Idle Processes Slamming my CPU Usage After Only 4 Minutes of Idle?

[pyromaniac13_]

So usually whenever my computer idles for 4 minutes exactly, "Host process for windows tasks" along with "Host process for setting synchronization" starts up, maxing out my CPU. The process it runs varies, but recently its been Disk Defragmenter, I'm not sure why though because I've scheduled that to run at a certain day and time. The Host process is the one causing the initial spike in cpu usage, and it remains fairly high, but the process that comes after it then takes top of the list.

I've looked everywhere, even in task scheduler to find what's causing this, but I seriously can't find anything, and this is getting annoying. Honestly the only reason I care is because I play music through iTunes a lot while doing something away from my computer, and when the CPU starts getting slammed, the music gets all glitchy.

I've already modified some tasks in task scheduler, as well as changed the idle maintenance setting, but it keeps showing up.

Anyone know how to locate the setting for this? Or have any solutions/workarounds? I'd like to simply change the idle time required for these processes to start. Let me know if you need more info, thanks,
-Christian

Edit: Wasn't sure which forum to post this in, but now I realize CPU forum would've been better.

 

[Ralston18]

I would not let Disk Defragmenter run unless I deliberately decided that defragmentation was needed.

And Disk Defragmenter should not be run at all on a SSD.

However, you may be able to identify the source of the launch by looking at Event Viewer. Event Viewer captures many things that happen on a computer and logs that "thing". Generally informational, warning, or error.

The four minute time frame should really help. Look for events that occur about 4 minutes after you/your PC has been idle.

Look through the Event Viewer logs. They can be confusing and overwhelming at first. However you can do no harm by looking and getting a sense of how the logs are organized and the information being captured for logging.

Right-clicking a log entry will provide more details about the log entry.

Take a look and see what you can find. There probably will not be warnings or errors. Look for some informational event that you can tie to "idle" time.

 

[pyromaniac13_]

I would not let Disk Defragmenter run unless I deliberately decided that defragmentation was needed.

And Disk Defragmenter should not be run at all on a SSD.

However, you may be able to identify the source of the launch by looking at Event Viewer. Event Viewer captures many things that happen on a computer and logs that "thing". Generally informational, warning, or error.

The four minute time frame should really help. Look for events that occur about 4 minutes after you/your PC has been idle.

Look through the Event Viewer logs. They can be confusing and overwhelming at first. However you can do no harm by looking and getting a sense of how the logs are organized and the information being captured for logging.

Right-clicking a log entry will provide more details about the log entry.

Take a look and see what you can find. There probably will not be warnings or errors. Look for some informational event that you can tie to "idle" time.

I have Disk Defrag set to run once every 2 weeks overnight, figure there isn't any harm in it. Also, I have an HDD.

But I'll look through event viewer, I didn't know about that. I'll get back to you if I find something, but there is quite a bit to look through, I'll find a way to narrow it down.

 

[pyromaniac13_]

Okay so I found the logs for the maintenance, and the source was indeed task scheduler as "defrag". I located the task in the scheduler, and it was one of the tasks that I had modified before. I changed it to require an idle time of 15 minutes, and if idle is interrupted, wait another hour. But for some reason it's still running off the four minute time? I'm gonna play around with the settings a bit more, and see what I can accomplish. If you have suggestions let me know.

 

[Ralston18]

One immediate suggestion is to be sure that your modifications are indeed saved (via Save, Apply, OK) and that some reboot or restart is not needed to ensure that that happens.

Could be some cycling involved. Meaning that your changes may not be fully implemented until some interim/pending defrag is successfully accomplished.

Beyond that (full disclosure on my part) "playing around" is pretty much what we may be left with.

Failing any solution via Task Scheduler, you may need to consider the registry.

Hold on that for now.....

 

[pyromaniac13_]

One immediate suggestion is to be sure that your modifications are indeed saved (via Save, Apply, OK) and that some reboot or restart is not needed to ensure that that happens.

Could be some cycling involved. Meaning that your changes may not be fully implemented until some interim/pending defrag is successfully accomplished.

Beyond that (full disclosure on my part) "playing around" is pretty much what we may be left with.

Failing any solution via Task Scheduler, you may need to consider the registry.

Hold on that for now.....

After changing up some of the settings, it seems that it was just cycling it due to never completing. I'm not sure why it wouldn't complete though, that may be a whole other issue in itself. It's had ample time to complete, I might look into that more on my own, but I'm not too worried about it.

I changed the settings to retry the task, along with max attempts before waiting until the next scheduled time. I tested it and it hasn't started up, nor has any other idle task. So for my issue, all's good. I'll probably look into it some more but for now to see why the task had never successfully completed, but for now I'm satisfied, thank you very much for your help