Where do all the cycles go ?

I have XP Home, all the current patches. After the system has been up for abt
20 minutes, something kicks off that sucks up all the cycles for about 3
minutes, bringing the machine to a crawl. Task Manager shows Idle at abt 90%,
with a couple of other tasks flashing in & out. After about 3 minutes, the
machine returns to normal. How do I nail which task or process is chewing up
all the cycles ?
Thanx, Joe Auerbach

A program is probably calling home for updates; check any virus scan
programs, spy sweeper types, etc and see if you have opted for automatic
updates; which includes Windows itself.

"Joe Auerbach" <JoeAuerbach@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:2A4FD3D8-6B4C-4D6A-8AA1-BBB8DC4676A4@microsoft.com...
>I have XP Home, all the current patches. After the system has been up for
>abt
> 20 minutes, something kicks off that sucks up all the cycles for about 3
> minutes, bringing the machine to a crawl. Task Manager shows Idle at abt
> 90%,
> with a couple of other tasks flashing in & out. After about 3 minutes, the
> machine returns to normal. How do I nail which task or process is chewing
> up
> all the cycles ?
> Thanx, Joe Auerbach

Thanx, Jerry, I thought that it might be ssomething like an update, what I
was looking for is a way to identify which app it might be

"Jerry" wrote:

> A program is probably calling home for updates; check any virus scan
> programs, spy sweeper types, etc and see if you have opted for automatic
> updates; which includes Windows itself.
>
> "Joe Auerbach" <JoeAuerbach@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:2A4FD3D8-6B4C-4D6A-8AA1-BBB8DC4676A4@microsoft.com...
> >I have XP Home, all the current patches. After the system has been up for
> >abt
> > 20 minutes, something kicks off that sucks up all the cycles for about 3
> > minutes, bringing the machine to a crawl. Task Manager shows Idle at abt
> > 90%,
> > with a couple of other tasks flashing in & out. After about 3 minutes, the
> > machine returns to normal. How do I nail which task or process is chewing
> > up
> > all the cycles ?
> > Thanx, Joe Auerbach
>
>
>

Your processor is idle (System Idle Process) 90% and that's a problem?

It's completely normal for software to do housekeeping in the
background. Not to worry.
---
Leonard Grey
Errare humanum est

Joe Auerbach wrote:
> I have XP Home, all the current patches. After the system has been up for abt
> 20 minutes, something kicks off that sucks up all the cycles for about 3
> minutes, bringing the machine to a crawl. Task Manager shows Idle at abt 90%,
> with a couple of other tasks flashing in & out. After about 3 minutes, the
> machine returns to normal. How do I nail which task or process is chewing up
> all the cycles ?
> Thanx, Joe Auerbach

Sorry, Leonard, but the machine being unusable and unresponsive for that time
isn't "Don't worry, be happy" mode. It's not as if I'm using a 286 or some
such, it's a current Dell with a good processor & 1GB of memory. I'm also not
that loaded up with apps, maybe 2 instances of IE and that's about it.
I agree with Jerry that it's probably one of the background tasks doing
updates, what I'm trying to do is identify which one & see what the story is.

"Leonard Grey" wrote:

> Your processor is idle (System Idle Process) 90% and that's a problem?
>
> It's completely normal for software to do housekeeping in the
> background. Not to worry.
> ---
> Leonard Grey
> Errare humanum est
>
> Joe Auerbach wrote:
> > I have XP Home, all the current patches. After the system has been up for abt
> > 20 minutes, something kicks off that sucks up all the cycles for about 3
> > minutes, bringing the machine to a crawl. Task Manager shows Idle at abt 90%,
> > with a couple of other tasks flashing in & out. After about 3 minutes, the
> > machine returns to normal. How do I nail which task or process is chewing up
> > all the cycles ?
> > Thanx, Joe Auerbach
>

