PC continually pausing

Question

A few weeks back I noticed the mouse cursor started "pausing" as I move it around. It stops then rushes to catch up. It does this continually - every 3-4 seconds. I tried several different mice - wireless and corded - all do the same. Now I notice its actually the whole PC that's pausing - video display etc. 

I searched online for solutions to the mouse pausing and nothing worked. I even bought a new SSD and did a fresh install of W10 to it and the mouse seemed to be working OK while it was installing, but as soon as the first welcome/browser screen was displayed, the pausing was back. 

I've reverted to my original boot disc and now just tried safe mode and in that the system is OK - no pauses. How do I work out whats causing the problem ? Which driver/service/app ?

Answer 1

OK. That's right, the mouse drivers are far fewer than those of a touchpad, & they are entirely Microsoft. Neither in Task Manager nor in Process Explorer does my System process seem ever to get as high as yours or anywhere near it. You need to find out what is kicking in to make yours do that.

Answer 2

I've done all the driver update/rollback stuff - not relevant here as the mouse is a logitech with no drivers - just uses microsoft HID compliant and no alternative available. 

I'm thinking the mouse pausing is just a symptom of the whole OS being paused/blocked. When I boot in safe mode and all is OK, Task manager shows the CPU usage at only 4% - even with email and Chrome open and me typing.  The System process is only 0 to 0.1% of this. When I am not is safe mode and the problem is there, the "System" process sits at 15-20% even with no software open. 

I'll try the process explorer. 

SmittyChat - re your comment that events should be continually being registered - I agree, but how do I track/see them ? In event viewer everything is in hundreds of separate folders so which one do I watch ?  I can't find any list of error events happening every few seconds. The old event viewer had a common list so all events were in one place.

Answer 3

I looked in event viewer and can't see anything that seems related to the pausing. The mouse cursor pauses every 1-2secs so should I be seeing lots of events being recorded ?  Nothing seems to happen in event viewer. Is there a way to monitor events as they happen ? 

1. If it has happened repeatedly there would be a sequence of the same error at different days/times listed in Event Viewer. These errors would have the same Event ID #. 

Did you see an Event ID # repeatedly occurring?

2. Use Process Explorer as PCR just PCR has advised in his post.

Answer 4

Now I recall I had symptoms similar to yours in the earliest version of Win 10. The mouse (actually the touchpad) would become erratic & within minutes the whole computer would freeze. A reboot before the freeze would get the touchpad working again. Otherwise I had to do a hard shutdown. Reinstalling the Dell touchpad drivers was not a cure, except for the reboot involved.

Eventually, I discovered a simple restart of SynTPEnh.exe would work just as well as a reboot. But Task Manager won't do that. You need Process Explorer...

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Process Explorer v.16.30    (Hmmm - mine was only 16.21)

Ultimately, a driver update came in & was a permanent cure. Try clicking for one in Device Manager (search automatically). If that fails, go to the computer's site & check for an update there.

Answer 5

I looked at performance monitor but I can't see how it can help. The problem is knowing what to monitor.