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

Glad to hear it. You may know more about Process Explorer than I do now.

I was in a thread once where "Catalyst" (as Smittychat. mentioned) was the problem, & I believe it was solved. I can't quite recall the solution, that thing is complex with many options. There may be different versions of it too. I'll go looking for it, if Smittychat.'s suggestion won't work (& he runs out of other ideas).

Answer 2

Before reinstalling the drivers, remove this from Control Panel > Uninstall Programs if it is listed.  AMD Catalyst Install Manager (For AMD graphic cards) or any other software associated with your graphic card. Reboot and reinstall the graphics driver(s).

Edit:

By the way, SysInternals has a lot of useful tools. You can see a description of them here.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/

Answer 3

well that didn't work - although I was sort of expecting it. Re-installing the graphics drivers amkes the pausing come back. I'll have to look in to this atikmdag.sys business.

Answer 4

I think I'm getting somewhere! I used process explorer as you guys suggested and also viewed a long talk by some expert on how it can be used for debugging. A lot of what he said was way over my head but I follwed his explanation of processes and threads to track it down to the video drivers. While the problem was happening (not safe mode) a thread called atikmdag.sys was chewing up heaps of processor time. I researched this and found lots of confusing/complicated processes about how to fix it. But it was all related to graphics drivers - I have AMD. The AMD site couldn't suggest any updates for my drivers so I used their tool to completely clean out the installed drivers and the issue is gone. Back to only 1-2% System load when the system sits idle. BUT the installed drivers are now default drivers from microsoft - and my dual screens don't work. So I plan to try and re-install the AMD drivers - lets see how that goes.....

Great suggestion to use process explorer - quite complicated - even though I am (was) a coder and know something about threads etc but a very useful tool.

Answer 5

1. When in Safe Mode you're not running all the processes that run in Normal Mode. This would account for the difference in CPU usage. High CPU can and does cause issues with apps and could account for the pause issue.
2. Open Even Viewer > Do not open any logs in the left menu. You will see int he Summary of Administrative Events that the logs are being read. Usually there's a message to please wait while this is being done.

Once the logs are read > You will see the following appear in the Summary of Administrative Events window:

Critical

Event

Warning

Information

Audit Success

Click the + next to Events

Looking at the events do you see a particular Event that stands out as being the one that may be the issue in the last hour, 24 hours or Day(s)?

Click on that Event

On the right pane you will see the Event title highlight

Beneath that you will see "View All Instances of this Event"

Click on that

A Window will appear showing you the Date/Time, General Description of the Event with Source and Event ID.

Verify this is approximately the date/time the pause issue occurs to narrow down which process is the problem.

3. If the Event you selected is not correct, use the back arrow to click back to your Summary and select a different Event.

Use "View All Instances of this Event" to pinpoint the process causing the pause to  occur.

Question: Do you use Logitech Options Software?

How do you not have a driver for the mouse?