Windows 10: How fix 4-times-higher CPU usage at idle?

My CPU usage used to be 10% at idle (using no high-CPU apps) even after I upgraded Windows 8.1 Pro to Windows 10 Pro.

After Windows 10 Anniversary Updates however, my CPU usage skyrocketed 4 times higher, so now it's around 40% at idle.

I have done full anti-virus scans (Webroot) and anti-malware scans (Malwarebytes), and both report no problems.

-How do I locate and fix this high-CPU-usage problem?

*Below is a screen shot of my Processes tab at idle in Task Manager (sorted in its CPU column by descending usage):

With my 40% CPU usage, there's also an odd change in the Details tab in Task Manager and I wonder if this is a clue.

In our other (10%-CPU-usage) Windows 10 Anniversary PCs, the total of the CPU column in Details tab is about 100% (due to rounding). In my 40%-CPU-usage PC, the total is only 73%.

*Below is a screen shot of my Details tab at idle in Task Manager (sorted in the CPU column by descending usage):

Thanks for any help you can provide

:)

 

[RESOLVED] Windows 10: Volume Control Triggers Screen To Flash and Speakers To Beep (BUG)

Hmm, interesting. There is a mild CPU spike when the screen blanks and the beep sounds (only about 25% usage, although that 25% spike shows on every one of my 4 CPU cores). I definitely get higher peaks and plateaus in app initializations and gaming
than I do with this. The process that peaks is the Client Server Runtime Process (csrss.exe) at about 15% CPU usage.

 

Windows 10 Chinese Traditional Array IME causing high CPU usage

I found Chinese Traditional Array IME will induce high CPU usage after Windows 10 anniversary update(aka version 1607). Every time I type Chinese(Traditional, Taiwan) with Chinese Traditional Array IME , the CPU usage get higher after some time.

I had clean installed different OS versions on different PCs, and quite sure the the problem is caused by the Array IME. Also I found many people complaining about the high CPU usage problem after upgrade and there are no solution yet. Hoping the problem can
be taken seriously, it is not just annoying but also bad for the earth environment, cannot imagine how much energy wasted on this problem. Thanks.

 

I have tried to summarize my problem.

Is there other information I could provide to get some ideas to help solve my problem?

I've tried 3 of the 4 Methods here, but the post is old, and they didn't work:
Windows 10 High CPU Usage Fixes

Would greatly appreciate any suggestions.

 

Are you noticing any actual detrimental/negative effects on the computer? System Idle Process is basically how much "nothing" your computer is doing. The higher that number when idling, the better your computer is performing. 70-90% CPU usage is fairly standard for that process as I've seen so far. If you click on the Performance tab in Task Manager, the graph should spike a bit at the beginning, and provided you're not running anything intensive, should dip back down and level out.

Now if the computer is experiencing lag or anything opens noticeably slower, that's when it's time to investigate. I only say this because you didn't specify if the computer was running abnormally slowly after the update.

 

Yes, I have noticed negative effects on my PC's performance:

-Browsing is slower when I open multiple tabs rapidly. I do this a lot (I research multiple links in online articles).

-My PC gets much hotter, and stays hot--so much hotter that I have to turn it off.

After the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, the 39% CPU usage screen shot of my Process Manager was when I was doing nothing--no browsing, word processing, etc. Before I took the screen shots, I closed all application programs. My machine was leveled out, as you better describe it (the screen shots were taken 5 minutes after my PC first leveled out). My PC is 39% CPU usage when leveled out; never lower.

Before the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, my PC was 10% CPU usage when it leveled out. And it stayed there.

1 other PC we have with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update (same model as my PC) *HAS* the 39%-CPU-usage-at-idle problem.

2 other PCs we have with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update (different brands) DO *NOT* HAVE the 39%-CPU-usage-at-idle problem. They have only 10% CPU usage at idle.

[NOTE I've no software to my PC after the Anniversary Update. My programs, etc. the are same as before.]

