[SOLVED] Something hogs cpu 50-100 %, not visible in Task Manager

[LrsLex]

Windows 10 stutters to a halt, sound gets choppy, even mouse cursor moves with massive delay. Something keeps hogging the cpu and it doesn't show in task manager or proexp. Or rather they tell me cpu is being used 50-100 percent all the time, just not by what. Even when it's "only" 50 % used, windows is unusable. Everything has massive delay, videos unwatchable and sound all f***ed up.

This seems to start after about 15-30 min after startup. The machine is a fresh 10 install, just a couple of days ago. I'm thinking maybe some kind of driver conflict?
Thanks in advance for help. I'll post more info if needed.

 

[Phaaze88]

Full specs?
cpu
motherboard
ram - # of sticks and capacity of each
gpu
storage
power supply - exact make and model(open the case up and look for the label printed on one of the sides if you don't know)

 

[LrsLex]

Full specs?
cpu
motherboard
ram - # of sticks and capacity of each
gpu
storage
power supply - exact make and model(open the case up and look for the label printed on one of the sides if you don't know)

Operating System
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
CPU
AMD Ryzen 5 1600X 72 °C
14nm Technology
RAM
16,0GB Dual-Channel Unknown @ 1463MHz (16-17-17-35)
in 2x8 sticks

Motherboard
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. PRIME B350-PLUS (AM4) 35 °C
Graphics
DELL U2515H (2560x1440@59Hz)
Philips FTV (3840x2160@60Hz)
4095MB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (NVIDIA) 39 °C
Storage
931GB SAMSUNG HD103UJ (SATA ) 35 °C
465GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB (SATA (SSD)) 43 °C
931GB Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB (Unknown (SSD))
3726GB LaCie P9233 SCSI Disk Device (USB (SATA) ) 51 °C
Optical Drives
No optical disk drives detected
Audio
SABAJ USB DAC
XFX 550 W PSU, can't really get to check the exact model now.

 

[LrsLex]

Here's what it looks like when just restarted and still running smoothly

Capture

When the system starts freezing, system and interrupts are at the top by cpu usage. I'll link those if/when this starts.

 

[Phaaze88]

The 'unknown' ram: is the brand name not printed on the sticks themselves?
Samsung Magician software is installed and running on the latest firmware? Use it or HD Sentinel to check the health of all of your drives.
Using System File Checker in Windows 10

From your first image, I see you have at least 3 antivirus/antimalware programs running(not including windows defender).
Some of these programs do not play nice with one another, and can screw with your system as a result.
I'd suggest sticking with one antivirus and one antimalware(preferably malwarebytes), and ublock origin for your browser. Another form of security is you being careful about exploring the web.
No need for several different programs that may later screw with your system via chewing up resources, or driver conflicts.

My thoughts are:
1)that it could be the ram if its some no name brand that mobo vendors haven't certified tested to work with your mobo
2)the health of your OS drive, or other drives
3)security programs that don't really get along
Or a combination of these 3.

 

[LrsLex]

My thoughts are:
1)that it could be the ram if its some no name brand that mobo vendors haven't certified tested to work with your mobo
2)the health of your OS drive, or other drives
3)security programs that don't really get along
Or a combination of these 3.

This setup has been working fine for a long time, I had to reinstall windows when I couldn't migrate my OS to the 970. Memory is HyperX Fury. The 970 isn't on latest firmware yet, I'll have to update that, health of the drives is OK.

I have Avast, Malwarebytes and Zonealarm firewall. That's not excessive, is it? I used to use Comodo firewall instead, didn't like that it force fed bloat and ads.

Machine's been running OK now an hour and a half, but I really doubt the problem fixed itself. I'll get back with more info if/when needed. Thanks!

 

[Phaaze88]

Please do. I'd like to see what happens when things go south.
A screenshot of task manager, and one on HWINFO showing cpu usage across each thread.

