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System Process (ntoskrnl.exe) keeps spiking causing laptop to lag

Anonymous
2022-11-21T10:42:03+00:00

Hello everyone,

The Problem:

The whole computer hangs every few seconds due to what I think is the system process. The laptop I'm using is quite old in terms of technology, but I'm mainly wanting it just to view Youtube and browse the web so nothing that it shouldn't be able to handle. Hopefully you can tell by this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLB6HM9-0nU the cursor freezes every few seconds and it's not just the cursor that freezes, it's the whole computer. The cursor is a good visual aid to show what the whole computer does. It's seems to pause in time with the system process going from a very low power state to moderate. Also it spikes the CPU usage up a small amount.

When the computer is idle, this is the performance graph of the CPU. Each time it spikes, the whole computer freezes:

What I've Done So Far:

I've reset the whole laptop to fresh as it was in quite a mess.

I've updated any drivers that need updating.

I'm currently in a clean boot environment.

I've disabled the realtek sound and DVD drive as that was something that I've seen that could cause pauses.

I've run the following commands:

SFC /scannow
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

I've searched the internet as much as possible and this is where I'm at so hopefully you ladies and gents can help me out getting this laptop to run as smooth as a old laptop can.

System Specs:

Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 19045) (19041.vb_release.191206-1406)

Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: HP
System Model: HP Notebook
BIOS: F.1F (type: UEFI)
Processor: AMD A6-6310 APU with AMD Radeon R4 Graphics (4 CPUs), ~1.8GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 3530MB RAM
Page File: 4616MB used, 1484MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 12

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Performance and system failures

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-02-09T13:25:24+00:00

    I think I finally managed to fix my issue and it's a surprising fix. Normally to fix a problem the first thing to do is to update to the latest drivers. Well in this instance it's actually helped being on old and out dated drivers.

    The problem is something to do with the AMD Radeon Adrenaline drivers. Once I uninstalled those and used the basic generic windows drivers the problem went away. I then tried the AMD Crimson Relive drivers and the problem come back. I've since uninstalled them and am now running AMD Catalyst drivers and everything seems happy so far.

    Just thought I'd post my solution incase anyone else has this issue and stumbles apon this thread via a Google search. :)

    6 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2022-11-22T08:44:23+00:00

    Thanks for your feedback. Reset this PC keeps your personal files, In-place upgrade keeps your personal files and apps. In both cases Windows files are replaced. Please check the following recommendation to improve the performance:
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/tip...

    Thanks for the continued help Jose. When I did the reset I took off any files that I wanted to keep onto an external hard drive and told Windows to remove everything so there isn't any personal files or apps on this device currently. I've run through the steps in your above link and it's made no difference. The system process is still spiking and causing the whole computer to lag.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-11-21T19:36:02+00:00

    Thanks for your feedback. Reset this PC keeps your personal files, In-place upgrade keeps your personal files and apps. In both cases Windows files are replaced. Please check the following recommendation to improve the performance:

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/tip...

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-11-21T12:31:10+00:00

    I watched the video and just want to ask one thing before I go ahead with that. Isn't that in-place upgrade the same thing as Microsofts reset tool where it downloads a fresh copy of Windows 10, installs it and you go through the setup process. If it is the same then that is what I've already done a week ago and am running on a fresh, new Windows 10 operating system that's fully updated.

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-11-21T11:36:24+00:00

    Hi Seggons, my name is Jose, a Windows user like you. I'll be happy to assist you with this issue.

    Sorry to hear you're experiencing this issue. In order to fix it, please use the following guide to do an in-place upgrade.

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

    If you need anything else, please let me know.

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