Windows 10: Mysterious intermittent high CPU temps with no active processes - Windows Update related?

Hi there -


TLDR: CPU temps are really high, it isn't a CPU cooler issue and no obvious CPU usage causing it. Out of ideas to fix it.


I am running Windows 10 on a machine with an 6850k and a Corsair H100 AIO cooler. I have the CPU OC'd to 4.1GHz. About 8 or 9 months ago, I noticed that my CPU temps shot up seemingly overnight from 30c - 35c idle to 40c - 50c with the same ambient temp of around 20c - 23c. I monitored the CPU usage and never say anything strange or new - system idle remained at 99% and there was an occasional blip of less than 1% overall CPU usage from a combination of Norton, Task Manager, Open hardware manager and a couple other minor things. Eventually, the idle temps increased to 50c - 55c with temps hitting 85c - 100c under load. I applied new thermal paste and re-seated the cpu block. Temps dropped about 10c, but then increased again after a few weeks.


Fast forward several months (a week ago). I moved to a new home and when I setup the PC, magically the temps were back to where they should be and stayed that way until today. I've been struggling to get the Windows Update to build 1803 since for almost 18 months. My snooze option expired last night - as usual, I woke up, turned on the PC this morning (it had shut down while trying to update - I usually leave it running) and everything was still ok (I confirmed that for about the 30th time, the update failed). I decided to try to actually fix the problem - did some troubleshooting, followed some suggestions for bios tweaks and installing the update manually - everything failed, so I finally just hid the updating using Microsoft's tool. Now, however, my CPU temps are all jacked up again. There are no system processes running at more than 1 or 2% CPU usage. Overall CPU usage fluctuates between .1 and maybe 2.5% while idle.


I'm at a loss.

:)

 

System and compressed memory background process persistently consuming high CPU resources

Hi,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

Please answer these questions to get more clarity on this issue:

1. Did you make any changes to your computer prior to this issue?

2. Which anti-virus program is installed on the PC?

High CPU usage occurs for various reasons, for example: virus/malware infections, out-of-date drivers, anti-virus programs or other third-party programs, etc;

Method 1: Windows has a built-in troubleshooter to check and fix issues with system. I would suggest you to run this troubleshooter to check if the issue is with your System
Maintenance.

Refer these steps:

• Press Windows key +X, select Control panel

• Change the view by option on the top right to Large icons
• Click on troubleshooting and click on the view all option on the left panel

• Run the System Maintenance troubleshooter

Method 2: Check if the issue resolves in
Safe Mode.

Refer this article to boot to safe mode:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/change-startup-settings-in-windows-10#v1h=tab01

Steps to reduce the CPU usage.

1-Press "Ctrl," "Shift," and "Esc" on your keyboard. This brings up the task manager without any intermediary screen.

2-Click the "Processes" button on the task manager.

3-Click the "CPU" column header until the arrow next to the label points down.

4-Right-click a program you recognize that uses a high percentage of the CPU and click "End Process." Click "End Process" to reconfirm. This eases up on the CPU's load. Use this step if you're not using a process or if the process has stopped responding. Do
not use this procedure for windows processes.

Hope this helps. If the issue remains unresolved, please get back to us and we would be happy to help.

Thanks.

 

"System" process with high CPU usage

I have exactly the same issue (high CPU usage) on a brand new HP ProBook 440 G5 (i7-8550U, pre-installed Win 10 Pro).

I am pretty sure that there is a problem with audio drivers when the computer wakes up from a sleep mode. I first observed that process flow.exe (audio bloatware provided by HP/Conexant) was consuming (after waking up) ~10–15 % CPU. Here's what I did:

• I have updated Windows to 1709, build 16229.251 and installed all updates --> Nothing has changed.
  
• I have updated BIOS to the latest version provided by HP. --> Nothing has changed.
• I have run Windows troubleshooting and HP Support Assistant checks --> No problems found, nothing has changed
• I have manually updated Conexant ISST Audio Drivers (via Device Manager -> Update drivers). Windows installed a newer version. -->
  CPU usage by flow.exe has disappeared, but process called System in thread ACPI.sys+0x21cb0 started consuming ~20 % CPU.
• I have uninstalled all Conexant software&drivers and manually installed generic High Definition Audio Device drivers provided by Microsoft (Driver Date: 21.02.2018). --> ACPI.sys+0x21cb0 still consumes ~20 % CPU.

Same issues are discussed in these threads on HP site:

• https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-Notebooks/ProBook-450-with-high-CPU-usage/td-p/6520063
  
• HP Probook 440 G5 Fan issue - HP Support Community - 6567212

The result is I cannot use sleep mode (as advised by this post:
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-Notebooks/ProBook-450-with-high-CPU-usage/m-p/6611446/highlight/true#M149605).

 

High cpu usage caused by tiworker.exe

I noticed this today, too. I was not doing anything, Chrome was open but on a static page. Closed Chrome and still noticed high CPU usage. Sort Processes by CPU and it was bouncing 20-30%. Reading that it is the update process so I ran Windows Update
and there were no updates. I did not look at network activity but CPU Usage declined a little but WTF is is still using so much? And why is it ALWAYS running?

"Critical" suggests it will crash the system if terminated. I killed the process without any issue.