I’m new here so forgive me if this has already been covered. I did look. This is just something I experienced and thought if others were having a similar issue this simple fix might be something to try. I won’t go into great detail, I use Win7 and a Core i7 PC with with 32gb ram (I know 64gb will be better. I’m working on it), and Cubase 10.5. Ok, so, I have a test track I use on updated versions of Cubase that is deliberately loaded up with plugins, outboard, and VSL networking, so as to push the hardware, so to speak. It’s not a massive affair, but I use it to find any weaknesses in my setup. After upgrading to 10.5, I immediately started getting dropouts, CPU overloads, and lockups, massive spiking on the latency - which didn’t happen with 10.xxxx. Don’t panic!!! It wasn’t Cubase 10.5 that was the problem in the end. To cut to the chase, after going into my PC and settings, USB Root Hubs, Power Management, services, hyper-threading, bios, and just about everything else blah-blah, some tiny tweaks helped a little, but still the same problem. In the end, it turned out to be an innocuous seeming driver running in windows task manager: igfxEM.exe is the blighter, and it causes spikes in the CPU, often maxing it out. It has to do with the Intel Graphics Panel etc. Stopping this service immediately caused the spiking of the CPU to stop and settle down (after a restart) and 10.5 now runs smoothly with less agitated latency readings. These Intel services are not necessary as windows takes care of the graphics drivers for most people. To stop igfxEM.exe running, open the task manager and remove it, then open MS-CONFIG and disable the Intel graphics drivers, then go into the services and disable them. BE CAREFUL!!! I disabled the Intel graphics services one by one. Disabling them made no difference to the running of my PC, and Cubase now positively zooms along. Like I said, I’m new here, but if this helps someone with the same problem then my Karma will probably spike like an igfxEM-battered CPU on terminal overload. Oh, and you do this at your own risk, that’s a given. Cheers. 
Hi and welcome,
Thank you for your detailed report.
I would like just to point to the fact, Windows 7 is not officially supported OS for Cubase 10.5 anymore.
We have the same dropout problem. On loading a project in 10.5, the CPU seems to be around 50%. Move the mouse and it goes to 100%. This Windows 10.
We don’t have igfxEM running on the machine.
Cubase is not using hardly any CPU when we look at it, but it is thrashing the disk.
Going back to 9.5. Until there is a fix for this.
Q) why does moving the mouse kick off so much disk activity?
Thank you for the heads up about Cubase 10.5 and Windows 7. However, many of us do use windows 7 still, and personally I’m still reluctant to upgrade to Win10 for a variety of reasons, one being the familiarity of Win7. I’ve tried Win10. Don’t like it.True, I will have to upgrade eventually, but for now I’m happy with the performance and stability I get from win7 - though I am willing to change, but not just yet. Still, if there are other Win7 users who have the CPU spiking problem, then maybe my post may just be of help. The igfxEM.exe spiking problem is not confined to Cubase. Cheers.
Official Windows 7 support will end in 40 days from now, just saying. Consider the move, leave your comfort zone for a few days, in the long run, you can save yourself a lot of trouble. Windows 10 is now quite usable.
It’s worth considering. Cheers
Do you have other apps running in the background like the Chrome browser?
I have the same problem here but I don’t have the Intel services running.
There is randomly this high CPU load which causes this dropouts of the audio engine.