Very sluggish Windows 10 behaviors

[anandtechreader]

Hi, I built a powerful computer with the top of the line components (i9-9900K, G.Skill Trident Z DDR4-3200C14 64GB RAM, Samsung 970 Evo 1TB SSD) about 3 days ago. I haven't done any work yet as I am still waiting for the GPU to arrive. Usually I just logon to Windows and let it sits for hours. However, it has happened a few times that very sluggish behavior were exhibited. It was like I ran out of memory or used a hard drive on a 10+ years old computer but these are not actually the case. Please note that Windows 10 Professional 64-bit is set to no sleep and it is a fresh clean install with all the windows and motherboard drivers up to date. I enabled XMP in BIOS to set the RAM to DDR4-3200C14 automatically rather than enterring the RAM's data to the BIOS manually. Here are two sample issues:

1. Only some stuffs showed up on the top left and bottom right of the screen. Moving the blue window on the top left or (If I recall correctly clicking the bottom right) of the screen showed some re-drawings in a very sluggish way (please refere to sluggish1.jpg and sluggish1b.jpg) and the system halted.

2. After hours of inactivity, I pressed the mouse button. I heard kind of beep sound from the computer whenever I did that but only the wallpaper showed up on the screen. Pressing any key on the keyboard did noting but after pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL, login prompt showed up but the computer froze. Only one dot showed up under Windows which was under my login name and icon. After enterring the password, only a few application icons showed up. Name of those icons did not even show up (please refer to sluggish2.jpg)

I have used Windows 10 laptop for 1.5 months but I have never encountered such issue. Is this a hardware or software issue? All components are brand new. Anybody knows what is going on and how to fix the problem? Thanks

 

[LTC8K6]

Task Manager is your friend, if it will run for you.

It might tell you what's slowing windows down.

Sometimes in a new install, a lot of updates are needed, and Windows can crawl while it's updating.
Especially if you don't realize it and keep interrupting it.

 

[anandtechreader]

Thanks. I will try Task Manager if it works.

Even I manually do Windows update the first thing after I turn on the machine, it could still crawl while updating? Is there a possibility that there may be hardware issue with the RAM. Perhaps I have to manually enter the RAM parameters in the BIOS?

 

[LTC8K6]

You can also check to see if Windows is trying to update. It's in the Settings area.

The updates that make it crawl for me are the new versions of Win10 it tries to install.

You can also try a Reset to see if that fixes it.

 

[anandtechreader]

Thanks. By "Reset", do you mean pressing the "Reset" button on the motherboard/case?

 

[LTC8K6]

Thanks. By "Reset", do you mean pressing the "Reset" button on the motherboard/case?

No reset windows in the Settings menu.

Settings > Update & Security > Recovery

 

[Ketchup]

Agree on checking Windows update in settings to make sure there isn't anything else needed. Check Device Manager for anything missing there. Undo XMP and set BIOS to "optimized defaults" until things start working again.

Also, what resolution are you running?

 

[JackMDS]

Language is Great and without it Human will not be Human.

That said, in many instances (especially with Technology) Words are secondary to numbers.

If you buy a Ferrari that supposed to do 300 MPH and it does only 280 MPH you can call it Sluggish, if it does only 100 MPH you can call it Sluggish too. But though the words use are the same there is huge difference between the two and just calling it Sluggish does not provide any clue to how to solve the problem.

Given your Verbal description it seems it much beyond Sluggish and you should start from scratch. I.e, check the Hardware Installation carefully, erase the HD/SSD install Win 10 from a Bootable USB loaded with the latest Version (1809) from Microsoft.

Disconnect it from the Internet and see how the Installation works as is without Internet intervention.

If it works OK connect to Internet and start the Updates. If the computer is Good, Updating from 1809 .,1 to the current Update 1809 Build 17763.316 should not take more than 20-30 minutes to brink it to the current Most Update status.

