Win10 pausing every 30 seconds on ASUS Laptop. Sleep mode issue too.

SpiderX said:

Hi all,

I have this issue since upgrading, that there is a pause every 30 seconds or so. If I'm scrolling or typing it just pauses for maybe a second. I've looked and it appears there is no bios upgrade or driver upgrade on the Intel website. So I'm kind of stumped how to fix it.

The other issue is that it randomly just dumps into sleep mode. I can pull it right out, but it's annoying. I checked the screensaver and power settings, but nothing is out of the ordinary.

Laptop is an Asus N76VZ

Any ideas where to look next?

Hi SpiderX and welcome to TenForums.

First, can you please take the battery out of the laptop, plug in the power cord, and see if the pausing continues? I have seen this happen sometimes with failing batteries. Just need to make sure this is not an issue.

Second, if you have just recently upgraded, it will take several reboots and some time for the system to calm down - indexing will keep the hard drive very busy until that is completed, for example.

I've also had a situation where I found I needed to get a good full shutdown in order to correct some strange occurrences on one system after the upgrade, and so it's a matter of changing a setting in power options to get rid of "fast startup".

Let us know how it goes for you.

SpiderX said:

Hi Simrick,

Thanks for the welcome and the help!

1. The battery in the laptop is bad. It has been for months, if I disconnect the power it dies immediately. But this pausing issue never happened with Win7. .

Okay. The first thing you need to do is remove the battery until you get a new one. Using a bad battery can permanently damage the system. Just use the laptop with the power cord for now. I've had good luck with BattDepot.com

SpiderX said:

2. How long should the indexing take? I did the install on the 1st. .

Difficult to say, depends on the size of your HDD and how full it is. It could take several days if you have several hundred GB of data for it to go through, and it's not on 24/7. You can see if pausing the indexing makes a difference. Type indexing in the search bar, and select indexing option-control panel in the result. If the button to pause is available, click on it. ref: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ing-pause.html

SpiderX said:

3. I just tried the full shutdown. The pausing is still there, so we will have to see if the sleep issue keeps happening. .

Okay. Please be sure the battery is removed.

SpiderX said:

I'll try a few more full shutdowns to see if anything else clears up.

Yes, and let us know if the indexing pause makes any difference.

SpiderX said:

Okay so I yanked the dead battery. It's just running straight power now. Thanks for the advice on that.

Great. You're quite welcome.

SpiderX said:

The computer does say it's done indexing, so that can be ruled out I would think.

Yes, sure, once it's completed, it just updates as needed.

SpiderX said:

As for the pausing, well I think I have a coincidental and weird work around. I started up CPU-Z to check my settings when look for driver updates, etc. Well having that running stops the pausing. How weird is that?

That's very strange. I wouldn't think there would be any correlation. BTW I hope you avoided Conduit and any other junk when installing CPU-Z; I understand it is bundled with a bit of junkware.

Was the computer squeaky clean before you upgraded? What AntiVirus are you using? If from a 3rd-party, was it uninstalled before upgrading? Is it certified as compatible with Windows 10?

I'm going to give you some ideas of what I would do if it were my system. You may or may not want to get this detailed. (Keep in mind I assume this system is completely clean of viruses, spyware, crapware, toolbars, etc.)

Remove any 3rd-party anti virus (if applicable) and use Defender for now. Make sure to visit Windows Update to get the definitions up-to-date. You could also put Malwarebytes Antimalware Free on it - it plays nice with Defender.

Do the problems persist in Safe Mode as well? If not, try a Clean Boot to verify the problems resolve. If so, try turning on the disabled items one or two at a time, rebooting to determine which brings the problem back.

Please check in Task Manager to see if we can identify some suspects (bear with me here, as I am not on my W10 rig, and things may be slightly different):

In the Performance tab, have a look at CPU, Memory and Disk activity to see if you can determine which looks out-of-the-ordinary when the pausing occurs.



In the Details tab, click on the CPU column, to get the little arrow at the top of that column to be pointing downward. This puts your highest usage at the top. The first one should be System Idle Process the majority of the time. Then note: does something jump to the top and the computer subsequently pauses?

Right-click CPU and select Select Columns. Check the boxes for I/O Reads, I/O Writes and I/O Other. Click on each column heading to sort highest to lowest and note which process jumps to the top of the list. These may be clues as to what is causing the pausing. If it's a generic name like svchost.exe, you'll want to get Process Explorer so you can look up the PID and identify the related process.






Other than that, you might have a look at all installed programs and all start-ups. This is easily done through Ccleaner.

SpiderX said:

Also the whole sleep mode thing is still happening. It just did it about a minute ago.

I can't help but think that these two issues are somehow related, and when we correct one, the other will go away. Don't ask me why, I know it doesn't make sense.

Try this:
Set screensaver to "none", and uncheck the box "on resume, display logon screen".



In Control Panel>Power Options: create a new plan, call it "Always On".
Turn off display = never
Put computer to sleep = never
for both on battery and plugged in

Has the sleeping stopped?

Turn off wireless and work locally on the computer to see if it makes any difference.

Has it stopped now?

Check your hard disk health. I usually let this run for an hour or two, to let the readings settle. Disk CheckUp
(Please read Known Issues)

Any issues with the hard drive?

I'm sorry I can't seem to nail this, but perhaps you will uncover some clues with these steps.

EDIT: And remember, as long as your system shows "Activated", you can always clean install W10 now, and it will activate. Just make sure all your data is backed up, and you have all your software disks and keys.

JC Uehara said:

Right after posting in this thread I've found this video: Fix: - YouTube
Disabled the Error Reporting Service and in fact the freezes has stop.

But doing this left the feeling that some thing wrong still lingers in my system and was just put hidden under the carpet...

Good detective work JC!
Open Reliability Monitor and see what the red Xs refer to - may be some clues there.



EDIT: I know I had to get rid of my ASUS MB software (forget what it's called) - didn't play nice with W10.