High CPU Usage

Hi all. On my Thinkpad T60, watching the task manager reveals that the CPU usage is consistently between 40-60%, with a corresponding System Idle process of somewhere between 40-60, with very few programs running. I know that the idle process is supposed to be all over the place, but is it normal to have the CPU usage so high most of the time? And then, every few minutes, the CPU usage will dip down to 1-2% and the system idle process will spike up to 99. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

 

It depends on what programs you have running. Don't forget about background programs. Some antivirus programs can rob a lot of cpu usage.

 

I have Norton Antivirus running, and I'm assuming its processes are taking up a good amount, but is it normal for them to take up a good 40-50%?

Edit: I googled the processes that seem to be hogging most of my resources (ccEvtMgr.exe; SPBBCSV.exe; Rtvscan.exe) and they all seem to belong to Norton Antivirus. I understand that Antivirus software takes up a considerable amount of system resources, but 50-65% seems ridiculously high and abnormal. The same software on my old (and considerably slower) computer did not take up anywhere near this much. Any idea what could be going on or what I should do? Thanks!

 

Maybe Norton is running a system scan? When my AVG Anti Virus scans, I know the processor is runnng at round 75% or more..

 

Perhaps you should switch to a resource-light antivirus.

 

Thanks all for the responses. I suppose I need to look into that. It's just odd because Norton has never taken up this many resources for me before; on my previous computer with just last year's version it took up a max of 18%, and now it's spiking to 65%. Weird.