Windows 8 High CPU usage – interrupts

On some Windows 8 PCs, there is an issue with high CPU usage while computer is idle.
Load is caused by processes System and “System Interrupts”.

There was no obvious solution for the problem, however there were some clues on the web, to look into network devices.

There are 2 NICs in my PC, one integrated and one, pretty old – in PCI slot. I suspected the problem was caused by the older one.
After multiple tries, I dicovered that after disabling the second network card – CPU load dropped.
However this NIC was in use, for Internet sharing via WiFi router, so I couldn’t disable it

The solution was actually very simple – after disabling one option in device settngs (check screenshot) the load dropped back to normal.
NB! You may need to reboot for changes to take effect!

Windows 8 High CPU usage interrupts

11 thoughts on “Windows 8 High CPU usage – interrupts

  1. Thank you so much for this tip! I had the same problem in my Win8 installation on an older Dell Dimension and its integrated NIC. I had to reboot before the high CPU usage went down; unchecking the option didn’t immediately stop the high CPU usage. Fixing this also solved my issue with slightly lower-than-expected Windows Experience performance scores on my CPU and Memory.

  2. Awesome! Thanks. Applying this change and rebooting worked like a champ. Halleluiah! No more annoying loud drone coming from my HP.

  3. you can get this setting from device manager>>network, right click on any of the option and select properties! hope that helps? once again, thanks for the help, it works very well for me!

  4. Спасибо Вам большое!!! Метод сработал! Загрузка уменьшилась с 60 до 20 процентов! Комп вздохнул спокойно!

  5. THANK YOU! Your fix solved an extremely annoying problem for me. This was happening while I was working, not necessarily just when the computer was idle. My mouse was very slow and the fan was always running at high speed. I did a lot of searching on the internet, but your solution did the trick. Much obliged.

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