I am using a 3 month old HP desktop running Windows 10 20H2 with all
the latest patches. It is a busy machine running various C# programs
I wrote to monitor various nearby things (water pumps, temperature
sensors, security cameras, etc.). A few week ago, I started noticing
the mouse pointer spinning at times as though something is using a lot
of processor power in the background. It didn't take long for me to
notice a pattern. The mouse pointer spins exactly every 15 minutes
for 6 seconds each time. (Ie, this happens on the hour, at 15 after,
30 after, and 45 after). None of the software I wrote myself has any
functions that run every 15 minutes. Both Norton 360 and Carbonite
backup are running but they never did the 15 minute thing in the past.
Same with Outlook.

Does anyone recognize the 15 minute pattern? I tried using task
manager to watch CPU utilization during the time the mouse spins, but
it doesn't show CPU rising at all. (It is normally at 4 or 5% but
rising into the teens at various times when my programs are doing
work). During the mouse spinning time, however, it stays at the
normal 4 or 5% mark. Any ideas?

Pat

Pat wrote:
> I am using a 3 month old HP desktop running Windows 10 20H2 with all
> the latest patches. It is a busy machine running various C# programs
> I wrote to monitor various nearby things (water pumps, temperature
> sensors, security cameras, etc.). A few week ago, I started noticing
> the mouse pointer spinning at times as though something is using a lot
> of processor power in the background. It didn't take long for me to
> notice a pattern. The mouse pointer spins exactly every 15 minutes
> for 6 seconds each time. (Ie, this happens on the hour, at 15 after,
> 30 after, and 45 after). None of the software I wrote myself has any
> functions that run every 15 minutes. Both Norton 360 and Carbonite
> backup are running but they never did the 15 minute thing in the past.
> Same with Outlook.
>
> Does anyone recognize the 15 minute pattern? I tried using task
> manager to watch CPU utilization during the time the mouse spins, but
> it doesn't show CPU rising at all. (It is normally at 4 or 5% but
> rising into the teens at various times when my programs are doing
> work). During the mouse spinning time, however, it stays at the
> normal 4 or 5% mark. Any ideas?
>
> Pat
>

Check Scheduled Tasks.

At a minimum, you should see up to half a dozen items
for NVidia driver. But those aren't recurring and are
event triggered.

The USO (process that monitors Windows Update) has some
Scheduled Tasks. It launches stuff soon after the OS
starts, and you'll see the graphic frames of three
Command Prompt windows when those launch.

Those are examples of things that have been in Scheduled Tasks
for some time.

When something happens with clock-work precision,
that's Scheduled Tasks.

*******

I've seen one case here, where Task Manager measured low percents,
and the Kill-O-Watt power meter monitoring my computer showed
power consumption. Task Manager is no longer to be trusted,
when watching for machine activity. But the bastards can't
hide from my power meter :-)

Paul

On 15/06/2021 16.00, Pat wrote:
> I am using a 3 month old HP desktop running Windows 10 20H2 with all
> the latest patches. It is a busy machine running various C# programs
> I wrote to monitor various nearby things (water pumps, temperature
> sensors, security cameras, etc.). A few week ago, I started noticing
> the mouse pointer spinning at times as though something is using a lot
> of processor power in the background. It didn't take long for me to
> notice a pattern. The mouse pointer spins exactly every 15 minutes
> for 6 seconds each time. (Ie, this happens on the hour, at 15 after,
> 30 after, and 45 after). None of the software I wrote myself has any
> functions that run every 15 minutes. Both Norton 360 and Carbonite
> backup are running but they never did the 15 minute thing in the past.
> Same with Outlook.
>
> Does anyone recognize the 15 minute pattern? I tried using task
> manager to watch CPU utilization during the time the mouse spins, but
> it doesn't show CPU rising at all. (It is normally at 4 or 5% but
> rising into the teens at various times when my programs are doing
> work). During the mouse spinning time, however, it stays at the
> normal 4 or 5% mark. Any ideas?

