CPU usage for Zoom > 35% (actual meetings, terrible perf.) and < 6 % (test meeting, OK)? Please help

[SnowFlake]

Recently, for maybe last 2-3 weeks, I have a very difficult time with Zoom meetings. The CPU usage hovers around 35%, video freezes or keeps going blank, sound is so scratchy I cannot understand a word or just freezes. I tested the meeting with Test Meeting at Zoom, and sometimes the CPU usage was barely 5-6%, sound was clear as a bell, at other times I had the same problems as with "real" meetings.  The size of the meeting does not matter, though the meetings with local attendees do not suffer from these glitches. I have not made any conscious changes to my system in the last 2-3 weeks.  Before these problems started 2-3 weeks ago all meetings were crystal clear and I had no problems whatsoever. Also, Google Meet and MS Teams are not affected, still working great as far as sound and video are concerned.  Same meetings on Zoom on my Android 10 phone are also still flawless.

I thought maybe my computers drivers need attention, so pointers to a good way to check and update the drivers would be welcomed.

Overall I would appreciate ideas or suggestions on logging the performance issues, and where to look or how to solve this problem.

Thanks!

[check]

free vpn on chrome was affecting my internet speed. (35 down to 5 mb)

don't know if all vpn's do this.

check if computer is 32 bit or 64 bit. mine is 64 bit. I deleted old zoom and downloaded the 64 bit version just to make sure. (now have a choice of bit version from zoom) don't know what bits the older zoom version was running on.... apparently 32 bit  computers are limited on the ram they can use.

don't know if uploading to the cloud uses a lot of memory,(norton) I now do it manually.so it doesn't start while i'm on zoom.

may or may not help...........

[Tbailie]

I am experiencing the same issue. I haven't found a solution yet,