Typing in Word Consumes Excess CPU Post Creator Update

[Scott Cox]

Ever since I installed the Creator Update for Windows, Word 2016 has been over-consuming CPU.  I'm working on a book that’s sizable (95MB) because of embedded photos, but it’s been that way for a while.  I worked with books larger than this when I had Word 2010 without this issue.

I leave the Task Manager up next to Word and as I type, processor usage run 10 – 20% and will spike at 30% if I type fast.  Word responds more slowly, so my typing is a ½ second to several seconds behind my keyboard entry which greatly interferes with my writing.

As I said, this never happened until the Creator update, so how do I fix this?  It’s driving me crazy!

Thanks.

Alienware X51

3.40 gigahertz Intel Core i7-6700

64-bit ready

Multi-core (4 total), Hyper-threaded (8 total)

16 GB memory

[#2]

From reading your concerns and reviewing basic information with regards to your CPU (i7 core), Memory (16 GB), you have  more than enough to run your word 2016 program without system error. You may want to try checking to see if you dont have any program conflicts. sometimes a duplicate program, such as Word 2016 or another word program running simultaneously could render the application or program to run slow. Please try checking Programs and Features and uninstall any previous word programs. Additionally, you may want to check program files (left over) from pevious program for deletion. Re-install word 2016 and you should be up and running.

[#3]

Hi Noel,

Thanks for responding.  Yes, I know that this is not a process/resource problem on my side.  I’m not a newbie.  I had no conflicts with other programs running.  I didn’t have another Word program running either.  I’ve rebooted just to test that.   The only change is the Creator Update. 

Are you suggesting that I do a repair install? Will this affect any configurations i have in place (user custom toolbar, option settings, e.g?)   I have run the Office Configuration Tool, which showed no errors, BTW. Reinstalls can often be fraught with creating problems too, especially losing user settings?

Thanks again!

Scott

[#4]

I ran the Office Config Analyzer Tool which reported that I was tiny bit behind in a release, oddly described as a critical error.  I updated to the most current version and ran a repair install.  It had no effect on my issue.

I loaded another document into Word that I created last year that’s a whopping 400MB in size (the current one is less than 100 MB), and it doesn’t generate quite the CPU usage that my newer, smaller one does. Word runs this large file in the 15% procoessor range which, although still surprisingly high, does not affect my typing.  My newer document runs the processor 25%+ and affects the time lag between typing and screen display, making typing very difficult.  This suggests something odd or damaged about my document.  Is there any easy way to isolate the “damage” in this doc, if that’s the right word?

Thoughts?

[#5]

We had a document doing this and found it was due to the amount of code in the document.  There was code doing headers, footers, table calculations, TOC and Index.  We were able to accomplish what we needed with less calculating code and the document became more usable with less CPU usage.

[#6]

Interesting.  I don't have an footers except page numbers, no tables, no TOC, and no Index.  I have done other books of this size and complexity w/o the CPU consumption.  I will say that the problem has somewhat self-corrected since I first made this post.  I'm wondering if another Office patch may have fixed a problem.  It's not what it should be, but it's better.