Microsoft Surface Pro 7 using ridiculous amount of CPU

Question

I use a surface pro 7, docking station, external keyboard, and mouse. The below is my current system configuration:

Below is a snapshot of the task manager:

But the CPU usage goes between 50% and 100% if I have more than 1 tab open in a browser (chrome). Even opening my browser takes a while. This started about 1 week back I think (I can't be sure, don't ask me how I managed with this incredibly frustrating experience). My laptop is about 2 years old, I have dropped it once, semi-recently... However, I booted into safe mode, and my laptop is back to being so much more snappy. So I don't think it's a hardware issue.

What I've tried:

I tried disabling windows defender. I could not disable it with regedit, and I could not disable it from the group policy. I booted into safe mode and I was able to disable windows defender from the group policy. Surprise, surprise, it turned itself back on after a while! I'm an administrator on my own computer and I'm not allowed to turn off windows defender... I can turn off the real-time antivirus scanning from the system but it's a temporary solution as it turns itself back on.

I also tried booted into safe mode. This experience is just so much worse than it used to be... I have to go through several prompts and finally enter a 48 bit key. And then safe mode with networking isn't even usable in my case. There are no wireless drivers and the keyboard, for some reason, doesn't even work properly with the windows search bar.

However, at some point windows defender was not running (temporarily) and during that time the CPU was better but not as good as it used to be (and not as good as in safe mode)

Rant:

I'm so frustrated. I defended microsoft and windows because windows is a really good system that I like. However, this experience has been shockingly disappointing. I can't defend this.

Question:

Can you please help me get my system back to normal? My laptop honestly is barely usable at this point.

Answer 1

I just updated to Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 from Windows 11 Pro version 21H2, and that seems to have fixed this problem:

Answer 2

Thanks for keeping me posted, BS21711.

In that case, let's try to perform a reimage on your device. This option reimages the entire device, including the partition on the hard drive. It is the most complete form of reset. Follow the procedures in Creating and using a USB recovery drive for Surface (microsoft.com).

Let me know how it goes. I'll wait for your response.

Answer 3

I just updated to Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 from Windows 11 Pro version 21H2, and that seems to have fixed this problem:

That's good to know, BS21711.

Marking your workaround as an answer for now to help others who may have concern as you.

Don't hesitate to respond to this thread if there’s anything else that needs to be addressed.

Answer 4

Hello BS21711,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Community. I'm sorry to hear about this issue on your device. I understand how frustrating it is to have such problem. But still I appreciate your time and effort in trying to fix the problem on your end.

In this case, it might be due to driver issues or corrupted system files. I'd suggest to perform the steps below and observe if it will make any difference.

Force a shut down and restart your Surface

• Press and hold down the power button until your Surface shuts down and restarts and you see the Windows logo screen (about 20 seconds), then release the power button.

Run the Surface Diagnostic Toolkit

• In the search box on the taskbar, type Surface Diagnostic Toolkit, then select it in the list of results.
  If it's not already installed, you can download it from the Microsoft Store.
• Follow the on-screen instructions in the Surface Diagnostic Toolkit.

Update Windows. Ensure all pending updates are installed.

• Select Check for Windows updates. Or select Start > Settings > Windows Update.

Manually install drivers and firmware for Surface

• Check what is the current OS Build of your Windows version by typing winveron the search barnear the Windows logo.
• Go to Download driver and firmware for Surface**,**choose (your Surface model) then click Download.
  Choose the .msi file closest to your current OS Build and click Next.
  After downloading, run and install the .msi then Restart.

Run the System File Checker in Windows

• Follow instructions on Using System File Checker in Windows (microsoft.com).

Perform a Memory Diagnostic

• From Search, type Memory Diagnostic and run the Windows Memory Diagnostic program.

Also, try ending those tasks or processes that have high CPU and power usage. Then, let me know how it goes.

Looking forward to your response.

Answer 5

I did all of the above. I still get this:

I could not perform the driver update step because when I tried to install it, it said that I already had the update and the only option was to remove it (Which I didn't).