[DaneBrooke]

Windows 10 Pro
Version 2004 (OSBuild 19041.867)

A while back my fan started occasionally running very fast. Task manager reported 90% CPU usage (yikes!) All I'm running is chrome, and I haven't touched it for a while... typically task manager would report 7-10% CPU usage in this scenario. I can't find any process that is using the juice. Most of the processes sit at 0.0% or 0.1%.

? Virus? Unlikely. ESET NOD 32 scan says no virus detected.
? Malware? Malwarebytes (free) scan says no malware detected.

Then why do I think I have a rogue process that hides from view in task manager? Anyway, I hope someone has seen this and has an idea what to do next. Thank You!

 

[bassfisher6522]

Could be a background task or app running. For the background apps you can disable that in windows settings, privacy, background and then disable what you want. I turn off everything but 3......cortana, settings, defender. As for task running in the background.....it would be a windows update.

Then go to task manager, startup tab and disable everything that is not critical to run at startup....ie printer software, software updaters, anything you don't use at start up.

 

[DaneBrooke]

I'll reply later after I have tried this, but surely all these things are visible in task mgr. Whatever is chewing the cpu is something task mgr seems to fail to see.

 

[djaburg]

Not sure if you've looked at Resource Monitor. It gives a more detailed look at things going on. You can easily select one item in one "area" and that item will be filtered in the others so you're not just poking around. Worth a look. I've used that to find odd issues that you're describing.

 

[DaneBrooke]

Not sure if you've looked at Resource Monitor. It gives a more detailed look at things going on. You can easily select one item in one "area" and that item will be filtered in the others so you're not just poking around. Worth a look. I've used that to find odd issues that you're describing. View attachment 330996

TY. I was just there. yeah, lots finer touch than task mgr, but still not coming up with anything. After Wed I may be able to selectively suspend services, but too vested in being able to do my normal stuff before then. I was hoping that someone might just say along the lines "O, that happened when my BITS froze" or some equally illuminating comment.

 

[spunk.funk]

A Fan running fast means the computer is running hot. Is this a laptop or a desktop? What is the Make and Model# of your computer?
Check the temperature by either booting into the Bios and going to PC Health, or downloading a 3rd party app like CPUZ or Core Temp.
If you think it is software related, you can try a Clean Boot. If this works then you can leave it this way. If you want to find what is causing it, you can add one Startup Item or Service at a time till the computer fans start spinning fast. Then you will know the culprit.