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For the past 2-3 weeks I have been experiencing intermittent lag, and noticed that my disk usage is often spiking to 100% causing the lag. This can last from 2-20 seconds. My PC is less than 2 years old.
I have run a disk check, performed a health scan and health check and have disabled Sysmain. I have also disabled unnecessary apps on startup and uninstalled bloatware. I have 1x 1TB SSD Twinmos.
The process causing the most disk usage in task manager is 'System', 'Vivaldi', and 'Registry'. Sometimes some Service Host processes.
I am currently performing a full system scan with Windows Security to see if I have any viruses. Whilst running the full scan Antimalware Service Executable appears to be hogging 100% of disk space for virtually the entire time.
Is it worth performing a system restore point for say 4 weeks ago to see if this improves performance?
Any advice would be very much appreciated
Then running the scan it is normal for Antimalware Service Executable to be using almost all the disk access.
When that scan completes, if that indicates no malware is found on your system, go to the support page for your Motherboard on the manufacturers website, then from there, download and install the version of Chipset drivers they recommend and while there, if you do not have your drive encrypted with Bitlocker, check for any BIOS update that may need to be installed
Thanks for the reply
I found the manufacturers support page for my motherboard model. Should i download each of these?
You should only need to install the drivers indicated below, do not install the RAID drivers, they are not required on your system.
I downloaded the chipset drivers but unfortunately hasnt made a difference to disk usage.
Feel a bit out of my depth updating Bios but haven't done it on this PC...do i just download most recent version 4.10?
Thanks!
Okay, please leave the BIOS update for now.
Restart (not shut down) your PC to flush out your RAM.
Do not open any apps.
Open Task Manager.
Select the Processes tab.
Click the Disk column header on the Processes tab so the arrow on that column header points down.
Please provide a screenshot of that window when the disk is at 100%
Thank you for the screenshot, Task Manager is not indicating what process is using the drive.
Download the widely available free CrystalDiskInfo utility, please provide a screenshot of what that utility indicates for your drive.
That is good news, the drive is healthy.1
1
Open File Explorer.
Click 'This PC' on the left.
On the right, right click your C drive and select Properties.
On the resulting dialog, disable the option at the bottom to 'Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties'.
2Click your Start Button, then just type indexing options and open the Indexing utility from the resulting list.
Click the Advanced button.
On the next window, click the Rebuild button.
That will delete the current index and cause your drive to be indexed again.
This process will take a while to re-create a new index and the disk will be busy for a good while.
When that completes check if the disk usage has dropped to normal
I changed the display of disk usage, it may give more of an insight into what's eating up disk space? Just always seems to be 'system' at the top
Thank you for that screenshot, please perform the steps I just provided to test if that resolves the problem.
Thanks for your help - I've actually already done both of these things you just suggested but to no avail
This is very strange.
What happened on your PC before this problem occurred, was there a Windows update or something else.
I cant remember exactly when the problem occurred and what preceded it. Update history shows a couple of updates as well as security update and framework security update in the last 4 weeks. I've installed a couple programs in that time as well. This is why I wondered if system restore might help.
I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to try next. Do you think it's worth updating BIOS or swapping my SSD card for a new one?
I think rather than performing a system restore, the best option would be to perform an in-place repair with the Windows 11 ISO to resolve any system corruption that may be causing the problem.
Please ensure you download the ISO in the same language as you use for the Windows UI, follow the steps, this is then not like re-installing Windows, it is just like an update and your personal files, settings and installed software will not be affected.
Click this link:
https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11
to download the Windows 11 ISO
When the ISO file completes downloading
Disconnect from the Internet
Disconnect all external devices with the exception of a mouse or keyboard.
Temporarily disable any 3rd party Anti-virus you may have installed
Then, in Windows File Explorer, double click the ISO and then run Setup.exe and select the Install option.
Very Important - ensure you select the option to keep your files and apps.
Glad to help!
Early days, but so far so good - this seems to have done the trick. Many thanks! I will report back if i have any further issues over the next 24 hours
That is great news, glad to help!
Unfortunately the issue is still occurring. What would you recommend as the next step?
I apologize, I was offline, how are you proceeding with this problem now.
Not sure what is best to try next. I've found some instructions for updating the BIOS for my motherboard, so perhaps this is the next best plan of action?
What would you try next in my situation?
Thanks!
I do think if there is a BIOS update available for your system, that may be the best option, and on the support page for your system, they should provide full instructions to do that, because the method varies from PC to PC.
If that does not resolve the problem, it may be time to consider changing the SSD.
Ok great. I will try the BIOS update and also monitor the lag over the course of the day. It does seem to be performing a bit better than before the Windows ISO reinstall, but disk usage is still spiking every now and then.
Is your hunch that a new SSD may resolve the issue?
Disk usage spiking is usually normal, it is when your disk is at 100% constantly that indicates a problem.
I'm going to bite the bullet and replace the SSD. I looked into the issue and have read that the budget Twinmos SSD like mine can be dying like this even with CrystalDisk reporting decent health.
Should I download Windows 11 onto a USB drive so I can do a clean install after inserting the new SSD? https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11 I take it I can download the Windows 11 ISO from this link? I have an external backup of my files that I can transfer onto the new SSD once it's all set up.
Also does the USB stick need to be FAT32 format for Windows 11 install this way?
Any advice much appreciated.
Thanks
I apologize, I was offline.
That is correct, you can use the o0fficial Media Creation Tool on that link to create a bootable Windows 11 USB on an empty 8GB USB flash drive, you so not need to format the USB, the Media Creation Tool will automatically format the USB and create the media on the USB, it is an automatic process.
