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High CPU Usage causes huge lag and sound distortion

Hello,

I hope someone can help me I am going out of my mind trying to solve an issue I have had with my PC for sometime now. I have a Lenovo desktop PC 8GB RAM 2TB hard drive running windows 10. The problem I am having is very annoying. Basically all I want to do is put my iTunes on and listen to my music. No other programmes are running, just iTunes. After the PC is idle for 4-5 minutes sometimes a little longer the music goes very distorted and sounds robotic. The music is basically inaudible. The mouse cursor wont keep up when I move the mouse and after a few seconds normal playback resumes and the problem once again disappears. This happens in an endless loop when the PC is left unattended playing music. Its not just ITunes either I tried this with VLC and windows media player.

I have opened task manager and tried to see the problem. My CPU usage can go from 5% to 100% and the following culprits take up all of the CPU

- Host Process for Windows Tasks

- Anti Malware Service Executable

- System Interrupts

These are the main culprits. I can cause the problem manually by going into control panel in security and maintenance and clicking Start Maintenance. Host process for windows tasks always seems to be at the top of my list.

I have contacted Microsoft and they took remote access of my PC on several occasions. The problem still occurred, eventually the last option was to restore my PC back to original factory settings. So I did and after a week of no problems, this same problem has occurred again. I have only installed iTunes onto my system. No other programmes.

I have also set maintenance to daily at 0300 and allow my PC to turn on and carry out this process when not in use. Its absolutely infuriating that a system running with 8GB of RAM is doing this. My old Dell desktop bless its soul had 2 GB of ram and I never once experienced any playback issues. Its ridiculous. I've since contacted Microsoft again and they say it could be a hard ware issue. I'm convinced its something to do with routine maintenance or the task scheduler, after a certain amount of time being left idle the PC decides to start doing something and the operating system and all other PC functions suffer because of this.

Someone help me please get to the bottom of this issue I just want to listen to two songs strung together without it sounding like an angry Terminator. Any solutions are welcome.

Thanks

Simon

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

I understand your concern and will assist you to resolve this issue.

I suggest you to follow the methods below and check if it helps.   

Method 1: Windows has a built-in troubleshooter to check and fix issues with system. I would suggest you to run this troubleshooter to check if the issue is with your System Maintenance.

Refer these steps:

  1. Press Windows key +X, select Control panel.
  2. Change the view by option on the top right to Large icons. 
  3. Click on troubleshooting and click on the view all option on the left panel. 
  4. Run the System Maintenance troubleshooter.   

And also refer the link below to improve the performance of the PC

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/performance-maintenance-help#performance-maintenance-help=windows-8&v1h=win8tab1&v2h=win7tab1&v3h=winvistatab1

Hope this helps. If the issue remains unresolved, please get back to us and we would be happy to help

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Hello , I have completed the following steps above and have also tried the link in turning off the weekly schedule for defrag. The problem still remains, I'm seriously running out of ideas now. Anything else I can try. As I'm sat here typing this now and my PC is using 80% CPU on 'system and compressed' memory what ever that is? <Sigh>

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Hi,

Thank you for the update on the issue.

If issue still persists, let’s boot the computer in Safe Mode and check if issue reappears. Safe mode is a diagnostic mode that starts your computer in a limited state. Only the basic files and drivers necessary to run Windows are started. The words Safe Mode appear in the corners of your monitor to identify which Windows mode you’re using. You may refer to the article mentioned below to boot the computer in safe mode.

Change startup settings in Windows 10 

If computer works fine in safe mode then try to perform clean boot and see if it brings any difference.    

Putting your system in Clean Boot state helps in identifying if any third party applications or startup items are causing the issue. You need to follow the steps from the article mentioned below to perform a Clean Boot.

 

How to perform a clean boot in Windows

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135/en-us

Note: Refer "How to reset the computer to start normally after clean boot troubleshooting" to reset the computer to start as normal after troubleshooting.

Do keep us updated.

Regards,

Ramesh Kumar.

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Thanks for the reply. How do I boot in safe mode but enable the sound driver as this issue is mainly affecting the sound when idle. I have booted in safe mode already but couldn't figure out how to enable the sound driver so could not establish if the problem was still present 

Regards 

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Hi,

Thank you for the update on the issue.

I would suggest you to refer the article mentioned below and try different steps and see if it helps you to fix the issue.

Fix sound problems 

You can refer to the article mentioned below to update the drivers.

How to: Install and Update drivers in Windows 10

      

Do keep us updated.

Regards,

Ramesh Kumar.

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Last updated March 23, 2024 Views 18,261 Applies to: