The HP Simplepass.exe was continually creating new threads then deleting them but for about 6.
disabling and stopping had no effect.
As i don't use the fingerprint option, i uninstalled Simplepass...

Thanks all,
turned out to be HP fingerprint software...

Just finished instal on 2nd laptop yesterday. There is a pause every second that is shown by the mouse pointer displaying the revolving circle. Everything appears to be working although task manager...