CPU spiking to 100% doing minimal tasks

This issue just started happening one day after the day before when the computer was running perfectly. CPU is spiking to 100% doing very minor things like reloading a webpage or opening a folder in file explorer. The Task Manager is showing ~10% CPU but HWMonitor is showing the spikes.

Things that I've done:

several virus scans (all fine)
drivers, etc. all updated
confirmed no high usage apps/processes via Task Manager
sfc scannow
chkdsk

Specs:

mobo: MSI z170A M5
CPU: Core i7 6700k
GPU: EVGA GTX 1080
RAM: 64GB
PSU: EVGA 80 Gold 850 W
OS: Windows 10 installed on a Samsung 950 Pro NVMe SSD

I've posted an image of the readings from HWMonitor for the details on the CPU

MoSan

Posted 2019-12-01T16:11:00.157

Reputation: 21

Your cores are locked at 800MHz as well. Try rebooting (not shutdown) to see if that clears the low CPU speed, if not then check your power plan and make sure it is on "balanced" or "high power". If that doesn't work then you may have to go into the power plan and make sure that "Maximum CPU speed" is set to "100%".

– Mokubai – 2019-12-01T16:27:46.390

Rebooting does not fix the problem. My apologies but I failed to mention I also reviewed my power plan and it is currently on high power with CPU max set to 100% – MoSan – 2019-12-01T16:37:35.133

Have you tried adjust or switching plans as I mentioned? I've seen them get corrupted in the past and look fine but actually not work. – Mokubai – 2019-12-01T16:41:07.093

Yes, I was originally on High performance and switched back and forth between high and balanced. I checked max CPU on both plans. – MoSan – 2019-12-01T16:48:17.173

When you have the issue or can cause it, run in an elevated prompt: wpr.exe -start GeneralProfile Leave it for 20 seconds to capture the problem then run wpr.exe -stop C:\gp.etl. Please link the gp.etl file for analysis with Windows Performance Analyzer. – HelpingHand – 2019-12-01T18:58:36.233

just to confirm, do you mean to upload the gp.etl file to Onedrive (for example) and post a link to the file? – MoSan – 2019-12-01T20:23:12.823

https://1drv.ms/u/s%21An_C5m0wvclMjgzD5Pjet0V6OT5H?e=xhI3Cc – MoSan – 2019-12-01T20:51:27.597

Not sure what has gone wrong with that trace. I can see it started at: 2019/12/01 12:11:08.3333112 and ran until 2019/12/01 2019/12/01 12:16:31.50973. So 5 mins - 2.9GB but I can't see any data. 20 seconds would be enough, can you try it again: wpr.exe -start GeneralProfile Wait 20 seconds with the issue, run wpr.exe -stop C:\gp2.etl. Very odd. Thanks. – HelpingHand – 2019-12-03T12:48:14.143

Here is a good program which tells you what is opened and running. Just be careful, very this program can stop items in they're tracks. Good for stopping malware. But make sure you know what software you are looking for. Don't kill Windows services or Hosts... Open File Viewer from Nirsoft (Very Trustworthy programmers). I have all they're tools, tested package at VirusTotal (ALL OK) http://nirsoft.net/utils/opened_files_view.html (When Run Open as Administrator)

– vssher – 2020-01-09T16:30:14.600

CPU spiking to 100% doing minimal tasks

No answers