High CPU usage by process called "System"

Question

I have a brand-new DELL XPS 9500 and about half of the time the process called "System" uses between 10 and 15% CPU (which is enough to make the computer very hot and that the fans turn at 70% capacity) until I reboot the laptop. 

Dell support said that the use of the processor is normal but like the other question, I do not believe in that since the other half of the time the computer runs using less than 1% of the "System" process.

I have pretty much the same issue than this thread. Why was it locked? There is no solution to the issue in the comments and the accepted answer is only a temporary fix which doesn't even work on my computer. 

I'm fine with the computer being hot when I do tasks that use a lot of resources. When I watch a film in my bed or when I'm working with light programs however the loud blowing is pretty annoying and not understandable.

I recorded the system activity with "Windows Performance Recorder". Below are the details of the analysis for the System Process. 

Solution

Edit 26.11.2020: I quote @Vladislav Kosev: "It seems like a problem with Nvidia cards on dual-card systems (since if you have only Nvidia you ALWAYS have something running on that card)." Workaround is in his answer below but basically solution is: 

1. Open NVIDIA Control Panel 
2. Navigate to Manage 3D Settings- then Program Settings
3. Configure one program that it usually always open on your computer to use High-performance NVIDIA processor as preferred graphic processor.

Old steps:

Thanks to @Dr.Richard.V.Finney we figured that it's an Nvidia process and what worked for me is uninstalling PhysiX engine as well as the Nvidia driver (in windows settings). 

After a few days I was curious if it would still be that bad if I reinstalled it so I did. It was good the first few hours but then the process "System" started to use constant 10% again. So I uninstalled it again and... it didn't go better :(.

With ProcessExplorer I saw that the process is now dxgmms2.sys and not like before nvlddmkm.sys. Searching on the internet I found that it was also Nvidia and that opening the Intel Graphics Command Center could help and it did! ..the first few times.

Then System was again using so much cpu because of dxgmms2.sys. I was done with Nvidia stuff (even if I know it's not their fault directly) and uninstalled the driver in Device Managerunder Display Adapters (I did try the "scan for hardware changes" trick first but it never worked on my machine). And that worked! ..until I rebooted the computer or the computer woke up from hibernation because it reinstalled the driver automatically and it was producing the exact same issue. Uninstalled it 3 more times and then finally d isabled the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti driver.

Now I'm in the process of trying to accept that my brand new 2020 laptop will not benefit of better graphics from nvidia and only have the integrated intel graphics. I liked to play games with shaders occasionally with the laptop but I guess that is past now. 

Edit 18.11.2020:

Few weeks now with Nvidia drivers disabled and the laptop has still an annoying issue: it doesn't go to sleep when plugged in. Actually when using the computer the fans are silent but when I close the lid, after 10 sec the computer starts to heat up, and they start to go wild. Somehow it uses more resources when it should sleep.

With powercfg -energy and energy-report.html (link) it showed an error which was something like "Missing driver for component may cause higher resource usage" with the Nvidia Graphics card as Device name. Sooo it seems that because I disabled it, the computer uses more energy?

Anyway I re-enabled it and tada it seems to work VERY well since a few hours. Laptop dead silent in use and doesn't start to heat up when it should sleep. 

I don't know why this all happens but now we are in the initial state minus Nvidia PhysX. Perhaps I may use the graphics afterall :D

Answer 1

Hi guys,

This is what I've found, maybe it will help us either solve it or find a suitable workaround.

First of all, @SamuelGfeller, I was the guy who posted the "Open the Intel Command Center" solution. :) I am glad I posted it and you found it. Now it is not working anymore however. Not sure why.

I played around this morning and I think I found out why:

1. First I tried disabling and then enabling the Intel card in an attempt to emulate what I thought the Command Center did. That worked but caused problems later - programs would hang for 10 seconds frequently. I had no explanation why this worked.
2. Then I found your thread and tried uninstalling PhysX, but that did not help. I don't want to uninstall the driver as I want my games to run fast :-)
3. Then I found out that by just starting GeForce Experience the problem went away again and I then it came to me - if no processes use the Nvidia card, then I the problem occurred. The moment one process used it, it went away. So I did a test - set up the Calculator app to use the Nvidia card. Calculator running - process gone. Calculator not running

• problem comes back.

So now the question is, is there any other way of making this fix permanent. I set up Spotify to use the Nvidia card and now the problem is gone since I have Spotify running all the time. I tried Start Menu Experience Host, but it does release the card from time to time (not surprisingly since the start menu is not visible) and the problem comes back.

From the Nvidia Control Panel you can use Desktop -> Display GPU Activity Icon in the Notification Area. It's a handy app that shows what processes run on the Nvidia Card.

I will do a restart and see if the solution holds.

Answer 2

My laptop has been cool and quiet the whole day. I can't be happier!

Answer 3

1. Seems VERY unusual to me. Almost unbelievable. Constant <10% CPU use and a really burning hot laptop with no programs open doesn't go unnoticed by most people I like to believe. Additionally, mine didn't want to sleep so. 
2. Haha you think I didn't read that thread? I was desperate over that issue. I spent so many hours trying to understand things, having the feeling that I'm the only one with this error (because both dell support and Microsoft support told me that it was normal and I found only very little on the internet). Hell I was so desperate that I made a post on Microsoft forums... in hindsight I should have done this way earlier :D).

Thanks for the suggestion, I didn't know this!

Answer 4

Thank you for that Samuel, your discovery and thread were very helpful for my debugging efforts. I stand on your shoulders.

1. I am not sure why are there so few of us. Probably other people don't notice the noise.
2. I would rather think it is an Nvidia bug so I will start from there.

Otherwise there is my Nvidia thread from several months ago, you can see the non-sense I received:

DXGMMS2.SYS High CPU usage | NVIDIA GeForce Forums

P.S. You don't need to restart after you setup an app to use the Nvidia GPU, just restart the app. (several times sometimes).

Answer 5

Holy cow you are right!

I configured the calculator to use the NVIDIA GPU, rebooted and System usage high until I open the calculator where it drops usage. When I close it the system process is high again in seconds. 

Bravo for your discovery!

Now I'm asking myself 2 things. One, why are we so few with this issue? I've seen many reviews and even talked about it on dell subreddit but almost no one seem to have that issue. I had a very hard time searching on the internet as well! There is nothing on this subject. 

And two, where do we need to open a bug ticket in order that this is fixed? Your workaround is very neat but this is clearly a system with a bug. Is it windows or nvidia ?

I just saw that you responded to @Danny_Walker, I think I found a thread](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/reporting-graphics-driver-bugs/35671) where NVIDIA moderator says where to report bugs @[Vladislav Kosev.