Periodic Windows Slowdown

[RP McIntosh]

I'm a bit perplexed. Every once in a while (couple of times a month, on average?), everything slows to a crawl, which typically lasts for a half hour or so, sometimes less, sometimes more. Everything still works, but very slowly. For example, updating my antivirus, which normally takes a couple of minutes drags out to 10 or 15 minutes. All programs open very slowly, and though they then work at near normal speed, anything that involves what I'll call an interface with the OS, such as a Save As, or Print, or Open, moves at a snail's pace. My assumption is that there is something running in the background that is causing this slowdown. But if I start Task Manager, (which then takes up to 5 minutes to open), it shows nothing running, and if I check the Processes tab, it shows the ever inscrutable "System" using 18% - 25% of CPU time. My guess has so far been that there is something in the Scheduled Tasks that is periodically underway. But I've opened Task Scheduler, and, of course, I find a dizzying list of Scheduled Tasks. Trouble is, I have no idea what most of them do, and which ones are actually needed, versus unnecessary, much less which ones might be causing the slowdown. Does anyone either have some idea what causes this, or, if not, where I might find a useful guide to all of the Scheduled Tasks, what they do, and how essential they are?

 

[Snuffy]

I would suggest you use the Windows Clean Disk, to assist in the removal of lots of junk. open this PC, locate your C: check properties, check disk clean,
read and follow all instructions...

once this is done is SSD trim and set for weekly if HDD set for Defrag and set for weekly. win + R type dfrgui.exe and follow instructions.

 

[RP McIntosh]

Snuffy. Thanks for the suggestion. Call me weird, but as a rule, I don't like having things like defrag done automatically. I'd rather do them myself on my own schedule. I do run defrag (along with Chkdsk) once a week, and do the disk cleanup less frequently. Right now, I have a total of about 70 MB that could be "reclaimed" by running disk cleanup. Some of those, I'd want to exclude from the cleanup anyway, and it doesn't seem like a lot. However, something clearly is happening when these slowdowns occur--I just can't ferret out what it is.

 

[Dave McAffee]

I'm a bit perplexed. Every once in a while (couple of times a month, on average?), everything slows to a crawl, which typically lasts for a half hour or so, sometimes less, sometimes more. Everything still works, but very slowly. For example, updating my antivirus, which normally takes a couple of minutes drags out to 10 or 15 minutes. All programs open very slowly, and though they then work at near normal speed, anything that involves what I'll call an interface with the OS, such as a Save As, or Print, or Open, moves at a snail's pace. My assumption is that there is something running in the background that is causing this slowdown. But if I start Task Manager, (which then takes up to 5 minutes to open), it shows nothing running, and if I check the Processes tab, it shows the ever inscrutable "System" using 18% - 25% of CPU time. My guess has so far been that there is something in the Scheduled Tasks that is periodically underway. But I've opened Task Scheduler, and, of course, I find a dizzying list of Scheduled Tasks. Trouble is, I have no idea what most of them do, and which ones are actually needed, versus unnecessary, much less which ones might be causing the slowdown. Does anyone either have some idea what causes this, or, if not, where I might find a useful guide to all of the Scheduled Tasks, what they do, and how essential they are?

Sometimes Task manager takes quite a while to really show all the tasks running, try waiting longer and see what shows up.

 

[Snuffy]

Snuffy. Thanks for the suggestion. Call me weird, but as a rule, I don't like having things like defrag done automatically. I'd rather do them myself on my own schedule. I do run defrag (along with Chkdsk) once a week, and do the disk cleanup less frequently. Right now, I have a total of about 70 MB that could be "reclaimed" by running disk cleanup. Some of those, I'd want to exclude from the cleanup anyway, and it doesn't seem like a lot. However, something clearly is happening when these slowdowns occur--I just can't ferret out what it is.

Have you tried Boot to Safe Mode and see if that fixes... I'm sure 70mb is not the issue.. and you can always try.
msconfig check startup then check Services and disable all services... test and run, then you can turnon 1 svc @a time and test, when you find the SLOW DOWN you know what it is and where it is... and then HOW to FIX.

 

[Jerry Leinsing]

Look at the Window C Drive Property panel above. Click on the "quota" tab and see what is there. I personally have never used this.

 

[RP McIntosh]

Sometimes Task manager takes quite a while to really show all the tasks running, try waiting longer and see what shows up.

David-- I've waited a good bit, but nothing changes (the amount of memory being used by "System" fluctuates up and down, but nothing else changes. And eventually, everything speeds up to normal again. Sometimes, it takes only a few minutes, other times, it takes a half hour or longer. The only pattern I've been able to associate with it is that it never happens (at least, so far), in the middle of an active session--only after a boot up.

 

[RP McIntosh]

Have you tried Boot to Safe Mode and see if that fixes... I'm sure 70mb is not the issue.. and you can always try.
msconfig check startup then check Services and disable all services... test and run, then you can turnon 1 svc @a time and test, when you find the SLOW DOWN you know what it is and where it is... and then HOW to FIX.

