Question High cpu usage (100%(stutters) during workloads, 60% when idle).

faer95

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Feb 9, 2018
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4,510
As title says, the problem is that after reboot my cpu metrics are normal(2%-10%, firefox enabled, teamviewer(external connection), handfull of other sofware like steam, etc.). But after I start any powerfull process, any games for example, cpu usage rises up to 100%, to the point computer could freeze for a few seconds sometimes. After I disable said process, usage drops to 60%-63%, and stays at these numbers up untill reboot. So far i've been able to track problem to logical cores, as it is they remain busy after process is closed. I also found out that if I tweak processor power settings (set max to 20%\50%\70%), logical cores usage drops too and load times in games decrease(at 70% power). If i wait around 10 mins after reboot usage jumps up to 70% on its own.

But these measurments taken from task manager, process explorer shows different load(i know that idle=unused).
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However, even if Process explorer shows low usage, when taskmanager hits 100% i get freeze ups, thats lasts for several seconds(complete desktop hault, games freeze, youtube freezes, cant move my mouse, etc)
CPU Model: i7- 8700k.
WINDOWS VER. 1803
Startup is clean.
HT is Enabled (if this is relevant)
 

faer95

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Feb 9, 2018
9
0
4,510
Hi chance of malware!
You should also look at the clocks at 4Ghz the loads are much lower as they are at 1Ghz.
I have scanned a couple of times(CureIt, HitmanPro), found one btc miner, but when it was deleted nothing changed. Cant do anything about clocks(apart from cutting power to CPU), OC options disabled, its the turboboost.
 

stark11

Honorable
Nov 10, 2012
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10,520
my bet utorrent is mining again. yes they did it a while back too. Just uninstall it from program manager in windows and reinstall utorrent 2.2.1 from old apps, in any case it should remove that possibility and its the most widely used version still. it will pick your torrents back right up. to be sure just copy the folder from user/apps data/roaming/utorrent and revert copy it after reinstall.
scan with malwarebytes, and a proper av like avira/kasperesky free av.
 

faer95

Reputable
Feb 9, 2018
9
0
4,510
my bet utorrent is mining again. yes they did it a while back too. Just uninstall it from program manager in windows and reinstall utorrent 2.2.1 from old apps, in any case it should remove that possibility and its the most widely used version still. it will pick your torrents back right up. to be sure just copy the folder from user/apps data/roaming/utorrent and revert copy it after reinstall.
scan with malwarebytes, and a proper av like avira/kasperesky free av.
I know about utorrnet mining, but its disabled most of the time for that reason. Its enabled right now because system was fresh out from reboout.
When gaming or heavier usage what is using the cpu at 100% in task manager?
The game is the heaviest, (40-50%). but other processes are taking usage interchangebly. Meaning one time its firefox, who takes up 35, then its task manager, then its WMI host, then its any other program that could be running(explorer even, rgb led manager, skype, steam etc).
But this is not unique to steam games. I frequent mass effect(1-3), and they're all freezing up all the same.
 
You can scan day and night with 30 antimalware apps, and find nothing...but that does not mean you have no malware.

If you have WIndows install media on USB (make some easily straight from MS!) and an SSD, a 'nuke and pave' (delete partition/reinstall WIndows from scratch) takes about 5 minutes. (Granted, reinstalling your applications will take much longer, but, it will encourage you to have full image backups in the future, and, perhaps avoid Utorrent specials?)