Laptop stalls with "ntoskrnl" - System-URGH!!
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Thread: Laptop stalls with "ntoskrnl" - System-URGH!!

  1. #1
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    Laptop stalls with "ntoskrnl" - System-URGH!!

    I am ready to toss my laptop out the f'n window from frustration.

    I will give you the specs on my laptop if needed.

    I am running an upgraded version of Windows 10. I am sporadic during the day on when I use my laptop meaning I leave it on most of the time and when I have to use it usually for just moments at a time I jiggle the mouse and then go where I need to go in the way of posting on a forum, reading an email etc. Nothing memory intensive.

    I have owned this laptop since Nov2013. I have not loaded any major software on it in almost 4 years.

    I have noticed though starting back about April last year when I go to use it all of a sudden (not all the time) it hangs because it is busy doing something - hard drive light on constantly for anywhere from 3 minutes to 6 minutes. Being curious and wondering why I used task manager to see what is causing it to hang where I can't do anything basically while it is hanging for that time period.

    System - "ntoskrnl"

    I upload an image on this post of a screen shot of my task manager when it is hanging and using most of my HD %. It hangs around 85 to 100%.

    I could leave the laptop go for hours and then use it and I don't get hung up with the high % usage. Then 10 minutes later all of a sudden it decides it wants to start with this high % usage again with system. I also noticed that Firefox also causes high disk %.

    Why is it that this "system" hangs my darn laptop for so long?
    Also if I reboot my laptop or bring it up from a "shutdown" it will take about 18-35 minutes for it to settle down (come down off of high disk %) before I can actually do anything with it.

    I have used things like Malwaybtes, PC Cillin, etc to see if I have a virus or malware etc and nothing detected. I also use AVG Free Edition antivirus.

    I only really use my system for email (Thunderbird), web surfing (Firefox) and sometimes Open Office.

    Any clues as to what is causing this? What I would really like is some link to software the will clean up my system - get rid of old dead system files not being used, temp files etc. I am not really looking for more disk space as I have plenty but something to clean up my system.

    Ideas? Thanks for your help.

    Attachment 15452

  2. #2
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    Unfortunately, when a system process starts using a lot of CPU cycles or hard drive activity, it can be hard to figure out what exactly is doing this, since Task Manager may not respond until after the high usage activity stops. For the high disk activity (drive light on all/most of the time), click on the (100%) Disk heading on the Task Manager Process tab to get it to sort from highest to lowest. You can also sort on CPU or Memory as well. If you can find out exactly which process is hogging resources, it may be possible to do something about it.

    Note that Firefox, LibreOffice/OpenOffice and Thunderbird are all potential candidates for the resource hog.

    Other things to check:

    Make sure you have a decent amount of free hard drive space.

    Check Event Viewer for various errors (Red or Yellow items).

  3. #3
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    You probably want to run a hard drive diag, just to make sure there are no errors.

    If the hard drive checks out, there are quite a few fixes for 100% disk:
    https://www.partitionwizard.com/part...indows-10.html

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  5. #5
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    Disk space - TB drive with 606GB available - don't think this is the issue

    The screen shot I attached in my #1 post is sorted by "Disk" which is usually what I have it sorted by.

    Even Viewer
    If I scroll back down to later dates from today and including today I see that every day either between 4 to 5am or 12:30 to 1:30pm this event Warning shows. There seems to be a warning every 2 minutes or so during these time periods. See below. But I don't think these warnings are necessarily always at the times that there is 100% disk usage for "system"