Watch disk load instead of CPU load.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

On Tue, 15 Jun 2021 11:51:37 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid>
wrote:

>Pat wrote:
>> I am using a 3 month old HP desktop running Windows 10 20H2 with all
>> the latest patches. It is a busy machine running various C# programs
>> I wrote to monitor various nearby things (water pumps, temperature
>> sensors, security cameras, etc.). A few week ago, I started noticing
>> the mouse pointer spinning at times as though something is using a lot
>> of processor power in the background. It didn't take long for me to
>> notice a pattern. The mouse pointer spins exactly every 15 minutes
>> for 6 seconds each time. (Ie, this happens on the hour, at 15 after,
>> 30 after, and 45 after). None of the software I wrote myself has any
>> functions that run every 15 minutes. Both Norton 360 and Carbonite
>> backup are running but they never did the 15 minute thing in the past.
>> Same with Outlook.
>>
>> Does anyone recognize the 15 minute pattern? I tried using task
>> manager to watch CPU utilization during the time the mouse spins, but
>> it doesn't show CPU rising at all. (It is normally at 4 or 5% but
>> rising into the teens at various times when my programs are doing
>> work). During the mouse spinning time, however, it stays at the
>> normal 4 or 5% mark. Any ideas?
>>
>> Pat
>>
>
>Check Scheduled Tasks.
>
>At a minimum, you should see up to half a dozen items
>for NVidia driver. But those aren't recurring and are
>event triggered.
>
>The USO (process that monitors Windows Update) has some
>Scheduled Tasks. It launches stuff soon after the OS
>starts, and you'll see the graphic frames of three
>Command Prompt windows when those launch.
>
>Those are examples of things that have been in Scheduled Tasks
>for some time.
>
>When something happens with clock-work precision,
>that's Scheduled Tasks.
>
>*******
>
>I've seen one case here, where Task Manager measured low percents,
>and the Kill-O-Watt power meter monitoring my computer showed
>power consumption. Task Manager is no longer to be trusted,
>when watching for machine activity. But the bastards can't
>hide from my power meter :-)
>
> Paul

Thanks for the idea. I had no idea there were that many scheduled
tasks. There are 125 of them (and none seem to be NVidia related even
though I am using an NVidia graphics card). At first glance, I didn't
see any "every 15 minutes" items, but I'll start through the list and
check them out as time permits and see if I can find what's causing my
symptom.

Pat

On Tue, 15 Jun 2021 18:36:45 +0200, "Carlos E.R."
<robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

>On 15/06/2021 16.00, Pat wrote:
>> I am using a 3 month old HP desktop running Windows 10 20H2 with all
>> the latest patches. It is a busy machine running various C# programs
>> I wrote to monitor various nearby things (water pumps, temperature
>> sensors, security cameras, etc.). A few week ago, I started noticing
>> the mouse pointer spinning at times as though something is using a lot
>> of processor power in the background. It didn't take long for me to
>> notice a pattern. The mouse pointer spins exactly every 15 minutes
>> for 6 seconds each time. (Ie, this happens on the hour, at 15 after,
>> 30 after, and 45 after). None of the software I wrote myself has any
>> functions that run every 15 minutes. Both Norton 360 and Carbonite
>> backup are running but they never did the 15 minute thing in the past.
>> Same with Outlook.
>>
>> Does anyone recognize the 15 minute pattern? I tried using task
>> manager to watch CPU utilization during the time the mouse spins, but
>> it doesn't show CPU rising at all. (It is normally at 4 or 5% but
>> rising into the teens at various times when my programs are doing
>> work). During the mouse spinning time, however, it stays at the
>> normal 4 or 5% mark. Any ideas?
>
>Watch disk load instead of CPU load.

Good idea, but no luck. Disk usage stays at 0% or 1% and network
usgae stays at 1%. Nothing obvious changes during the mouse spin 6
seconds.

Pat wrote:
> I am using a 3 month old HP desktop running Windows 10 20H2 with all
> the latest patches. It is a busy machine running various C# programs
> I wrote to monitor various nearby things (water pumps, temperature
> sensors, security cameras, etc.). A few week ago, I started noticing
> the mouse pointer spinning at times as though something is using a lot
> of processor power in the background. It didn't take long for me to
> notice a pattern. The mouse pointer spins exactly every 15 minutes
> for 6 seconds each time. (Ie, this happens on the hour, at 15 after,
> 30 after, and 45 after). None of the software I wrote myself has any
> functions that run every 15 minutes. Both Norton 360 and Carbonite
> backup are running but they never did the 15 minute thing in the past.
> Same with Outlook.
>
> Does anyone recognize the 15 minute pattern? I tried using task
> manager to watch CPU utilization during the time the mouse spins, but
> it doesn't show CPU rising at all. (It is normally at 4 or 5% but
> rising into the teens at various times when my programs are doing
> work). During the mouse spinning time, however, it stays at the
> normal 4 or 5% mark. Any ideas?
>
> Pat
>

Start a ProcMon trace, aiming it for a time just before the
15 minute thing you're trying to study.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon

Use the 64bit version on a 64bit OS, and the
memory capture option should have sufficient capacity
to capture the info. It captures ETW events.

