Question Windows Explorer Slowing Computer to a Crawl

[bladem2127]

Howdy, I first began to notice my PC started slowing down and moving applications across my desktop would stutter very badly and any application i would use or move would also lag/shutter, nothing in my CPU said anything abnormal, so i ran many scans for virus and even used /SFC abunch.

I did notice that once i closed Windows explorer in my task manager that my computer would instantly refresh and go back to normal? Im unsure why this keeps happening and am curious on how to fix, If you are able to help me i'd be greatly appreciate it!


Spec Tree:
OS: Win7-Ultimate
Cpu: AMD Fx-8350
GPU: Gtx 1080FE
Ram: 32Gb DDR3
Storage: C:900GbsLeft/D:27Gbs Left/E:11Gbs left/F: (Reserve)/G:Old OS/R:80Gbs left/X: 1.21Tbs left/Y:180Gbs Left/Z:33Gbs left
My C: Drive is a Samsung SSD

PSU: info is unkown due to case limitations however it has around 1200W and is aprox 4 years old bought New

 

[Ralston18]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

Include PSU: make, model, wattage, how old, condition (original, new, used, refurbished)?

Disk drive(s): make, model, capacity, how full?

Take another closer look in Task Manager. Also look in Resource Monitor to see if you can learn more about what is happening.

What resources are being used, to what extent ( % ), and what is using the resource(s).

Another tool to use is Process Explorer (Microsoft, free).

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Take your time observing. Use all three tools but only one at a time.

First watch while not moving applications (I think you meant icons), then leave the observation window open, and move some icons.

Or do what ever you do when the slowdowns occur. Just clarify what that is....

 

[bladem2127]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

Include PSU: make, model, wattage, how old, condition (original, new, used, refurbished)?

Disk drive(s): make, model, capacity, how full?

Take another closer look in Task Manager. Also look in Resource Monitor to see if you can learn more about what is happening.

What resources are being used, to what extent ( % ), and what is using the resource(s).

Another tool to use is Process Explorer (Microsoft, free).

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Take your time observing. Use all three tools but only one at a time.

First watch while not moving applications (I think you meant icons), then leave the observation window open, and move some icons.

Or do what ever you do when the slowdowns occur. Just clarify what that is....

Thanks for the quick response and detailed questions im glad to have asked here and sorry for the lack of info at the beginning, My PC currently is running fine so once it gets into that Choppy stuttery state again ill run your recommended Diagnostics checklist and get back to you again.

I have 2 separate Task managers one that reads background processes and only noticed that system idle process runs a bit hot using 50-70%CPU and both read that windows explorer uses 0 CPU and around 33K of RAM and only when i close and restart the task does my PC run smooth as butter.

 

[bladem2127]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

Include PSU: make, model, wattage, how old, condition (original, new, used, refurbished)?

Disk drive(s): make, model, capacity, how full?

Take another closer look in Task Manager. Also look in Resource Monitor to see if you can learn more about what is happening.

What resources are being used, to what extent ( % ), and what is using the resource(s).

Another tool to use is Process Explorer (Microsoft, free).

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Take your time observing. Use all three tools but only one at a time.

First watch while not moving applications (I think you meant icons), then leave the observation window open, and move some icons.

Or do what ever you do when the slowdowns occur. Just clarify what that is....

Not much is being shown on Any of the task managers, From what i've found so far is that wmpnetwk.exe(Windows Media player Network sharing service) was using 13 threads in the resource monitor so i shut it down and the choppiness for moving icons around settled down i still have to run more tests but from what im seeing its almost like a memory leak from what many games run into.

When this happens nothing is outta the ordinary Cpu idles around 20% or lower with spikes to the upper 30's/Disk spikes from 0-2Mbs every tick, Disk queue peaks alot but doesnt show much significance/ Memory idles around 43%14.1Gbs Used physical memory and rarely shows Hard Faults.

If i discover anything more ill let you know but im not seeing much in system performance loss when this happens. I only discovered this issue because when i right click on my desktop it takes about 1Min for the options to load so i killed windows explorer and the choppiness disappeared, which is another puzzling question i have that hasn't resolved itself.

 

[Ralston18]

"From what i've found so far is that wmpnetwk.exe(Windows Media player Network sharing service) was using 13 threads in the resource monitor so i shut it down and the choppiness for moving icons around settled down "

That is a likely clue.

However, reading back I am wondering about the disk drives. If the media player is writing/reading via an almost full drive that could be part of the problem.

You could try Disk Clean to free up space on any problem drives. As always, be sure to back up all important data beforehand.

Also:

Try running the built in Windows troubleshooters - the trouble shooters may find and fix something.

"sfc /scannow" and "dism" may likewise fix something.

References:

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-system-files-2626161

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-dism-command-line-utility-repair-windows-10-image

Hopefully just some bit of buggy code or corrupted file(s).

 

[ZV505867]

You can also run a disk check. Sometimes, this may solve errors from your HDD. I would strongly recommend that you run it. Copy and paste the following command into the command prompt (admin):
chkdsk /f /r
This should trigger a message, prompting you to restart. Restart your computer and let disk check do its thing. This can take multiple hours, especially if you're running a hard drive.