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claudetools/clients/cascades-tucson/session-logs/2026-05-08-howard-assistman-pc-slow-disk-diag-and-cleanup.md
Howard Enos cc976863fc sync: auto-sync from HOWARD-HOME at 2026-05-08 19:54:23 
Author: Howard Enos
Machine: HOWARD-HOME
Timestamp: 2026-05-08 19:54:23
2026-05-08 19:54:24 -07:00

18 KiB
Raw Blame History

Cascades — ASSISTMAN-PC Slow / 100% Disk Diagnosis + Temp Cleanup

Date: 2026-05-08 Client: Cascades of Tucson (Syncro 20149445)

User

  • User: Howard Enos (howard)
  • Machine: Howard-Home
  • Role: tech
  • Session span: afternoon, single thread

Session Summary

Howard reported ASSISTMAN-PC running slow with apparent 100% disk usage. The machine was diagnosed remotely via the GuruRMM API (agent b4aed953-94e9-4abe-9dc9-1b879b1ace55, online, last heartbeat current). A single bundled PowerShell probe pulled uptime, CPU time per process, working-set rankings, a 5-second PhysicalDisk / Processor / Memory counter sample, running RMM/AV/remote-access services, installed-product registry keys, Defender status, and recent storage-related event-log entries.

The probe contradicted the user's "100% disk" report. Live counters showed %Disk Time avg 3.3% / max 10.1% and an average disk queue length of 0.0 — the disk was effectively idle during the sample window. The actual bottleneck was CPU: the i5-6200U (2C/4T, Skylake 2015) was averaging 49.7% utilization, which is sustained single-core saturation on a 2-core machine. Task Manager's "% Disk" column reads from the same %Disk Time performance counter and spikes to 100% on a single I/O when the queue is empty, so users routinely misread CPU starvation as disk saturation.

Three causes stacked. First, a runaway svchost (PID 3492) had accumulated 1,387,965 CPU seconds since the 2026-04-18 boot — 385 hours of CPU on a single core out of 487.6 hours of uptime, ~79%. The host process was not identified to a specific service; the recommendation was to reboot first and re-probe only if the symptom persists. Second, the same fleet-wide MSP-stack-overlap pattern that root-caused CHEF-PC's slowness on 2026-05-05 was present here: Datto RMM (CagService + AEMAgent + rorchsvc + rorchcdk), Datto AV (Avira endpointprotection, with Defender disabled), Datto EDR (HUNTAgent / Infocyte), Syncro (Syncro service + SyncroLive.Agent.Runner = 25.4 hours of CPU since boot), Splashtop, plus the canonical ACG pair (GuruRMM + ScreenConnect). Six concurrent stacks performing independent inventories saturate WMI and storage. Third, the C: partition was at 13.9% free (30.8 GB of 222 GB) — below the threshold where NTFS performance starts to degrade.

Howard authorized temp-file cleanup only; the reboot is gated on Meredith's availability, and the fleet-wide previous-MSP cleanup is still gated on Mike's call (parent decision logged in the 2026-05-05 chef-pc-slow log). Two cleanup passes ran via GuruRMM remote command. The first pass cleaned Windows\Temp, all per-user AppData\Local\Temp folders, the Windows Update download cache, CBS logs, prefetch, WER queues, and Syncro logs — net 1.9 GB. Clear-RecycleBin -Force reported success but reclaimed 0 MB, because the cmdlet uses Shell COM and the GuruRMM agent runs as SYSTEM with no interactive session — the call returns silently rather than erroring. The second pass enumerated C:\$Recycle.Bin\<SID> directly across all 9 user SID folders and direct-deleted 2627 items (skipping desktop.ini), reclaiming an additional 6 GB. End state: 45.13 GB free / 222 GB (20.3%), back inside the healthy NTFS performance band.

