computer question(system idle process)

[glock800]

hey guys im just wondering if one of you can tell me what exactly what the system idle process is(in the task manager under processes).i have windows XP pro and i notice that the system idle process can be using up to 71% of my processor resource at any givin time.just trying to find out exactly what it is and if its needed.if not how can i disable it.

 

[ReadyOne]

This process runs only when the machine has no other work to do. After all, something has to be going on or your machnie would be hung!

Don't worry about it.

 

[lost5pints]

all the system idle process does is act as a placeholder for your computer.....no harm to your memory from it.....there might be another program using up space on your memory affecting your performance though. Usually mi system idle takes up 90 or mor percent of my ram.....Ive never once seen my computer use 29% of my memory for anything but system idle unless I had a file that wasnt running properly(i.e. aol 7.0 with XP) or a virus.

 

[glock800]

well thats the thing it isnt memory space its the CPU usage thats the problem even when im doing heavy tasks such as using photoshop 7 the system idle process is always using 60%+ CPU usage which is causing slowdown.usually the only other things im using would be my DSL connection and maybe MSN messenger.i have no virus's i have NAV pro 2003 and have it up to date and do a weekly scan

 

[ReadyOne]

OK, what is your preceived problem?

Photoshop not responding fast enough? Web pages loading slow?

Generally speaking, CPU utilization is not responsable for slow response times on all but the slowest machines. As long as the System Idle process is not consistantly under 10% then look elsewhere.

Most often, the problem is time spent reading/writing from the hard disk. Defragmenting the hard drive can help. Buying a faster hard drive can help.

Getting more RAM memory (like more than 64K) can help is you have multiple windows open. This is because lack of RAM memory resulting in more disk activity to hang on to what could be in RAM (if there were more of it avaialble).

Network performance is quite hard to improve because you don't have control of anything in the network. There are a couple of tweaks that can speed up large downloads and large images IFF the supplier of the download is pushing it to you as fast as it can and the network is passing it through as fast as it can. Neither of these things occur in real life, save about 3AM, and even then the providers almost always limit their speed all the time.