I have seen this when Windows is downloading a large update.

And after a reset of your system - do you still see the same behaviour?

Yes it does.

I have seen this when Windows is downloading a large update.

Don't see it downloading anything but its possible, except it started last night and is still happening.

I have also seen this kind of behavior on HP laptops over the years - completely unrelated to Vegas. Often it has been some big download or connection over Wi-Fi. Maybe windows update; maybe HP's proprietary "system health" software. They also used to come preloaded with all sorts of crapware, that is best removed to help your system run smoothly. Good luck.

And after a reset of your system - do you still see the same behaviour?

Yes it does.

So you say:

1. I had Vegas running in a smooth way

2. Then something changed (I do not know what has changed, or it is not in my evidence)

3. And then - even after restarting the system - Vegas does not behave in a smooth way any more.

That sounds strange to me.

Have you installed somthing else between 2. and 3.? The idea of an windows download could be a hint? If you do not know what has happened here - have you tried to deinstall and reinstall the software again?

I disconnected from the internet and the problem persists. I have not installed anything else but there is a ton of junk preinstalled in this computer. I did have my task manager open and the Omen Command center open so I could monitor the CPU and GPU performance and maybe this was causing it although it was working perfectly at first.

I have been able to recreate the issue. It seems that if I click on anything outside the Vegas windows, even just the desktop and then back on Vegas the CPU sky rockets from about 4% to >70%  and takes a short while to settle back down (<a minute). If I leave click outside Vegas again within that time the CPU goes up to 100%, it appears to have a compounding affect. If I continue to work within Vegas it eventually settles down but takes much longer. I don't recall seeing any of this behavior in the past. 

Playback, when the CPU is settled, actually only causes the CPU to rise to about 20% but remains there for a short while after playback has stopped, I also don't remember that happening in my previous system. Is any of this normal???

What version of VP14 are you running? What are your source media like? Please use MediaInfo to report the median properties back here.

General
Complete name                            : C:\Users\Omen\Desktop\boat\DJI_0336.MP4
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : JVT
Codec ID                                 : avc1 (avc1/isom)
File size                                : 3.81 GiB
Duration                                 : 9 min 5 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 59.9 Mb/s
Encoded date                             : UTC 2017-07-22 12:36:35
Tagged date                              : UTC 2017-07-22 12:36:35
Comment                                  : 0.9.142M
©xyz                                     : +25.834000-79.938893+6.900
©xsp                                     : +0.00
©ysp                                     : +0.00
©zsp                                     : +0.00
©fpt                                     : +4.50
©fyw                                     : -12.50
©frl                                     : +2.50
©gpt                                     : -5.00
©gyw                                     : -12.60
©grl                                     : +0.00

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L5.1
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, RefFrames               : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP                     : M=1, N=8
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 9 min 5 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 60.0 Mb/s
Width                                    : 3 840 pixels
Height                                   : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.241
Stream size                              : 3.81 GiB (100%)
Title                                    : DJI.AVC
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : UTC 2017-07-22 12:36:35
Tagged date                              : UTC 2017-07-22 12:36:35
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

I notice you have an Nvidia GPU. I have seen, and reported, a runaway thread in the OpenCL driver on Nvidia in Vegas. Other OpenCL apps do not show this runaway thread. The runaway thread will eventually finish. It saturates one thread. So on my 4C8T CPU that accounts for 12.5%. How long this runaway thread runs depends on what you do.

On my simple test a quick play and then stop the thread continues for ~30-40 seconds. If I play and then stop and start playing again before the runaway thread finishes then the time before it stops increases substantially.

I don't know if this is related to what you are seeing but I just put this out there as info. Of course this only occurs when you have GPU accel enabled in the video preferences.

What version of VP14 are you running? What are your source media like? Please use MediaInfo to report the median properties back here.

 Its Vegas Pro 14, Edit, build 270

I have been able to recreate the issue. It seems that if I click on anything outside the Vegas windows, even just the desktop and then back on Vegas the CPU sky rockets from about 4% to >70%  and takes a short while to settle back down (<a minute). If I leave click outside Vegas again within that time the CPU goes up to 100%, it appears to have a compounding affect. If I continue to work within Vegas it eventually settles down but takes much longer. I don't recall seeing any of this behavior in the past. 

