System Interrupts is taking up 90% of my CPU

This could be due to CRON jobs that are built into WP to run automatically.  There are a few plugins that you can install to check CRON processes that are running.  This may give you some insight into which of the plugins is the culprit.

Site is on siteground on godaddy.  I am on Windows 10

To be clear for others, the issue is on your win 10 computer?  

How are you developing locally?  IIS? WAMP? something else?  Is it just the WP site causing the issue or any site? If you spin up another plain WP site does the issue persist?

I am working online, but the problem is on my win10 computer. I'm using Chrome to access the WP site which is hosted on Godaddy in siteground.

I've only noticed it since I started working on this wp site, but I'll check others. I'll check the CRON job idea as well. Thanks.

Run Admin Tools, Resource Monitor and let it run for 10 to 15 minutes.  See what is taking all the CPU by process and app. See if this sheds light on what is going on.

Hmm.

Just check that the WordPress site is fully patched and all of the addons on that site are fully patched as well.  Wouldn't hurt to have that site virus scanned as well and include your own machine in that too.

I might be being paranoid but WordPress sites are targets for all sorts of viral infections.

Hi, I am not on the wordpress site now, and I'm seeing 90% CPU usage, so I think that was a red herring. Here are three screenshots of the task manager, and I'll run Admin Tools, Resource Monitor as John suggested.

   

Try closing some of the Google tabs. That is a significant CPU usage.  

Also, run a full virus scan.  I am not sure what applypatch.exe is doing.

The issue does not seem to be System Interrupts from the above screen shots.

Another thing to do is restart and then not start any applications.  Now what is running in Task Manager

Ok, will do that, John, This is what I get from performance monitor and resource monitor, not sure if it helps.
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resource-mon.JPG

I do run a virus scan every couple of days, it's been clean, but I'll run a deep scan and then try the restart with no apps. Thanks.

Resource Monitor (and Performance Monitor) are Windows tools available in Administrative tools.

Click on the three vertical bars at the top right of chrome and select, "More Tools" then "Task Manager".  That will give you the details of what is causing the issue in chrome.

Ok, that seems to be GPU process.

I have a feeling there is no real issue other than you have 14 tabs in chrome open.  Try using just one tab at a time and see what happens.

And all I have open in the browser is this site and harvestapp.com.

Why are there 14 tabs for 2 sites. That does not make sense.  

Remove all Chrome extensions, uninstall Chrome, restart and install a new copy of Chrome.

Ok, I can do that. Also, I restarted, and with nothing open, I opened task manager and this is what I saw:

That ApplyPatch is taking up a lot of CPU resources as John noted.  I'm not sure what that is.

Also look at Process Explorer  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer  that can help tell you what is going on.

Also something is causing System Interrupts to use a lot of CPU.  I am still thinking viruses here.

Running a deep scan now.

Along the lines of what John suggested... I hope you have a good backup of your machine...

When system interrupts (normally heavy disk i/o) run at 100% with no associated process, this is a very good indicator ransomware is currently encrypting all your files.

If you don't have backups, I'd suggest you power off your machine, remove the disk, make a backup on another machine, then run Malware cleansing on the disk (while connected to another machine).

Trying to cleanse a disk of Malware, when the disk booted the system can turn into a cat + mouse game you will normally lose.

I do have a backup. Question: Is it possible that someone else is hacking me via my wireless? I'm running a deep scan that's taking hours and so far nothing found, I'm wondering if it could be coming from outside.

I was going to turn off my wireless and reboot, see if there's any difference, but I'm not sure that even makes sense.

If your wireless security is weak or routine (simple name password) then yes it could have been hacked.

Something strange is going on so if you have a good backup, then it may be time to reinstall Windows and restore your apps and data.

Check what's being loaded on Startup.  That's a quick check for some malware.

Can you check what traffic is using the wireless?  If you've got nothing using the Internet but heavy wireless traffic then  ...

Also check Windows isn't doing a major update.  Windows 10 is getting updated around now to latest version.

You can try rebooting and go into SafeMode.  If the system interrupts problem goes away then you've got an idea.

Also try rebooting with the wireless disconnected and see what that does, if the interrupt problem still occurs.


Best method of scanning for malware is removing hard disk and attaching it through a USB cable to another working machine and using that machine to scan it.  I do recommend MalwareBytes for this purposes.

ok, thanks, everyone. I did a full deep scan and it came up with nothing at all after hours of work,  but I'll check out all you suggest!

Startup is pretty bare minimum. It's a pretty new laptop, might even still be under warranty, maybe I'll call HP as well.

maybe I'll call HP as well.

There does not appear to be a hardware issue, but HP may ship you a recovery USB that would be helpful to rebuild it.

Hi, everyone. Ok, I unplugged the router and rebooted, and that didn't change anything. I uninstalled and reinstalled Chrome.

A couple of things:

1. Now, whenever I open task manager, it says 80-90% CPU usage, but it immediately starts to fall to a reasonable range. Not sure if that is relevant.

2. I did a little independent research, and several articles indicate this might be a hardware issue, specifically a driver issue. I downloaded and am running DPC latency checker. It shows a solid line of yellow bars. I'm not sure how to interpret that. I am going to do what it suggests and disable drivers one at a time while continuing to run the checker.

3. I have a few recent driver updates but they are not very specific, not sure what drivers were updated.
dpc.JPG
driver-updates.JPG

Your driver-updates.JPG tells you mostly what drivers were updated .  You would need to look at the HP support site to identify all the drivers

And... no help, I have disabled all the drivers I can, and the yellow bars on DPC never changed. I need to go to work now, but here's another screenshot.

Ok, folks, so the question has changed, I believe now it's a hardware issue, what should I do, close this and reopen?

Sources: https://appuals.com/fix-system-interrupts-high-cpu-usage/  and  https://www.thewindowsclub.com/system-interrupts-high-cpu-usage-in-windows-10

I'm going to try disabling the USB root hubs as discussed there.

It certainly could be a hardware problem. You were going to report it to HP.

But at this point, yes, close the question as there is not much more we can do.