Csrss.exe process is overloading the CPU

Windows users are regularly facing situations when the operating system “slows down”. If at such times you will go to the “Task Manager”, you will be able to see which processes are loading your computer. This can be both – running applications, and processes that you do not have a slightest idea about. Not always these are viruses; most often the system gets overloaded by the Windows processes. In this article, we are going to tell you what can be done in case in the “Task Manager” you see that your CPU is overloaded by the csrss.exe process.

Table of contents:
1. What is the csrss.exe process?
2. How to remove csrss.exe 
3. Csrss.exe is overloading the CPU: what can be done

WHAT IS THE CSRSS.EXE PROCESS?

The csrss.exe process is a system process in Windows operating system. It is present in Windows starting with version 7. In the process description that can be found in the “Task Manager” you can see that it is a client-server execution process. That is, this process is responsible for the programs running in the command line mode – the shutdown process, console programs, the start of the system update process and other important Windows functions.

HOW TO REMOVE CSRSS.EXE

As we already mentioned above, the csrss.exe process is extremely important for the operating system. Without this process Windows will not be able to function correctly.

This process starts automatically when Windows starts and it cannot be disabled or deleted without consequences. If you will disable the start of this process through the registry, this will lead to some errors in the system, in particular, to the appearance of a blue screen with the “0xc000021A” message.

CSRSS.EXE IS OVERLOADING THE CPU: WHAT CAN BE DONE

If the operating system slows down due to the serious resource usage from the side of csrss.exe process, the first thing to do is make sure that it is really a system process, and not a virus, which is masked under it. To do this, go to the “Task Manager”, right-click on this process and select “Open File Location” from the menu.

After that you are going to see a folder. You need to make sure that this file is located in the System32 folder. Actually if the file is in the system folder, it virtually eliminates the possibility that it is infected. But it’s still worth checking this file, making sure it has a Microsoft digital signature. To do this, right-click on the file, select “Properties,” and then click the Details tab. You need to make sure that the name “Microsoft Windows operating system” is used in the “Product name” column, and in the “Digital signatures” section it must be indicated that this file was signed by Microsoft Windows Publisher.

If the problem with this file does not involve infection, continue checking, otherwise scan the computer using the Crowdinspect program and other antivirus programs.

Even an uninfected csrss.exe file may overload the CPU. This occurs when the functions it is responsible for are not executed correctly. In most cases, these problems are caused by malfunctions in power scenarios and hibernation. Here you can try out the following solutions:

• If some time ago, any actions were performed with a hibernation file on your computer (for example, a compressed size was set) you should activate the full file size;
• If a problem with the csrss.exe file occurs after you upgraded Windows or reinstalled the operating system, you must make sure that the current version of all drivers is installed on your computer. In this case, it is best to check the relevance of the software on the hardware developer’s website without using “driver sets”.

In case you cannot figure out which driver is overloading the processor, you may want to use the Process Explorer application (it is available for free on the Microsoft website). Download this program to your computer, and then run it. Next, double-click on the csrss.exe process that loads the system. There will open the information about the process, where you need to sort the executable tasks for the CPU at the Threads tab, after which it becomes clear from the information in the Start Address column which file is overloading the processor. After learning the name of this file (most likely it’s a dll file), search through the Internet search engine to which driver package it belongs, then reinstall this driver.

Another solution that can help in this situation is testing the computer under a new user. Try to create a new administrator account, then (after the full reboot of your PC) enter with this account. Check if the processor is still overloaded because of csrss.exe. If not, you should use a recovery point.

Above we overlooked the most common ways to solve a problem when the csrss.exe process is overloading the operating system. If none of the above solutions helped to fix the situation, you can reset Windows to its initial state.