 

[LrsLex]

Please do. I'd like to see what happens when things go south.
A screenshot of task manager, and one on HWINFO showing cpu usage across each thread.

This here is how it goes when it happens. Sound goes and the system turns unresponsive. In the video I trigger it by launching a bunch of links from the bookmarks bar. CPU isn't even fully utilized. If I use CPU-Z stress test to push cpu to 100 %, that doesn't do this, leading me to believe it's some kind of driver conflict. I guess I'll have to go the clean boot route and add processes one at a time. Problem here being, that this doesn't always happen like in the video. Sometimes it works just fine.

Going south

 

[Phaaze88]

Are your motherboard drivers up to date? You can find them here: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/PRIME-B350-PLUS/HelpDesk_Download/
Same deal with the 2070? https://www.geforce.com/drivers

So, I watched the video...
You don't need both Avast and Zonealarm, as they do basically the same thing. Keep just one. Some antivirus programs DO NOT mingle well together, not that more than one is needed anyway.
µTorrent needs to go. Completely uninstall it. That program is essentially malware, and is just a backdoor for malware, PUPs, and other crap to install onto your PC.
Go here: Malwarebytes Free Adwcleaner Download
Quarantine and delete everything it finds.

 

[LrsLex]

Thanks for the reply.

Asus and nVidia drivers are up to date, I just had to do a fresh install of everything. Here I kinda fked up installing AI Suite 3, which for some reason is next to impossible to uninstall. Never should have touched that.

Avast and ZA are free versions so one provides antivirus and the other firewall, do you mean to leave the firewall side for Windows to handle?

A torrent program for me is a must. I know it comes with risks but I'm at least not aware of safer programs to do it. Tips are welcome. I'll add the adwcleaner to my toolbox, thanks!

 

[Quanticriver]

Do you have the same problem when you boot in safe mode?

 

[Phaaze88]

Thanks for the reply.

Asus and nVidia drivers are up to date, I just had to do a fresh install of everything. Here I kinda fked up installing AI Suite 3, which for some reason is next to impossible to uninstall. Never should have touched that.

Avast and ZA are free versions so one provides antivirus and the other firewall, do you mean to leave the firewall side for Windows to handle?

A torrent program for me is a must. I know it comes with risks but I'm at least not aware of safer programs to do it. Tips are welcome. I'll add the adwcleaner to my toolbox, thanks!

People do tend to have trouble with Asus software. I used it for a little while, then eventually gave up on it, as it kept bugging out on me every time there was a windows update... Asus was not on their A-game in keeping up with said updates.

Having too many of the same kind of programs usually causes driver conflicts, and that just leads to more problems. Windows Defender is an antivirus and firewall package - but if find the reliability of their antivirus questionable, I think it's fine if you want to have another, but I don't believe 2 firewalls are necessary. I doesn't come with anti-malware, so you will want one of those. Malwarebytes is one of the best in that department.
I've been just fine with Defender, Malwarebytes, and UBlock Origin for my browser, all while just being careful exploring the web, not opening suspicious emails, etc., IMO, is about all the security I really need.

Let us know if Adwcleaner finds anything.

 

[PSynchro]

To your point about a need for torrent software
Give qBitTorrent a go here, it's open-source and I have been using it for years in my Linux and Windows environments

 

[LrsLex]

Let us know if Adwcleaner finds anything.

It did find three PUP-suspicious items which I removed. Problem still persists. I'll remove Zonealarm and see if it helps.

 

[LrsLex]

You don't need both Avast and Zonealarm, as they do basically the same thing. Keep just one. Some antivirus programs DO NOT mingle well together, not that more than one is needed anyway.

This seems to have been the culprit!
I uninstalled ZoneAlarm and for over a week the machine's been working fine.
What threw me off here was Task Manager not showing any inordinary cpu usage even though computer was to all intents and purposes unusable. Only slightly heightened usage by "System".

Anyway, thanks a bunch for the help, much appreciated!