Windows 10 and Apps and System Programs heavily using GPU

canerpense · May 13, 2018

Hi everyone,

I've been a poweruser since 1997 but I never had such annoying problem with my PC until now. Even after tens of fresh installs and every kind of attempts, I still have these problems.

- Windows Apps such as Calculator, Photos and even the Windows Store itself sometimes starts working on the GPU. Please note that I disabled background apps from settings and I'm not even using these apps.

- DWM (dwm.exe) seems to be constantly using high GPU (percentage always changing, is not constantly at a fixed percent) and nothing I did prevented this. Seems to be OK after fresh install but after I connect to internet and Windows downloads some stuff from it's store, it starts acting like this again.

- Installing a firewall does not help. I thought my PC had some kind of malware but I formatted all my drives (yes, it drove me that mad), freshly installed Windows more than ten times and the problem persists. I also used different methods for installing Windows as well including the USB Download Tool and an ISO burned to an external HDD.

I'm almost sure that there is some kind of miner infected the DWM or Apps or Store App or all of them. Malwarebytes and Avast failed to find any though...

As I'm going out of my mind and patience, please advice.

High GPU usage problem can be seen at the SSs in the attachments.

Specs:

Quote

Computer: MSI MS-7816
CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K (Haswell-DT, C0)
3400 MHz (34.00x100.0) @ 4000 MHz (40.00x100.0)
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G43 (MS-7816)
Chipset: Intel Z87 (Lynx Point)
Memory: 20480 MBytes @ 666 MHz, 9-9-9-24
- 8192 MB PC10600 DDR3 SDRAM - G Skill F3-1333C9-8GAO
- 4096 MB PC10600 DDR3 SDRAM - G Skill F3-10666CL7-4GBXH
- 4096 MB PC10600 DDR3 SDRAM - Unknown
- 4096 MB PC10600 DDR3 SDRAM - G Skill F3-10666CL7-4GBXH
Graphics: MSI GTX 1060 Aero ITX OC/ARMOR OC
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, 6144 MB GDDR5 SDRAM

Monitor: 65" 4K 60Hz TV
Drive: TOSHIBA HDWD120, 1953.5 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 6Gb/s
Drive: JD 120GB, 117.2 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 6Gb/s
Drive: ST3500413AS, 488.4 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 6Gb/s
Drive: JD 120GB, 117.2 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 6Gb/s
Drive: SAMSUNG HD103UJ, 976.8 GB, Serial ATA 3Gb/s @ 3Gb/s
Drive: Crucial_CT120M500SSD1, 117.2 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 6Gb/s
Drive: ST6000DM003-2CY186, 5860.5 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 3Gb/s <-> USB
Drive: Seagate Backup+ Hub BK, Disk drive
Sound: NVIDIA GP106 - High Definition Audio Controller
Network: RealTek Semiconductor RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Professional (x64) Build 17134.48 (1803/RS4)