No, I do not see that. If I click outside Vegas the CPU usage falls down. More precise - if Playback from the timeline runs, nothing changes on the CPU usage. If the Playback does not run, CPU usage is low - and stays low when I click outside Vegas.

So there is a quite different behaviour on your machine, to what I see here and know.

Playback, when the CPU is settled, actually only causes the CPU to rise to about 20% but remains there for a short while after playback has stopped, I also don't remember that happening in my previous system. Is any of this normal???

If Playback stops, the CPU use declines immediately down near to  Zero.

I opened the project in my old computer, iCore2 duo Quad with an ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro, and this does not happen in it either. I guess ill look into drivers for GPU, or just go out and exchange the laptop for one that comes with a Radeon RX 580.

Just an update. I went and tried out the Omen with the Radeon Rx580 and the same processor, the i7 7700HQ. Needless to say things did not go well. After hours of trial and mostly error, and updating the performance was poor. I had read previous posts noting that it was resolved with more recent drivers but I did not find this to be the case. My CPU use was much higher overall, 50-70% and any crossfade would cause it to lag, where I was not seeing this before. I actuality I only had one video track and no audio so it should have been performing better. But on a positive note the CPU was responding appropriately and not all over the place as before. The GPU was at 100% more often than ideal but turning it off only made playback quite slower with lagging all over the length of the video. This also did not happen with the Nvidia setup.

I figured I'd get one with the best processor I could find at the store, which presently, to the best of my knowledge and the store's availability, was the i7 7700HQ. Unfortunately all the laptops with this processor came with a video card that does not seem to be compatible with Vegas Pro.

My goal was to go out and buy the laptop that I could edit 4k footage with on the go. Have any of you guys been able to accomplish this?

Is it even possible or am I just asking for too much?

You could edit in proxy and render in 4K, that I think would work for you.

Yes, I always edit in proxy but the glitches were still there and when the cpu would get "stuck" it would bring down to the quality too much, during crossfades it was so pixelated that it was basically useless and I'd have to prerender, which is fine right up to where i'd make a change and then i was back to square one.

At the end of the day Vegas clearly states and makes no secret of their incompatabilities with newer gpu's, as well as recommending 8 cores for 4k.

It really bothers that at one point, on the first set up I tried, it was working great. It's hard to say what's to blame, whether its Vegas or Windows or hardware or hp... or maybe its just me, but honestly I just want something that works right out of the box and I can spend the majority of my time making videos and not troubleshooting problems.

I'd love to hear about a mobile setup that can do what I want with Vegas but it's really looking like the only ones that have this figured out is Apple. As much as I dislike the way they do business and how expensive and un-upgradable they are, a MacBook pro 15 with FCPX edits 4k with no issues and renders in a fraction of the time. It's looking like I may have to go that route.

Ok... done with my rant.

Thank you guys for all you help and suggestions.

a MacBook pro 15 with FCPX edits 4k with no issues

Is that hearsay or your personal experience? I myself was looking into a MacBook pro and FCP X but was disappointed by the performance of it. Especially 4K XAVC-S from my AX100 and a6300 didn't edit well and 1080 60p multicam edits where also slow when I tested it earlier this year at an Apple store.

I don't think this is the proper foum for this but since you asked I'll tell you. My apologies to Magix and all the great people who work there.

I borrowed a Macbook pro 15 with the touch bar and a 256 flash drive and spent all day on it today. I loaded it with the same video clips I was using before, and its really fast. It brings down the quality on playback sometimes but its only noticable when the player is on full screen. It takes a few seconds to playback the crossfades accurately since it renders in the background whenever you make changes but doesn't lag at all aside from the crossfade itself. Searching through the clips to load on the timeline is super fast and efficient. I'm yet to really push it since I'm still trying to figure out where everything is. So far I loaded a rough draft of a 2 minute video i put together for a friend onto youtube at 1080p with color correction and some effects and it was really fast. I didn't time it but it was done before I knew it.

All my videos are on 264 MP4 4k at 29 fps but I hear it doesn't support 265... not really an issue for me. I'll try some multicam 1080p at 60 from my go pro and see how that goes.

It's definitely not perfect but since it does all the rendering in the back ground the workflow is really smooth and hasn't had a hiccup yet. I'll be glad to let you know how it turns out.