CPU usage over 100%?

Cyber-Mav · 2026-02-02T21:40:26+0000

so whats going on here then?

hornetstinger · 2026-02-02T21:41:41+0000

run taskman and see what's using those processes.

221 lol what a bloaty mess is that fresh boot? Mine is <90

aaronyuri · 2026-02-02T21:43:39+0000

Boost frequencies.

hornetstinger · 2026-02-02T21:49:36+0000

aaronyuri said:
Boost frequencies.

If it's in Windows idle, everything closed it shouldn't be doing that. Sort by CPU usage and see what's at 100%

Tetras · 2026-02-02T21:50:16+0000

aaronyuri said:
Boost frequencies.

I don't think i3 got boost until 9th gen.

Cyber-Mav · 2026-02-02T21:53:17+0000

hornetstinger said:
run taskman and see what's using those processes.

221 lol what a bloaty mess is that fresh boot? Mine is <90

its a work computer lol

decto · 2026-02-02T22:16:42+0000

Has Microsoft been vibe coding again.........

aaronyuri · 2026-02-02T22:43:12+0000

Tetras said:
I don't think i3 got boost until 9th gen.

You're right. Then I have no explanation...

Cyber-Mav · 2026-02-02T22:51:13+0000

hornetstinger said:
If it's in Windows idle, everything closed it shouldn't be doing that. Sort by CPU usage and see what's at 100%

Lots of stuff running since it's a work pc so won't be idle. Dual core CPU so gets a beating

sad099 · 2026-02-02T23:05:40+0000

hornetstinger said:
run taskman and see what's using those processes.

221 lol what a bloaty mess is that fresh boot? Mine is <90

How did you get down to <90, curious to see what you removed, disabled etc safely without causing issues

Rroff · 2026-02-02T23:37:26+0000

Loving the 105% utilisation.

The processes tab, built in Resource Monitor or Process Explorer applications will tell you more - obviously if work PC you might not be able to install.

Cyber-Mav · 2026-02-03T06:25:44+0000

Top tech guy at work saying it shows 4 cores and it's using 100% of 1 core and 5% of another core.
What are your thoughts on this?

throwaway4372 · 2026-02-03T07:22:56+0000

Probably windows virus scanner. It will take a weak cpu to 100% when idle, making the system unusable until many hours later when it has completed the scan.

Rroff · 2026-02-03T07:31:07+0000

Doesn't seem to be what the graph shows but sadly there are quite a few ways Windows processes can malfunction and sit there using all of a CPU core for a long time or indefinitely including the memory integrity scanner, network logging and the malware protection engine getting stuck in a constant loop trying to update definitions - which requires a manual purge and update.

Armageus · 2026-02-03T07:32:26+0000

Cyber-Mav said:
Top tech guy at work saying it shows 4 cores and it's using 100% of 1 core and 5% of another core.
What are your thoughts on this?

Get a new tech guy

The graphs are showing 100% usage on all 4 logical processors.

Kernel time also seems high at ~50% usage.

With regards to 105% possibly needs a bios update as could be misreporting the frequency as boost (e.g. if it thinks a 6100 should be 3.6ghz then anything extra might be counted as above 100%)

Vestas · 2026-02-03T07:50:32+0000

Windows has done this since Windows 8 when they changed to "Processor Utility %" for task manager instead of time-based utilisation. In theory it should cap at 100% but its frequently broken by MS. I've seen it on Intel and AMD cpus on various hardware platforms on both Win10 and Win11.

Pretty sure things like hwinfo64 explain this as well.

hornetstinger · 2026-02-03T11:45:47+0000

sad099 said:
How did you get down to <90, curious to see what you removed, disabled etc safely without causing issues