One of the toughest issues to resolve with Windows 11/10/8/7 is when you see a 100% Disk Usage message and your PC suddenly stops responding or responds slowly. While it could have many reasons, it’s usually caused when the Disk Usage is at 100% in the Task Manager. This post also helps you face constant high CPU, uyPower or high Memory usage issues.
Why is my CPU, memory, and disk so high?
When we run programs, they consume some amount of RAM. High CPU, memory, and disk can be caused due to many reasons. Most commonly, heavy graphics games and software consume more CPU, RAM, and disk. Moreover, running multiple programs at the same time also consumes a lot of RAM and shows high CPU usage sometimes. If a lot of apps are running in the background, you may see high CPU, memory, and disk usage in the Task Manager.
Disk, CPU, Memory, Power usage spikes
100% Disk, High CPU, Memory or Power usage in Task Manager
In this guide, we have covered a step-by-step procedure to troubleshoot the mentioned issue after studying and implementing methods discussed by others as well as our own experimentation. Many forums mention methods like disabling the Superfetch, Prefetch and the BITS services as well, but we would not recommend the same. I mean what and how much can you really disable to fix an issue!
If you are facing such an issue, here are a few troubleshooting steps that may help you resolve the issue. Create a system restore point first and then go through the entire list and decide which one or more of the suggestions you want to try.
- Uninstall 3rd-party browsers
- Run Chkdsk
- Disable Cloud-based protection in Windows Defender
- Disable Windows Search Indexer
- Disable Print Spooler Service
- Adjust the Visual Effects
- Update Device Drivers
- Run SFC & DISM
- Run the Performance Troubleshooter
- Upgrade your firmware or upgrade your RAM
- Use Refresh Windows Tool
- Examine System Health Report
- Troubleshoot using Process Tamer
- Is Message Signaled Interrupt enabled?
- Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device
- Run Power Troubleshooter.
Since the reasons can be many, the solutions can be many – so go through the entire list first and see which may apply in your case.
1] Uninstall 3rd-party browsers
Using the Control Panel, uninstall all browsers – except Edge and Internet Explorer of course. This is to isolate the issue with the plugins. The other suggestion is to remove the plugins one by one from each browser and test. Adobe Flash and Shockwave Player are the usual culprits. But knowing the fact that the browsers could be re-installed in seconds, this option seems to be easier. After uninstalling the browsers, please delete the ‘Temp’, ‘%Temp%’ and ‘Prefetch’ files. Restart the system and check if it solves the issue. If it does, wait for 10-15 minutes to verify that it doesn’t reoccur. Then re-install the browsers.
Read: Why is my RAM usage so high when nothing is running?
2] Run Chkdsk
Run ChkDsk and see if that helps. Open an elevated CMD window, type the following command and hit Enter:
chkdsk.exe /f /r
The ChkDsk parameters do the following work:
- /f Fixes errors detected.
- /r Identifies Bad Sectors and attempts recovery of information.
3] Disable Cloud-based protection in Windows Defender
Open Windows Defender and disable Cloud-based protection and see.
4] Disable Windows Search Indexer
The Windows Search Indexer is one process that is known to cause this. If you do not use Windows Search, you can disable Windows Seach Indexer.
Read: What is Bottlenecking my PC?
5] Disable Print Spooler Service
If this doesn’t fix the issue, Run services.msc and disable the ‘Print Spooler’. Your printer will stop working after this. But at least it helps isolate the issue. Disabling the Print Spooler service has worked for many users.
Once the Services Manager is opened, scroll down to ‘Print Spooler’ and click on the option to stop the service. If it works, you could decide if your work actually needs a printer. If you need the service, a technician level repair would be needed.
6] Adjust the Visual Effects
Adjust the Visual Effects in Windows. This post will show you how to tweak Visual Effects to optimize Windows performance.
7] Update Device Drivers
Sometimes Device Drivers can be the culprit. So update your Drivers and see if that helps. You could use Windows Update, download it from the manufacturer’s website or use a free Driver Update software.
8] Run SFC & DISM
Run System File Checker as well as DISM to repair the system image.
9] Run the Performance Troubleshooter
Open an elevated Command Prompt, type the following and hit Enter to run the Performance Troubleshooter.
msdt.exe /id PerformanceDiagnostic
This troubleshooter helps the user adjust settings to improve operating system speed and performance. Here are more suggestions that can help you troubleshoot Performance issues.
10] Upgrade your firmware or upgrade your RAM
You may want to check if you need to upgrade your firmware or upgrade your RAM.
Read: High Disk & Memory Usage when playing PC Games
11] Use Refresh Windows Tool
Another option you have would be to use the Refresh Windows Tool to reset Windows 10 and see if that finally helps.
12] Examine System Health Report
The Performance Monitor is a good built-in tool that lets you monitor and study how applications you run affect your computer’s performance, both in real-time and by collecting log data for later analysis. It is quite useful in identifying and troubleshooting high resource utilization by processes and in generating a System Health Report of your Windows.
13] Troubleshoot using Process Tamer
Process Tamer is a tiny utility that runs in your system tray and constantly monitors the CPU usage of other processes. When it sees a process overloading your CPU, it reduces the priority of that process temporarily, until its CPU usage returns to a reasonable level.
TIP: You can use Windows Boot Performance Diagnostics to detect Windows Boot Performance problems.
14] Is Message Signaled Interrupt enabled?
In a special scenario, if your Task Manager shows 100% disk utilization on Windows 10 devices with Message Signaled Interrupt (MSI) mode enabled, then to solve this install Intel’s Chipset and Management Engine Interface driver and see.
This post will help you if you see Random Disk Usage Spikes.
15] Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device
Pijal recommends in the comments below.
Go to Device Manager > Disk drives. Right-click on your HDD/SSD to shown Properties > Policies. Select “Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device” and click OK. See if this helps some of you.
16] Run Power Troubleshooter
Run Power Troubleshooter and see if that helps you.
How do I know if my RAM is faulty in Windows 11?
There are some signs that tell a RAM is faulty. The first sign is decreasing performance. Your computer will find it difficult to run applications. You will also experience frequent Blue Screen of Death errors on your computer. There are many causes of BSOD errors. Hence, if you experience frequent BSOD errors, you cannot jump to the conclusion that your RAM is faulty. Use the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool to check the health of your RAM.
If you have any ideas that may help resolve this issue, please post them in the comments. Your suggestions may help others facing this problem.