I've captured 20 minute backup runs, and the trace might
have been 6GB in size or so. There is a 199 million item
limit in ProcMon, but I've never exceeded it.

After the busy part has made its appearance, you can
stop the trace after an extra half a minute has passed
and apply post-filters. The filters just
remove the haystack a bit, so the needles show through.

The file menu has an item to untick, to stop the tracing.

You can save the entire trace for analysis later if you
want, then apply a different set of viewing filters.
Saving the whole trace, avoids losing detail.

Unfortunately, Windows 10 has rundll, svchost, and other launchers
designed to obscure what is going on. It's still not
going to be easy to find the culprit. If you get Process Explorer
and run it as Administrator, you can get information on the PIDs
of running processes, the commands that may have launched them.

The PID assignments are not the same, from one OS boot to the
next. If all you have is PIDs to go on, you can use

tasklist /svc

to list the running processes. But Process Explorer likely has additional
info to look at.

Paul

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Tue, 15 Jun 2021 10:00:19 -0400, Pat
<forums@greensdomain.com> wrote:

>I am using a 3 month old HP desktop running Windows 10 20H2 with all
>the latest patches. It is a busy machine running various C# programs
>I wrote to monitor various nearby things (water pumps, temperature
>sensors, security cameras, etc.). A few week ago, I started noticing
>the mouse pointer spinning at times as though something is using a lot
>of processor power in the background. It didn't take long for me to
>notice a pattern. The mouse pointer spins exactly every 15 minutes
>for 6 seconds each time. (Ie, this happens on the hour, at 15 after,
>30 after, and 45 after). None of the software I wrote myself has any
>functions that run every 15 minutes. Both Norton 360 and Carbonite

I'd be suspicious of Norton 360 or anything with a multiple of 15. I've
long wondered about that name, and whether it means it doesn't work 5
days a year. Very suspicious.

>backup are running but they never did the 15 minute thing in the past.
>Same with Outlook.
>
>Does anyone recognize the 15 minute pattern? I tried using task
>manager to watch CPU utilization during the time the mouse spins, but
>it doesn't show CPU rising at all.

So something like that except more detailed. Process [monitor?], some
program that starts with process and logs every procss that does
anything. It generated so much data I fainted, but in your case, you
know exactly when it will run so there will probably only be 100 lines
or so to check Process explorer?

>(It is normally at 4 or 5% but
>rising into the teens at various times when my programs are doing
>work). During the mouse spinning time, however, it stays at the
>normal 4 or 5% mark. Any ideas?
>
>Pat
>

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Tue, 15 Jun 2021 15:11:40 -0400, Paul
<nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

>
>
>Unfortunately, Windows 10 has rundll, svchost, and other launchers
>designed to obscure what is going on.

Are they really designed to obscure what's going on, or does it just
work out that way?

Maybe no one's added the code to show what rundll calls?

I'll admit I've had what I think is the same question when using
Resource Monitor and all it shows is svchost.

Don't MS employees want to see what rundll and the other lauchers are
calling when they are doing their own coding and debugging? Doesn't
obscuring it make it harder on them too? (Or is there a switch to turn
on subroutine reporting, that we could use too?)

>It's still not
>going to be easy to find the culprit. If you get Process Explorer
>and run it as Administrator, you can get information on the PIDs
>of running processes, the commands that may have launched them.

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Tue, 15 Jun 2021 15:11:43 -0400, micky
<NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:

>In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Tue, 15 Jun 2021 10:00:19 -0400, Pat
><forums@greensdomain.com> wrote:
>
>>I am using a 3 month old HP desktop running Windows 10 20H2 with all
>>the latest patches. It is a busy machine running various C# programs
>>I wrote to monitor various nearby things (water pumps, temperature
>>sensors, security cameras, etc.). A few week ago, I started noticing
>>the mouse pointer spinning at times as though something is using a lot
>>of processor power in the background. It didn't take long for me to
>>notice a pattern. The mouse pointer spins exactly every 15 minutes
>>for 6 seconds each time. (Ie, this happens on the hour, at 15 after,
>>30 after, and 45 after). None of the software I wrote myself has any
>>functions that run every 15 minutes. Both Norton 360 and Carbonite
>
>I'd be suspicious of Norton 360 or anything with a multiple of 15. I've
>long wondered about that name, and whether it means it doesn't work 5
>days a year. Very suspicious.
>
>
>>backup are running but they never did the 15 minute thing in the past.
>>Same with Outlook.
>>
>>Does anyone recognize the 15 minute pattern? I tried using task
>>manager to watch CPU utilization during the time the mouse spins, but
>>it doesn't show CPU rising at all.
>
>So something like that except more detailed. Process [monitor?], some
>program that starts with process and logs every procss that does
>anything. It generated so much data I fainted, but in your case, you
>know exactly when it will run so there will probably only be 100 lines
>or so to check Process explorer?

