Occasional high CPU usage on Windows 10

Hi,

I have recently noticed a bit of a performance issue on my HP laptop running Windows 10 Home.

What happens is, if I am not doing anything on the laptop, but am not putting it to sleep (i.e. idling), it stays at a low CPU usage. However, after a while (usually about a minute?), the CPU usage rockets up, and also affects my CPU temperatures (goes up from ~35'C to ~50'C).

The processes that are the culprit, as defined by the detailed tab of Task manager, are either "svchost.exe" or "System" - the latter is described as "NT Kernel and System" and is linked to ntoskrnl.exe.

Any way of controlling this would be greatly appreciated.

Note: the laptop came preinstalled with Windows 10 and doesn't have many programs installed.

Spotify95

Hi spotify95,

Have a look at the below link and see if there's anything that might be of some help.
Windows 10: How to fix system ntoskrnl.exe memory leak and high CPU usage

b1rd

Another semi-long shot might be one of the Start-Up programs. I did see that you don't have many programs installed, but it might be worth a look anyhow, as something is working your processor.

If you're unfamiliar, right-click the taskbar and bring up the Task Manger. Hit the Start up tab. Those are the programs that load when Windows starts. You can disable one at a time by right-clicking them (make sure it's actually off) and check things.

Again a long shot, but sometimes some programs can cause conflicts. I would specifically look at any security software you have running, and test it without the software running. You can always active Windows Defender if you're concerned about the temporary lack of security if you decide to try this.

Also, perhaps take a quick peek at the Reliability Monitor/History and see if anything jumps out.

b1rd

spotify95 said:

Hi, thanks for the informaion.

I ahve just set McAfee to do a scan of the computer and I'll see what that brings up.

Failing that, I'll look at drivers, then Runtime Broker. I think that the Windows 10 tips thing still comes up, which I don't really need. I doubt it's the drivers though, because all of the drivers for the machine are installed and Windows Update updates any drivers when required.

Note: this only happens about 1 minute or so after my activity, i.e. it is idling. I have noticed that, the instant this happens, the CPU spikes to 100% (with svchost using some CPU as well) before settling to 25% usage; the culprit being "System".

edit: McAfee has scanned my "C:" drive (Windows 10) without any issues. It's scanned drive F:\ (my windows 7 partition, this is dual boot) and found 1 potentially unwanted program, which I will discuss tomorrow. Driver Booster (from IoBit) has found outdated drivers, which I will install.

Hey Spotify, HP owner here and what I did was uninstall most of the HP stuff, especially the support assistant and HP framework (do it from programs and features). Update the graphics driver. Let the system find and install the correct driver from intel. Every single problem I had, including high cpu disappeared. Have been running 2 months now flawlessly.

Update: I tried turning off the notifications about help with Windows 10 (the 3rd thing in the original article), result? No improvement!

Anything else to try before I try the Startup programs? (I will post a screenshot of my start up programs on that machine, that way you can help to see what is the problem.) Don't think it's McAfee causing the issue.

AnEdge said:

Hey Spotify, HP owner here and what I did was uninstall most of the HP stuff, especially the support assistant and HP framework (do it from programs and features). Update the graphics driver. Let the system find and install the correct driver from intel. Every single problem I had, including high cpu disappeared. Have been running 2 months now flawlessly.

Hi,

I have updated all of the outdated drivers via IOBit Driver Booster. No improvement, but I do have nice new drivers :)

HP Support Assistant is installed on a windows 8.1 laptop which doesn't have this issue, and it is also on the Windows 7 partition of this laptop, also without issue.

Maybe the HP Framework is to blame?

Hi guys,

The issue is still present (it is fine on my windows 7 partition) - any ideas?

Thanks

Another option might be to see how things run while in Safemode. If things are fine there, then that would seem to point to one of your programs.

Did you ever try disabling any of the start-ups to see if it's any of those? (Right-click the Taskbar > Task Manager > Start-ups tab)

In essence, you would have to disable each start-up, one at a time and then test. If the problem is still there, then re-enable it and move down to the next one. These can be disabled and re-enabled by right-clicking each entry. Perhaps try Safemode and see if that changes anything first.


b1rd