I notice my fan has been running a lot more and so I checked my Task Manager processes to see which process was taking up a lot more CPU usage… it’s my system idle process and I dunno why it is doing that.  I never noticed this happening before (the fan running slowly, constantly).  Basically it never goes any lower than 80 CPU usage but then when I click on the Performance tab my CPU isn’t actually at anything near that… usually… if the system is doing pretty much nothing except for Sidebar, AIM, xFire, and YIM… it will be around 8% usage. 

So, basically what I’m asking is, has anyone else noticed an extremely elevated System Idle Process in their Task Manager > Processes tab?

This is normal behavior. The System Idle process is the “anti process”. It is the process that actually helps cool down your processor. All it tells you is how “idle” the processor is. So, if you see it running at 80% then it means that the CPU is actually only being 20% utilized.

When the system is idle, the OS can send ACPI signals (like HLT) to the CPU in order for it to use less power.

So, an elevated System Idle process is usually a good thing…it means you’re system isn’t doing much and is ready for anything you throw at it. If it was at 0% then that means your system is bogged down and opening a new application would probably be a slow affair.

So why would my fan be running so much more… Just surfing around and stuff doesn’t put that much demand on the HD, video card, or CPU… I dunno why it is running so constantly now… Does your S do that?

Actually, surfing the net doesn’t put stress on the CPU…but it does stress the GPU. Whenever you scroll web pages, for whatever reason, the GPU gets a decent work out. Also, certain dialog boxes for any Windows programs, which look harmelss, can consume 100% of CPU time evn if it’s not doing anything. It’s considered a “feature” of Windows.

And yes, my S is no different than yours.