my windows 10 pc got really slow although CPU and memory usage is fine. what else can I do?

I had the same problem but the solution was different. My CPU, Memory usage and everything looked normal but it seems my system had high page faults which was slowing down the entire system. To check if this is a problem in your system

  1. Start->Run->perfmon

  2. Select "Performance monitor" and click on "Add a counter" (+ button)

  3. In the list of counters shown, locate and expand Menory and select the "Page faults" counter

  4. Watch the performance monitor to see if the page faults are high. In my case it was at 100 always

If you have confirmed that you have high page faults, now we need to find out which application is causing it. Follow the below listed steps.

  1. Search google for "ProcessExplorer" from SysInternals.

  2. Download ProcessExplorer and run as administrator

  3. Under the "View" menu click on "Select Columnns"

  4. Click on the "Process Memory" tab.

  5. Enable "Page Faults" and click OK.

  6. Now you will see the "Page Faults" column. Sort it in descending order. You will find out which one is causing high page faults. If it is a user installed application try uninstalling and re-installing it.

In my case, it was "KasperSky". My license got expired and I renewed it from the KasperSky app. Guess something got messed up with that. I uninstalled and re-installed KasperSky and my system was back to normal!


In researching my "slow CPU" problem I found many others with Windows 10 having similar problems. Mine- and I believe many others- was thermal related.

The "normal" description for this problem- besides all the errors caused by the CPUs slow operation- is, when looking at the performance tab in Task Manager, the CPU Utilization is less than 50% AND the CPU is running at about 50% of its Base Speed. You can probably check to see if your system has this same "thermal fault" by turning off your computer for 15 minutes or so to let it cool down and when booted back up, looking at task manager- first- to see if the CPU will run at higher than 50% Utilization and Base Speed. (You may need to run an application or two while looking at the performance tab just to get the CPU cranked up to a higher speed and utilization).

If your CPU- now cooled off- runs at its rated speed but soon drops to the 50% levels as you monitor the performance tab in Task Manager, there is a good chance that your problem is thermal related. Windows 10 apparently responds to overheat notices from the CPU and will, in fact, toggle the CPU from its rated speed and utilization to half or less, then back to normal as the CPU cools down. If your CPU can't cool down enough after some processor intensive operations, Windows will keep the CPUs performance at half levels.

This seems to be a fine safety feature when it works properly but clogged air vents, failed fans, abundant Registry entries and too many apps running at the same time (check your bloatware) overloading the CPU can prevent a cooler operation of the CPU. Anything that could prevent your CPU from cooling off should be checked. Additionally, I placed Furniture Caster Cups under the rubber "feet" of my laptop in order to raise it higher off the desk and allow for more cool air to get to the underside.

My system now works just like it's supposed to, going to half-speed and utilization when I overwork and thus overheat the CPU but it cools quickly and returns to normal speed after any such processor intensive work.

You can find many tips searching on the Internet for things to do to help this heat problem, so I won't go into any more here. Just don't make any changes that have Windows ignore the overheating- the system will begin to shut down on its own and you risk destruction of your CPU and more.