Any ideas on what to do to fix my high CPU usage?:
-use Process Explorer? (how do I use it in this case?)
-reinstall hardware drivers? (which ones?)
-suspend certain services? (which ones?)

I've seen comments suggesting each of the above ideas. I need step-by-step instructions (ideally screen shots) for Process Explorer. For drivers & services, which do I try?

Any ideas on the above possible fixes OR better fixes for my high-CPU-at-idle problem? I'd really appreciate them

 

This is good to know. Thank you.

OK, now I know that the problem is affecting the two Dell XPS 12s you have, whereas the other two computers you listed are not having them, this will help me in diagnosing the problem by narrowing it down.

After querying the search engines with your particular device specifications and the problem, the first thing I want you to try is deleting any ghost devices in Device Manager. "Ghost devices" can hog system resources and will be greyed out in Device Manager while doing absolutely nothing, and there is no harm in deleting any of them as long as they are greyed out, like this:



Though this window is for an older Windows installation, yours will be no different, except for the devices listed. Any ghost devices will be grey. In order to see ghost devices in the first place, follow this snippet from Microsoft tech support that I found on Microsoft's help forums:

After you have done this, proceed with the following instructions:

After performing these instructions, let me know what your Task Manager is reporting. Or if it didn't work, let me know and I'll dig a little deeper into the problem.

EDIT:
Make sure when uninstalling ghost devices that you check each dependency tree, like Monitors, Network adapters, Portable Devices, Printers, System Devices, etc. Just make sure you check every tree for greyed out devices. Also, the reason I chose this method of potential fix is because it's not uncommon for ghost devices to cause high CPU, especially since in your Task Manager, the highest CPU using Process is "System" when at idle. Seeing as how none of your other programs are requesting high amounts of CPU usage, this also tells me it's not anything you installed, rather the system itself is busily working on something in the background.

Also, after completing everything listed above, in Task Manager scroll through the Startup tab, right click and disable anything that isn't vital or needed. like software updaters. Keep only bare necessities like sound processes or antivirus handlers. Then finally, restart one more time.

 

I would recommend getting rid of all the Dell bloatware - every last bit of it. That usually makes a substantial difference. *Wink

 

Yes, good point. IIRC, especially the "Dell Support Center". I had an old Dell laptop that had a variant of that software. After uninstalling it, boot time significantly increased afterward, as it was associated with a startup task that bogged the system down.

 

Sorry for the delay. Saw multiple requests for removing all Dell bloatware (very little bloatware, actually) and removed it. Then, a Windows 10 Cumulative Update (KB3194496) install request came, which I immediately allowed.

Thank you very much for time you took to provide very clear instructions and screen shots for me to use in applying your suggestions to fix my high CPU usage at idle.

Unfortunately, in my case these suggestions had no effect.

-I feel like I must have made an improvement on my PC by removing the ghost devices as you suggested, even though no reduction in idle CPU usage resulted. Because in my case there were over 50 such ghosts! I uninstalled them all, being careful not to uninstall non-greyed-out devices, then restarted my PC. The CPU usage at idle is the same. But great thanks for this suggestion; I'd never seen it before.

-I had already disabled all my Notifications prior to asking for help here, so there was no change.

-I disabled non-essential apps from the Startup tab in Task Manager (mainly Adobe and Java updaters) and rebooted. No change. ***I'd be happy to supply a screen shot of what is still enabled in Startup in case you want it. But all remaining startup apps I use daily and have for years; never give startup problems; have worked with Windows 10 forever.

-Removing the Dell bloatware also did not change my idle CPU usage situation after reboot. I left the Dell Touchpad and Dell Audio apps in because they're the only way to control touchpad and audio--tested drivers with Dell-branding.

-I was actually hoping the KB3194496 Windows Update would solve this high-CPU-usage-at-idle problem, but it didn't.

Thank you again. I really appreciate your help. I hope you can find the time to provide other suggestions, since on my own, I have not been able to find a suggestion that works.

 

You could try a clean boot, see if that increases the idle threshold, and then start enabling things a couple at a time, rebooting, to see if you can identify a culprit.

