Solved Very laggy/slow startup, high CPU usage for many programs at startup

JoshuaXD · Jul 4, 2022

This started a little while ago. My computer with a SSD and a good CPU decided to lag at startup really bad, sometimes it happens after startup, just random stuttering when doing something slightly more intensive with the UI or with other programs.
Restarting is painful because of this when before it would consistently restart and be fully booted up at the desktop in 1 minute. It can't handle a few programs starting up at startup anymore and many programs (not ones I installed, just system programs) use 10 to 30% CPU randomly for a few seconds and contribute to the lagging.
Maybe the high CPU usage at startup is normal but I know the lagging isn't. Also for the most part, after startup the lagging goes away, although it can sometimes come back?

Perhaps it's unrelated but I also have gotten multiple BSODs with the code "IRQL_not_less_or_equal."

I haven't tried to troubleshoot myself because I don't know where to start with something like this, it's just so random.

jvickers · Jul 4, 2022

JoshuaXD said:
This started a little while ago. My computer with a SSD and a good CPU decided to lag at startup really bad, sometimes it happens after startup, just random stuttering when doing something slightly more intensive with the UI or with other programs.
Restarting is painful because of this when before it would consistently restart and be fully booted up at the desktop in 1 minute. It can't handle a few programs starting up at startup anymore and many programs (not ones I installed, just system programs) use 10 to 30% CPU randomly for a few seconds and contribute to the lagging.
Maybe the high CPU usage at startup is normal but I know the lagging isn't. Also for the most part, after startup the lagging goes away, although it can sometimes come back?

Perhaps it's unrelated but I also have gotten multiple BSODs with the code "IRQL_not_less_or_equal."

I haven't tried to troubleshoot myself because I don't know where to start with something like this, it's just so random.

Go here and follow the directions for having others assist you troubleshoot the BSODs: BSOD Crash Analysis.

JoshuaXD · Jul 4, 2022

Oh yeah, I should also mention, it lags really bad when waking my PC up from sleep too.

JoshuaXD · Jul 5, 2022

Ok, problem has been fixed, if anyone cares here's what was wrong:

I had installed Qustodio, then I uninstalled it but it didn't remove a very important part of itself (like a lot of programs do).
It left a driver that supposedly only does something with my internet, but apparently it brought a gaming computer to its knees.
So if you for some reason have the exact same problem as me, just delete all ".sys" files in "C:\Windows\System32\drivers" that are made by Qustodio, just make sure you don't mess with anything else. The names are "qwdf.sys" and two others that are basically the same but have a different letter other than "f."

Coram Daes · Jul 5, 2022

This: Parental control and digital wellbeing software ?

Why?

Fabler2 · Jul 5, 2022

JoshuaXD said:
Ok, problem has been fixed, if anyone cares here's what was wrong:

I had installed Qustodio, then I uninstalled it but it didn't remove a very important part of itself (like a lot of programs do).
It left a driver that supposedly only does something with my internet, but apparently it brought a gaming computer to its knees.
So if you for some reason have the exact same problem as me, just delete all ".sys" files in "C:\Windows\System32\drivers" that are made by Qustodio, just make sure you don't mess with anything else. The names are "qwdf.sys" and two others that are basically the same but have a different letter other than "f."

It's good you fixed it. You might like to use something like Geek uninstaller or Revo to uninstall programs in future, though, as they remove all the junk left over.