Question I can't open Nvidia control panel, high CPU usage and my PC won't restart

[gb24]

Hi all,

After some Starfield shader issues I found a way to force the game to recompile shaders online. What I did was:
- change shader cache size in Nvidia control panel/manage 3d settings to disabled
-restart pc
-then delete the files in appdata/local/Nvidia/dxcache and pipeline.cache in appdata/local/Starfield

Only now Nvidia control panel won't open for me to re-enable shader caching. My PC also hangs on restart and doesn't seem to progress, I've had to cut power by the plug. Task manager shows the CPU to be utilised a ridiculous amount - steelseries GG is using 22%!! There's also a memory leak I've just noticed, but the PC managed to shut down.

I've DDU'd in safe mode and reinstalled GPU drivers, but that hasn't fixed the issue out of safe mode.

Nvidia control panel shows as open in task manager, but ending it does nothing

I'm unsure where to go next, any help would be greatly appreciated

My specs are:
B450 Tomahawk Max
R7 3700X
RTX 4070
32 GB DDR4 3600MHz Corsair Vengeance
CX750M
Samsung 970 Evo Nvme boot drive
Latest windows 10 update

 

[Lutfij]

CX750M
How old is the PSU in your build?

There's also a memory leak I've just noticed, but the PC managed to shut down.
The only way you're going to alleviate your system off of a memoryleak issue is to reinstall the OS after recreating the bootable USB installer for your OS, provided you're referring to the same memoryleak that's been plaguing Windows OSes since Windows 8.

 

[gb24]

How old is the PSU in your build?

Around 5 years. I should probably state that the Starfield shadow issue seems to happen after installing the dlss mod (which I did) and not because of the PSU if that's what you were thinking of

The only way you're going to alleviate your system off of a memoryleak issue is to reinstall the OS after recreating the bootable USB installer for your OS, provided you're referring to the same memoryleak that's been plaguing Windows OSes since Windows 8.

The memory usage was gradually going up over time to 100%. I had one before either on Windows 8 or 10 and managed to trace the process and fix it

Nvidia control panel seems completely broken, every other app opens fine. I wonder if that's where the memory leak is coming from. Either way, I will probably just install windows 11 if I'm doing a clean install, and pray that fixes it.

Do GPUs process a lot with normal desktop apps? It seems like windows just isn't using it, thus making the CPU process more?

 

[gb24]

Alright finally got around to working on it again, safe mode seems to behave properly - no memory leak, I can end tasks, I can restart, normal CPU usage idling at 0-1%.

Out of safe mode every application takes 7.3%-7.5% and ending tasks doesn't do anything, they stay open.

I'm gonna back my stuff up in safe mode then reinstall windows 10. I might try my old 1070Ti first though to make sure I haven't broken my 4070

 

[gb24]

CX750M
How old is the PSU in your build?

There's also a memory leak I've just noticed, but the PC managed to shut down.
The only way you're going to alleviate your system off of a memoryleak issue is to reinstall the OS after recreating the bootable USB installer for your OS, provided you're referring to the same memoryleak that's been plaguing Windows OSes since Windows 8.

Reinstalling windows 10 seems to have fixed the issues! Next time I'll think twice before messing around with Nvidia control panel. Thanks for the help