System Stuttering Doing My Head In

Hi everyone,

I am having a frustrating problem with my installation. I did a fresh install about a month and a half ago.

After a few hours of uptime, my PC stutters really severely if I open a random app.

I turned off my router and restored from a previous build, then disabled internet access in that build, and it seems to work fine. However, as soon as I connected to the internet, it starts to happen, so I thought it was probably an AV update issue.

Firefox works fine, for some reason.

I thought I solved it by removing my paid AV (BitDefender), but I was wrong.

Can anyone help? I don't know what to do.

What exactly do you mean by 'Stutters'?

Rollback_Jockey said:

What exactly do you mean by 'Stutters'?

Click to expand...

The cursor jumps all over the place when I move it and the system freezes up for a second and then repeats.

How do I block *automatic* updates? Can anyone help? I don't want to block all updates; just stop automatic updates to let me choose what to install. For this I mean things like Defender updates, etc.

I have tried

- Disabling Windows Update automatic downloads
- Disabling Defender
- Turning off Microsoft Store updates

all in group policy.

No joy. Can someone help?

Instead of randomly turning off features randomly, why not run something like Task Manager / process explorer and try see what's actually going on..

Process Explorer - Sysinternals

Why would you think this is a windows update issue? I agree with Aramil. Randomly disabling features is not the way to solve the problem.

1. Test that it's not software conflict using clean boot. . If it doesn't happen in a clean boot, you have some software conflicting with Windows. Brink's procedure will help you weed out which one. Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 11 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts Tutorial

2. Try another mouse, preferably a wired one.

3. Try another usb port for your mouse. If it's currently plugged into a back port, move it to a front port.

I had a similar issue just last week when I plugged in an eternal hard drive into the port next to my cordless mouse receiver. I thought it was a problem with the drive but turned out to be a problem with the mouse receiver.

I had a similar problem last week. It was something to do with the Logitech Bolt mouse and keyboard USB dongle. I took it out and moved it to another USB port and it has worked smoothly ever since.

Yeah. look at mouse drivers if you added any and remove them. Your computer does not list mouse type or keyboard type. anything logitech is fine w stock ms drivers - look in control panel/mouse to set things.
NOT an update problem.
NOT a BD problem.
USB related issue (look for other HID (human interface device) 's

Aramil said:

Instead of randomly turning off features randomly, why not run something like Task Manager / process explorer and try see what's actually going on..

Click to expand...

It just happened with task manager open. I didn't see any jump in CPU or anything, probably because task manager was freezing up too.

krism said:

Yeah. look at mouse drivers if you added any and remove them

Click to expand...

It's not my mouse or keyboard. They are both wired btw. If I'm watching YouTube when it happens, the video stops playing. It's something else.

swerd said:

The cursor jumps all over the place when I move it and the system freezes up for a second and then repeats.

Click to expand...

So you are moving the mouse when it happens
and the motion is very jerky.
This never happens unless you are moving the mouse?
Both are wired. Can I know brand and model of keyboard and mouse and if there is a finger-pad anywhere for mouse movement?
Does this happen for a few seconds or for a few minutes (ie could you find anything by looking at task mgr?)
One thing I would like you to do is to plug each into a different port, and non-hub if possible, or different hub. If hub can I know brand of hub?

swerd said:

The cursor jumps all over the place when I move it and the system freezes up for a second and then repeats.

Click to expand...

thecaretaker said:

I had a similar problem last week. It was something to do with the Logitech Bolt mouse and keyboard USB dongle. I took it out and moved it to another USB port and it has worked smoothly ever since.

Click to expand...

Based on the OP description I would be inclined to suggest that thecaretaker may be onto something. When the mouse jumps and jerks all over the place it is often due to a peripheral hardware problem such as a device not properly plugged in, a bad USB cable (especially on mouse or keyboard), a stuck key or mouse button, to name a few examples. Even a bad Ethernet connection can create this effect. Not to say that software can't generate this effect also, although it is usually due to an intensive application such as a virus scanner when memory is low. This isn't likely when one has 64GB of system memory but sometimes it happens. I would check all my hardware and peripherals first.

yes, I have had things change favorably simply by changing the brand of hub, though that seemed to be much more of a thing on my laptop than on the box.

Scannerman said:

Not to say that software can't generate this effect also, although it is usually due to an intensive application such as a virus scanner when memory is low

Click to expand...

I've had a similar issue a few weeks back, only mine was caused by the Antimalware service doing it's scans during inappropriate times, which the scheduled scans appeared to have been changed following a recent Windows Insider Update. Normally, the antimalware will only scan during idle time - and will not bottleneck the PC. Looking through the group policy, those settings appeared to have been changed without my knowledge.
Anyways, If it isn't a hardware issue (likely cause), and if you're suggesting that software may be the root cause, I'd first look at the processes that are running, and determine if there is any high hitting (higher than normal) CPU/ memory usage associated with said "freezing/ lag/ stuttering. In my case, I determined that it was the Antimalware doing scans causing the sluggishness. Antimalware Service and it's scans however, cannot be disabled whatsoever - even by disabling defender. On the next occurrence, please screenshot and upload your task manager and it's usage totals so we can all have a better look to see what's going on so we can try to help you better. I do know that the Antimalware scans will cause this - I'm running only 16gb of ram, and when it was scanning at odd times, it would virtually render my PC unusable to the point I had to restart it constantly until I figured out what was happening and resolved the issue.

So as fast as it started, it has finished. The only app that hangs now is Paint.NET. I have switched to Gimp so that is fine. My system works again. This one was a weird issue.

GIMP is vastly better than Paint anyway!