System and Compressed Memory/System Interrupts high CPU usage

[RetroPedro]

This issue started for me recently, but I can't for the life of me figure out why.  Out of nowhere, two new processes demanded 25-50% of my CPU at all times - "System and Compressed Memory" and "System Interrupts".  I tried reinstalling every driver on the machine, rolling back versions, uninstalling any new software, adjusting power and boot settings, disabling superfetch and memory diagnostic tasks in the scheduler... pretty much everything suggested on every forum.

 

Finally, in desperation, I did a clean install of Win 10, assuming this would surely sort out any issue, driver or otherwise, but to my dismay the two processes were still there using the same amount of CPU, straight after the format and clean install.  Nothing was changed from first boot except the most recent updates installing automatically.  The only thing I've changed recently is switching out my standard HDD for an SSD, but these processes only started days later.  I'm aware that the integrated win 10 compression is designed to extend SSD lifetimes, however...

 

I'm running an i5-4200U in a dell inspiron, so the processor already has limited capabilities, and now it's actually affecting performance adversely in applications and even more so in games (HD 8870M GPU).  The lag with all settings turned to low is actually fairly unplayable on not very demanding titles.  One of the threads is running at nearly 100% all the time, and temperatures are running much hotter than normal which I think may be causing early throttling.

 

So is there any way to get to the bottom of this?  Can I disable memory compression altogether to see if that's the culprit?  I'm running 16Gb of RAM, so as far as I'm concerned, apps can use as much as they like.  I'm also happy to live without a page file to extend the lifetime of my SSD if it'll make that much difference.

 

I've been told that Win 7 doesn't do the compression thing - is it worth switching back if I can't resolve this issue?

 

Here's the windows performance recorder trace (I hope I've done it correctly!):

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/56252286/INSPIRON-5737.04-23-2016.15-44-13.rar

[GoodBytes]

System Interrupts means that a driver or hardware is poking the CPU going "Stop what you are doing! I have something very important..." in your case, continuously.

So that is usually due to bad drivers.

 -> Make sure you have your motherboard chipset drivers installed

 -> Make sure that you have your Ethernet and Wireless drivers installed

 -> Make sure that you have your sound card drivers installed.

 

Be sure to get the latest drivers on the manufacture website (such as Intel), for each hardware, if available (else no choice to get it from the laptop manufacture).

 

One thing you can do which might help identify the problem.. maybe... is to go in device manager, and one by one you disable each hardware, with the task manager open. Wait a few second after you disable a hardware to see if the CPU usage is reduced. Keep USB, mouse, and keyboard at the end, as obviously you need them to interact.

To make you life easier, unplug all USB peripherals if you have them. Use the laptop keyboard and trackpad (those are on USB as well, so don't disable USB controllers).

If you accidentally disable a hardware and your system is not responding, or a USB controller and now your mouse and keyboard is not working, no worries, just restart your computer and everything will be back to normal. Go back to device manager, enable back the rest, and resume the disable. You can't disable your SATA controller and your main drive, for obvious reasons (being in used), if you try and do that, Windows will says it needs to reboot, upon reboot it will be enabled again.

 

 

Memory compression is new to Windows 10. So Windows 8 doesn't have it, and anything older.

The issue is more of a memory leak by a driver which makes Windows 10 activate this memory compression thing which is really designed for system with limited amount of RAM.

 

If you really want to go back to a previous version of Windows, be sure to post as Windows 10 feedback through the Feedback app, your issue, before going back.

 

[RetroPedro]

11 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

System Interrupts means that a driver or hardware is poking the CPU going "Stop what you are doing! I have something very important..." in your case, continuously.

So that is usually due to bad drivers.

 -> Make sure you have your motherboard chipset drivers installed

 -> Make sure that you have your Ethernet and Wireless drivers installed

 -> Make sure that you have your sound card drivers installed.

 

Be sure to get the latest drivers on the manufacture website (such as Intel), for each hardware, if available (else no choice to get it from the laptop manufacture).

 

One thing you can do which might help identify the problem.. maybe... is to go in device manager, and one by one you disable each hardware, with the task manager open. Wait a few second after you disable a hardware to see if the CPU usage is reduced. Keep USB, mouse, and keyboard at the end, as obviously you need them to interact.

To make you life easier, unplug all USB peripherals if you have them. Use the laptop keyboard and trackpad (those are on USB as well, so don't disable USB controllers).