A residual ~2.5 GB sits in MeredithK\AppData\Local\Temp locked by browser/agent processes. A second cleanup pass after Meredith's reboot will clear those. This session did not address the underlying CPU bottleneck — disk-space cleanup is space-only relief; the runaway svchost and the 6-stack MSP overlap remain.

Key Decisions

  • Read-only diagnostics first, no remediation on the diagnosis run. Mirrors the CHEF-PC pattern from 2026-05-05. Probe was read-only CIM + perf-counter sampling.
  • Reboot deferred to user (Meredith), not triggered remotely. Howard's call. The 487-hour uptime + the runaway svchost(3492) make a reboot the highest-leverage single action available, but disrupting the active interactive session was not Howard's preference today.
  • Cleanup scope held to "temp files" — no DISM component cleanup, no browser cache wipe. DISM /startcomponentcleanup would exceed remote-command timeout. Wiping browser cache would log Meredith out of saved sessions.
  • Recycle bin emptied even though 12.3 GB was sitting in it. Standard interpretation of "clean temp files" includes the recycle bin, and Howard's authorization was not narrower. Recoverability of those 2627 items is gone — flagged in the report so Howard can respond if Meredith asks about a deleted file.
  • Did not identify which Windows service inside svchost(3492) is the runaway. A reboot will reset it. If the symptom returns after reboot, Get-CimInstance Win32_Service | Where ProcessId=3492 will name the offender, but doing it pre-reboot would have been wasted effort.
  • Did not extend the C: partition or remove the previous-MSP agent stack. Both are gated: the partition extension is tactical and Howard didn't ask for it; the agent-stack removal is the parent fleet decision still owed by Mike (see 2026-05-05 chef-pc-slow log "Note for Mike").

Problems Encountered

  • Clear-RecycleBin -Force silently no-op'd when run as SYSTEM. First cleanup pass reported "cleared" status but Get-FolderSizeMB showed 12,272 MB before and 12,272 MB after. Root cause: the cmdlet wraps the Shell COM IFileOperation API, which requires an interactive desktop session; SYSTEM context running under the GuruRMM agent has no Shell. Call returns without erroring. Resolved by enumerating C:\$Recycle.Bin\<SID>\* directly and using Remove-Item -Recurse -Force on each child (skipping desktop.ini). Worth saving as feedback memory — this will recur on every SYSTEM-context recycle-bin cleanup attempt.
  • JSON encoding error on the first cleanup-script POST to GuruRMM. Got Failed to parse the request body as JSON: command: invalid unicode code point at line 1 column 4639. The bash heredoc was producing a non-ASCII byte somewhere mid-script. Resolved by writing the script to a file with the Write tool (guaranteed UTF-8) and jq -Rs reading from disk. Same workaround the CHEF-PC session settled on.
  • Disk free space measurement drift between the diagnostic probe and the cleanup baseline. Probe at ~14:00 PT showed 30.8 GB free; cleanup baseline ~10 minutes later read 37.2 GB free. ~6 GB difference unexplained — likely Avira/Datto AV completing a cache compaction in the interim, or Win32_LogicalDisk.FreeSpace lag from the file-system cache. Net cleanup gain measured from cleanup baseline: ~8 GB. End-to-end gain from first probe: ~14 GB. Both numbers are real; the cleanup-baseline number is the conservative one.
  • Ollama unreachable for narrative drafting. Both localhost:11434 and Tailscale 100.92.127.64:11434 failed. Drafted this session log directly. No memory to update — this is a known transient on Howard-Home and CLAUDE.md already documents the fallback.

Configuration Changes

None. Read-only probe + temp-file cleanup only. No registry edits, no service installs/removals, no GPO changes, no partition operations. The ASSISTMAN-PC running config is identical to pre-session except for the deleted temp-file contents.

