Slow response from I/O devices when switching to another application

Hi all,

Recently, I've noticed that when I'm trying to switch to a different application, there's a noticeable lag between clicking on (with the mouse) / pressing ALT + TAB and Windows responding and activating the selected program.

What should I start looking at to try and work out what is causing my system to respond slowly?

Windows Version: 21H2 (OS Build 19044.2251)

Hi @@Paul Black;,

These sort of questions are always difficult to diagnose. Information that would help . . .

This is what I fear also; from just trying a few things, I am worried that it's going to be needle-in-a-haystack kind of thing...

> When did this start happening?

Unsure, but it's been a couple of weeks at least that it has really started to bug me.

> Did anything specific happen around that time?

Because I can't be sure of when it started happening, I'm not sure what may have triggered it.

> Have you made ANY hardware changes/upgrades?

I wouldn't say changes, but I have noticed one of the ports on the front (read: top) of my PC tower has decided to be unresponsive - sort of. If I put my logitech dongle for my keyboard in it, it's unrecognised (and pops up a warning message). If I connect my webcam there, it works fine?

I also have a Wacom Intuos Pro that I have started using more recently.

> Have you installed ANY new software?

I have installed Visual Studio Code in the last few months. I installed Total Commander (file management) yesterday, but the problem has been going on longer than that.

> Did you install ANY WU's or Driver Updates?

> Have you looked at your Windows Update History to see which update[s] preceded the problem?

I have had a few Windows updates since September, but it will be hard to pinpoint a date when this first started becoming noticeable.

Last driver update was NVIDIA - Display - 30.0.15.1215 on 7 August 2022.

> Have you got a Restore Point that you can use that is prior to this happening?

Unfortunately, no.

> Check the Notification Area for Messages.

Notification area is clear.

> Look for ANY Triangles in Device Manager.

All clear - no triangles in the USB space either, but I know if I plug something else in there, it will give me a warning.

Also, look in Task Manager for programs using high resources.

Sitting around 35% memory usage (Firefox being the greediest of course).

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