Intermittent PC lags

[Shoogo]

Hello!

Since yesterday, my PC lags randomly for a while. Chrome is particularly slow, but file explorer or Hangouts, or Spotify stop responding as well. Just when typing this line Chrome froze and the upper bar read Chrome (Not Responding).

- The fans dont speed up.
- Nothing is wrong with the display.
- I didn't install any new program recently, beside Malwarebytes but that was after the problem arrived.

I can play Overwatch just fine though, I didn't notice any lag which is weird.

I don't really know where to start. I uninstalled JAVA as I know it can lead to some problems. And I disabled Hardware Acceleration in Chrome Settings as I read that it could lead to some slow downs, but that didn't help.

When it freeze, if I hits Ctrl+Shift+Esc. I feel like it helps unfreezing, but maybe that's just luck? I don't know. And when it unfreezes the Processor is always at 100%

I would really appreciate some help, thank you!

 

[Shoogo]

Ok so just now, I opened two new tabs and they were not loading. I tested my connection on my mobile phone and on my laptop and everything was fine. Chrome was responsive, but it wouldn't load the tabs.

Also, it froze when I tried to scan a document with my scanner.

 

[camieabz]

When you start your PC, run resmon and leave it running until it happens again, then see if CPU or something else is being hogged. ID the process if possible.

 

[Shoogo]

Thank you for your answer, 30 minutes after booting I haven't experienced any lag yet.

I know rebooting isn't fixing the problem, I have tried yesterday and today already. But I must say 30 minutes is quite a long time without any lags at all.

I'm working in PS and scanning, printing so I expect the lags will come eventually. I'll keep you posted.

 

[Shoogo]

Ok I just had a freeze, the resmon was not responding, I tried to take a printscreen but apparently that was frozen too. Nothing was responding, I can just move the cursor.

 

[camieabz]

Maybe disable or (logically) disconnect the scanner. Connection to it might be the cause. One to eliminate, at least.

 

[Shoogo]

I just had a freeze where I could still access the resmon and this is what I get

https://imgur.com/a/2z7oAMn

I'm sorry, it's in french - I think the highest process (Hôte de service : appel de procédure distante) translates to
service host: Remote Procedure Call or RPC

This thing appeared out of nowhere and now it's back to 0% so it might be the cause? I googled it and there seems to be a lot of problems with that RPC thing.

Chrome is super slow right now, the text I'm typing is displayed intermittently. Even the gif in your avatar is lagging as hell.

I'm going to unplug the scanner right now.

 

[Shoogo]

Another freeze, results are similar : https://imgur.com/a/2z7oAMn

How in the name of Dog is Chrome taking 0%?!

Edit : It's not the scanner.

Just had 2 huge lags where the resmon was not responding. They lasted between 5 and 10 seconds.

 

[camieabz]

Looks like an svchost or RPC issue. "hote de service appel de procedure distante" It's taking 30% of the CPU in both screen shots. The line has two entries, and can be expanded. One of them is probably causing the high CPU usage.

It's worth opening up resmon (not task manager) and watching it for a bit. See if anything is causing these things when you're not trying to do things (i.e. is it a program issue, is it a process issue, or is it a hardware problem or interrupt issue).

 

[Shoogo]

Oops, I thought that was resmon. Ok I got the true resmon opened.

Again, sorry it's in french. This is what I get - https://imgur.com/a/2z7oAMn

Right now it's constantly lagging, but PC only freezes every 3-5 mins

Edit : just got a freeze and this is what got displayed in the resmon : https://imgur.com/a/2z7oAMn (the chrome.exe is in red)

Edit2 : just got a huge freeze and resmon was not responding, I smashed the printscreen key and managed to get the image where the closing arrow is red in top right corner.

 

[camieabz]

Ok. You really need to look into the service(s) that seem to be using all that CPU. More to read below pics.






If it were my system, I would start by doing one of several things.

- Look at the service(s) per advice above
- Test the hell out of the system without Chrome being used at all (this is vital). You have latched on to the problem being Chrome, but other than a big chunk of RAM (no CPU), there's nothing to say that Chrome is the cause, rather Chrome is what you use a lot. Not saying it can't be Chrome, but that needs to be tested.

- If it seems to be Chrome (meaning you tested and got no problems after lots of non-Chrome usage), then options:
1) Disabled non-essential Chrome add-ons / toolbars / extentions / apps
2) Re-install Chrome

- If not Chrome
1) Run sfc /scannow and regardless of the result, cold boot. Shutdown. Start (not a re-start).
2) Look into processes and services hogging resources, such as telemetry, updates etc. Always good advice, and it can't hurt to take other potential load issues off the system

Lastly, we have no idea of the hardware present. Please run a benchmark and post the link to the results page - https://www.userbenchmark.com

It will tell us your hardware, and perhaps highlight resource issues or parts that are performing below expected. Seeing 57% of RAM used, but only seeing part of the process list, and not the resmon resources, limits what we know. Is it 57% of 4GB? 16GB? Is some of the RAM reserved for gfx? Use resmon with the memory tab:

 

[Shoogo]

Hey!

Thank you for the long and detailed post. I meant to tell you earlier but I was busy with parenting stuff : I managed to get rid of the lag.

Turns out, Avira was the culprit. I 2 threads on Reddit, 2 and 3 days old, with people stating the exact same issues as mine.

I uninstalled Avira, and now the problem seems to be gone!

The problem was apparently that they updated a shopping security extension for Chrome, or something like that. I don't know what kind of crap that was, but I'm glad I got rid of it.

I'll trust Windows Defender for now, unless you have a recommandation for an antivirus.

Thank you a lot for your time, you have been helpful!