    Log Name: System
    Source: Microsoft-Windows-DistributedCOM
    Date: 2/9/2021 12:43:59 PM
    Event ID: 10016
    Task Category: None
    Level: Warning
    Keywords: Classic
    User: Username path
    Computer: computername
    Description:
    The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID
    {2593F8B9-4EAF-457C-B68A-50F6B8EA6B54}
    and APPID
    {15C20B67-12E7-4BB6-92BB-7AFF07997402}
    to the user XXXXXX SID (S-1-5-21-527765398-463050068-4001164437-1008) from address LocalHost (Using LRPC) running in the application container Unavailable SID (Unavailable). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.
    Event Xml:
    <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
    <System>
    <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-DistributedCOM" Guid="{1B562E86-B7AA-4131-BADC-B6F3A001407E}" EventSourceName="DCOM" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="0">10016</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>3</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x8080000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2021-02-09T17:43:59.040301700Z" />
    <EventRecordID>44122</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation ActivityID="{6c410b8b-1032-4d74-b565-8abea358a1b6}" />
    <Execution ProcessID="1172" ThreadID="19088" />
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>computername</Computer>
    <Security UserID="S-1-5-21-527765398-463050068-4001164437-1008" />
    </System>
    <EventData>
    <Data Name="param1">application-specific</Data>
    <Data Name="param2">Local</Data>
    <Data Name="param3">Activation</Data>
    <Data Name="param4">{2593F8B9-4EAF-457C-B68A-50F6B8EA6B54}</Data>
    <Data Name="param5">{15C20B67-12E7-4BB6-92BB-7AFF07997402}</Data>
    <Data Name="param6">computername</Data>
    <Data Name="param7">user</Data>
    <Data Name="param8">S-1-5-21-527765398-463050068-4001164437-1008</Data>
    <Data Name="param9">LocalHost (Using LRPC)</Data>
    <Data Name="param10">Unavailable</Data>
    <Data Name="param11">Unavailable</Data>
    </EventData>
    </Event>


    Attachment 15453

  6. #6
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    That doesn't seem to be what is causing your disk issue:
    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/tro...accessing-dcom

  7. #7
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    Those Event Viewer DCOM items can safely be ignored. Midknyte's idea of a check on hard drive health would be the next thing to try.

  8. #8
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    Thanks all for your suggestions and thoughts.

    Ok, I will ignore those "events" that I posted. I read up on them a bit.

    My drive is a Toshiba MQ01ABD100

    I do see that there is a diagnostic tool for Toshiba drives. I would assume the diagnostic software/tool would be for all the Toshiba drives and there are not diff tools for diff models?

    I also went into Device Manager, selected the drive, "properties" and then looked at the Events and there was nothing listed.

  9. #9
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    Seagate Seatools should be able to do a generic HD test.

  10. #10
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  11. #11
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    Thanks jdc2000 and midknyte I will check them out. It will take me a bit of time. Takes longer for me to comprehend what I read at 65.

  12. #12
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    Update

    Ok, I am out of ideas. I read thru the articles of the links given to me. I ran the Seagate Seatools and no problems with the drive.

    This is driving me nuts. I could be working on my laptop for 15 minutes and it will all of a sudden go to 100% disk usage with system "ntoskrnl" for anywhere from 2 to 8 minutes where I can't use my laptop basically at all. No errors being reported in Events. I have plenty of hard drive space.

    If I reboot my laptop it still takes anywhere from 20-35 minutes for it to settle down enough where I can actually use it. This has been happening for quite some time. I bought this laptop in Dec 2013 and never had these problems up until about 10-15 months ago.

    I am thinking about wiping my hard drive and doing a fresh install of windows. I have a full backup of my laptop. I use Acronis and an external hard drive. Any time I save a file for anything or any software I am working from I save to a folder that I created as a master data folder. Then below that folder I name all the sub folders for my software or other projects and save my working files to these sub folders. This way all my personal files that I have created are all under on master folder - easier to make back ups this way.

    I did an image backup of my drive with Acronis but don't want to copy that back onto my hard drive. Will probably end up with the same issues. Doing a clean format and install of Windows and then loading my personal backed up files on the hard drive will probably be my best option.

    Firefox is another one that kills my hard drive with 100% usage but not nearly as long as system. I am willing to change over to another browser but my concern is firefox holds all my log in information from the sites I visit. Any way to transfer them to a diff browser. I know how to do the bookmarks. any suggestions on a browser?

