Windows 7 - What tools are used to determine why a cpu doesn't idle?

I've noticed lately that my 2600k cpu doesn't idle. In other words, when the cpu should be idling(cpu cycles near 0%)it shows as high as 50% and over in my CPU Usage gadget. Recently I installed Uniblue Driver Scanner(newest version). I don't remember this problem happening at that time. The graph looks like it "pulses" every 5 seconds or so. Just to see if it was affecting anything, I uninstalled Driver Scanner. I've looked at my Processes and Services but was unable to tell what was stressing the cpu. Can someone give me an idea? Sorry If this in the wrong forum.

basic check

Start "Task Manager" go to Processes Tab, set it to show processes from all users and click the column header for the CPU.

If you monitor this the highest CPU users will show at the top of the list, which you should be able to trace back to an application using the description

Barman58,
The two most busy processes are (1) System Idle Process @ 74-75 and (2) IAStorDataMgrSvc.exe *32 at 24 under the CPU column. There is a pgm named dwn.exe that shows up every few minutes. Can you tell me how to breakdown System Idle Process so I can see what all is running here?

It's not unusual to see System Idle Process hit 90%+ if your computer is just sitting around waiting for something to do. Depending on what else might be running in the background (like your IAStorDataMgrSvc.exe which is an Intel storage function) your System Idle Process seems to be normal.

I'm concerned about the dwn.exe process. According to several websites, this could be a malicious program (assuming this isn't a mispelled program.)

DWN.EXE, Prevx

I'd suggest you download the free Malwarebytes, update it and run a full scan. This may take over an hour but Malwarebytes seems to detect a lot of things other products miss.

Malwarebytes : Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is a free download that removes viruses and malware from your computer

When I saw it I assuming it was dwm.exe (a typo) which is Desktop Window Manager. If it's not that then something is amiss.

I dunno why IAStorDataMgrSvc should be working hard though. Seems worth investigating also.

Barman58, marsmimar, Maxseven,

I downloaded and run MalWareBytes and found 7 infections but nothing that stopped my problem. So Dwn.exe was a legitimate system file and not a virus or a malware. In browsing around I found and downloaded Process Explorer and Process Monitor. Has anyone used these tools? If I could find documentation or a tutorial concerning these two utilities maybe I could solve my problem.

I assume that these are the Sysinternals utilities, if so all the documentation should be available here ....

Sysinternals Suite

Click on the link for the utility required

I still don't see it/can't find it anywhere (dwn.exe). What does the Properties/Details page look like for it?

Was browsing around and found a solution for my problem. I found that the
IAStorDataMgrSvc process is directly related to the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver. Well, I do have it installed. I read that if I changed 'Automatic' to 'Manual' in the 'Services' tab of the Task Manager, IAStorDataMgrSvc would calm down. And it worked! Problem solved...