Re: idle process?

From: Alexander Kent Hajnal (akh@nyic.com)
Date: 09/26/02 

From: Alexander Kent Hajnal <akh@nyic.com>
To: baba ali <cavallycom@hotmail.com>, security-basics@securityfocus.com
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 14:18:29 -0400

On Thursday 26 September 2002 09:48 am, baba ali wrote:
> Hello
>
> My machine is responding really slow now.After I run Process viewer
> program,here is what I find
>
> Process:Idle Pid : 0x0 Cpu :76% Desciption:system idle
> Priority:0 Thread :0
> Properties : no path , no command line , no current directory
> no parent ,no version
>
>
> Did my machine get infected with a malicious code,How come a process
> running idle can take up to 76% of Cpu ?

The behavior you are seeing is normal. The OS schedules the Idle Process to
run when no other process needs CPU. The idle process basicly does doesing
but execute NOOP instructions. This is a Good Thing since long strings of
NOOPs being executed can signal the system to go into low power, sleep mode,
etc.

>
> Thank you again!
>
> Baba

Alex Hajnal
Senior System Administrator, New York Internet Center
akh@nyic.com