My CPU usage suddenly climbed to around 95% under "System interrupts." When I opened Task Manager to investigate, the Performance tab stopped responding. Since then, Task Manager barely shows any processes and hangs whenever I try to close it. I initially wondered whether overheating was involved, so I cleaned out the computer and left it powered off overnight, but the problem remained after rebooting. I've also tested another local account and saw the same behavior, and running SFC and DISM repairs didn't resolve it. What should I check next, particularly for a possible driver problem?
2 Answers
The earlier 95% System interrupts reading points more toward a driver or hardware device getting stuck than overheating. Try running LatencyMon for a few minutes while the issue is occurring. Check its driver results and look for a driver with unusually high execution time or reported latency; that can point toward problems with devices such as audio, networking, storage, USB, or graphics hardware. Update, roll back, or temporarily disable the suspected device through Device Manager to test it.
Since the problem happens across multiple user accounts, it’s probably not limited to your profile. Running `sfc /scannow` and `DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth` was a good step, but if both completed without fixing it, the CBS log is mainly useful for confirming whether either tool found corruption. It may be more productive to investigate the hardware or driver causing the high System interrupts.
I tested another account and had the same issue. Both repair commands completed, but Task Manager is still broken, so I’ll focus on finding the driver or device responsible.
I’m not very familiar with LatencyMon. I’ll look through the driver results and focus on anything showing unusually high latency or execution time rather than just checking the name of a random driver.