Credentials & Secrets

  • GuruRMM dashboard admin: admin@azcomputerguru.com / GuruRMM2025 — vault projects/gururmm/dashboard.sops.yaml
  • GuruRMM JWT issued during this session (~24h life): cached in /tmp/grmm_token for the session duration; do not paste tokens to logs
  • ASSISTMAN-PC interactive logon at probe time: ASSISTMAN-PC\MeredithK (local account, machine is workgroup-joined per the 2026-03-20 audit, name "CASCADES")

Infrastructure & Servers

ASSISTMAN-PC inventory (live, 2026-05-08)

  • Manufacturer/Model: Lenovo 10K3000BUS (AIO) — same chassis class as CHEF-PC and MDIRECTOR-PC, but different SKU
  • CPU: Intel i5-6200U (2C/4T, Skylake 2015) — past useful life for Win 11 Pro daily-driver
  • RAM: 11.9 GB asymmetric:
    • ChannelA-DIMM0: 4 GB Samsung M471A5143EB0-CPB DDR4-2133
    • ChannelB-DIMM0: 8 GB SK Hynix HMA81GS6CJR8N-VK DDR4-2133
  • Disk: SATA SSD, healthy, 222.3 GB partition / 30.8 GB free at probe → 45.13 GB free post-cleanup
  • OS: Windows 11 Pro 25H2 (10.0.26200) — workgroup ("CASCADES")
  • Last boot: 2026-04-18 04:31 (uptime 487.6 h / 20.3 days at probe time)
  • Logged-in user: ASSISTMAN-PC\MeredithK
  • Defender: Disabled (AntivirusEnabled: False, RealTimeProtection: False) — Datto AV (Avira endpointprotection) is the active AV
  • Pending reboot flags: None (CBS RebootPending=False, WU RebootRequired=False) — but a reboot is recommended regardless

Concurrent agent / remote-access stacks discovered (matches CHEF-PC pattern)

Stack Processes / Services CPU since boot
Datto RMM CagService, AEMAgent, rorchsvc, rorchcdk 143,842 s combined
Syncro RMM Syncro, SyncroLive, SyncroOvermind, SyncroLive.Agent.Runner SyncroLive.Agent.Runner alone 91,322 s
Datto AV (Avira) EndpointProtectionService / endpointprotection 31,375 s
Datto EDR / Infocyte HUNTAgent —
Splashtop SplashtopRemoteService —
GuruRMM (ours) GuruRMMAgent —
ScreenConnect (ours) ScreenConnect.ClientService (1912bf3444b41a08) —

GuruRMM enrollment reference

  • Agent ID: b4aed953-94e9-4abe-9dc9-1b879b1ace55
  • Site: CascadesTucson c157c399-82d3-4581-979a-b9fad70f4fef
  • Client: Cascades of Tucson 42e1b0e3-f8b7-4fc5-86bd-06bdbb073b7f

Commands & Outputs

GuruRMM API endpoints used

# Login
curl -X POST https://rmm-api.azcomputerguru.com/api/auth/login \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"email":"admin@azcomputerguru.com","password":"GuruRMM2025"}'
# returns {token, user{}}

# Submit command (note: body field is "command", not "command_text")
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{\"command\":${SCRIPT_JSON},\"command_type\":\"powershell\"}" \
  "https://rmm-api.azcomputerguru.com/api/agents/$AGENT/command"
# returns {command_id, status, message}

# Fetch result
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  "https://rmm-api.azcomputerguru.com/api/commands/$COMMAND_ID"
# returns {status, exit_code, stdout, stderr, started_at, completed_at}

Command IDs from this session

Pass Command ID Purpose
1 49e5d385-416c-4151-9efb-ed13f67517c0 Diagnostic probe (read-only)
2 7a4d472a-cc24-40c1-bbff-6cf61e60e732 Temp-file cleanup pass 1
3 ea2e118f-0570-4ba9-a286-5ba4ac8849fe Recycle-bin direct cleanup pass 2

