I've also heard that older versions of Windows don't put the CPU to
"idle mode" even when there is nothing to do. It is a known problem with
older Windows kernels.

Windows 98 and the like don't idle. It requires software to help idle the CPU usage. So I've read - I believe a table on the libvirt site says Win98 is no longer possible.

Anyway, try to install the latest virtio drivers for Windows if you
don't already have.

I have a WinXP Pro 32bit VM with virtio drivers and it runs just fine.

I don't watch the load on it, so I don't know if its CPU goes idle. I'll have to take a peek at it next week.

Is the OP absolutely certain that there is no process running that would consume that small amount of CPU? I'd be more concerned if the usage was 10% or greater when the system _should_ be idle.

On 12/7/2012 9:18 PM, Robert Dinse wrote:
> About the only thing you can do is not run Windows, or at least that
> version, XP does the same thing, continuouslys spins the CPU when there aren't
> any user processes using time. I've heard this is resolved in Windows-7 but
> haven't tried it personally.
>
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>
> On Fri, 7 Dec 2012, Shawn Everett wrote:
>
>> Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2012 12:02:14 -0800
>> From: Shawn Everett <shawn@tandac.com>
>> Reply-To: Discussion about the virtualization on CentOS
> <centos-virt@centos.org>
>> To: centos-virt@centos.org
>> Subject: [CentOS-virt] (no subject)
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I have recently installed CentOS 6.3 with QEMU+KVM for Virtualization.
>>
>> I have successfully created a Windows 2003 VM with 4GB of RAM. The host
>> server is an HP ML350 G8 with 24GB RAM and 24 cores. Details of one of
>> the cores is shown below:
>>
>> processor : 23
>> vendor_id : GenuineIntel
>> cpu family : 6
>> model : 45
>> model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2620 0 @ 2.00GHz
>> stepping : 7
>> cpu MHz : 1200.000
>> cache size : 15360 KB
>> physical id : 1
>> siblings : 12
>> core id : 5
>> cpu cores : 6
>> apicid : 43
>> initial apicid : 43
>> fpu : yes
>> fpu_exception : yes
>> cpuid level : 13
>> wp : yes
>> flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca
>> cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx
>> pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good xtopology
>> nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2
>> ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm dca sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt aes xsave avx lahf_lm
>> ida arat epb xsaveopt pln pts dts tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid
>> bogomips : 3989.86
>> clflush size : 64
>> cache_alignment : 64
>> address sizes : 46 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
>> power management:
>>
>> On an otherwise completely idle system I've noticed the load to be 1.0 to
>> 1.5 range. Running "top" shows the culprit to be: qemu-kvm.
>>
>> Is this normal behavior? I would have expected the load to be pretty light.
>>
>> Stopping the VM restores the load to normal once again.
>>
>> Is there anything I can do to reduce the load?
>>
>> Shawn
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> CentOS-virt mailing list
>> CentOS-virt@centos.org
>> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos-virt
>>
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS-virt mailing list
> CentOS-virt@centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos-virt
>

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