CPU spike once every 7.5 seconds, lasting about 1 second each time

[Mike369]

I have a new HP 17-x116dx laptop.  Whenever I reboot it, or wake it up from sleep (after putting it to sleep by closing the lid), it runs fine for some random amount of time from 2 to perhaps 15 minutes.  Usually about 6 or 7 minutes.  Then, suddenly, it starts showing a CPU spike every 7.5 seconds or so, lasting for about a second each time.  During the spike, the graphics on the screen freeze, the mouse pointer freezes, etc.  A YouTube video will pause, and sometimes make a glitching noise when it pauses.

Observing it with Task Manager, you can clearly see the CPU spike every 7.5 seconds.  Resource Manager shows the 4 cores being used somewhat randomly for the spike; usually the spike shows up on just one core, but sometimes it looks like it's spread between two of them.  In Task Manager, the process showing the spike is System, so it's apparently a service.  I tried watching the services in Resource Manager but couldn't make out a specific one causing the problem.

It renders the computer close to unusable.  It's maddening even typing this as the text update pauses every 7.5 seconds.  I feel like I've been transported back to 1980.  🙂

What can be done to stop this rogue process from taking over my machine 8 times a minute?

When I noticed this the first time, I had uninstalled McAfee, which had a 30 day trial installed on it, and I had enabled Windows Defender.  I had also installed Office.  I decided I didn't trust it, so I did a complete system restore (wiping out all files) back to the factory image and re-set up my computer.  I installed all updates from HP (although the graphics driver it wanted to install, Intel High-Definition (HD) Graphics Driver (1703), showed as failing to install, but Intel's app shows that the correct driver is already installed), and I updated to the latest McAfee files and did a complete file scan - it came back completely clean.  I then ran Windows Update and updated to all the latest there.  So I think I'm up to date, and yet still the CPU spikes every 7.5 seconds.

[Mike369 · Accepted solution]

You can ignore this now; I have decided to return the laptop for a refund.