When done and working run Win 10 Disk cleanup.

-------------------
Basic numbers for “”Sluggish”” or Not? can be obtained in few minutes by using this Portable Free version of this program.

https://www.hwinfo.com/download/

It will show you the basic functioning of the hardware and there is a fast simple bench mark that let you compare the numbers to other Solid Builds.

 

[anandtechreader]

I use Mac and Linux most of the time. Of my 30+ years experience in using computers, I have not seen anything like the one shown in photo "sluggish1b.jpg" That is what I called sluggish.

 

[anandtechreader]

Agree on checking Windows update in settings to make sure there isn't anything else needed. Check Device Manager for anything missing there. Undo XMP and set BIOS to "optimized defaults" until things start working again.

Also, what resolution are you running?

4K resolution.

I tried Thinkpad X1 Extreme with 4K screen and Windows 10 for a month. Did not have such problem.

 

[anandtechreader]

No reset windows in the Settings menu.

Settings > Update & Security > Recovery

Thanks all. Let's try this first as it seems to be the simplest among other suggestions. There are two options:

1. Keep personal file
2. Remove everything

If I chose Remove everything, I got two more options:

1. Remove files only
2. Remove files and clean the drive

For each set of questions, which option do you recommend?

 

[LTC8K6]

I would try the very first option initially and see if that fixes the sluggishness.

If it doesn't, then I'd probably try the last option.

 

[anandtechreader]

Thanks. What does resetting actually do? Reinstalling Windows as if it were a fresh vanilla install? I have been using Windows 7 occassionally the past 20 years. So Windows 10 sometimes have strange behavior to make the system very slow? I wonder if it is better to make a backup of the system after I have reset the system, updated Windows as well as all the drivers (from Intel and ASUS websites) to create a checkpoint so that I don't have to redo these everytime the system starts to behave strangly.

 

[Ketchup]

Since you are using the latest hardware, you want to be sure to install the latest drivers, either the ones the came with the board (if applicable) or off the motherboard manufacturer's website (I didn't see your motherboard listed).

 

[anandtechreader]

Since you are using the latest hardware, you want to be sure to install the latest drivers, either the ones the came with the board (if applicable) or off the motherboard manufacturer's website (I didn't see your motherboard listed).

I am using an Asus WS Z390 Pro workstation motherboard. As I don't have a CD/DVD drive, I just downloaded the latest drivers from ASUS and Intel websites.

I am new to Windows 10. Since it sometimes lead to strange behavior and require resetting/re-installation, how often should I backup the system to create checkpoints so that I don't have to reset/reinstall the OS again and again?

 

[LTC8K6]

I am using an Asus WS Z390 Pro workstation motherboard. As I don't have a CD/DVD drive, I just downloaded the latest drivers from ASUS and Intel websites.

I am new to Windows 10. Since it sometimes lead to strange behavior and require resetting/re-installation, how often should I backup the system to create checkpoints so that I don't have to reset/reinstall the OS again and again?

Win10 does not normally require resetting or re-installation in my experience.

You have some sort of odd problem.

I generally use the reset function when selling computers.

Windows has excellent backup functions, including backing up to the Cloud (One Drive) if you want.

 

[LTC8K6]

Maybe update the BIOS?

Version 0501 2019/02/12 7.76 MBytes
WS Z390 PRO Formal BIOS 0501 release.
1.Update RST Driver version.
2.Update 8 core Microcode .
3.Update EC FW version.
4.Improve system performance.

 

[RLGL]

Any one suggest memtest? Try a sngle stick in slot A2. Anything connected to the sata sockets, disconnect and test.

 

[AnnoyedGrunt]

What are your graphics drivers like? I did a new Win 10 install, and its annoying auto-update tried to install graphics drivers while I was manually installing them. The computer was very unstable and stuttery. I reinstalled windows while disconnected from the internet and that let me get the graphics drivers installed without issue. Performance has been great since.

-AG