But something you said in your first post strikes me:

In the Details tab in Task Manager, (in your first post), sorted by CPU high to low, your idle is at 71%. If there seems to be no affect to the system performance, I wouldn't be too concerned.

 

I suggest using the trial period of Tune Up Utilities to find your problem using "Program Deactivator"





when you click on one of the two buttons (circled in red) you should have the following picture to show load points.





Hope this helps

 

Progress!

To: Ten Seconds; simrick; RoadBlaster

Thank you all again. I'm making Progress now! I didn't want you guys to think I'd abandoned and discarded all the work you've done on my problem. Here's where I am and some questions. I should have more info in another day.

simrick: thanks especially for your link to a "clean boot" write-up in the Forum . I'm now working on what I believe is the right step in this write-up, step 11.

The progress is that my clean boot was OK, with only 1% CPU usage at idle. So I feel a lot better I' can fix my 40% CPU usage at idle by the process of elimination of good services and good startup programs, so I find the bad ones.

But I'm still working to find out if there are problems in my screen shots of the list of all non-Microsoft services. I'm suspicious because I see a many exact duplicate service names, plus an believable number of these services running.

Could someone answer these 3) questions?:

1) Am I correct that stopping any of the remaining (non-Microsoft) services will Not shut down my PC during clean boot reboots (since all the Microsoft services are running)? But, for example, are things like Chron Service (by Fork, Ltd.) or Intel(R) Capability Licensing Service (by Intel(R) Corporation) exceptions that I need to leave alone?

2) So would posting a list of all non-Microsoft services running help me pick ones to test first (and/or help me to more quickly find the problem service(s) running than just using the write-up's half-group process of elimination?)?

3) Should I expect that only 1 of these services will show the 30% jump in CPU usage at idle of my PC vs the 10% CPU usage at idle of our normal PCs? (My PC CPU usage at idle is 40% MINUS our normal PCs CPU usage at idle of 10% EQUALS 30% jump) Or could it be multiple services I need to gauge?

Thanks once more. I'll post again this weekend.

 

No problems, I'm very glad we were able to assist you. I understand that computers can be very frustrating to deal with when they are not working like they should, but I greatly appreciate your patience.

Some services may contain multiple processes, for example, Google Chrome. It can list multiple processes in Task Manager when the user has more than one tab open. Chrome creates a separate process for each tab, increasing stability and speed for the program overall, and is also why Chrome comes with it's own Task Manager built into itself. And that's just Chrome. Many other programs mimic the same behavior for the same reasons. Unless the process looks exceptionally sketchy and/or obviously malicious, I wouldn't worry too much if a single program has multiple services running.

For the most part, you are correct. Anything non-Microsoft can be stopped. The trick here is that some of those non-Microsoft services, like the Intel one you listed, should probably be left alone. After you uninstalled any Dell bloatware, the remainder of Dell and/or Intel processes most likely contribute to your computer's functions. Many Intel ones help regulate CPU clock speed, Dell processes (not the bloatware ones) may provide CD/DVD-ROM drive function, Wi-Fi card, ethernet ports, sound card processor, other external interfaces, etc.

For example, this link is from Should I Block It? and describes the Chron Service. As it appears, that particular process is responsible for executing an anti-theft service in the event the device is stolen. Anyway, that website is pretty good as it allows you to lookup various processes and it will give you detailed information regarding them.

Yes, that might help. We could review the services and see if any of them were known to be problematic. It's worth a shot, I say.

That depends. Since both computers experiencing the problem are near identical, and you said you haven't installed any obvious programs, it could be either or.

It could be a single process that came deployed on that particular model that is responsible for the disruptions.

Or, it could be multiple processes that, again, came deployed on those machines.

However, given that both computers idle at roughly the same exact speed, with very little fluctuation between them, I'd wager it's likely a singular program/process/service that the XPS 12s have that is the problem. If it were multiple processes, I think you'd notice the CPU speeds on both computers having a lot more variance.

 

*Ditto Ten Seconds *Smile