My PC was running normally last night, but this morning the entire system suddenly feels sluggish. It has an AMD Threadripper 1950X, an Nvidia RTX 2060 Ti, and Firefox is using most of the roughly 25% memory load. Task Manager shows only about 5% average CPU usage, with the System Idle Process around 85%, so the processor does not appear heavily loaded. Process Lasso reports 100% responsiveness, while the System process shows roughly 441 threads. I also updated the graphics drivers, but that did not help. Windows security prompts take one or two seconds to appear, and Garry's Mod is now stuttering even though my internet connection seems fine. Could a storage drive problem, pending update, or something else be causing this sudden slowdown?
3 Answers
Check the health and performance of your SSD first. A drive that is beginning to fail can make Windows feel slow even when CPU and memory usage look normal. You can check its SMART status with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo, and also look in Event Viewer for disk or controller errors. If the drive reports a warning, back up important files immediately.
Did Windows install an update or leave one pending overnight? Also check the uptime in Task Manager. A real restart—not just shutting down if Fast Startup is enabled—can clear a stuck driver or system process. If the machine has been running for a long time, restart it and see whether the lag disappears.
The low CPU and memory numbers suggest this probably is not a normal processor or RAM bottleneck. The delayed security prompt and game stuttering point more toward storage I/O, a driver issue, or a background Windows task. Check Task Manager's Disk column while the slowdown is happening, and look for unusually high active time or response times rather than just overall CPU usage.
I have not checked the SSD yet. I will also try a full restart and check the uptime.