Windows 100 % Disk Issue - New Laptop

[Ohsohollz]

Good Evening All,

I recently purchased a new laptop from PC Specialist (beginning of April), it has been working fine up until the last few days where task manager is now showing 100% disk use. I have tried some tips found online;

- Removing Google Chrome
- Ensuring all Windows Updates are installed
- Disabling Anti-Virus software

Unfortunately none of these have resolved the problem. I was going to do a clean install of windows 10 but just wanted to check that the recovery for W10 is in my downloads in the PC Account - it basically says W10-recovery so assuming this is the case.

Also would welcome any other suggestions to resolve the problem. Specification below:


UltraNote Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD 60Hz 45% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Intel® CoreTM i5 Quad Core Processor i5-10210U (1.6GHz, 4.2GHz Turbo)
4GB Corsair 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 4GB)
INTEL® HD GRAPHICS (CPU Dependant) - 1.7GB Max DDR4 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
1TB SEAGATE 7mm SERIAL ATA III 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 128MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
Integrated SD Memory Card Reader
1 x 40W AC Adaptor
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
UltraNote Series 36WH Lithium Ion Battery
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
1 x USB 3.1 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.1 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
MULTI COLOUR BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required) BullGuardTM Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland

 

[steaky360]

Unless someone else has better ideas, a clean installation of windows is often a good thing - you could always give PCS a call first to see if they've any suggestions of course.

I don't think you'd necessarily need to use an image of your laptop, you could simply install windows cleanly using the media creation tool on the windows website - someone else may know better though. You'd need to install any software that is on the laptop that way obviously.

 

[ubuysa]

Open the Resource Monitor (enter resmon into the run box). In the Disk section of the Resource Monitor click (once) on Total (B/sec) to sort this section on the number of bytes being read or written. Take a screenshot of that and post it here, we'll see what the active files are and what processes are using them.

 

[Ohsohollz]

Morning! Thanks for the assistance, Disk Activity above. Also just to note last night I did the latest W10 Updates which appear to have broken as I now get a Boot Failed error when I first turn the computer on, I click ok and the computer then loads fine but just to note the 100% disk usage issue was occurring before this latest error. The error was EF1 PXE 0 for IPv4 (80-FA-5B-76-35B2) boot Failed.

 

[ubuysa]

SnippingTool.exe is killing you. It's reading twice as much data as then next highest process. It looks like it's stuck in some sort of loop. Why is the snipping tool running? Open Task Manager and end the task.

 

[Tony1044]

SnippingTool.exe is killing you. It's reading twice as much data as then next highest process. It looks like it's stuck in some sort of loop. Why is the snipping tool running? Open Task Manager and end the task.

If I had to guess, I'd say it's how they got that screen shot

It is fairly normal for disk IO to max during early use as the indexing service runs.

It could also have been Windows updates.

 

[ubuysa]

If I had to guess, I'd say it's how they got that screen shot.

Doh!

That's one hell of a read rate just for a screenshot though. Something isn't right there.

 

[debiruman665]

I've had this issue lots of times, it can be caused by a number of things

A windows update secretly downloading,

Windows search indexing is happening - turning off windows search service will fix this

You are downloading from steam and steam is un-compressing files

 

[Tony1044]

Doh!

That's one hell of a read rate just for a screenshot though. Something isn't right there.

It is - my guess would be it was was taken as it was was saved so we're seeing a moment-in-time peak that probably lasted less than 1 second

 

[Tony1044]

I've had this issue lots of times, it can be caused by a number of things

A windows update secretly downloading,

Windows search indexing is happening - turning off windows search service will fix this

You are downloading from steam and steam is un-compressing files

I am not a fan of disabling system services.

 

[Ohsohollz]

Thanks for all your posts. I’ve done a clean install and just in the process of setting the laptop back up again.

I’m assuming I will also need to download the drivers from my PC Specialist account?

Currently no issue with the disk usage - which I would hope as there’s nothing on it at the moment!

Thanks Again!

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks for all your posts. I’ve done a clean install and just in the process of setting the laptop back up again.

I’m assuming I will also need to download the drivers from my PC Specialist account?

Currently no issue with the disk usage - which I would hope as there’s nothing on it at the moment!

Thanks Again!

Let windows update install all drivers apart from nvidia and management control software such as control center

Any new installation will have a lot going on in the background as it sorts out indexing and updates.

 

[ubuysa]

Thanks for all your posts. I’ve done a clean install and just in the process of setting the laptop back up again.

I’m assuming I will also need to download the drivers from my PC Specialist account?

Currently no issue with the disk usage - which I would hope as there’s nothing on it at the moment!

Thanks Again!

Run Windows Update repeatedly to install the best drivers. Keep running Windows Update until no more updates are found.

 

[Tony1044]

Thanks for all your posts. I’ve done a clean install and just in the process of setting the laptop back up again.

I’m assuming I will also need to download the drivers from my PC Specialist account?

Currently no issue with the disk usage - which I would hope as there’s nothing on it at the moment!

Thanks Again!

You may see the disk I/O peak again when it starts to index and when Windows starts to download updates. It should be transient though.

 

[SpyderTracks]

If you manually run all windows updates until they're clear, then get nvidia drivers and management drivers installed, then I would leave it powered on overnight to sort out all the indexing.

Problem is you've got a very slow 5400RPM drive as the main drive which is going to be quite a bottleneck.

 

[Ohsohollz]

If you manually run all windows updates until they're clear, then get nvidia drivers and management drivers installed, then I would leave it powered on overnight to sort out all the indexing.

Problem is you've got a very slow 5400RPM drive as the main drive which is going to be quite a bottleneck.

I am slightly concerned about this as really had no idea that Windows 10 was such a giant on the HDD front. After this issue I read a few items on line that said I’m screwed unless I install an SSD, which after just buying a new PC was not a fun read....

 

[SpyderTracks]

I am slightly concerned about this as really had no idea that Windows 10 was such a giant on the HDD front. After this issue I read a few items on line that said I’m screwed unless I install an SSD, which after just buying a new PC was not a fun read....

You're not screwed, but it will be significantly slower than having even a normal SATA SSD.

It's basically a given these days that the OS drive should be an SSD, normally M2.

 

[Ohsohollz]

You're not screwed, but it will be significantly slower than having even a normal SATA SSD.

It's basically a given these days that the OS drive should be an SSD, normally M2.

If the problem persists I might look at upgrading - not really played around with the hardware in laptops much (have done so with desktops in the past).

Would installing an SSD be a simple task?

 

[SpyderTracks]

If the problem persists I might look at upgrading - not really played around with the hardware in laptops much (have done so with desktops in the past).

Would installing an SSD be a simple task?

Yeah, really simple, literally just slot out and slot in.

And it wouldn't affect your warranty either, you're allowed to do upgrades without affecting warranty so long as you don't do damage in the process. I would then leave the HDD as a data drive.

 

[Ohsohollz]

Yeah, really simple, literally just slot out and slot in.

And it wouldn't affect your warranty either, you're allowed to do upgrades without affecting warranty so long as you don't do damage in the process. I would then leave the HDD as a data drive.

Perfect! Thanks for that. Might consider this then as an option but will see how the laptop fairs for now.

If you could recommend any SSDs to look out for, I would be extremely grateful.