If you accidentally disable a hardware and your system is not responding, or a USB controller and now your mouse and keyboard is not working, no worries, just restart your computer and everything will be back to normal. Go back to device manager, enable back the rest, and resume the disable. You can't disable your SATA controller and your main drive, for obvious reasons (being in used), if you try and do that, Windows will says it needs to reboot, upon reboot it will be enabled again.

 

 

Memory compression is new to Windows 10. So Windows 8 doesn't have it, and anything older.

The issue is more of a memory leak by a driver which makes Windows 10 activate this memory compression thing which is really designed for system with limited amount of RAM.

 

If you really want to go back to a previous version of Windows, be sure to post as Windows 10 feedback through the Feedback app, your issue, before going back.

 

Hmm tricksy... is there any way to identify the offending driver from the trace?  I have a suspicion that it's the SSD driver or the AHCI controller, as those are the only things that have been changed recently to install my SSD and ODD caddy drive.  I can't seem to find an official samsung driver for the 850 evo - any ideas?  Windows has a standard disk drive driver from what I can see

[GoodBytes]

The drive is fine. It is normal that it uses the built-in drivers. The SATA controller should be using the manufacture drivers (unless it has a bug, and you are best to use the generic ones)

[RetroPedro]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

The drive is fine. It is normal that it uses the built-in drivers. The SATA controller should be using the manufacture drivers (unless it has a bug, and you are best to use the generic ones)

 

Any Other ideas how I can narrow down the driver issue?  I've already been through the device manager and disabled them in turn (except the SSD), but nothing seemed to help!

[GoodBytes]

I am current out of ideas currently. Perhaps look for a BIOS/UEFI update.... I don't think that will solve it, but that is the last thing I have in mind head.

What I would do, personally, is join the Insider Program, and get Windows 10 latest build (Fast Ring), and live with the bugs here and there if the problem is solved (while the build can be buggy, it is stable. But always do backups, because you never know). Basically, if you don't really use the new features, you should not encounter bugs. The only issue the current latest build has, is that the font on the start menu is a bit blurry at 100% DPI, and the first item under folders is position on top of the following item so you can't access the one behind it. I don't think it is a real issue in reality, and you can use the search function just fine, if ever needed.

[GoodBytes]

I noticed that your font does not feature clear type smoothing... maybe you are missing your graphics card drivers?

Or are you using a CRT monitor with your laptop?

[RetroPedro]

7 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

The drive is fine. It is normal that it uses the built-in drivers. The SATA controller should be using the manufacture drivers (unless it has a bug, and you are best to use the generic ones)

 

Bummer... BIOS is up to date.  Not sure being on the early release will sort out a driver issue, will it?  I may have to read up on how to interpret a trace from the performance recorder and go from there T_T

[GoodBytes]

40 minutes ago, RetroPedro said:

 

Bummer... BIOS is up to date.  Not sure being on the early release will sort out a driver issue, will it?  I may have to read up on how to interpret a trace from the performance recorder and go from there T_T

The only reason why I said I would do this, is for crossing my fingers that it has improved compatibility, or bug fix if that is the reason that is specific to a small number of people that Microsoft might have fixed. It is a coin toss really. But I think it is worth the try. Personally, I am on the Fast Ring, not because of issues, I just like playing with new stuff.

 

[RetroPedro]

1 minute ago, GoodBytes said:

The only reason why I said I would do this, is for crossing my fingers that it has improved compatibility, or bug fix if that is the reason that is specific to a small number of people that Microsoft might have fixed. It is a coin toss really. But I think it is worth the try. Personally, I am on the Fast Ring, not because of issues, I just like playing with new stuff.

 

Ah yeah it does sound like it's interesting, I'm just scared of introducing more bugs in addition to the current issue

[RetroPedro]

20 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

The only reason why I said I would do this, is for crossing my fingers that it has improved compatibility, or bug fix if that is the reason that is specific to a small number of people that Microsoft might have fixed. It is a coin toss really. But I think it is worth the try. Personally, I am on the Fast Ring, not because of issues, I just like playing with new stuff.

 

Mystery solved!  After weeks of Googling all over the show, I found a single post that concluded the issue is due to the physical configuration of the ODD caddy!  Here's the link, but my caddy actually had a little switch.  Still no idea what it does, but that's completely solved the issue.  Huzzah!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/hp-elitebook-8560p-wont-shutdown.655065/