Windows 10 Running Slowly, CPU at 100% for long periods

[dashWyo]

I have an HP Laptop 14-CM0xx  that runs slowly most of the time. When these problems first surfaced I started keeping an eye on resource usage and noticed the CPU usage to be unusually high. It idles around 40% and will steadily climb to 100% as I work inside an application. When it reaches 100%, the system slows down to a crawl (30-60 second to open a compose email window in Gmail, for example). If I stop working in the app and wait several minutes, CPU usage will finally drift down and I can start using the application again, only to watch it climb back up to 100%. I use Chrome for web browsing but I have also noticed that FireFox, Internet Explorer, and Edge all behave the same way. I have also noticed the behavior in other apps such as Adobe Acrobat Reader and Windows Fax and Scan.

I have performed a disk cleanup, used the optimization tools provided by HP, made sure the Bios was up-to-date (AMI F.43 9/5/19) and upgraded the RAM to 16GB. I have 80 GB of free hard drive space. Windows 10 is up to date at last check. Is this a known issue? If so, what is the resolution?

Thanks.

[WAWood]

@dashWyo 

With a Win10 PC, you're going to experience a variety of problems not typical of the older PCs.

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 12/10/19 are the following:
a) v1803: Bld 17134.1184
b) v1809: Bld 17763.914
c) v1903: Bld 18632.535
d) v1909: Bld 18363.535.

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.

[dashWyo]

I looked at the items you suggested. My windows is  v1909: Bld 18363.535. I checked the Windows Update services and I have two: Windows Update and Windows Update Medic Service. Both of these are set to manual (triggered) and are not currently running.

It's been a constant cycle of working  for a few minutes, the computer slowing to a crawl, and if I stop working for a few minutes, the CPU usage will come down enough that things will function again, only to have it acting crippled just a few minutes later.

All the reviews I have read suggest that this is a decent processor, so in seeing this behavior I am concerned that there might be a hardware problem. I have run the diagnostics software, both quick and full, and they come back clean. This machine didn't bog down like this when I first bought it, so it certainly didn't come off the shelf this way.