I hadn't dl'd any of your answers before but now I see Paul beat me to
it. But at least I thought of it too. ;-) Process Monitor.

>>(It is normally at 4 or 5% but
>>rising into the teens at various times when my programs are doing
>>work). During the mouse spinning time, however, it stays at the
>>normal 4 or 5% mark. Any ideas?
>>
>>Pat
>>

On 6/15/2021 12:11 PM, micky wrote:
> In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Tue, 15 Jun 2021 10:00:19 -0400, Pat
> <forums@greensdomain.com> wrote:
>
>>I am using a 3 month old HP desktop running Windows 10 20H2 with all
>>the latest patches. It is a busy machine running various C# programs
>>I wrote to monitor various nearby things (water pumps, temperature
>>sensors, security cameras, etc.). A few week ago, I started noticing
>>the mouse pointer spinning at times as though something is using a lot
>>of processor power in the background. It didn't take long for me to
>>notice a pattern. The mouse pointer spins exactly every 15 minutes
>>for 6 seconds each time. (Ie, this happens on the hour, at 15 after,
>>30 after, and 45 after). None of the software I wrote myself has any
>>functions that run every 15 minutes. Both Norton 360 and Carbonite
>
> I'd be suspicious of Norton 360 or anything with a multiple of 15. I've
> long wondered about that name, and whether it means it doesn't work 5
> days a year. Very suspicious.

360 days isn't a complete year, but 360 degrees is a complete circle.
I'm sure the reference is to the latter.

--
Ken

On Tue, 15 Jun 2021 at 10:00:19, Pat <forums@greensdomain.com> wrote (my
responses usually follow points raised):
[]
>notice a pattern. The mouse pointer spins exactly every 15 minutes
>for 6 seconds each time. (Ie, this happens on the hour, at 15 after,
>30 after, and 45 after). None of the software I wrote myself has any
>functions that run every 15 minutes. Both Norton 360 and Carbonite
>backup are running but they never did the 15 minute thing in the past.
>Same with Outlook.
>
>Does anyone recognize the 15 minute pattern? I tried using task
[]
You've never installed a chiming clock, have you (and subsequently shut
off sound, or the clock's own sound)?

I like Clocksmith Lite - it's a pleasant-sounding clock (IMO), and
reminds me I've been computing too long (-:. [Seems to be abandonware,
but still available from many places.] There are others.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

.... basically it's another language and unless you've studied it, it's
difficult to grasp. I know people get outraged at me saying it, but it's only
my opinion. I'm not telling people who adore Shakespeare to stop adoring it
this minute. - Jane Horrocks, in Radio Times 30 July - 5 August 2011

On Tue, 15 Jun 2021 11:51:37 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid>
wrote:

>Pat wrote:
>> I am using a 3 month old HP desktop running Windows 10 20H2 with all
>> the latest patches. It is a busy machine running various C# programs
>> I wrote to monitor various nearby things (water pumps, temperature
>> sensors, security cameras, etc.). A few week ago, I started noticing
>> the mouse pointer spinning at times as though something is using a lot
>> of processor power in the background. It didn't take long for me to
>> notice a pattern. The mouse pointer spins exactly every 15 minutes
>> for 6 seconds each time. (Ie, this happens on the hour, at 15 after,
>> 30 after, and 45 after). None of the software I wrote myself has any
>> functions that run every 15 minutes. Both Norton 360 and Carbonite
>> backup are running but they never did the 15 minute thing in the past.
>> Same with Outlook.
>>
>> Does anyone recognize the 15 minute pattern? I tried using task
>> manager to watch CPU utilization during the time the mouse spins, but
>> it doesn't show CPU rising at all. (It is normally at 4 or 5% but
>> rising into the teens at various times when my programs are doing
>> work). During the mouse spinning time, however, it stays at the
>> normal 4 or 5% mark. Any ideas?
>>
>> Pat
>>
>
>Check Scheduled Tasks.
>
>At a minimum, you should see up to half a dozen items
>for NVidia driver. But those aren't recurring and are
>event triggered.
>
>The USO (process that monitors Windows Update) has some
>Scheduled Tasks. It launches stuff soon after the OS
>starts, and you'll see the graphic frames of three
>Command Prompt windows when those launch.
>
>Those are examples of things that have been in Scheduled Tasks
>for some time.
>
>When something happens with clock-work precision,
>that's Scheduled Tasks.
>
>*******
>
>I've seen one case here, where Task Manager measured low percents,
>and the Kill-O-Watt power meter monitoring my computer showed
>power consumption. Task Manager is no longer to be trusted,
>when watching for machine activity. But the bastards can't
>hide from my power meter :-)
>
> Paul
I found it! It was some HP bloatware called
"TouchpointAnalyticsClientService". With hindsight, I should have
loaded the OS from scratch rather than using the preinstalled version.
I had been building my own PCs for decades, but this HP seemed like
just what I wanted, so I bought it. Oh, well.

