Sustained High CPU Usage is Back

[Philtastic]

Since installing Windows 10, high CPU usage for no readily apparent reason has been happening. See the attached screenshot. It tends to go away after about half an hour but, in that time, it will basically chew through 25% of my battery. Sleep & hibernate do not stop this from happening.

 

[the_new_normal]

Try turning off the automatic bittorrent service:

https://grahamcluley.com/2015/08/windows-10-bandwidth-updates/

I'm not super confident it will fix your problem, but a good thing to do anyway imo

 

[Philtastic]

Nope, still does it.

 

[Philtastic]

While enjoying high CPU usage from the Windows Driver Foundation, System, and Service Host processes (I'm plugged in so I'm letting it do whatever it's doing), I found that there are some other apps which don't seem to play nice with Windows 10. Razer Synapse doesn't seem to like Win10 as it sometimes starts taking up ~10% CPU use for >20 minutes (not exactly sure if it ever finishes - never noticed this while on Windows 8.1). Then there's Microsoft's Groove music player which starts eating up ~15% CPU for >30 minutes (again, not sure if it would ever finish on its own). As an app designed for Windows 10, an OS meant for both desktop and portable/battery use, I'm pretty shocked at how amateur this whole launch has been on their own product, the Surface Pro 2 (I haven't checked how things are going on SP3 yet). It's times like these that I kind of wish that I had bought Apple products since those tend to actually work the way they should... and then I remember just how limiting and higher priced those are and then I cry a little inside about how there is no legitimate competition to Microsoft in the PC space to set a fire under their asses to actually make their software work well.

 

[Philtastic]

Just made a bit of a breakthrough in this issue just after I posted but thought it warranted a new post to highlight it: this high CPU usage (including from Razer Synapse) is related to the keyboard being attached. I was looking at what's under the Service Host process entry and noticed things related to input devices there so I took off my keyboard and then all the high CPU usage stopped. I then reattached the keyboard and all of the high CPU usage came back for a minute but then disappeared again with the keyboard still attached. Interesting. Maybe there's something messed up with the keyboard drivers which might also be why I've had some crashes when attaching and detaching the keyboard.

EDIT: Tried this the next day when I had the same high CPU usage and it didn't work. Might have just been a fluke OR that there are multiple sources of high CPU usage.

 

[Philtastic]

After much experimentation, I can consistently make this high CPU usage occur by attaching or detaching the keyboard. Basically, it happens every time and can continue even after performing a "shut down" (which, due to quick boot, doesn't actually reset everything when you boot again). The only solution that always works is doing a restart.

This is a significant and really annoying issue since the Surface Pro line is supposed to be a convertible system and, if I have to restart the device every time that I want to convert it unless I don't mind needlessly chewing through my battery, this problem significantly hampers this purpose.

 

[theveterans]

This problem doesn't exist on my SP3 with i5/4GB RAM. I'm running very similar apps as you right now and my CPU usage is very low ~2% while playing groove music. I guess MS just forgotten their SP2 users and just focused improving experience on the SP3

 

[GreyFox7]

This problem doesn't exist on my SP3 with i5/4GB RAM. I'm running very similar apps as you right now and my CPU usage is very low ~2% while playing groove music. I guess MS just forgotten their SP2 users and just focused improving experience on the SP3

View attachment 6752

Problems for some aren't necessarily problems for all or all the time but may come and go.
Not being a problem for you now doesn't mean it wont be a problem later.

 

[Philtastic]

I believe that the keyboard problems were never present on SP3 which might be why this isn't an issue there.

In other news, disabling the "Microsoft Input Configuration Device" under "Human Interface Devices" which helped with the keyboard cutting out after holding a key for >4 seconds doesn't help with this issue so it's slightly different.

 

[GoodBytes]

Try this:
1- Disable "Show me tips about Windows" (Settings > System > Notifications & actions)

2- Remove any SD card from the system. SP2 seams to have a problem with the SD card reader.

3- Make sure that Windows is fully updated, and that the App store apps are also fully updated (Store > click on your profile picture next to the search box > click on "Downloads" or "Download & Updates" (depending on the version of the Store app you have currently installed) > click on "Check for updates" button, and if it finds something, click on "update all". Once done, check again for updates).

3- Place the system in a well ventilated area (as it will run hot for a while for the following steps)

4- Manually do a disk optimization (Search for: "Optimize disk" > click on Optimize on every partitions. It is normal that some of them doesn't work, and keep saying "Never run - Needs optimizations", just ignore them.. I think you should have 2 of them)

5- Start Windows Defender, and select "Full" under "Scan options", and click on Scan. Leave the system. It will be a lengthy process. Make sure the system doesn't go to sleep and is plugged in (you can change the power option to make the system not go to sleep when the system is plugged in. It is all under the Power Option panel)

6- Once done (it make take an hour or so), we want to open the old Windows 7/8 Action Center (not the side bar, the actual Windows 7/8 Action Center). To do this, search for "Action Center" in Windows search box/Cortana, and click on "Security & maintenance", the icon is a blue flag.
On that panel, expend "Maintenance", and click on "Start Maintenance". This will also be a lengthy process. Keep the system in a well ventilated place, as the device will get hot. There is no progress bar that will display, sadly. But the "start maintenance" will turn into "stop maintenance" when it is working, and once done, it will return back to "start maintenance", this is how you will know it is done.

7- Once all done, restart your system. Your problem should be solved.

I don't want to speak too fast, but it seams to have solved this problem on all my system, and so far only needed once. I don't know if it is a bug in the system auto maintenance system that gets jam, or it something else. But it seams to only need once per install, so far.

 

[GoodBytes]

Ignore what I said.. still happening. Seams to happen after you first put it to sleep. Killing Windows driver foundation fixes it.

 

[Philtastic]

Anyone else still having this issue? It seems that removing the keyboard these days no longer does this but attaching the keyboard ALWAYS causes the Windows Driver Foundation and other processes to go bonkers... which is really annoying since this is supposed to be a convertible device, one that I would rather not have to reboot every time I remove and attach the keyboard.