Office 2013: High CPU spikes in Windows 8.1

[Denis W. Veteran]

Since upgrading to Windows 8.1 and doing a clean install, I've noticed a *lot* of stuttering and freezes with Word and OneNote on Office 365. Opening up the Task Manager shows high CPU usage, over 40% on my dual core (with HT) CPU.

 

I'm not doing anything computationally expensive in either Word or OneNote - I'm just typing a few words into a document or jotting down notes in class! It's annoying especially when starting up Word or OneNote: for instance, OneNote freezes with >40% CPU usage for five seconds after starting, whereas in Windows 8 it would be available right away.

 

Even while typing this post I've caught Word spiking into >40% and freezing, while it's in the background!

 

Similar observations from anyone else?

[sorlag]

I had freezes because of a motherboard failure... Check the eventlog for disk reset messages...

Also check if you have some word plugins installed and remove them for testing purposes...

A third option would be to get sysinternals "procmon" and check what word does while freezing/consuming cpu or nirsoft "whatishang" to see what freezes.

[bacdemon]

I've had the exact same thing, lag spikes to 40% cpu whenver I switch notebooks or close onenote. Both actions take around 7 seconds instead of being instantaneous. I'm running 8.1 on a surface pro 1 with windows up to date.

[Denis W. Veteran]

I've fired up whatishang to figure out what is the cause, but failed.

I would consider bugging Microsoft Support for assistance but I'm too lazy. In the meantime, I've resorted to using the Metro version of OneNote which doesn't hang like the desktop app (and which uses less battery power - not a bad thing!).

As for Word, I'm usually plugged in when working in Word so the hang isn't as much of an issue as it would be on battery power.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

I have not looked, but I wonder if there might be any synchronization being performed with a SkyDrive account at exit?  I know that's weird since you specifically said CPU and not network utilization, but I was thinking out loud, so to speak.

 

Out of curiosity, if you disable the network connection (unplug, disconenct, disable in Device Manager, whatever) does that make any difference whatsoever?

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

[francescob]

Same here, it's probably the terrible Skydrive integration that also keeps screwing up the document syncing of the 8.1 native Skydrive support.

[Denis W. Veteran]

Out of curiosity, if you disable the network connection (unplug, disconenct, disable in Device Manager, whatever) does that make any difference whatsoever?

 

Good question - there is no difference.

 

Same here, it's probably the terrible Skydrive integration that also keeps screwing up the document syncing of the 8.1 native Skydrive support.

 

I thought so too. The SkyDrive syncing in Office 2013 sucks horribly. Moreso now in Windows 8.1 it's highly redundant.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

Maybe it would be a good idea to run Process Monitor, filter on Word, and see if you can get some idea of what's happening when the spikes occur?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[Islehopper]

If using 3rd party anti-virus, might check for updated drivers. Had serious freezing issues with Outlook 2013 (desktop) until after updating Trend's client driver set. While searching for solution (late September) found similar problems with other 3rd party AV products for similar reasons. Once updated, all runs smoothly both with local server and skydrive hosted files.

 

Cheers

 

Since upgrading to Windows 8.1 and doing a clean install, I've noticed a *lot* of stuttering and freezes with Word and OneNote on Office 365. Opening up the Task Manager shows high CPU usage, over 40% on my dual core (with HT) CPU.

 

I'm not doing anything computationally expensive in either Word or OneNote - I'm just typing a few words into a document or jotting down notes in class! It's annoying especially when starting up Word or OneNote: for instance, OneNote freezes with >40% CPU usage for five seconds after starting, whereas in Windows 8 it would be available right away.

 

Even while typing this post I've caught Word spiking into >40% and freezing, while it's in the background!

 

Similar observations from anyone else?

[Raa]

Any chance of you trying Windows 7 (recommended) just to isolate if this is a Windows issue, or perhaps something more sinister (like hardware)?

[James Smith_414745]

Hello!

 

I experienced the same problems like Denis W. I had 4 PC (i73770, i52500K, C2Q660, Z2760) running with the latest drivers, Bios/Uefis and Windows Updates using Windows 8 (Pro x64, non Pro x86 for the Z2760) and Office 2013. At release I installed the Windows 8.1 update. The standard problems of the update are solved (not updating tiles, broken links in the app overview), but the following problem remains: in Win 8 (prior update to 8.1) Office (I use OneNote all day and Word/Excel/PowerPoint daily) starts within parts of a second (all PCs have a SSD) and respond immediately to user actions. After the Update only one PC (i52500K) kept working in this manner. All other PCs immediately open the application and instead of reacting to mouse, keyboard or touch commands nothing happens. If you keep on putting in commands the application window fades white and the after the name of the office application in the title of the window you see a "- not responding", eventually. The rest of the OS is fine - so I google for solutions meanwhile ;-) During this time the CPU load is high (depending on the cores: 40 % for Z2760 Dual Core with HT, 20 % for a C2Q660). After a while (shorter for more powerful CPUs) the load is decreasing and all inputs (to a certain extend) are processed. As I have to live with the situation (= my working PC is having this problem) I can tell, that even after the start of the office application this "stuttering" is happening quite often. At one PC (i73770) I could get rid of the problem using Quick Repair (programs and features -> uninstall/>change<). For my other PCs (C2Q6600, Z2760) the problem remains unsolved, even if I apply the so called "Online repair" (programs and features -> uninstall/>change<).

[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

i do not have any performance issues with office 2013 since the 8.1 update however, i still cannot get mine to activate. It keeps telling me that the activation service is unavailable. I have tried uninstalling office and re-installing it however. it refuses to activate.