CPU use at 66% intermittently

[Preston-CLB]

The above post by SactoDoug is great advice.

If you disable apps that run at start-up, ensure that you do not disable anti-virus or anti-malware apps.
-P

[WartHog]

So, I did some more searching based on "WMI Provider Host and Services and Controller app spiking CPU usage" and found this info https://www.howtogeek.com/332838/wha...ta%20via%20WMI.

Did a restart on the Windows Management Instrumentation Service yesterday afternoon and saw immediate massive drop in CPU utilization. As of this morning, no spikes or slowdowns - CPU use is averaging 5-10%. Crossing my fingers and hoping the fix holds!

[Iknownot]

Have a 5-6 year old Dell laptop running Windows 10 that's intermittently becoming slow/unresponsive - extreme Browser lag regardless of browser being used, slow application loading, erratic mouse cursor movement, etc. Looking at Performance in Task Manager during these episodes, the CPU use is at 66% with spikes to near 100%. Have tried downloading Malwarebytes and running scans which show no issues. Have run Disc Cleanup, cleared Browser caches, etc. and made sure Windows and Driver updates are current.

Anyone had similar issues with a Win 10 machine or have any ideas as to what might be causing this issue?

Malware or not the answer for any misbehaving PC that has an install of windows that is older than a year, certainly older than 2, is a complete clean windows install. If the situation persists in the same way after you probably have a hardware issue. And don’t use the manufacturers, install tools to reload windows. Use Microsoft windows, USB tool to load a completely Microsoft only version of windows with none of the programs. The manufacture normally includes. You can always go to the manufacture website and download any drivers or software you actually need or use after loading to clean copy of windows. Make sure you back up all your irreplaceable data before you do the windows clean install.