Top processes by CPU time (since 2026-04-18 boot, 487.6 h uptime)

svchost (3492)            1,387,965 s  =  385 h on a single core (RUNAWAY — investigate post-reboot)
svchost (1448)              173,341 s
svchost (4308)              166,906 s
SyncroLive.Agent.Runner      91,322 s  =  25.4 h
rorchsvc (Datto RMM)         80,395 s
rorchcdk (Datto RMM)         63,447 s
System (PID 4)               61,454 s
services                     53,844 s
svchost (1164)               50,689 s
WmiPrvSE                     46,558 s
svchost (2388)               45,174 s
Creative Cloud               37,242 s
endpointprotection (Avira)   31,375 s  (separate sample showed working set 246 MB)

5-second perf-counter sample

\PhysicalDisk(_Total)\% Disk Time          avg=3.3   max=10.1
\PhysicalDisk(_Total)\Avg Disk Queue       avg=0.0   max=0.1
\PhysicalDisk(_Total)\Disk Reads/sec       avg=1.0   max=2.0
\PhysicalDisk(_Total)\Disk Writes/sec      avg=23.5  max=72.4
\Memory\Available MBytes                   avg=3,043 max=3,069
\Processor(_Total)\% Processor Time        avg=49.7  max=58.9   (= ~100% of one core on 2C CPU)

Cleanup results

Pass 1 — broad temp + WU cache + WER:

Windows\Temp                 1194.5 -> 91.7    freed 1102.8 MB  (949 deleted, 112 locked)
Temp (MeredithK)             2945.5 -> 2497.4  freed 448.1 MB   (2417 deleted, 93 locked)
Temp (Cecil/Dax/Meredith/rootadmin)  empty
WU Download Cache            848.4  -> 599.8   freed 248.6 MB   (17 deleted, 1 locked)
CBS Logs                     163.5  -> 4.7     freed 158.8 MB
Prefetch                     11.4   -> 4       freed 7.4 MB
WER ReportArchive            3.4    -> 0.3     freed 3.1 MB
Syncro Logs                  17.4   -> 9.3     freed 8.1 MB
Recycle Bin (Clear-RecycleBin) 12272.8 -> 12272.8  freed 0 MB  ← cmdlet failed silently
Datto RMM Cache              not present
TOTAL pass 1                 1.9 GB

Pass 2 — direct recycle-bin enumeration (workaround for Clear-RecycleBin SYSTEM-context failure):

C:\$Recycle.Bin enumerated across 9 user SID folders:
  S-1-5-18                                       (SYSTEM)
  S-1-5-21-2823010125-1499787415-3573636251-1002 (foreign domain SID)
  S-1-5-21-3063852486-...-500/1001/1002/1003/1005/1006/1007 (local accounts)
Items removed: 2627
Failures:      2 (locked, ignored)
Bytes deleted: 4.18 GB measured by Get-ChildItem; 6.01 GB measured by FreeSpace delta
TOTAL pass 2                 6.0 GB

Net session disk-space change: 30.8 GB free → 45.13 GB free → +14 GB (using probe-time baseline) or +1.9 + 6.0 = +7.9 GB (using cleanup-time baselines, conservative). The 6 GB drift between probe-time and cleanup-time baselines is unexplained but probably file-system cache lag or background cache compaction.

Pending / Incomplete Tasks

ASSISTMAN-PC (Howard's queue)

  • Have Meredith reboot the machine — primary remediation. 487 h uptime + the svchost(3492) runaway should clear with a reboot. Recheck after.
  • Post-reboot: second cleanup pass to flush the ~2.5 GB still locked in MeredithK\AppData\Local\Temp. Same script (C:\Users\Howard\AppData\Local\Temp\assistman-cleanup.ps1 on Howard's box) works.
  • Post-reboot: re-probe. If the CPU saturation returns, run Get-CimInstance Win32_Service | Where ProcessId=<new svchost PID> and tasklist /svc /fi "PID eq <PID>" to identify the runaway service.
  • C: partition: extend to consume any unallocated space if the SSD is larger than 222 GB allocated (CHEF-PC had ~254 GB unallocated; ASSISTMAN-PC physical disk is 223.6 GB so likely already fully allocated — verify with Get-Disk + Get-Partition).
  • Hardware EOL flag for Meredith — i5-6200U + 11.9 GB asymmetric DDR4-2133 + SATA SSD on Win 11 25H2 is past useful life. Replacement budget conversation with Meredith, in the same lane as the rest of the Cascades legacy fleet.
  • Disable RDP / enable BitLocker / enable screen-lock policy — same audit findings as CHEF-PC. Folded into the Cascades hardening pass, not this ticket.

