28% CPU Utilization ntoskrnl.exe while idle

[saxamo]

Hello all,

I guess the downside of really looking at things on your pc is that you always seem to find something to question. I have to assume that ignorance is bliss for most people, but since we are the tweakers it's most likely the reason we have issues. Sometimes I can't help but think that we should just let things be as they are and not look around to avoid causing more problems.. Yeah, sure... Like I am ever going to stop trying to get rid of that last event in my eventvwr.. heh

Okay, so machine is on, power management stipulates to turn off the monitors after 1 hour, just so I can look at the task manager. Five minutes after I stop typing and let the machine just idle.. the ntoskrnl.exe cpu usage jumps to 28% and the temperature goes from a nice cool 22c to 28c, when I touch the mouse, it drops to 0% and the temp drops back to 23c/24c. Now, I am really NOT concerned about this too much, but curious what the machine is doing.. Wondering if anyone has an ideas... Just toss them out there.. This is interesting to me and I would like to ease my brain a bit.

Thanks for looking



Figured I would post this as well, since there could have been a driver causing the issue, but to no avail.

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]
(c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>sfc /scannow

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.3.9600.17031

Image Version: 6.3.9600.17031

No component store corruption detected.
The operation completed successfully.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.3.9600.17031

Image Version: 6.3.9600.17031

[==========================100.0%================== ========]
No component store corruption detected.
The operation completed successfully.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

[saxamo]

Re: 28% CPU Utilization ntoskrnl.exe while idle

Update:

The cpu usage is due to system maintenance probably for everyone, even though the system is scheduled for 3am or whatever you have determined to be the time on your PC for windows updates to be installed, these are from maintenance tasks your machine has set. If you want to turn off those you need to do it manually. This is normal behavior but can sometimes be cause by a rogue driver that is doing its own thing. Otherwise, pay no mind to it. If you watch the cpu in the taskmanager long enough the percentage will go back to 0% or 1 or .13 or something and then when the next task comes to fruition it will just jump again.

All is well.. machine has been on for 3 days straight have done some great stress and extreme performance testing and the temps are

cpu - 22c
motherboard - 28c
gtx 680 4gb ftw - 31c
samsung evo 840 - 22c

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