To all who responded... Thanks for your help.

Pat

On 6/17/2021 11:57 AM, Pat wrote:
>
> On Tue, 15 Jun 2021 11:51:37 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid>
> wrote:
>
>> Pat wrote:
>>> I am using a 3 month old HP desktop running Windows 10 20H2 with all
>>> the latest patches. It is a busy machine running various C# programs
>>> I wrote to monitor various nearby things (water pumps, temperature
>>> sensors, security cameras, etc.). A few week ago, I started noticing
>>> the mouse pointer spinning at times as though something is using a lot
>>> of processor power in the background. It didn't take long for me to
>>> notice a pattern. The mouse pointer spins exactly every 15 minutes
>>> for 6 seconds each time. (Ie, this happens on the hour, at 15 after,
>>> 30 after, and 45 after). None of the software I wrote myself has any
>>> functions that run every 15 minutes. Both Norton 360 and Carbonite
>>> backup are running but they never did the 15 minute thing in the past.
>>> Same with Outlook.
>>>
>>> Does anyone recognize the 15 minute pattern? I tried using task
>>> manager to watch CPU utilization during the time the mouse spins, but
>>> it doesn't show CPU rising at all. (It is normally at 4 or 5% but
>>> rising into the teens at various times when my programs are doing
>>> work). During the mouse spinning time, however, it stays at the
>>> normal 4 or 5% mark. Any ideas?
>>>
>>> Pat
>>>
>>
>> Check Scheduled Tasks.
>>
>> At a minimum, you should see up to half a dozen items
>> for NVidia driver. But those aren't recurring and are
>> event triggered.
>>
>> The USO (process that monitors Windows Update) has some
>> Scheduled Tasks. It launches stuff soon after the OS
>> starts, and you'll see the graphic frames of three
>> Command Prompt windows when those launch.
>>
>> Those are examples of things that have been in Scheduled Tasks
>> for some time.
>>
>> When something happens with clock-work precision,
>> that's Scheduled Tasks.
>>
>> *******
>>
>> I've seen one case here, where Task Manager measured low percents,
>> and the Kill-O-Watt power meter monitoring my computer showed
>> power consumption. Task Manager is no longer to be trusted,
>> when watching for machine activity. But the bastards can't
>> hide from my power meter :-)
>>
>> Paul
> I found it! It was some HP bloatware called
> "TouchpointAnalyticsClientService". With hindsight, I should have
> loaded the OS from scratch rather than using the preinstalled version.
> I had been building my own PCs for decades, but this HP seemed like
> just what I wanted, so I bought it. Oh, well.
>
> To all who responded... Thanks for your help.
>
> Pat
>
>
The first thing you do with any new computer is remove all of the
preinstalled things that you don't want. Thought make sure you
understand what you are removing

https://howtodoninja.com/files/exe/touchpointanalyticsclientservice-exe/touchpointanalyticsclientservice-exe-virus-malware-uninstall-fix/

Pat wrote:

> I found it! It was some HP bloatware called
> "TouchpointAnalyticsClientService". With hindsight, I should have
> loaded the OS from scratch rather than using the preinstalled version.
> I had been building my own PCs for decades, but this HP seemed like
> just what I wanted, so I bought it. Oh, well.
>
> To all who responded... Thanks for your help.
>
> Pat

I was a bit slow running that through Google, expecting
it was of no particular importance. But it's some sort
of black sheep. And the claim is, it may not have
been in the factory image. It came in later, via the 'net.

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3238512/hp-stealthily-installs-new-spyware-called-hp-touchpoint-analytics-client.html

It's a handle jiggler and CPU cycle waster. Clever.

Paul