[spectastic]

this is without any programs running. It's ready using up 20% cpu. I'm having a hard time with simple stuff like word processing.

it's a 11e lenovo with amd processor, 4gb ram, and 128 SSD.

 

[Masterchiefxx17]

Active usage of the CPU during normal usage isn't uncommon, however, your graph of the performance is.

Something must be running in the background to cause those mini spikes. See if you can boot the machine into a Clean Boot and find out if it goes away:

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/what-is-clean-boot-state-in-windows

 

[djaburg]

From the task manager, click on the processes tab, sort on CPU (so the arrow points down), and see what's taking up your CPU cycles. From the performance tab you can also click on OPEN RESOURCE MONITOR at the bottom to see more detail about what's going on.

 

[spectastic]