[SOLVED] 100% CPU usage when using any disk drive.

[Kanzaji]

I had this problem for a long time (like half a year), however I've fixed it with Fresh OS install like a month ago and it came back up today. Anytime I'm using any of my 4 disk drives (SSD NVME / SSD Sata or any of 2 HDDS) my CPU ramps up instantly for constant 100% usage on all cores. However in Details tab of Task Manager counting usage of every program I'm getting like 5/10% of usage (the same thing with 3rd party Task Manager). CPU Is actually getting warm in this time and its boosting to its max 4.25ghz. Any ideas what could cause that?

Specs:
CPU: Ryzen 5 3600X@4.25ghz
Motherboard: Msi MPG X570 Gaming Plus
GPU: Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 3070 Master 8GB
RAM: 16GB 3200mhz CL16 G.Skill Ripjaws.
Drives:
SSD NVME: Samsung SSD 980 500GB
SSD Sata: Adata SU700
HDD: WDC WD20EZBX-00AYRA0
HDD: Toshiba DT01ACA200

PS: Sorry for any grammar mistakes - English isn't my native language.

 

[rgd1101]

malware?

 

[Kanzaji]

Feels odd tbh, didn't dowloand anything sus today. However gonna try scanning it With Windows Defender and gonna give results soon.
However I know Defender isn't the best AV out there so any recommendations with that maybe?

EDIT: Fast scan complete: Nothing found. Long scan is gonna take some time tho.
EDIT 2: Full scan complete: Nothing found as well.

 

[WrongRookie]

Have you set those drive's priority to high or something?

 

[Kanzaji]

Have you set those drive's priority to high or something?

Didn't touch with them today Nothing. (Tbh not even sure how to do that)

However I've updated windows and AMD Chipset drivers today, tho uninstalled both and didn't help.

 

[Unolocogringo]

How full is you windows drive?
Most SSD/NVME drives need about 20% free space and your windows drive is usually your virtual memory drive.
If it is almost full performance drops off and virtual memory could be shifted to another drive causing more cpu cycles and hard drive writes.

 

[mdd1963]

Pick one or the other of the spinning drives, and, if understanding that you can't access anything on it, disconnect one or the other (SATA power and data cables) for several hours, just to make sure the problem is not repeated failed access/failed reads on any one of the drives, as a failing spinning drive can really bog a system down....

(If you can spare whatever is on the drives, check the system with both disconnected...; if your problem is still there, at least you know now what is NOT causing it.)

 

[Fazh]

i had this problem before. i scanned my PC with malwarebytes pro full scan. i guess the result was some viruses that not been deleted but stored in same place within malwarebytes thingie...something like that. also check the RAMS sticks and replug them in place fit..also forcefully shoot air to the MB to clean it from dust

 

[Kanzaji]

How full is you windows drive?
Most SSD/NVME drives need about 20% free space and your windows drive is usually your virtual memory drive.
If it is almost full performance drops off and virtual memory could be shifted to another drive causing more cpu cycles and hard drive writes.

I have around 100 GB free 470 so I think its fine. [My Virtual Memory is kinda Forced to be only on 1 drive so Windows shifting it onto other drive isn't possible I think]

Pick one or the other of the spinning drives, and, if understanding that you can't access anything on it, disconnect one or the other (SATA power and data cables) for several hours, just to make sure the problem is not repeated failed access/failed reads on any one of the drives, as a failing spinning drive can really bog a system down....

(If you can spare whatever is on the drives, check the system with both disconnected...; if your problem is still there, at least you know now what is NOT causing it.)

Alright, gonna try it and give results after few hours.

i had this problem before. i scanned my PC with malwarebytes pro full scan. i guess the result was some viruses that not been deleted but stored in same place within malwarebytes thingie...something like that. also check the RAMS sticks and replug them in place fit..also forcefully shoot air to the MB to clean it from dust

Gonna try that as well later. Thx for info

 

[Kanzaji]

Update:
So I've reseated RAM sticks and unpluged both HDDs and literally after short test with SSDs the problem seems gone. Gonna use it for few hours and see if it comes back.
Now question... is one of my HDDs dying or Malware is on one of them? Gonna see.

 

[Mr.Spock]

a few sites still run cryptomining scripts that Defender does catch, eSET, Bitdefender and Kaspersky all detect those easily

also re: virtual memory maybe you just need to preallocate your pagefile and maybe even limit it's maxsize so Windows isn't doing so dynamically especially if you have plenty of real RAM

Feels odd tbh, didn't dowloand anything sus today. However gonna try scanning it With Windows Defender and gonna give results soon.
However I know Defender isn't the best AV out there so any recommendations with that maybe?

EDIT: Fast scan complete: Nothing found. Long scan is gonna take some time tho.
EDIT 2: Full scan complete: Nothing found as well.

 

[mdd1963]

Reconnect either spinning drive one at a time, and see which might be 'prone to inducing' the issue, if not outright causing it. (background cloud syncing or even file indexing, particularly for a slow and/or problematic drive, can cause 'issues' in gaming....; check crystaldiskinfo on both spinners to see if either is in anything other than 'blue coded/'Good' health

At least you might have now ruled out a potentially vast array of other issues quite quickly.

 

[Kanzaji]

Alright sorry for not responding for few days. Wasn't at home in this week.
After this week when I wanted to connect Hard Drives back and trying figure out which one is dying / has problem, PC got this problem again today without spining rust.
Only thing that left is scanning it with AV Ig. Gonna give results in few hours.

 

[Kanzaji]

After scanning entire System with Kasperskyy AV, it didn't find anything.
I'm suprised that this issue came back even without spinning drives. Its so confusing.
(oh and my entire PC just... froze... when I wanted to Post Reply first time. Tbh not sure what happend.)

 

[rgd1101]

power profile is on performance mode or power saving?

 

[Kanzaji]

Its on Balanced in Control Panel, with slider in Windows Settings set to Perfomance

 

[rgd1101]

what the bios version?

 

[Kanzaji]

I've done some experimenting in the mean time as well.

First of all I found out that this issue is probably some program related. In the first ~15 seconds when windows is still booting up, this problem is gone, and it starts when something is loading. Tried disabling few of my startup programs / services, and I think I found out one, that could do that somehow.

MSI Center and its Light / Fans control services etc.

After literally killing all MSI processes that were running, Running Crystal Disk Mark doesn't make CPU run on 100%!
However after connecting HDDs back, this didn't work first time. After anoother reboot and waiting as everything loaded. Killing again all MSI processes seems to have fixed it.
I've tested all drives with it, both SSDs and HDDs, and testing any of them made that issue came back. However now when I wanted to see Bios version. After reboot killing MSI processes didn't work, and CPU is literally all the time 100%. Not sure if it its the same without HDDs, bc I've just tried that once on SSD and reconnect HDDs, however I'm doubt that its 100% working on SSDs only.

Another thing is that probably Toshida HDD is dying. After testing with Crystal Disk Mark, results were... bad.
max 24MB/s Read and the same for Write. Other HDD has over 240MB/s for both.
Gonna test as well with just WD HDD if SSDs only with MSI processes killed works.

This may give some clues for what is the real problem here.

 

[Kanzaji]

Alright after even more testing, and failing constantly at temporary fixing the issue by killing those MSI Processes (I was just constantly getting 100% CPU Usage all the time when I was trying that method), I've just uninstalled it, and it turnes out that MSI Center SDK was the problem.!

I'm gonna use this PC for like a week and we will see if it comes back somehow. If it doesn't than really thanks for help with this issue!

Edit: Alright after few days, it didn't come back! Uninstalling MSI Center SDK fixed it.