-core Dell XPS system, but the problem repeats - all the load
> hitting
> CPU zero.
>
>
>
The cpu may be servicing interrupt requests. These events are associated
with drivers, and drivers do not report to the task manager.
Jim