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Question

GPU spiking/CPU idling

Mar 12, 2018 6:30AM PDT

I have a user at my company whose ThinkCentre is behaving strangely.

-GPU usage goes up randomly

-Seems to suddenly and randomly stop using almost any CPU and use 100% GPU

-Wrote a batch file to run that resets GPU usage (command: devcon /r disable PCI\CC_0300 ; devcon /r enable PCI\CC_0300); this resets GPU and works for a while before manifesting again.

-One thing that sets this behavior off is inverting colors and uninverting, and starting up. Otherwise there seems to be no consistent trigger for it.

Steps taken so far:

-Updated, uninstalled, and reinstalled his graphics drivers.
-System Maintenance Troubleshooter - found no issues.
-Booting into a clean state by disabling every MS task possible; same behavior.
-Running diagnostics on boot; all tests came back flawless.

He is using a ThinkCentre M900 and the graphics is the onboard Intel(R) HD Graphics 530. He is running Windows 10 VLK, build 1709. There are no games or graphics-intensive programs - he is just programming, mostly in VisualBasic.


Any thoughts?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
We need more info
Mar 12, 2018 7:04AM PDT

How old is this computer and have you kept up with the maintenance ?
Blow out the dirt from the vents etc.....

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It's pretty new and it's clean.
Mar 12, 2018 7:39AM PDT

The computer is under a year old with 2 years of warranty left. We recently added some RAM and an SSD 1TB HD and of course made sure it was physically clean. There have been no temp spikes but it was so recent that I didn't think to check the fans/vents. I'll give it a look but highly doubt any problem from that. Assuming nothing wrong there, any other ideas? Thanks for replying; you're the only person in multiple threads I've started to even respond.

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I'm no Pro
Mar 12, 2018 7:47AM PDT

just a student here at Cnet.
I try to help out a little here and there and come up with the simple things that could be a problem .
Saying that, it's time for the Pro's to take over

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Answer
It really doesn't sound wrong to me.
Mar 12, 2018 9:17AM PDT

W10 is one of the versions of Windows that started to tap the GPU for desktop visuals. Given it's only an Intel graphics solution it runs out of steam pretty fast and will fall back on swapping with system memory.

However the inverting colors is usually a sign of overheating or bad driver. The GPU use alone doesn't make me think anything is amiss.

So before I see your Web Speccy report tell me how you updated that graphics driver. We know that using Windows and it's update driver is often wrong. I'd use the driver from Lenovo or with a little more work the one from Intel.com.

More at https://www.piriform.com/docs/speccy/using-speccy/publishing-a-speccy-profile-to-the-web

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Inverting is manual
Mar 13, 2018 9:38AM PDT

R. Proffitt - thanks.

-The colors are not inverting on their own; the user just likes to switch back and forth on his own, and when he does it, he notices the GPU spike and CPU cutoff.

-The user did the graphics driver update himself and he did do it through Windows. He also looked up the Intel driver. Here is what he said: When I updated I went through windows. When I tried to reinstall I tried to use the one from Intel’s website, but it would not let me install it. The site said it would work for my gpu and system but gave me an error about it not being compatible when I tried to use it. Then I rebooted my computer and I guess Microsoft took pity on me, or they felt like asserting their dominance, and the driver was automatically reinstalled.

-He tried all three drivers at downloadcenter.intel.com/product/88345/Intel-HD-Graphics-530

-I will get the speccy shortly.

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1. My answer now is
Mar 13, 2018 9:44AM PDT

Nothing would be my concern about GPU spikes when inverting colors since that's a lot of GPU work and it can be continuous if say some GIF is active on or off screen. To me, nothing broke about this.

2. The drivers. Be sure to research about how to disable Windows 10 automatic driver updating.

FINALLY: Nothing really looks wrong here. You may want to do nothing.

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Also the GPU use is problematic
Mar 13, 2018 9:41AM PDT

Also the GPU use is problematic because CPU normally runs at least in the double digits and normally the GPU is fairly low. When this happens GPU goes to 100% (usually staying there, never getting below 90%), and even txt documents load extremely slowly, block by block.