Erratic, sluggish Windows after v2004 install

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Good hours, bad, sluggish hours and randomly switching between those states …

That is my Windows 10 Pro 64 on a Thinkpad T560 Intel i7 6600 with 32 GB and SSD, typically kept up to date.

It had been “poorly” for a while and I eventually decided to refresh Windows; something I have never had to  do before (ordered Oct 2016).  I obtained Windows from the MS download site – it turned out to include 2004.  I  installed using the option to keep data and programs and that seemed to go fine.

Since then it has sometimes runs OK, then other times been slow or unresponsive for several minutes at a time.   Task mgr reports cpu trundling along at 30 – 55%, with no apparent disk activity problem.

Sometimmes it is web pages that are stuck, sometimes an app or the start button that is unresponsive.  As I type this into Chrome, it is Win task Mgr that is stuck.

Malwarebytes, Vipre anti-virus and Win Defender scans all report no problems.

I am stuck.  Once I was reasonably techie in Windows matters, but 20 years retirement means I am rusty.

I should be very grateful for an suggestions as to what may be the problem.

Thanks,  David

2 users thanked author for this post.

JohnS1606, doriel

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Hi David, Although the T560 isn’t listed as being tested, there may be issues that need addressed. Have a read over this lenovo support page and windowslatest for possible workarounds.

Worst case scenario is a rollback to your previous versiion as recommended by Lenovo until issues are corrected by Lenovo for Windows 10 – v2004

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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Thank you for responding, Microfix,

It all became so bad I had to restore from an Acronis backup of c: as I had feared would be necessary.   That took me back to 1909 and Windows is now behaving satisfactorily.

It had been “sick” before I was bumped to 2004 (when trying to rebuild), so why it is now OK remains a bit of a mystery.  I am just glad it is working.

It was pleasing to have an Acronis True Image backup work as intended!  I have used it for several years but have never before needed to recover in this way.

David

1 user thanked author for this post.

Microfix

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Good to hear your backup worked David,
Out of interest, what was the backup date you restored from?
Did you have that backup months patches installed or not?
thanks in advance

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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It was a May backup, probably mid May and so quite likely to have included the May patches … sorry for late reply.   It gor me going and that’s what mattered.

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Microfix

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Don’t forget to defer 2004 for 180 days and defer May 2020 patches for 2-3 weeks..
Don’t ‘check for updates’.

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2004 failed our pre-deployment testing. We experienced thrashing yet windows showed only 4 of 16g of memory being used. Then it progressively got worse. One of the machines used for testing was a Lenovo and the other three were Dell. The Lenovoa began experiencing this phenomena within a day but the Dells lasted three days before the deterioration started and experienced catastrophic events which prevented writing to the event logs (that’s our unsolved mystery). Stay on 1909. You have until 2021 until Microsoft will end support and force you to upgrade.

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Those phenomina you experienced were likely .tmp files being generated by ‘storage sense’ that was reported here #2274186

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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CindyH

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[CindyH]

We have storage Sense blocked via GP but I can research that.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by CindyH.

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I looked into it and Storage Sense is ruled out as the culprit. Thanks for the heads up though. I talked to my right hand and he said that by default, Storage sense is disabled despite out GP. Since we are using Enterprise we don’t need to upgrade until 2022 so I’m not going invest anymore time researching  this build. Maybe they will patch sooner or later but I doubt it.

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Microfix

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[WSprenticemarie]

FWIW, My 2004 PC was bogged down, so, having read that Windows 10 Indexing, particularly in version 2004, is slowing down PC’s, I disabled the Windows Search Service  (services.msc) and the PC rsumed its normal running speed. The performance of the Search facility seemed unnafected.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by WSprenticemarie.

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Thanks. Having googled your idea, I see many items suggesting 2004 improves indexing.

As I am now back on 1909 I cannot comment.   But only Windows related folders on C: are indexed in my system; it does not touch my D: where all my real work is stored – well away from Windows folders.

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doriel

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[doriel]

If this issue is still actual, first of all, I would recommend DriverBooster to see, if some of your drivers are not out of date and update them.