    I use Thunderbird as an email client. that does not lock up my hard drive as much and it give me the ability to use alias emails.

    Rebooting my laptop is a nighmare I can't remember it ever taking nearly as long.

  13. #13
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    At this point, a clean install of Windows would probably be the way to go. Before doing that, you should make sure that you have the following:

    Acronis image of current system on some sort of removable media

    Drivers for your computer/motherboard, video adapter, and other essential hardware

    Installation files for all software currently installed, along with any registration keys needed

    Separate backup of data files, email, browser favorites, settings, etc. so they can be restored

    Installation media for the Windows 10 version (Home, Pro, etc.) that you have installed currently, along with yor product key

    https://www.groovypost.com/howto/fin...0-product-key/

    Alternatively, a new, blank replacement hard drive or SSD for the laptop that you could just swap with the existing drive and install Windows on the new drive. If you install to the old drive, you may want to reformat it as well.

    Once you have all required items, perform a clean install of Windows, update any drivers as needed, then update Windows so that it has all current Windows updates. Leave the system running for as long as needed to make sure that you are not seeing any of the same symptoms that you are currently experiencing. If all is well, make an Acronis backup image, and then install one item of application software at a time, checking to make sure that your unwanted delay symptoms do not return. If all is still functioning normally, install another software package and test again. You may want to make periodic Acronis backups after a few software installs, just in case. When you have all of your drivers, software, and data reinstalled, make a final Acronis backup of the restored working state in case another Microsoft "update" causes issues in the future. Periodic (quarterly or other interval) Acronis backups would also be advisable, since you will still be an unpaid beta tester for Microsoft. I would also advise settings Windows 10 to delay updates for 30 days, if your version of Windows allows that.

    If the clean install of Windows still shows delay symptoms, then next step would be to install something like Linux Mint (with the Cinnamon desktop) to see if you still have issues. If you have issues with Linux Mint, then it may be new laptop time, since that could indicate a motherboard hardware problem.

  14. #14
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    Thanks JDC2000 for the check list to reinstall Windows

    I've done a Windows reinstall many times in the past on multiple different systems so I am familiar with the steps involved - more or less - to the best of my memory. I have not done it in about 8 years to a friends system.

    Meantime, my internal hard drive comes with a "Recovery" partition. I would do the recovery from this partition as I do not recall ever getting any disk/CD etc with this laptop when I purchased it from Best Buy in Dec 2013.

    The system originally came with Windows 8 and since the purchase date I upgraded (free version) to 10.. Reading your link (thank you) it explains pretty well what has to be done. I am not even sure once I do the reinstall of windows that I will once go from 8 to 10. Unless I am forced to do it for any odd reason.

    When I use the "recovery" partition to reinstall it more than likely will give me the option to format the drive (which I had planned to do anyway).

    Any drivers for system devices should be included in the recovery but may have to be updated since it has been so long since the purchase.

    After successful reinstall I would normally only install one software package at a time to be sure there are no conflicts or issues before moving on to the next. I learned that over the years so if there is an issue you have a better idea of what caused it. Backing up as you go is a good idea and now that I have Acronis with an external expansion drive it will be easy.

    I am hoping I won't have to get a new internal hard drive. Not really on my priority list at this point for spending money. I have installed and replaced PC desktop parts and even built them from scratch years ago but have never worked on a laptop.

    I will have to find a nice quiet weekend to do this once the weather breaks. Bad weather I am usually at my laptop more.

    If after the format/reinstall I am experiencing the same issues I will just have to live with it. Again, don't have the money for a new system or hard drive.

    I just have to find better alternatives to Firefox and Thunderbird.

    Thanks for all the guidance/instructions. I won't be doing the reinstall for a few weeks since I have a lot to do but will report back when I do it for the outcome.

    Here's to better weather around the corner.

  15. #15
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    There are really aren't any better alternatives to Firefox and Thunderbird at the present time. However, I don't think either of those programs would be causing your current issues.

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