Laptop randomly slows down for no apparent reason

Hey everyone,

this is my first time using a computer help forum so please excuse me if i am posting in the wrong part of the forum etc.

First I will describe the problem and then of course provide more information about my system.



The problem:
My laptop usually runs quite okay but for a couple weeks now it has been rendered mostly useless or straight up annoying because it randomly slows down for no apparent trigger or reason; comparable to people experiencing fps drops when gaming, except that i am not really doing much on my laptop and it still happens, whether on Zoom, when browsing and whatever. This happens every couple minutes or seconds.

I found that both my cpu and gpu activity changes whenever these drops occur; probably because the graphics chip is built into the processor (intel hd graphics 620), more specifically, my CPU usage drops to a certain level and my GPU usage sometimes rises simutaneously. I will provide screenshots of the task manager below. Moreover, I assume I have a non-paged memory pool leak, which I am not sure is related to this particular problem. This non-paged memory pool buildup is usually solved by me changing something in the registry editor, then restarting the laptop and the non-paged pool is mostly cleared; I may have been a little bit too lazy to actually find the source of this so I just clear it from time to time and the computer runs a little faster, too (will provide screenshots for that as well).

The Laptop does not seem to heat up either, it just slows down. It's as if something put a limiter on the CPU usage when it slows down.

Another thing that I noticed was that the process "system idle process" usually runs at 80-90 under "CPU" in the details tab of the task manager but drops down to 00 when the lag occurs. I also have some output from the Resource Monitor but couldn't make much use of that personally. Anyway, I will now describe the system in detail and will provide any more necessary information below or when requested. I will also add a screenshot of my startup programs in case anyone is interested in that.



System:

ASUS ZenBook UX3410U

Windows 10, 64-bit Operating system, x64-based processor

8GB RAM (7,89GB usable)

Intel i7-7500U 2.70GHz 2.90GHz

Intel HD Graphics 620



Drivers should be updated but let me know if you need more information on those.





Personally, I think that some program may be causing this, I'm not sure if there is dust or dirt or something else on my processor for some reason but I also doubt that it would cause these random drops in CPU usage.

I am very grateful for any help and ideas on how to fix this. Let me know if there is any more information that will be needed.
Thank you very much in advance!

Pyro said:

Hello Deafboi,

A few questions to provide greater clarification if you wouldn't mind:

Is your ram usage always that high (Such as on startup)?

Does your computer start off fine and then slow down as it runs? Does using more or less programs affect the speed at which it slows?

Where does your laptop sit? Is it on a table with adequate ventilation? Or somewhere like your lap/carpet?

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Thank you for the reply! well yeah, ram usage is a little elevated but as you can see that is partly due to the non-paged memory pool leak.
As for the ventilation; I thought about whether this could be of relevance, too but the laptop does not heat up either, so I do not know if it's worth looking into it but usually its just on a table; the issue arises anywhere though.

I think the issue may be more frequent when I use programs but it also happens when I only use stuff such as the notepad or acrobat reader or even just moving around stuff on the desktop. I think it generally has this problem, no matter whether it jsut started or not.

Pyro said:

I see, how old is the laptop?

And have you contacted Asus about this matter? They have a 3-year parts/one way shipping warranty, so that might be worth looking into.

Click to expand...

Laptop was bought in late august of 2018!