Windows 10: Disk 0 Active time permanently at 100% even with no apps open.

Hello!

I've been experiencing intermittent performance issues over the past few days; my laptop takes forever to power on/shutdown, and all apps even the mouse cursor experienced growing periods of constant slowdown/crashes/freeze-ups. The issue seems to have slowly gotten worse and now my laptop is virtually unusable due to the excessive slowdown I'm having to post this using another device.

My Specs:

Dell Inspiron 15 7000 gaming laptop 64-bit OS
Intel Core i5-7300HQ CPU @ 2.50GHz
8.00GB installed RAM
Windows 10 Home edition, version 1909, OS build 18363.1256

I noticed that under the Performance tab of the Task Manager, Disk 0's Active time is permanently at 100% under the processes tab Disk percentage appears to look normal however This is the case even when I have zero apps open.



I have not been able to find any working solutions researching online - posting here because it appears each solution is somewhat catered to that specific user/computer. Here is a rough list of all corrective methods I've tried:

• Ensuring I have the latest Windows Update installed.
• Running a full AV scan with Malwarebytes.
• Defragged my drive using CCleaner and manually deleting excess files/uninstalling no-longer-used programs.
• Using System Restore to revert to an earlier date.
• Disabled Windows Search SuperFetch doesn't appear under Services.
• Updated/rolled back certain drivers.
• Removed external peripheral devices.
• Disabled unnecessary start-up apps.
• Utilized the sfc /scannow command.
• Tried doing the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers fix, but it doesn't appear in Device Manager.
• Using the built-in Windows memory test.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I've not been able to associate the issue with any recent changes I made to my device. Also my laptop is only ~2 years old so it shouldn't already be experiencing hardware failure.


Thank you!

:)

 

Disk Active time 100% Disk transfer rate 0

This is a problem I've seen reported countless times, on Microsoft support sites and elsewhere. Task Manager shows "Disk Active time 100% Disk transfer rate 0", and everything that's running on the computer freezes, although sometimes you can switch windows,
or even perform some operations within a window, but other times
everything freezes, including the mouse pointer. It usually lasts for 30 or 60 seconds, but sometimes it goes on for several minutes. Then it stops and everything goes back to normal, including Disk active time and Disk transfer rate.

It happens regardless of the apps I'm running or the activities I'm doing. I've even seen it happen with no user apps running at all - no browser, no file manager, nothing but background stuff. It happens every single day, regardless of whether there has
been a Windows update installed.

Microsoft gave me a fix for this problem a week ago, but it didn't work. Here are the steps I followed:

at admin command line prompt:

• Get-AppXPackage | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}
• dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
• reboot
• find driver file for Intel(R) 9 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller
  • C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\iaStorA.sys
• Details tab from Properties window for controller
  • Device instance path:
    • PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_9C83&SUBSYS_06B01028&REV_03\3&11583659&0&FA
• find registry key for disk controller
  • Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_9C83&SUBSYS_06B01028&REV_03\3&11583659&0&FA\Device Parameters\Interrupt Management\MessageSignaledInterruptProperties
  • change MSISupported from 1 to 0
• reboot

The instructions I was given include this for Step 4: If you see “StorAHCI.sys” in the list, you are running the inbox driver. But my driver is iaStorA.sys, so maybe this
fix doesn't even apply to me.

After doing all of the above, twice, I still have the problem. I've seen this now over a period of about three years, on two completely different laptops, one a Toshiba running Windows 8.1 and currently on a Dell running Windows 10. I also have a Thinkpad
for work that runs W7, and I've never seen it happen on that machine. It got so bad on the Toshiba that I ended up discarding it, after spending countless hours trying to fix it.

I've also tried all the fixes I've found on the web, e.g. disable superfetch, disable BITS, add write permissions to Skype and the browser. Nothing I've found so far has helped. I also reverted Windows back to build 1703. That didn't help either.

 

DISK USAGE (first 100%, then 0-20%)

I will check the link you provided with WIKI about this app (actually I already checked it.. but will do again).

I want to add right settings... any chance that you help me with setting up WPRUI.exe so that the results can show us what causing my problems?

I would like to start this app immediately after I boot up... and let it run for 15 minutes

Generally:

• 0-5 mins: 100% disk usage (according to task manager ACTIVE TIME)
• after that: 0-20% disk usage (according to task manager ACTIVE TIME)

It would be helpful if you tell me which options to turn on in this app.. .considering my problem is the DISK

 

SSD Disk Active time 100%

Yes, I run the test when the disk was completely idle and 0% usage.

AHCI is enabled. I also run the same test on my 2nd SSD and this one much faster:





I will clone my current system on that 2nd SSD and see if that help. I'm pretty sure that this was the problem.

I'll post back the results.

cheers