Hey everyone, I've just started as the sole IT support for a mid-sized company and I've run into a frustrating issue. One of the finance department's laptops keeps spiking to 100% CPU usage, apparently for no good reason. The employee typically only runs Chrome, some Excel files, and QuickBooks Pro. The laptop is an i7 13th gen, so it shouldn't struggle. I've checked the task manager and noticed that the Volume Shadow Copy Service is the primary CPU hog, which doesn't make much sense to me. I've tried some basic troubleshooting, like disabling unnecessary startup programs, but the lag still happens. I'm looking for any advice or steps I could take to reduce the CPU usage back to normal levels. Thanks!
3 Answers
The Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) is used by Windows to create backups and snapshots. It might have been enabled for tasks like rolling back changes in spreadsheets. You should definitely check the settings to see if it's the root of the problem.
Have you checked how much RAM the laptop has? That could also be a factor in the high CPU usage if it's low, like just 8GB or so. Might be worth looking into!
I was thinking the same! If it's only 8GB, that might be contributing to the freezes.
You might want to try stopping and restarting the Volume Shadow Copy Service. Running the commands `sfc /scannow` and `dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth` could also help fix issues. Don't forget to run `chkdsk /f`. Good luck with it!
Thank you! I'll give those commands a shot and see what happens.
How do I investigate this more closely to confirm if it’s truly the cause?