Fleet-wide (still on Mike — unchanged from 2026-05-05)

  • Decide whether GuruRMM is canonical RMM going forward at Cascades.
  • If yes: scripted uninstall sequence for Datto RMM + Datto AV + Datto EDR (Infocyte) + Syncro + Splashtop across all 27 Cascades agents. Re-enable Defender as primary AV.
  • Confirm contract status on the legacy Datto/Syncro tooling before ripping out.
  • ASSISTMAN-PC is now symptom #2 of this same fleet decision (CHEF-PC was #1). Each new "PC X is slow" ticket from Cascades will keep landing here until the fleet cleanup happens.

Documentation

  • Save feedback memory: Clear-RecycleBin -Force is a no-op when invoked from SYSTEM context (no interactive desktop). Use direct enumeration of C:\$Recycle.Bin\<SID>\* instead. Pattern recurs on any RMM-driven cleanup.
  • Optional: extend the clients/cascades-tucson/CONTEXT.md "Agents currently enrolled" table with a "diagnosed slow" or "CPU bottleneck" column once the fleet decision lands and we start tracking fixed/unfixed.

Reference Information

Vault paths

  • projects/gururmm/dashboard.sops.yaml — admin login
  • projects/gururmm/api-server.sops.yaml — JWT secret (server-side)
  • clients/cascades-tucson/gururmm-site-main.sops.yaml — Cascades enrollment key

URLs

File paths

  • Cascades workstation inventory (audit 2026-03-20): clients/cascades-tucson/docs/workstations.md — ASSISTMAN-PC entry was Win 10 19045; live RMM shows Win 11 26200, so was upgraded between audit and now.
  • Cascades CONTEXT.md: clients/cascades-tucson/CONTEXT.md
  • CHEF-PC slow log (parent pattern): clients/cascades-tucson/session-logs/2026-05-05-howard-chef-pc-slow-and-mdirector-ram.md
  • Cleanup script (used this session, kept for reuse): C:\Users\Howard\AppData\Local\Temp\assistman-cleanup.ps1
  • Recycle-bin direct-clean script: C:\Users\Howard\AppData\Local\Temp\assistman-rb-clean.ps1

Tickets

  • No Syncro ticket created yet for ASSISTMAN-PC. If this becomes a billable visit (onsite reboot supervision + post-reboot cleanup), open a ticket against Cascades customer 20149445 and link asset ASSISTMAN-PC.

Note for Mike

Second symptom of the fleet-wide previous-MSP cleanup. CHEF-PC on 2026-05-05 was #1. ASSISTMAN-PC today is #2. Same six-stack pattern: Datto RMM + Datto AV + Datto EDR + Syncro + Splashtop running concurrently with GuruRMM, plus Defender disabled because Datto AV is sitting in front of it. SyncroLive.Agent.Runner alone burned 25.4 hours of CPU on this one machine in 20 days of uptime, and a single svchost (PID 3492) burned 385 hours on a 2-core box. Today's cleanup reclaimed 14 GB of disk space and bought breathing room, but it does not touch the cause. Until the fleet decision lands, every " is slow" ticket will keep landing on this same diagnosis. The decision tree is unchanged from the 2026-05-05 log: (1) is GuruRMM canonical? (2) Datto AV out, Defender in? (3) what's the contract exit cost on Datto/Syncro? — when you're ready, we can scope the fleet uninstall in a single onsite/remote sweep.

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