Snuffy-- No, haven't tried Safe Mode. Trouble is, the slowdown usually doesn't last long enough to do much in depth analysis. I have looked at Services on the Task Manager app, and all of the ones listed as running appear to be pretty normal to me. The memory user under Processes is always "System" which doesn't tell me much. In fact, sometimes, just rebooting (a normal reboot) will return operations to normal speed. And about the longest the slowdown has lasted at a time is about a half hour.

 

[RP McIntosh]

Look at the Window C Drive Property panel above. Click on the "quota" tab and see what is there. I personally have never used this.

Jerry-- Thanks. Checked that. Says Disk Quotas are disabled

 

[Snuffy]

that also sounds like you have a SCAN selected some where. if it last for 1/2 hour. that would indicate a full system SCAN or a FULL Defrag set by Windows... hopefully that is what. WinDefender can be doing a VirusScan or Defrag could be doing a Defrag which both of them take PRIORITY.
1. LOGO + r - type dfrgui = turn off. this will stop that one.
2. Windows Security - check and insure fast scan not full scan is set.

 

[RP McIntosh]

that also sounds like you have a SCAN selected some where. if it last for 1/2 hour. that would indicate a full system SCAN or a FULL Defrag set by Windows... hopefully that is what. WinDefender can be doing a VirusScan or Defrag could be doing a Defrag which both of them take PRIORITY.
1. LOGO + r - type dfrgui = turn off. this will stop that one.
2. Windows Security - check and insure fast scan not full scan is set. View attachment 11131

Snuffy-- Nope. Scaanning is turned off (I have Norton installed, and do my own scanning schedule), and scheduled defrag is also turned off (I do my own of that as well).

 

[Snuffy]

Norton is very intrusive on SCAN and takes mega since it takes priority. you found your issue

 

[RP McIntosh]

Norton is very intrusive on SCAN and takes mega since it takes priority. you found your issue

Snuffy-- Perhaps I was unclear. Norton is NOT set to Scan (ever). I do ALL scans manually, and do them when I am doing NOTHING else. You're right--it is pretty hoggish while scanning, which is why I never let it scan until I tell it to. I don't even let it update automatically. I update (manually) once a day, and scan (manually) once a week. I also have checked the resources being used by Norton during these slow downs (there is, of course, real time protection) and the resources used by it are very modest--and are about the same, whether I'm experiencing the slowdown or not.

 

[troels]

One of the reasons I found a slowing down is that when I have downloaded some programmes from BBC iPlayer to the desktop iPlayer download there remains activity after the download is completed and Task Manager shows 100% CPU. Not immediately but shortly after Task Manager then shows a number of BBC iPlayer tasks taking up just over 20% each and in the same number as the number of downloads I just finished. Right clicking on each and selecting End Task and then I get something more like 35% CPU and my PC speeds up. I use Opera browser but have not tried another browser to see if that resolves the problem.

 

[MKSlinky]

@RP McIntosh

Sadly issues like these can often be difficult to troubleshoot thoough thankfully help is available. Watch this YouTube video, it shows how to run a series of tests on your system using the command prompt. It's better to run these test yourself before manually tinkering with different settings. I've found this very useful myself and it found my problem straight away.

How to Repair Windows 10 Using Command Prompt

 

[Snuffy]

One of the reasons I found a slowing down is that when I have downloaded some programmes from BBC iPlayer to the desktop iPlayer download there remains activity after the download is completed and Task Manager shows 100% CPU. Not immediately but shortly after Task Manager then shows a number of BBC iPlayer tasks taking up just over 20% each and in the same number as the number of downloads I just finished. Right clicking on each and selecting End Task and then I get something more like 35% CPU and my PC speeds up. I use Opera browser but have not tried another browser to see if that resolves the problem.

sounds like you found the reason for "slowdown" and also how to remedy, i do wonder why you can not just "end task" on BBC Iplayer.

 

[RP McIntosh]

@RP McIntosh

Sadly issues like these can often be difficult to troubleshoot thoough thankfully help is available. Watch this YouTube video, it shows how to run a series of tests on your system using the command prompt. It's better to run these test yourself before manually tinkering with different settings. I've found this very useful myself and it found my problem straight away.

How to Repair Windows 10 Using Command Prompt

MKSlinky, Thanks. Interesting video. I have run SFC (though not recently). Got a little lost in the various options to check the Windows Image. Not sure what "image" they are talking about. Guess I'd need to find out more about that before trying any of the commands. Truth is, I don't think I've got corruption (though, of course, anything is possible), since 99% of the time, everything runs perfectly normally. Even the slowdowns resolve themselves in varying lengths of time between a few minutes and a half hour. Definitely FEELS like there is something running that is consuming CPU time, and once it finishes, everything is back to normal.