It's a
Dell 2200(266Mhz single processor), WinNT 4.0 Server SP6.0a, PDC(few local users
authenticating), 256mb ram, plenty of diskspace, pretty stripped running only
essential services(no IIS or anything like that). About 15 users use it for file
and print services.
Recently when it's idle(no keyboard or mouse activity) the Processor/%
Processor Time and System/Processor Queue Length go up to %100 and 4-5
respectively. This is while we're monitoring bandwidth in/out(low) and disk
activity(low). Interestingly enough when keyboard or mouse is accessed the
processor drops to less than 5%(also drops when accessed with
PcAnywhere) and stays there until it's idle again then it climbs back to
around 100%. We are using Perfmon to see this which is pretty limited. I would
think that the idle thread is causing what we're seeing on the graph if it
wasn't for the queue climbing and users complaining about access being slow
when it's happening.
Mcafee
Netshield hasn't shown anything but is currently disabled for
trouble-shooting.
Questions -
1.
Anyone have an idea what's going on?
2.
What's the easiest way to see what's actually using the cpu(Taskmgr shows Idle
process up - all others minimal)? Do we have to add the scores of threads to the
graph to try and find what's doing it?
3.
What's a good low end package for monitoring and diagnosing this sort of
thing?
4. Am
I missing something?
Any
help would be appreciated.
Terry
