MS Teams crashes, slow performance and high CPU/Memory use - Troubleshooting

[FcoManigrasso]

It's already known that the MS Teams client causes sometimes performance issues. That's something that happens less often after any MS update. But, still, it happens and there are certain things that we can do to try to remedy it.

I have tried to summarize several points in a single post 🙂 

MS Teams client crashes:

- Well, after the usual standard troubleshooting, ( check user license, check teams web app, perform an office repair... ), the first stepp will be clear the Teams client cache:

1. Fully quit Microsoft Teams and ensure it's not still running in background.

2. In Windows file explorer, navigate to %appdata%/Microsoft/Teams

3. Select everything in the folder and delete it.

4. Restart the MS Teams client. ( The necessary deleted content will be automatically recreated ).

- If it still fails, and the user is starting the software from the taskbar, try to run the .exe directly from the installation directory. If it works, just create a new shortcut from the .exe file.

- I have seen this kind of scenarios where we were able to fix this issue reinstalling Intel Graphic drivers.

MS Teams Slow Video Performance:

Slow video performance in huge meetings could be expected but, anyway, you could check your Network an see if some improvement is possible in your area. 

Microsoft 365 network connectivity test tool - Microsoft 365 Enterprise | Microsoft Learn

On Microsoft Teams side, there are some tips in order to improve the meetings performance:

- Restart Teams.

- Close any applications or browser tabs that you aren't using.

- Disable GPU hardware acceleration in MS Teams.

To disable this function, select the "Settings - General" next to your profile picture at the top right of Teams, and then select the "Disable GPU hardware acceleration" option. You'll find it under "Application". ( A Teams client restart will be required ).

- Disconnect your monitor from the port replicator or docking station, and directly connect it to the video port on the laptop, if available.

- Empty Teams client cache. ( Steps explained in the previous point in this post ).

- Change the resolution of your 4K or UHD monitor, ( if it's the case ), to 1920 x 1080.

- Use DVI or HDMI instead USB-C to connect your monitor, if possible.

- Disable full screen mode in the meeting by selecting More actions > Full screen.

MS Teams App High CPU/Memory use:

Unfortunately there's no much to do as a high resources consumption by Microsoft Teams is expected, but anyway there're some tips to make the performance faster, already mentioned in previous points in this post, like:

- Restart Teams.

- Empty Teams client cache.

- Disable GPU hardware acceleration.

For sure, and for any issue, you have also the MS Teams logs, ( check the link below ). If you're thinking about to open a case with the MS support team, I'll suggest you to collect the logs reproducing the issue in order to speed up the resolutions, as probably that would be the first thing that the engineer will request to you.

Configure log files for monitoring and troubleshooting in Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

[#2]

I have a Lenovo thinkpad T480 , Windows 10, intel graphics.

I mostly use a dock, but even if I use the laptop in default LCD screen I still get at a random point into any meeting bad audio and video lag, mouse lag, audio choppiness and CPU load so high that my computer cannot even leave the meeting if I press CTRL+SHIFT+H. It actually takes around 60 seconds to leave the meeting the CPU loading is that bad. It's basically very slow, but audio is lagging by a few seconds and choppy, and video lags by about 10-20 seconds.

The problem starts anywhere from 20 minutes to 1 hour into a meeting, irrespective of number of people in the meeting. About 20 other people have the same laptops and no issues. I have tried turning off and on various graphics features, reducing the screen resolution and more after reading a number of troubleshooters all of which seem to think re-installing will fix it, which it did not. No difference noticeable in stability. I am getting the impression that the issue is caused by the screen webcam-grabber/screen-scraping polling interval, but cannot seem to control and slow that down to verify.

Since my machine it corporate controlled, it's updated correctly, and am looking for more inventive clues that are short of installing the OS again. Is there a safe mode or something that I can enable? I have no issues with whatsapp nor with Zoom.

