Just updated to W10 now cpu at 100% all the time

I just updated my pc to windows 10 (version 1909) from windows 7, and according to the task manager my CPU is at 100% all the time. All 4 cores at 100% all of the time. The top CPU using processes vary but often include firefox, desktop window manager, and task manager.

The PC is not very new. I built it a few years back. It is built around an asrock p67 extreme4 gen3 motherboard and has a core i5 sandybridge cpu. I have a raedon hd 6850 video card, and several hard drives.

Oddly I have a program that shows cpu temp and all the cores are in the high 30deg C, so it seems like maybe task manager is wrong... wouldn't the cpu temp be higher if it were really using 100% for hours on end?

Depends what you mean by 'just updated'. A lot of work is being done in the hours and days just after updating.
Coming from Windows 7 will take a month to see your way around Windows 10 and configure several hundred items in the Settings App.
Most people have been on Windows 8.1/10 for many years now, maybe 6/7 years, and with a version/SP update every 6 months it all becomes very familiar.

Some temperature indicating applications do not work with some MOBOs/chipsets, just try others.

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Helmut said:

Depends what you mean by 'just updated'. A lot of work is being done in the hours and days just after updating.
Coming from Windows 7 will take a month to see your way around Windows 10 and configure several hundred items in the Settings App.
Most people have been on Windows 8.1/10 for many years now, maybe 6/7 years, and with a version/SP update every 6 months it all becomes very familiar.

I've been using w10 on a series of different work laptops for years and have setup each one in turn to the way I like it. My wife was tricked into upgrading to w10 on her computer years ago and I've been supporting that ever since, my son has w10 on his and I support that. So I'm familiar with w10 and how to use it. When I said "just installed" I meant Thursday 12/13 evening.
I would be unconcerned if the cpu use seemed to be things updating or scanning for viruses, but it does not. When I say 100% cpu, I mean 100% of the time. Since installing win10 I have never seen the task manager show less than 100% cpu for even a single second. Even when I close everything except for task manager it is 100%.

What GPU do you have in that particular system?

Also out of curiosity, what are your Power Option settings?

sygnus21 said:

What GPU do you have in that particular system?

Also out of curiosity, what are your Power Option settings?

raedon hd 6850 video card
I have not changed any power settings, but it seems to have carried over my preferences for timing out the display and sleep. Since we are talking about the cpu running, minimum processor state is at 5% cooling policy is active, and max processor state is 100%

I asked about a GPU because I've not seen it listed in your Task Manager image posted. Here's my task manager...



So first things first, have you updated the GPU drivers? I ask because not seeing the GPU listing has me wondering if the CPU's integrated GPU is being used instead.

Secondly, be aware the Desktop Windows Manager (DWM) is...

Desktop Window Manager (dwm.exe) is a compositing window manager that renders all those pretty effects in Windows: transparent windows, live taskbar thumbnails, Flip3D, and even high resolution monitor support.

Source: What Is Desktop Window Manager (dwm.exe) and Why Is It Running?

In short it's used to display all those fancy Windows effects and high resolution support. So, are you running any third party aero or transparency effects packages. If so, and you've not updated your drivers, that could be causing an issue.

Anyway, though this points to GPU use, it's still about DWM high usage, which is really what's happening in your case... Desktop Window Manager High GPU Usage in Windows 10. I admit I've not gone through the entire thread but posted it because it seems to have been a big issue in the past.

All that said, look to update at minimum your GPU drivers. Also noticed you have a lot of Firefox pages open, and I'm wondering if Firefox causing an issue.

My two cents.

Sorry this was idle for a while, I didn't have time for pc maintenance this week.

Turning off transparency and aero effects are one of the first things I do on any computer I use, a little for resource usage but mostly because it looks awful and makes things hard to read. I do use LOTS of browser tabs. That's not going to change, ever.

I just did a clean install of the latest drivers for my gpu. It involved using a program called DDU in safe mode (wow! w10 made getting to safe mode a lot more complicated!) to uninstall the old ones completely and then installing the new software (AMD Crimson 16.2.1) and driver (15.301.1901). Then from within the new amd software it suggested an update for the drivers. I picked the WHQL driver and not the beta and installed that.

That did not make a difference in cpu or gpu % usage. I have had my computer on most of the time for the last week, which I presume would have allowed w10 to finish any updating and maintenance tasks after the upgrade. During the gpu driver install I noticed that the windows on the install software started talking about AMD catalyst again, I thought that the Crimson was a replacement for Catalyst. Weird, oh well.

The cpu usage is still at 100%. I have literally never seen it at something other than 100% since I installed w10, not even a blip down to 99% for an instant. Something new has been happening this week. About 4 times my computer has just frozen, typically while playing Kerbal Space Program. Only pressing and holding the power button does anything. BUT something did change. "Radeon settings: Host Application" is now by far the most CPU intensive process, typically using over 80%, and the GPU column is still 0%. I ran kerbal space program, which is the only game I have played since upgrading to w10. GPU stayed at 0% and the cpu temps got up to the high 90s. I then loaded up minecraft and the temps got to 101[deg C and the frame rate was awful. All the time the gpu was 0 and cpu was 100.
The power used by the cpu when the pc is mostly idle, no games, just a browser, is around 32W, where it was in the mid to high 50w range when running the games.

here is the screen cap of the task man, sorted by power usage trend to give you a better feel for what is using cpu over time instead of at a particular second.
ATTACH=CONFIG]260272[/ATTACH]

I restored the balanced and high performance power plans as per the directions above and rebooted. Is it normal for it to sit for 4.5 minutes on the blue "restarting" screen?

No change.

I'm particularly concerned about games pushing cpu heat to very high levels and running badly.