Problem With CPU Constantly Running Processes When Idle

Hey everyone, I'm new here and just got a Beelink mini PC from Amazon and it's my first time using Windows 11. I don't have many programs installed yet, updated all drivers and did all Windows updates. The problem I'm having is something that I've never dealt with in the past, which is the CPU cores are constantly running when idle. I know that they should be running or the PC wouldn't work but I have very few things in the icon tray and the cores (mostly the first core) is using around 6 percent of the CPU. It's not high but it just stays like that for as long as I keep the computer on for.

The strangest thing is when I put the computer in sleep mode and it wakes, the cores are all extremely low, as they should be, usually between .09 and 2 percent. I read somewhere that it could be the hard drive failing, which is a 500GB NVMe m.2 that is the original drive. I haven't upgraded it, I only added a 1 TB SSD since there is an empty slot for a regular SSD in these mini PCs. I'd really appreciate any help, thanks!

Welcome to the forum, Scott!

With a brand new PC, new apps, and especially if you restored a bunch of data to it, your PC can spend a good bit of time indexing everything. You might check what is going on with Task Manager and sorting on Processes.

Which Beelink model did you get? If it is the high-end one then idle CPU usage should range from 2-4% and the low end one 4-10%. These numbers are not uncommon. Windows does a lot of background tasks all the time, some are short bursts of reading/ writing data to disk and some are longer maintenance tasks that also consume a lot more CPU time.

4.6 out of 5 stars141Reviews

Beelink Mini PC AMD Ryzen 5 5560U (Up to 4GHz 6C/12T,8MB Smart Cache),16GB RAM 500GB,Dual Screen Display,Mini Computer WiFi6E BT5.2,Support 2.5 Inch HDD​

This is the model I have, thanks to both of you for your help!

scottinpa50 said:

4.6 out of 5 stars141Reviews

Beelink Mini PC AMD Ryzen 5 5560U (Up to 4GHz 6C/12T,8MB Smart Cache),16GB RAM 500GB,Dual Screen Display,Mini Computer WiFi6E BT5.2,Support 2.5 Inch HDD​

This is the model I have, thanks to both of you for your help!

Click to expand...

Scott, click on "My Computer" on your post, and fill out all that info. One of the cool things about this forum is that you can click on "My Computer" and see what the guy/gal that is posting is using!

Thanks Gary, I will fill it out later!