CPU usage spikes while idling

[NewAndreas]

I walked away from my pc and when i got back i saw this

is it normal, what could be causing it?

(i am a noob at uploading pictures, so open the broken box in a new tab)

[Jechu182]

I suggest you open task manager and go to processes and monitor the column that says CPU to check which process is causing that load on your CPU. 

[BroKenFingers]

Yes..you will need to have a close look at what is taking up your cpu "idle" but at 62%...it is not at idle..here is a good resource ..

 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

[Quaker]

Windows does do a lot of housekeeping while the system is idle - indexing, defragging, etc.

[HEXiT]

try going into your audio settings and disabling advanced effects... ctrl panel/sound (right click/ properties) it should be in 1 of the tabs that open up. just disable it and apply. hopefully this will reduce the cpu usage.

if its not that then ass suggested look at which apps are not idling.

it could just be normal backround stuff if you have lots of startup entries. such as iTunes or quicktime. if you don't need em running all the time then disable them in startup so they wont be running in the backround until you want em to.

[samuel]

sometimes after a fresh windows install, trustedinstaller.exe and other update processes won't stop unless you reinstall windows. it's a big isue for me especially on slow machines. I just don't want to wait 3 days for those processes to stop, I just reinstall and the problem is gone.