Windows 10 computer is very unresponsive

Anonymous
2019-03-07T19:03:07+00:00

First I'll describe the problem, then give the background.

The problem is that a Windows 10 computer usually is very unresponsive.  Clicking on anything, the blue circle will spin, then stop.  Then 10-20 seconds later the app will start to come up, but slowly.  The row of icons will appear at a rate of about 3 per second.  Often when I try to type into it, the characters don't appear - until several seconds later, then they will suddenly show up.

I've looked at task manager, and it is showing periods of high CPU use, and it is in these periods when it us unresponsive.  The main things using the CPU are "system", "service host: diagnostic policy service" and "service host: Windows event log".  See the attached screen capture from Task Manager.  When the CPU use is 20% or higher, it is unresponsive.

Background: I got a used HP Z620 last week (two 8-core Xeons, 64GB of RAM).  It came with Windows 7 and was working fine.  I tried to upgrade it to Windows 10, but it got into a boot loop. I took it into the computer repair shop, and they did a reinstall of Windows 10.  But when I got it back, it had this problem.  It would come and go - see the Task Manager image, which shows 4 minutes.  I left it on overnight last night, and this morning the task manager was flat at or near 0%, and it was responding normally.  When I came back after lunch, it had rebooted and the problem was back, except worse.  Now all (or almost all) of the time the CPU use is high and it is unresponsive.  The repair shop guarantees their work, but I'm wondering if there is a quicker solution.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Performance and system failures

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-03-10T02:51:59+00:00

    I have tried to update drivers, but some would not update from Device Manager.  I found an HP website and it detected my exact computer, and it showed updates.  I did as many of them as would work.  Two of them it said to update were the BIOS and video card, but I've already updated them.  I've been afraid of all of these driver updaters that things try to trick me into downloading, but if you recommend Driver Booster, I'll try it. 

    In the meantime, I have a question about swapping drives that I'll post next.

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-03-10T02:52:10+00:00

    I've worked on the problem many hours today.  I've updated drivers, etc.  I still have the problem off and on (don't know why, but starting an app seems to start the heavy CPU/disk use that can keep anything from working.

    But it has been suggested to try a different HD, and I have some options here and need some advice.

    (Much of the next part is background, you might want to skip down to the question.)

    It is very easy to swap drives in and out of the HP Z620 and Z820.  I also have an extra drive that I can clone to.

    I have a Z820 that came with Win10 and is working fine.  Last month I bought three Z620s, all came with Windows 7, and all are identical except for the amount of RAM.

    I went through the Win 7 setup process on all three, and installed a few basic things.  After I'd set up the third one, I tried the free upgrade to Windows 10, which I have used successfully before.  It got into a boot loop and I had to take it to the repair shop, and they did a complete install of Win 10.  Then the problem started.  That was Monday or Tuesday, and I've spent several hours on this problem.

    QUESTION: I have some options for trying a different drive.  I don't want to swap the drive from the Z820 or the other Z620s because the Windows license is tied to the particular motherboard, and I don't want to cause problems.  But I can easily clone a drive and swap it in.  Should I:

    A. clone the Windows 10 drive from the Z820, and try it in the problem computer?

    B. clone a Windows 7 drive from one of the Z620s and try it?

    C. Something else?

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-03-10T04:47:20+00:00

    I tried Driver Booster - remember, it is very difficult to get an app to run with this problem - either it runs at a tiny fraction of the speed it should run, or it doesn't run at all.  Driver Booster started installing, got one thing done after a while, then started showing a second one, but was stuck at 1% for 20-30 minutes.  I had the idea of booting into safe mode, which is a lot harder to do these days.  Anyhow, in safe mode there was no trace of the problem.

    In Safe Mode, Driver Booster started installing, but it was stuck on Gigabit Network Controller, at 1%.  After a while, it must have given up and moved on.  When it finished, it said that three weren't updated: Gigabit Network Controller, Realtek High Definition Audio, and Nvidia High Definition Audio.  LatencyMon complained about the audio driver.

    I rebooted normally and then Driver Booster was able to update these three.  I rebooted, but after 6 minutes, the problem was back.

    But what about the two audio drivers - do I need both?  Could they be fighting with each other?  I don't need audio on that computer at all - can I disable them?

    Also, it happens that I've already ordered a evga video card to replace the nvidia one.

    (After working on this problem 40-50 hours this week, I'm to tired to do the HD swap tonight.)

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  4. Igor Leyko 112.4K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2019-03-10T11:56:27+00:00

    Do you have any HP apps for windows 8.1 not working correctly in Windows 10?

    Just out of curiosity - do you have 32-bit Windows?

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-03-11T00:58:11+00:00

    Do you have any HP apps for windows 8.1 not working correctly in Windows 10?

    Just out of curiosity - do you have 32-bit Windows?

    No Win 8 apps.  One of my computers came with Windows 8, but I upgraded it to Win10 shortly after it came out, which was pretty soon.  Otherwise nothing has ever been Win8 around here.

    No, ever since XP came out I always had 64-bit Windows.

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