Question Windows Becomes Very Slow Suddenly Until The Explorer Is Restarted...

[JagdReaper]

I recently reinstalled windows and i've begun having a weird issue where the pc will begin to feel very sluggish randomly. When this happens doing just about everything takes at least twice as long if not longer rather its opening a picture/program or just using the start menu. Originally i thought it might be an SSD issue but during one of these episodes i ran a benchmark and everything looks normal. i noticed when i installed Corsair Icue it would start being slow right away so i uninstalled it and all seemed fine. But a few hours later it happened again and i was forced to restart the pc to get things back to normal. Today instead of restarting the entire pc i just forced the explorer.exe to restart via the task manager and upon doing that things return to normal for a while. The issue is very random sometimes i get it multiple times an hour other times i can go 3-6 hours with no issue. i've run out of ideas to fix the issue so any help would be greatly appreciated.....


Before i reinstalled windows this happened but way less, maybe once a month if that. This doesn't seem to happen if i'm gaming (besides text sims like TEW/WMMA)...


Specs
Windows 10 Home Advanced Fully Updated
Asrock Z390 Steel Legend MB
I7 9700k
Zotac 2080 Super Amp
Kingston 480GB A400 with 16GB of intel optane

 

[Colif]

what are you using the optane for? Do you have latest version of IRST?

right click start button
choose powershell (admin)
type SFC /scannow and press enter
once its completed, copy/paste this command into same window:
Repair-WindowsImage -Online -RestoreHealth and press enter
SFC fixes system files, second command cleans image files, re run SFC if it failed to fix all files and restart PC

 

[Bassplate]

You can also try to give your PC a little more performance at System properties.
1.Search "advance system properties"then under performance there is an setting option...Open the performance settings then you will see
*Let windows choose whats best for my computer.
*Adjust for best appearance.
*Adjust for best Performance.
*Custom
Click the "Adjust for best performance" box then say Apply then OK.
Check if your computer is running better now if still nothing helped i would suggest upgrading your windows 10 to WINDOWS 10 Pro...

 

[JagdReaper]

im using the optane to accelerate my ssd and yes im running the most up to date irst. Also tried the things you suggested to no avail.

Its not a performance issue as my pc is very fast until the episodes start and runs fast again after the pc or explorer.exe is restarted.

Edit - Doing anything in the explorer or anything that changes the explorer in anyway seems to be a big trigger. i just had 2 episodes within 10 mins. one while looking through some videos in the explorer and the other right after changing my desktop theme. doing these things wont trigger it every time but its definitely triggering it quite a bit.

Just happened again while using spotify, went 25 hours with no episodes and now had 3 in 3 hours. Also music and videos play fine when it happens albeit it takes much longer to load.

 

[Colif]

Some fixes for slow explorer - https://windowsreport.com/file-explorer-slow-windows-10/
one is a registry change so do this 1st - https://neosmart.net/wiki/backup-restore-registry/

I only asked about optane as its only different hardware in pc to a normal one and not exactly sure how intel uses that. it might be a cache for faster loads... and on an ssd you not saving much time.

see if this helps
Method 3: clear File Explorer history.

1. Click on the Start button.
2. Scroll down to find Windows System folder and expand it.
3. Click to open the Control Panel.
4. Choose Appearance and Personalization.
5. Choose File Explorer Options.
6. Click on the Clear button at the bottom right of the General tab.
7. Click on the OK button.
8. Wait a few seconds before you try to open File Explorer again.
   

Are you running this? https://www.kingston.com/en/support/technical/ssdmanager

 

[JagdReaper]

tried those fixes and no luck besides restarting the explorer.exe but as i said that only fixes for a bit before the issue starts again. i've already tried with optane off and with the older drivers for it from my motherboards website neither had any effect on the issue.

actually made a post on the Microsoft support site today about this
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...-c865-4502-9d24-85f596013775?tm=1586725447684

on it i made a list of what i've tried so far

1. SFC Scans
2. Dism commands
3. updating windows
4. turned off indexing
5. reset the explorer
6. cleared and turned off quick access
7. disabled windows search
8. turned my intel optane off and used older drivers from my motherboard site
9. updated my graphics drives
10. installed and uninstalled my chipset drivers
11. disabled anti-virus
12. set explorer for best performance
13. check disk
14. made sure my hard drive firmware was up to date
15. updating my bios
16. restarting the explore as adim
17. creating a new account
18. disconnected from the internet and disabled my modems
19. turn off lan auto config
20. used a different keyboard

 

[Colif]

what was answer?

 

[JagdReaper]

[ b]<Mod Edit>[/b] sorry nothing so far lol, but through some trial and error i've seen its the windows explorer causing the issue...if i work/play without it running everything is fine or with it on i avoid using it no lag occurs...but if i use it a few times im forced to restart it....i feel like i've tried every solution with zero results....

 

[Colif]

wonder if its latency but that normally causes stutters, not file exploder to slow PC down.

i was going to suggest Asrock app store but you say you have newest drivers - http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z390 Steel Legend/#Download

Microsoft probably suggest a clean install. A few years ago it was their stock answer to everything, they have got better.

Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows - if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

tried setting PC to high performance in power settings?

Could try running HWINFO and logging sensors to see if its maybe noticeable at a hardware level. Windows doesn't just randomly slow down so it might be hardware?
https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/hwinfo64-download.html
when you start, tick Sensors only and click run
on next screen, look at bottom row of icons,
Click on the icon to right of the clock, that says "start logging" if you hover over button
this opens file explorer (oops) and lets you create a logging file.

outputs can be read in excel or google docs.

whats Win 10 Home Advanced?

 

[JagdReaper]

I've tried the asrock store, but any of the drivers and the bios update have failed to fix the issue...no one anywhere has suggested much more then what i listed or a windows repair/reinstall and i admit i'm avoiding that because im pretty sure its not a viurus/bad driver/malware as im not running/doing anything i hadn't done before the reinstall...

did a clean boot (correctly i think) for a few hours with no issue.

i use hwi to monitor temps, but not like that but have used latency monitor with everything looking mostly normal. temps and every thing looks right. its one of the reasons this bugging me. despiute the readings during "episodes" it feels like my SSD is running at 100% despite really doing nothing and its reading being at 0%...

As far as Win 10 Advanced idk it was listed as that on my order from cyberpowerpc....

I've had it suggested this may be a RAM issue , does that seem possibly to you, i thought it might be likely but hesitant to put it on that as everything seems tied to the explorer....

Also i do have the kingston ssd manager...

 

[FatherLim]

Hi, sorry for resurrecting this thread, but did OP find any solution to this?

I've been having the exact same issues..

 

[JagdReaper]

no i haven't, just learned to deal with. im eventually getting a new m/b and 3080 card and im hoping that will solve the issue.

 

[FatherLim]

So it turns out that it might have something to do with my keyboard driver (Razer Blackwidow Stealth). I unplugged the keyboard completely and uninstalled the driver, and the problem went away (ran it for about a week). When I plugged the keyboard back in (and let Windows install the driver), the problem came back again. YMMD, of course, but it seems to have fixed it for me.