[#3]

Have you tried to disable the GPU hardware acceleration?
On the other hand, you say that your machine is a Company controlled one. Do you know if you're permanently connected to a VPN? Did you test the performance connected to another network?
If your Company allows that, ( it depends of the Teams update policy and Office update channel ), you could try also the New Teams Preview client... It works a lot better.

[#4]

@FcoManigrasso 

Are you enjoying Early Access? Not quite stable for this version....

[#5]

Hi @Kidd_Ip,

Yes, absolutely! 🙂

You're right that it's not the most stable, but has so much less resources consumption. In cases like this one could be a good option from my perspective. 

[#6]

Updates get pushed to us, but we are still able to control a lot because I'm on the engineering org. I have tried most things like disabling GPU acceleration, the issue is ongoing for so long all my team members just wait for me to leave and rejoin the meeting. Sometimes the lag will go away for a few moments, so it feels like something is queuing up. Turning off VPN appears to make a small difference to how quickly it manifests, but does not really change things. Also does it when plugging into the fibre network while in our labs or in the office in the city.

I am running through the intel driver updates once more - (this has been a problem for about a year) but I think you are onto something. I may be able to install the preview client, that's the best bet I think.

[#7]

Yeah, probably it's the best bet in your case.
It could be also a network blocker, ( proxy, firewall... ), and that could be traced with Fiddler. But taking in mind that you're the only one affected by this issue, I don't think that there will be the root cause. Or even a local anitvirus... But again, I guess all the users will have the same configuration.
Just thinking loud... And if some GP was missconfigured/propagated in your device? Have you tried a "gpupdate /force" ? ( From cmd as admin ).
There're so many things to check in this kind of scenarios, but you already did most of them as per your description.
Hope that you find the fix! And if there's something unusual that could help to the community, we'll appreciate if you post it 🙂

[#8]

@Deleted 

I have exactly the same issue on Teams.  It happens terribly every day.  I'm using the laptop of Lenovo Thinkpad T14s with Windows 11.  

I have also tried the new preview version of Teams.  This problem still happens with the same phenomena.  By the way, I didn't have this problem before May 1. 

Really need MS or somebody to save me!  Thank you! 

-Scott

[#9]

This is a known issue with Lenovo devices and it's related to the updates. They're working to rollout a new update in order to fix many issues with MS Teams.
We had also reports from users that are facing issues with the camera during the meetings and with the integrated microphone. All Lenovo users after the last update.

[#10]

@FcoManigrasso 

Thank you for your quick response.  Please note that I did not use the integrated camera.  Instead, I ran into this problem on Teams with my external camera.  It's a bit strange that it seems only I have this problem.  My colleagues with the Lenovo laptops did not see this terrible issue.  

If this is really a bug introduced by the Lenovo driver upgrade, I wonder if there is a workaround to address this issue.  Thanks again! 

-Scott

[#11]

Solved for me.
I was going to try the beta client, but not wanting to mess with logins again after re-installing clean (my memory and passwords is terrible.) I instead solved it by updating the graphics drivers.
1. I installed the intel driver updater utility from the intel website - it requires a reboot to install and is a unusual app that uses your browser as a user interface. And that told me that the graphics driver did need an update.
2. After letting that intel graphics driver update I rebooted again anyway before resuming my day.

And now I have in the last week had zero issues, even noticing that other people are lagging out in their meetings, when mine is rock solid. I even had a 3 hour long pair programming session, which was impossible before. Previously my machine would hang after between 40 minutes and an hour in almost any meeting. I can only guess that MS Teams was sending too much workload to the graphics card for it to handle and the updated driver addresses the workload better.

[#12]

I'm on a Windows 10 build, but the intel driver updater utility sorted it for me by finding and updating the graphics drivers to version 31.0.101.2121 . I'ts been fin for a whole week. I'm going to turn on GPU acceleration again now and plug in my larger display just to be sure, but I believe old gfx driver that was my main cause.

[#13]

@Deleted 

Thank you very much for your sharing!  

I just upgraded the graphic driver as you instructed and completed an 1-hour meeting.  It seems like it works perfectly

-Scott