In that case, System Idle Process is not at 90%. Please get your story
straight

---
Leonard Grey
Errare humanum est

Joe Auerbach wrote:
> Sorry, Leonard, but the machine being unusable and unresponsive for that time
> isn't "Don't worry, be happy" mode. It's not as if I'm using a 286 or some
> such, it's a current Dell with a good processor & 1GB of memory. I'm also not
> that loaded up with apps, maybe 2 instances of IE and that's about it.
> I agree with Jerry that it's probably one of the background tasks doing
> updates, what I'm trying to do is identify which one & see what the story is.
>
> "Leonard Grey" wrote:
>
>> Your processor is idle (System Idle Process) 90% and that's a problem?
>>
>> It's completely normal for software to do housekeeping in the
>> background. Not to worry.
>> ---
>> Leonard Grey
>> Errare humanum est
>>
>> Joe Auerbach wrote:
>>> I have XP Home, all the current patches. After the system has been up for abt
>>> 20 minutes, something kicks off that sucks up all the cycles for about 3
>>> minutes, bringing the machine to a crawl. Task Manager shows Idle at abt 90%,
>>> with a couple of other tasks flashing in & out. After about 3 minutes, the
>>> machine returns to normal. How do I nail which task or process is chewing up
>>> all the cycles ?
>>> Thanx, Joe Auerbach

"Joe Auerbach" <JoeAuerbach@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:CEF69A10-9EFA-419C-94C4-2C4FA11AD520@microsoft.com...
> Sorry, Leonard, but the machine being unusable and unresponsive for that
> time
> isn't "Don't worry, be happy" mode. It's not as if I'm using a 286 or some
> such, it's a current Dell with a good processor & 1GB of memory. I'm also
> not
> that loaded up with apps, maybe 2 instances of IE and that's about it.
> I agree with Jerry that it's probably one of the background tasks doing
> updates, what I'm trying to do is identify which one & see what the story
> is.
>
> "Leonard Grey" wrote:
>
>> Your processor is idle (System Idle Process) 90% and that's a problem?
>>
>> It's completely normal for software to do housekeeping in the
>> background. Not to worry.
>> ---
>> Leonard Grey
>> Errare humanum est
>>
>> Joe Auerbach wrote:
>> > I have XP Home, all the current patches. After the system has been up
>> > for abt
>> > 20 minutes, something kicks off that sucks up all the cycles for about
>> > 3
>> > minutes, bringing the machine to a crawl. Task Manager shows Idle at
>> > abt 90%,
>> > with a couple of other tasks flashing in & out. After about 3 minutes,
>> > the
>> > machine returns to normal. How do I nail which task or process is
>> > chewing up
>> > all the cycles ?
>> > Thanx, Joe Auerbach
>>
Process Explorer might be a better choice than Task Manager.

In addition, your problem may be excessive interrupt service time. Process
Explorer shows this time.
Jim

Thanx, Jim, I'll try that. I had only tried TM because it was easiest to
invoke, especially with the machine running in slow motion. I've set up
perfmon to run the next times that I start the machine, if that doesn't show
the culprit I'll try process explorer.

"Jim" wrote:

>
> "Joe Auerbach" <JoeAuerbach@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:CEF69A10-9EFA-419C-94C4-2C4FA11AD520@microsoft.com...
> > Sorry, Leonard, but the machine being unusable and unresponsive for that
> > time
> > isn't "Don't worry, be happy" mode. It's not as if I'm using a 286 or some
> > such, it's a current Dell with a good processor & 1GB of memory. I'm also
> > not
> > that loaded up with apps, maybe 2 instances of IE and that's about it.
> > I agree with Jerry that it's probably one of the background tasks doing
> > updates, what I'm trying to do is identify which one & see what the story
> > is.
> >
> > "Leonard Grey" wrote:
> >
> >> Your processor is idle (System Idle Process) 90% and that's a problem?
> >>
> >> It's completely normal for software to do housekeeping in the
> >> background. Not to worry.
> >> ---
> >> Leonard Grey
> >> Errare humanum est
> >>
> >> Joe Auerbach wrote:
> >> > I have XP Home, all the current patches. After the system has been up
> >> > for abt
> >> > 20 minutes, something kicks off that sucks up all the cycles for about
> >> > 3
> >> > minutes, bringing the machine to a crawl. Task Manager shows Idle at
> >> > abt 90%,
> >> > with a couple of other tasks flashing in & out. After about 3 minutes,
> >> > the
> >> > machine returns to normal. How do I nail which task or process is
> >> > chewing up
> >> > all the cycles ?
> >> > Thanx, Joe Auerbach
> >>
> Process Explorer might be a better choice than Task Manager.
>
> In addition, your problem may be excessive interrupt service time. Process
> Explorer shows this time.
> Jim
>
>
>