Annoyingly high CPU usage from "System"

**Surgeon** · March 22, 2011, 07:18 PM

Okay, I've got some really annoying problem with my System process. Oftentimes when I play some game on my PC, after exiting the game my CPU usage remains at around 50-60%, attributed to the System process (and that's the System process, not the System Idle Process process). After an extensive search online I've downloaded Process Explorer, but it doesn't seem to indicate any particular program as using up all the CPU. I'm pretty sure it's not caused by my PC overheating because I've left it overnight to see if it cools down, to no effect, but restarting at any given time will resolve the issue (up until it crops up again, that is). Ergo, I suspect it's something to do with graphics drivers or something, or some sort of software. So... where do I go from here?

**Bolkonsky** · March 22, 2011, 07:56 PM

System Idle Process is basically when your CPU isn't doing anything. There's nothing wrong with it. It might take a minute or two to "snap out of it" but you'll probably be fine. Process Explorer probably isn't finding anything because it's not doing anything. You'll notice there's almost no memory usage as well.

**PoleCat** · March 22, 2011, 09:04 PM

Are you sure the system is doing something other than it should? After closing down a game the system is going to take some time to clear out any part of the pagefile it was using which may take some time and CPU time. There may be other temp files as well that need to be purged.

Mostly I'm asking this - is it causing a real problem for you?

**Bolkonsky** · March 22, 2011, 09:12 PM

I've noticed that sometimes the nVidia display drivers consume large amounts of processing power after closing down a game. You can always check for that.

**Surgeon** · March 23, 2011, 07:36 AM

It's not always a big bother because usually games are the only CPU-intensive thing I do on the computer, but sometimes if I have a lot of apps running or loading a flash or something it'll start working slow and hang up and stuff, which is when it gets annoying. The main problem is that once it happens it simply doesn't seem to go away, ever. I once left my computer overnight to see if it'll sort itself out by morning, but no dice, "System" was still using 50% CPU.

Process explorer also shows that "System" is using a lot of CPU, but it doesn't indicate any particular sub-processes which might be going at it. It's confusing

I guess I'll go check if it's something with the drivers then.