Random freezes / 100% disk usage on win10

M4rio · 07 Feb 2020

Hello everybody,

so recently I have been getting trouble with some random freezes on my pc. The first thing I noticed when I took a look into the task manager was the usual disk usage of 1-2% spiked up to 100% for about 5-15 seconds. Usually this happens every 3-15 minutes. During this time the pc froze almost completely. The affected disk is my C:\ SSD and it is also the one I have installed windows on.

I have already updated windows multiple times, followed some guides on "100% disk usage", which reccommend disabling certain services such as superfetch or the windows search function. I also stumbled upon this windows performance analyzer tool, which I thought could be helpful (I included some screenshots).

I really have no clue where to look, or if there even is a way to fix it. If you need any additional info, I will be happy to answer.
Thanks in advance

dalchina · 07 Feb 2020

Hi, a few initial thoughts:
a. If you've not already, please use the forum as a resource and search for e.g.
random freeze
random freeze high disk

- note the tools used and ideas. Not all such threads mention high disk usage.

This lengthy (albeit older) thread, for example, includes some solved cases.
Windows 10 freezes randomly

E.g. #324. #724

No one fix will apply in all cases.

b. Try to identify the process involved.
Use MS's ProcMon (Process Monitor). This creates a huge log file of ALL activity. What is displayed can be filtered (technical).

In your case, I would suggest you start the tool running and capturing data, note the exact time at which the freeze occurs, stop the capture, and inspect the log for the period of the freeze. Ideally there will be some frequently repeated pattern or activity.

c. Assuming it is software related- and it may not be- it could be some setting- the try the following cases and see if the freeze still occurs:

i. Clean boot (Google if unsure how- tutorial available)
II Safe mode (Google if unsure how- tutorial available)

d. Have your task manager running and displayed, then when the freeze/high cpu usage occurs, you might be able to note something. (probably optimistic).

Hardware:
Naturally you can run checks e.g.
- Disk: HDTune Free
hdtune free softpedia - Google Search
Health and Error Scan tabs
- File system - from an admin command or Powershell prompt run
chkdsk c: /scan
- RAM - tutorial available
- Stress tests (Prime95, Furmark etc)

Windows search: comment- normally this uses no resources when indexing is complete. You can check if it is by looking at Indexing Options in Control Panel.

Even when indexing, indexing stops with even a little load on the processor. If there is disk/file corruption, this has been noted to cause problems when indexing. Mythology about high CPU use with Windows search generally goes back to XP days.

What is the make/model of your PC? It looks as though it may be fairly recent.

Performance Analyzer:

Good tool, but there's perhaps one person here who's somewhat familiar with it.

xaccell · 07 Feb 2020

You could try to filter the results from the Resource monitor and see if you can isolate the process that is causing the spikes. It could actually be a number of things: malware, services, processes, bad hard drive, etc.