While you will be testing new drivers, I would recommend you to look into windows logs:

Rightclick on “This PC” and select “Manage”
Then go into Windows Logs and under “Applications”, there can be some information )critical errors etc., maybe you can try to post your suspicious logs here.

Another thought, 32 GB SSD for Windows 10 64 Bit seems te be unsufficient by my opinion. Bare Windows itself has approx. 10GB. Then Program files, Windows updates, hyberfile (can have around 3 GB) and other things. Your Windows wont be happy with 32 GB.

Malwarebytes, Vipre anti-virus and Win Defender scans all report no problems.

Whats your Windows version? Pro or Home? In Pro, Windows defender should be enough. Maybe that Antivirus is cuasing hiccups to your PC.

Look at this fresh installation of Windows 1909 64 bit I did today. Disk has already 17,5 GB of data (one user, no additional applications).

Dell Latitude 3420, Intel Core i7 @ 2.8 GHz, 16GB RAM, W10 22H2 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

PRUSA i3 MK3S+

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by doriel.

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Thanks, but actually it is the RAM that is 32GB; the SSD is some 490 GB, partitioned roughly equally to C: for system and D: for data.

For better or worse, I let Lenovo decide on device drivers through it’s update process.

I followed your suggestion to look at Comp Mngmnt/system tools/event viewer/ Windows logs / Applications.  The only “red” error recently was the cosmetic ESENT 455 error and I have tidied it up as shown in https://www.howto-connect.com/esent-event-id-455-error-message-in-windows-10-1903-fix/

For the last couple of weeks the system has behaved – on 1909.

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doriel

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Sorry to hear, that issue still remains. Good to hear your drivers are up to date. Today I found something that may be related to your problem, although its three months old article.

This update, which is for people running Windows 10 1903 and 1909 versions (the two latest major Windows 10 releases) is causing people to notice abnormal processor and disk usage – which can seriously impact the performance of the computer.

You stated you have v2004 but it sounds the same.
Its about update KB4551762.

Matt Hanson @ Techradar

Dell Latitude 3420, Intel Core i7 @ 2.8 GHz, 16GB RAM, W10 22H2 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

PRUSA i3 MK3S+

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I have a slightly different issue. I was getting “” errors with 1909, and so I upgrade to 2004 in the hopes it would solve. While 2004 is running fine, I still get Windows Update errors…

The updates in question are very old packages which predates Windows 10. That’s odd, because this system was not upgraded from previous operating system (Lenovo X1 Carbon, 6th Gen).

Would appreciate insights…–Scott

“Security Update for Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package (KB2538243)

There were some problems installing updates, but we’ll try again later. If you keep seeing this and want to search the web or contact support for information, this may help: (0x80070643)”

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MS Visual C++ is most likely part of one of the older programs you have installed on the computer. That is an update for it.

Look in Control Panel\Programs & Features and see if it is installed.

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You are correct. MS Visual C++ x86 version installed April 27; x64 version installed May 6.

Probably installed by Quickbooks 2015, which was installed April 27, and which also installed Quickbooks Runtime Redistributable. MS Visual C++ Redistributable was installed same day, but not showing MS Update issues.

Uninstall/reinstall QB and/or C++?

Thx, Scott

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If you reinstall (update) the program using C++ it should take care of installing the runtime version of C++ it requires. I have never installed C++ separately from the program that uses it.

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I uninstalled Quickbooks, then had to uninstall Visual C++ separately.

Visual C++ is gone, but Windows Update is still trying to update it.

Thanks, Microsoft. As machine performance is not at issue, I am going to pretend I never saw that error message.

–Scott

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Davidhs wrote:

490 GB, partitioned roughly equally to C: for system and D: for data.

I would drop the C: drive to 150GB and use the rest for D:. Windows only really needs 50GB plus room for updates and apps, plus room for a hibernation file, in your case 32GB.

You can use MiniTool PartitionWizard free to do the work.

cheers, Paul

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… reports cpu trundling along at 30 – 55%…

If you sort your list in descending order by CPU usage, is there some obvious process, that is eating your resources (more than 30% CPU usage)?

Dell Latitude 3420, Intel Core i7 @ 2.8 GHz, 16GB RAM, W10 22H2 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

PRUSA i3 MK3S+

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