[SOLVED] CPU Huge Spikes in Idle

[Seraphin89]

https://imgur.com/B3GATBu

https://imgur.com/gsWNA92

https://imgur.com/m8WrWgF

https://imgur.com/4TpYZx8

https://imgur.com/mfxkw9k

https://imgur.com/EUY8GCa

https://imgur.com/basGW8x

https://imgur.com/70uu02b

https://imgur.com/2r6w3ZN

Hi Guys,


I've reached a point where I'm pretty desperate and I'm hoping you people can please, help me.


Since (as much as I noticed) 1 week my CPU is spiking up in idle state which goes from 2-5 % up to suddenly 15 %, then someimtes 40 % , then 10 % again and so on .., while I do literally nothing, when I say nothing I mean I dont even move my mouse.

Usually my CPU is using up to MAX 5 % in idle state, this is why I am concerned.
I only have Google Chrome running, nothing else.

This is what I did so far:

1. Taskmanager is not saying much, even the recource manager is not helpful at all, only thing I noticed is "Searchapp.exe" (more to that later)
2. I installed process explorer do determine what is behind these spikes and what is taking up my CPU recources, there is, again, the searchapp.exe which is on place 8 if i list it with from -> to
3. I installed wireshark and analyzed my network, because my ethernet also had a few spikes, maybe ist nothing, at least I didnt notice it yet - its sending 10 - 24 Kbit/s here and there, sometimes getting 40+ Kbit/s, wireshark didnt show me anything concerning but I can show you guys the results, maybe I overlooked something
4. I ran eset nod 32 antivirus a few times, with no result
5. I ran malewarebytes antimalware a few times, also no result
6. I have had problems in the past when I was using Windows 7 with the svchost.exe, which sometimes took up to more than 20% in idle, I resolved the issue with just deactivating the service causing the problem
7. I noticed lots of "svchosts" in the process explorer, so I deactivated the services I could, to dertermine if one of those was causing the problem like it sometimes before, again no difference
8. I mentioned the "searchapp.exe", I wasnt sure if this was the reason for the cpu spikes, but I tried different ways, it said that there was a windows update that caused the searchapp.exe to use up the cpu recource a lot; but that was an old KB Update which Microsoft already fixed, my system is up to date ...

## I opened up regedit and deactivated the searchapp.exe and cortana, it still shows up in the process explorer as "suspened"
## I opened up secpol.msc and created a security line which prevented cortana and/or the searchapp to start, same result, still shows up as "suspended" and cpu still spikes up here and there

1. I didnt not, or at least I can not remember, any changes on my computer, there is no install or anything that could have caused the problem, nor did I install anything new
2. I deinstalled all logitech drivers for my mouse because I thought my mouse was responsible for all those spikes as well, but I think thats a miss as well because it did not change anything

Temperatures are all OK, I ran up HWMonitor, but there is nothing with worries me, CPU is on all 4 Cores at 40 - 41 ° C maximum, the rest is fine as well.

The System in Question is:

Motherboard: Asrock 77 Extreme4
CPU: Intel i5 2500k
GPU: GTX Gaming G1 980
RAM: 16 GB
1 HDD Drive
2 SSD's one with 240 GB where my OS is installed, the other is 64 GB
Windows 10 , up to date

I am providing sreenshots so you guys can see what I am talking about, I am honestly out of ideas and hope any of you could help, I am trying to avoid re-installing windows 10 and I am beginning to think that the problem is not software, but maybe hardware related?
My CPU is 10 years old or more I think, not sure, I overclocked it up to 3,5 GHZ I think, which is not much, but that was never a Problem and I did that more than 5 years ago, plus, as I said, temperatures are fine.

 

[Curious Corpse]

I had the same problem A couple months ago. My I7-7700K would run 14%-20% on idle. Didn't look much into it until i started rendering videos. When i would render a video with adobe my CPU usage would jump to 100% the whole time. Again not a problem. Then once the render was done the usage would drop again to 15%-25% for about 1 min that jump to 100% while in idle and stay there in defiantly. I had forgotten that i did a fresh windows install 3 months prior. Which turned on ALL of the windows background apps and diagnostic tools again. So every time adobe would hog the CPU it would cause problems for these background apps. Then once they started running again they all wanted to run diagnostic tools and send these diagnostics to Microsoft and other companies. after turning off all background apps and diagnostic tools CPU went back down to 4%-5% idle. It is strange that all of this is under the privacy tab that nobody really thinks about with programs that run in the background.

Turn off App Diagnostic:

• Open Settings.
• Click on Privacy.
• Click on App Diagnostic.

Turn off Diagnostic and Feedback

• Open Settings.
• Click on Privacy.
• Click on Diagnostic and feedback
• Disable all

Turn off apps:

1. Open Settings.
2. Click on Privacy.
3. Click on Background apps.
4. Under the "Choose which apps can run in the background" section, turn off the toggle switch for the apps you want to restrict.

 

[Seraphin89]

Thank you for the quick response, I will try that, restart and analyze again as soon as I can.

 

[Seraphin89]

Ok, so I deactivated all these things, but unfortunately the Problem still consists.

There is one difference I noticed:

When Im not doing anything, my CPU doesnt have any spikes at all anymore - it now is on 4-5 % idle while literally doing NOTHING, which is OK --- BUT: as soon as I do something, move my mouse, or only use my keyboard and look for things on the internet, or press a button, it spikes up again.

 

[Curious Corpse]

OK good. That adds a bit of stability now. To help i installed chrome myself and did some testing since i only use Firefox. While running chrome, Firefox, discord and updating some steam games i never reached above 10% on my CPU except when i first opened each application which is normal. After taking a look again at your pictures i notice that the Process explorer that you installed is using 6-8% of the CPU in each picture. It probably set itself to run on startup. I recommend disabling this to open on startup. Also disabling and other apps at startup that isn't required may also help stabilize things.
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In Task Manager click on Startup tab and disable anything that you feel doesn't need to startup right away. Usually Office products and game launchers. Leave anything that has to do with you hardware like headphones and keyboard.
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In Google chrome click on the 3 dots.
Got to More Tools/ Extension

In extension make sure there aren't any browser extensions that installed themselves. My fresh install only has Google Docs and Adobe Acrobats extensions installed.

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In Google chrome click on the 3 dots.
Got to Settings and check that you synce settings are what you want.

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This is my version of "Did you try turning it off then on again?" at work.

Also one last thing. I don't know if you use your PC for work or personal. As the non-official IT guy at work since they work offsite. The number 1 problem that i run into is emails. For some reason everybody feels that they cant delete emails or at least sort them into sub-folders. I find that if it is Office, Google, Yahoo, or any other kind of emails. People generally keep 5000-10000 emails just in the inbox. Most email accounts limit this to 100 and hide the rest. However if you have a secondary email app controlling your emails it is best to look. Every time an email account is opened it acually reads through EVERY email in the inbox even if there is 10000. It doesn't go through all the subfolders though unless u physically click on that sub folder.