100% HDD usage spikes for no apparent reason

Frazze · Jan 21, 2016

Hi,

I'm getting 100% HDD usage spikes at random intervals (usually every 15-30 seconds in MS Word 2010, every 5-10 minutes in Hereos of the Storm, and 2-3 minutes in Team Fortress 2). It causes the whole display(sound seems fine) to freeze for 2-3 seconds... which is kind of annoying.

While working in MS Word there's almost no CPU or RAM usage, just these 100% HDD usage spikes as you can see on the graph.

Sorry for the czech language.

Also, my laptop is brand new and it is configured to High performance Power plan (which seems to be an issue in a different thread with similar problem).

Chkdsk D: found no problems and I have no idea what can cause this.

Specs:
Intel Core i7-4720HQ 2.60 GHz
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M
12 GB Ram
C: Drive is 128 GB SSD
D: Drive is 1TB HDD
Windows 10

Thank you and sorry for my English, I'm not a native speaker.

SuperSoph_WD · Jan 22, 2016

Welcome to the TH community, Frazze!

This seems like quite an annoying issue for you!

I'd recommend you to test the WD Blue drive in your laptop using WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostics for Windows. Running the QUICK and EXTENDED tests should help us determine the health and SMART status of the drive.
Another thing you could try is disabling some Windows Services that could also be the source of the issue.

If there's anything wrong with the HDD, I'd recommend you to get in touch with the laptop manufacturer's customer support and ask for assistance, since it's a brand new product.

Keep me posted, though.
SuperSoph_WD

Frazze · Jan 22, 2016

SuperSoph_WD :

Hello, thank you for the suggestions

It didn't help though.

HDD test results are looking good.

I also tried to disable some Windows services (Superfetch, Windows Search and Background inteligent transfer service) as suggested in the other thread but the 100% usage spikes and lags still persist.

I've found more topics with 100% hdd usage issues, but in most cases, the hdd usage is constantly at 100%.

Mine HDD seems to be just fine most of the time (few other games don't lag and all), it only apears on certain applications and at random intervals (or they're not random at all, because something causes them, I just don't know what).

Frazze · Jan 25, 2016

Any other ideas, please?

I've noticed my laptop does this also in Widows 10 alone. For example: Right click on "My computer" can cause this lag too with exactly the same D: drive usage spike. (it doesn't happen everytime i right-click my computer)

My hardrive was also set to power itself off after 20 minutes of inactivity in Power plan settings. I set it to "Never", but it wasn't the solution obviously, because the lags persist.

I spent a lot of time watching processes and their usage and it doesn't seem that one process can cause this. Every process has 1% HDD usage at max.

Thank you.

SuperSoph_WD · Feb 1, 2016

Hey there again, Frazze!

I'm sorry for the late reply, I was taking some time off.
It seems like the issue is becoming quite annoying. How is the performance of the drive overall? Does the system experience any lags or freezes?
The last resort would be to backup all your precious data and clean install Windows from scratch. This should automatically rule out any software that could be the source of the issue.
It could be Windows 10 itself as well. It's not an uncommon issue with this OS version after all.

Let me know how the troubleshooting is going.
SuperSoph_WD

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