if it's events, it could be some driver that is acting up. you can try 
to remove as much kernel modules related to hardware as possible 
(typically network, or bluetooth/wireless if this is a laptop)

if you feel up to it, you can try perf as root:
install it with
yum install perf -y
and then run
perf top

it's top on steroids, so can be overwhelming. but you should be able to 
dig a lot deeper into what is happening.

good luck

stijn

On 01/23/2015 06:53 AM, [log in to unmask] wrote:
> Does the box have hypertheading enabled? I've seen some wired behavior ocassionaly with hypertheading because it essentially makes the output of top a little deceptive.
>
> The other thing is what category it the cpu utilization  ‎for instance it's not uncommon for a core to go to 100% due to io wait (wa in top).
> In this case a change of the scheduler may help. I often find the default which is cfq is not right for servers.
>
> Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
>    Original Message
> From: Ian A Taylor
> Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 12:23
> To: Stijn De Weirdt; Scientific Linux Users
> Subject: Re: cpu process load jumps to 100%
>
> Stijn
>
> Thanks for reply
>
> The last 3 times it has been
>
> events/17
>
> That has jumped to 100 utilization
>
> Is this saying processor 17 is flaky ?
>
> How would I test that ?
>
> Regards
>
> Ian t
>
>
> On 22/01/15 17:13, Stijn De Weirdt wrote:
>> hi ian,
>>
>> run top to see which process is causing the load.
>>
>> if it is kipmi, try to add this to the active kernel entry in
>> /etc/grub.conf
>> ipmi_si.kipmid_max_busy_us=100
>> and reboot if you can. if you can't reboot, there's probably a way to
>> write to /sys to set it (but it will be non-permanent).
>>
>> stijn
>>
>>
>>
>> On 01/22/2015 05:48 PM, Ian A Taylor wrote:
>>> Sir/Madam
>>>
>>> I have a 64bit machine on which I run SL6
>>>
>>> I upgraded to the latest kernel
>>>
>>> uname -a
>>> Linux AAAAAAAA 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Tue Dec 16 14:29:22 CST
>>> 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
>>>
>>> Since I have done this then the machine behaves ok for 25 mins then
>>>
>>> The process load on one of the CPU jumps up to 100%
>>>
>>> There are 40 processor on this machine
>>>
>>>
>>> processor : 39
>>> vendor_id : GenuineIntel
>>> cpu family : 6
>>> model : 62
>>> model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2670 v2 @ 2.50GHz
>>> stepping : 4
>>> microcode : 1046
>>> cpu MHz : 2499.983
>>> cache size : 25600 KB
>>> physical id : 1
>>> siblings : 20
>>> core id : 12
>>> cpu cores : 10
>>> apicid : 57
>>> initial apicid : 57
>>> fpu : yes
>>> fpu_exception : yes
>>> cpuid level : 13
>>> wp : yes
>>> flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep 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 pcid dca sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt
>>> tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm ida arat epb
>>> xsaveopt pln pts dts tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase smep
>>> erms
>>> bogomips : 4999.35
>>> clflush size : 64
>>> cache_alignment : 64
>>> address sizes : 46 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
>>> power management:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> There is nothing to indicate why this is happening in /var/log/messages
>>>
>>> Originally I had a problem with kondemand but I solved this by turning
>>> off service cpuspeed
>>>
>>> However I am not clear why the process load jumps up to 100%
>>>
>>> Any help would be sincerely appreciated
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanking you.
>>>
>>> Yours sincerely
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Ian Taylor
>>> University of St.Andrews,
>>> School of Physics & Astronomy,
>>> North Haugh,
>>> St.Andrews,
>>> Fife KY16 9SS,
>>> Scotland.
>>>
>>> e-Mail :- [log in to unmask]
>>> Tel :- (0)1334-463141
>>> Fax :- (0)1334-463104
>>>
>>> The University of St Andrews
>>> is a charity registered in
>>> Scotland : No SC013532.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>