Windows 8 Something Running All The Time

nivrip

nivrip

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My daughter has an Asus laptop running Win10 and reports that it is running slowly. When I have looked at it I note that the little revolving circle next to the arrow controlled by the mouse is there constantly, as though it is waiting for something to complete.

I have checked as best I can and cannot find anything running except World Community Grid (BOINC) and that seems to be fine. Is there some way that I can check to see what else is running to hopefully discover what is holding things up?
 
On the keyboard press, together, Ctrl+Alt+Delete (the three-fingered salute!). In the screen that is displayed click Task Manager. When open the Task Manager has a tab Processes and under this tab will be listed Apps that are running. Background processes are also listed.
There are other tabs unders which information is displayed such as Performance, Applications, Start Up, Users, Details and Services.

Hopefully you will be able to identify the culprit.
 
Thanks for the replies Malcolm and Mucks.

I'd already looked in Task Manager but wasn't really sure what I was looking at. I have noticed that in the CPU column there is something called Service Host: Local System (14) which seems to be using between 33.5 and 35% of the CPU. Could this be the problem? I looked on my PC and this item reads 0%.
 
I have noticed that in the CPU column there is something called Service Host: Local System (14) which seems to be using between 33.5 and 35% of the CPU. Could this be the problem? I looked on my PC and this item reads 0%.

I don't believe there is a direct relationship to what is running on one computer compared to another. After all, computer A is not a clone of computer B even though they be each running a version of Windows 10.

For information about Windows 10 apps running in the background have a look at:
https://www.howtogeek.com/241752/how-to-stop-windows-10-apps-from-running-in-the-background/
 
you can ignore 'service host' if it's not consuming 100% resources ... it's something that MS likes to keep to themselves.

I take it as read that this Laptop is more than adequate in running Win 10? Turn off WCG, if you not already tried that, it is supposed to run 66-100% (or was when I used it)

Go get Spybot-anti-beacon and 'disinfect' everything. ;-)
 
Ooops, sorry fellas just noticed the laptop is running Win 8.1 and not Win10. :blush:
 
OK I've looked again in Task Manager and today Service Host: Local System is only on 0.1%. The biggest consumer today seems to be Windows Defender but that seems to be in order.

I also downloaded Spybot anti-beacon and ran that through but no change. I also turned off WCG but again no difference.

Not quite sure what I'm supposed to be looking for exactly so any further advice would be most appreciated.
 
Have you done any virus scans to see if maybe a nasty is running in the background you don't know about ??
 
Also now downloaded Process Explorer and have lots of info in front of me. Unfortunately, no idea what it all means.:)
 
Sounds to me like nothing to worry about. Maybe just standard windows background stuff going on. Indexing/Defrag etc.
 
V_R said:
Sounds to me like nothing to worry about. Maybe just standard windows background stuff going on. Indexing/Defrag etc.
Click to expand...

Thanks V_R. It's just that the revolving wheel is there all the time, as if something hasn't closed down, and the laptop is much slower than it was before.
 
Try expanding the service and stopping the tasks one by one until the CPU usage drops.


EDIT: Terrible vid here, but you get the idea. :)

 
Last edited:
Aha, think I've got rid of it. :)

I did, more or less, what you said V_R and went through Task Manager, right clicking on each item in turn. This brings up an option of End Task which I did for all items that seemed to be using CPU. The spinning wheel seemed to disappear when I ended Microsoft Office Click-to-Run which I assume hadn't closed down correctly.

Relief all round. :thumb:
 
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