Windows 8 and :03 After The Hour

[SharkNose]

Not really Trainz-related...

At almost every :03 (sometimes :04) after the hour, my Windows 8 (and 8.1) will do some intensive network activity that actually slows up my mouse cursor. It will last for about 20 seconds and then stop. I've tried watching Task Manager to see what might be doing this, but could not notice any process starting up at that time. It happens whether Trainz is running or not, so I ruled out Trainz. The only correlation is that in the Windows 8 Action Center it will say that Windows checked for updates at :04 after the hour. I shut off automatic update checking when I saw this, but the slow up still occurs!

Not a show stopper, but annoying, especially if I'm doing a mouse drag and drop operation in Blender or something. It does not happen on my Windows 7 machines.

Just thought I'd ask in case someone else may be having the same situation. A search on Google didn't help me either.

Thanks for your attention.

Andrew

 

[clam1952]

Not sure where you look on Windows 8 but I had similar issues with Win7, turned out to be Google updates, they were hiding in Task Scheduler, need to dig around to find them, think it was trying to update hourly for both Chrome and Google Earth, two separate entries. removed both of them, I don't use Chrome anyway so i un-installed it. GE I can update manually should I need to.

Failing that look for anything scheduled hourly at 3 minutes past the hour.

 

[wholbr]

Hi Andrew and everybody.

Not really Trainz-related...

At almost every :03 (sometimes :04) after the hour, my Windows 8 (and 8.1) will do some intensive network activity that actually slows up my mouse cursor. It will last for about 20 seconds and then stop. I've tried watching Task Manager to see what might be doing this, but could not notice any process starting up at that time. It happens whether Trainz is running or not, so I ruled out Trainz. The only correlation is that in the Windows 8 Action Center it will say that Windows checked for updates at :04 after the hour. I shut off automatic update checking when I saw this, but the slow up still occurs!

Not a show stopper, but annoying, especially if I'm doing a mouse drag and drop operation in Blender or something. It does not happen on my Windows 7 machines.

Just thought I'd ask in case someone else may be having the same situation. A search on Google didn't help me either.

Thanks for your attention.

Andrew

Andrew, it is the same here on both Windows 8 and carried on when I upgraded to Windows 8.1. I thought it first it was a virus scan by Norton going on but checked the timings of scans which was not found to be related. I then tried turning Norton off and still the network activity carried on. I believe it is related to Microsoft collecting data on how Windows 8 is performing on your system as I seem to remember being asked while it was installing if I would agree to such data being collected as it would not be used for any other purpose than the above.

As you say it is not a game changer but on my system the fans suddenly rise to over 2500 rpm and a message appears from Norton Antivirus stating that high CPU usage is taking place. I also have speed fan installed which then shows my 8 GB of RAM running at almost maximum performance. It does not last more than approximately 20 to 30 seconds but like you say it does slows things down for that short time and seems to occur approximately 30 minutes after boot up and then roughly every hour .

It’s Something I feel I can live with

Bill

 

[SharkNose]

Malc, Bill:

Thanks both for those suggestions. I do have Google Earth but not Chrome. I will check the Google Updater and the Task Scheduler. I will also check my data collection settings for Microsoft. I usually say "no" to those when asked but may have missed an update.

 

[JCitron]

I had the same thing with GE and also removed the updater from the task scheduler.

John

 

[SharkNose]

Removed all the Google updater tasks and physically deleted the Google updater folder along with the appropriate executables. Things still happen at :03 after the hour. Now I need to try and find the Microsoft data and usage settings.

 

[JEB114]

Windows phones home to tell mother Microsoft its alive and well!!! Its an authentication burst.

 

[SharkNose]

Windows phones home to tell mother Microsoft its alive and well!!! Its an authentication burst.

Every hour?

 

[JEB114]

Every Hour it also syncs the clock to internet time and updates any apps that are live...

 

[beckster181]

God old Windows installed spyware and malware as always. when ever i do an install of windows of any version from old 3.11 to win 8 i always tell em no to helping with customer experience as it is just their way to get you to agree to them running their malware and spyware on your machine and opens a back door into your system they can use to get more information. This is them covering their backsides for having this sort of stuff running on your machine legally as you have given them permission to collect this information.

my anti windows rant completed just say no to this stuff and they cant run it.