High System CPU Usage

[Furco]

Around end July / early August I noticed my laptop was getting hot and battery life was greatly reduced. I checked using Task Manager / Processes and found System was c. 20% with no user apps running. More checking showed ntoskrnl.exe as the culprit. The only changes had been official updates and no user software had been installed

After using Recovery and subsequently Reset options I have a new (as supplied by HP) installation but exactly the same  CPU condition. This was also the case after the new Win 10 installation and with none of my software re-installed.

I have to keep turning the laptop off to conserve battery power.

Any ideas as to how to resolve this issue ?

[WAWood]

@Furco 

Every time you RESET your PC, YOU are causing this problem to happen again.  So, repeated RESETS are NOT going to fix it.

With a Win10 PC, you're going to experience a variety of problems not typical of the older PCs. Unlike with older OS versions, Win10 FORCES updates and patches on folks every week. This can cause problems not seen in the older OS versions.

First is sluggishness. You may experience a very slow PC at times because Windows Update (WU) is hogging your PC, searching for, downloading, and installing updates -- to bring your PC up to the most current version of Windows. This can also contribute significantly to high processor temperatures, as it is being heavily used.

Second is fan noise. That's directly related to fan speed, which is the result of processor heat, and WU is known to drive up the processor load -- sometimes to 100%. That can cause the fan to run loud and continuous for some time.

Third is disk usage. WU can easily force the disk usage to 100% and and keep it pinned there for some time. That's because it writes WU files to the drive, then it turns around and reads them, then it overwrites existing Windows System files. All of that takes a lot of disk usage to complete.

These processes are compounded by Win10 because new Win 10 patches coming out nearly every Tuesday. Since you can't stop Updates like you did with Win7, this means you're going to get updates, regardless of what you do.

To find out what version and build of Win10 your PC is running, do the following:
1) enter "cmd" (without the quotes) into the search area and select the Command Prompt option
2) enter "winver" into the command window (again, without the quotes)
3) The most current Win10 versions as of 5/27/20 are the following:
a) v1809: Bld 17763.1282
b) v1903: Bld 18632.900
c) v1909: Bld 18363.900
d) v2004: Bld 19041.329.

If yours is older than that, most likely WU is hogging your PC trying to update it.

Some folks have been told that resetting your PC will fix this. but, if you reset your PC, you only make matters WORSE! Why? Because you will reset Win10 back to the original version that came preloaded on the PC and that will restart Windows Update all over again.

To disable WU temporarily, do the following:
1) Enter "services" in the search area (again, without the quotes)
2) When the window opens, scroll down until you see Windows Update
3) If it say Running under status, that indicates that WU is running
4) To change that, double-click on that task, select Stop under the Service status, and then Apply
5) That should stop WU -- and you should see an immediate improvement in performance.

If not, then WU is not the problem.

WU will restart itself automatically later on, so you basically have no choice than to bear with it until it finishes.

[Furco]

Many thanks, appreciate the response. Windows version is 1909 (OS Build 18363.1016)

I stopped the WU service but there was no change in cpu usage.

WU must be the problem but by installing something buggy that is now part of the current Win 10 setup.

Surely many similar ZBooks have been hit ?

Around the same July/August time I had an issue with Bluetooth where the icon was no longer available at the taskbar. I had to install a driver from HP and the same driver (21.70.0.3) has since been re-installed in the reset. I have tried stopping the three Bluetooth services but without any change in cpu use.

Btw, I installed WDK to help tracking down the problem. As I couldn't get beyond ntoskrnl.exe I decided to uninstall it. Big mistake. The uninstall process removed a system file that Firefox needed. Later I came across advice that this was a known issue and the advice was to never uninstall WDK. This explains the reset.

[Furco · Accepted solution]

Update. Finally I contacted HP Support. A full set of HP approved drivers have been installed and the issue is resolved. Little or no usage of System cpu now.

[WAWood]

@Furco 

OK -- good to see it's no longer a problem.

[netventure]

Could you please tell more in detail, which drivers you''ve installed, as I'm experiancing the same problem...

Thanks

[Furco]

Hi, my apologies about the delay as the support message found it's way in to my spam folder.

Unfortunately, the problem was not resolved as I had believed.

HP checked the hardware and advised that it was a software problem and that I should contact Microsoft. I asked them to install the original software as was on the laptop when I bought it.

HP did reinstall Windows but it was not the original HP / Microsoft setup. Some HP software eg Support Assistant would not work.

I received it back yesterday and System was at zero or thereabouts. As of today I have reinstalled all my own software and the problem is still gone.

My suspicion has been that an update somehow went wrong around end July.

[WAWood]

@Furco 

You are probably right in your assumption.  MS has once again, been having problems with recent Windows Updates causing issues with PCs.  That could have been what happened to yours.

[netventure]

You are probably right, that it is connected with MS Windows Updates. In the beginning of August there was an "Intel Driver Update" and a few days after I realised that the battery doesn't last as long as it did before and at least one CPU was constant at 100% (ntoskrnl.exe / with non paged pool quota something). Poor thing, there was no option to revert this update.

Currently the situation seems to be solved.

Step by step: After manually installing the Conexant HD Audio driver, the 2004 Feature Update finally became available but it didn't solved, as I wished, the CPU load problem.

Thereafter I reinstalled all drivers from the HP Support Page regarding Chipset and Network. Everytime the installer only offered a repair install or remove, I removed and afterwards reinstalled the drivers.

At the moment the CPU load is back to a few % instead of eating up one CPU at 100%

[FerdiH]

I had the same sort of problem but solved it https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/Re-High-System-CPU...