CPU at 25 to 35 percent at idle?

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My CPU usage is at 25 to 35 percent at idle, the processes tab in task
manager shows the "System idle process" is responsible for 85 to 95 percent
of it. Is this normal, and what exactly does the system idle process do?

TIA
 
CPU usage should add up to 100%, so I assume that usage is fluctuating
between 5 - 35%, and the System Idle Process is fluctuating between 95 -
65%. This can be normal, especially depending on your CPU. For instance,
what percentage does Task Manager take? On older systems, this can be
non-trivial. And other background tasks can require CPU.

The System Idle Process doesn't "do" anything with the CPU, per se. A good
article on this is "Default Processes in Windows 2000" at
<http://support.microsoft.com/?ID=263201 >
It explains that:
This process is a single thread running on each processor, which has the
sole task of accounting for processor time when the system isn't processing
other threads. In Task Manager, expect this process to account for the
majority of processor time.
 
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