HP Task Manager Disk @100% and Windows Update Problem

[Fly_Eagles]

Hello,

I have been working to troubleshoot this HP laptop laptop where the initial symptoms seem to be the fan doing high-pitch spinning all the time and very sluggish to the point it is nearly impossible for my kid to do any school work on it.   That was the point of buying this unit the first place.  I have another HP Pavilion from 3 years ago with similar spec and is not doing this. So, this new unit is just not meeting expectation. 

I noticed when I looked at Window Task Manager, the "Disk" field is pegged at 100% (see image below) even though when I looked through the sorted list, the MB/s  looks relatively small as I believe it should be capable of handling at the 100MB/s range? I ran chkdsk as administrator and the report is good and with no bad sector.  

Just want to check if any one encountered something similar and if that turns out to be hardware or software issue?

This notebook seems to be having issues with Windows Update as well.  Getting Windows 10 update error code like 0x80070017 (cumulative update) or 0x800f0984 (Windows 20H2 Update).  Would the "Disk" issue be related with the Windows Update issue?  If so, what would be the relationship and possible solution for it.    I have seen some online discussions about doing something with the Windows SoftwareDistribution folder but want to check if any of that could apply here and the right steps for it.

Thanks,

Fly_Eagles

[Fly_Eagles]

Adding picture.  The original post picture didn't come out.

Run HP PC Hardware Diag test and everything report okay except battery is not calibrated.

Also make sure I have the latest BIOS flash/firmware

Thanks,

Fly_Eagles

[WAWood]

@Fly_Eagles 

Your guess is right -- this is almost certainly Windows Update.  That can peg your processor and disk BOTH at 100% for lengthy periods of time, and if the updates fail, it will do that over and over, retrying the failed updates.

Since there is no practical way to disable Windows Update in Windows 10, you should try resetting it to see if that fixes the issue.

First thing you need to do is see if you can restart in Safe mode -- by doing these steps: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2304-boot-into-safe-mode-windows-10-a.html

If you don't know how to start using Advanced Startup Options, then read this: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2294-boot-advanced-startup-options-windows-10-a.html

Then, follow these steps to reset Windows Update: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/24742-reset-windows-update-windows-10-a.html

If these work, when you finally reboot, you should then be able to login to a working Windows desktop.