Windows 7 How to Fix High CPU Usage on Windows 7 Pro

[jimlau]

just noticed my computer is running its CPU's at 20-40%, heating up my CPU, due to the above program.
I have windows 7 pro, and have not maybe any recent changes that I can recall.
what to do?
thanks.

 

[Saltgrass]

I am not yet sure what it might be, but suggestions are you run a virus scan, just in case.

Does it run at that high rate, or slow down or stop after a while. Doing a Cold boot might be the best way to check its activity.

In Task Manager, Processes, show all users, there should be two versions of the process running. One is a NetworkService and one a Local user.

As I was typing, both of mine shutdown, but they did run for a while after I started my Windows 7 system. If you can tell if it is the NetworkService user, it might help pin down the problem.

You could try ending the process, but be aware, in some situations a reboot may be required to get everything back, if you were to disable a vital process.

Other things I saw mentioned while searching are Windows Media Player, the Prefetch system, and possibly the Search Indexing process.

 

[jimlau]

the culprit is the System version of the process. tried to delete, but it comes right back.

my computer has had a few flukes with it, like booting and proper time. I did do an anti-virus scan (Norton), but nothing found.

 

[Saltgrass]

WMI seems to be involved with much of the system. If I refresh a window, the wmiprsvc.exe process starts. You can also search for WBEM on the net since the WMI seems to be part of it. Drivers and system configuration do seem to be involved.

There are a couple of pieces of software that might be useful. You can get them at this Microsoft site and download the entire suite or just the applications you need.

After you download, right click the .zip file and look at properties and click the unblock button on the bottom.

The utility that might be most useful to you would be Process Monitor. It keeps a running log of what the system is doing. Since you have such a high CPU usage, I would expect to see multiple entries for the same thing. From there, you could see what it is doing, or where it is doing it.

If you decide to go this way, there are tutorials on the site about using the utilities, and I have some experience. When starting the logging, it should not take more than a few seconds to gather enough info to see what is happening. But we can discuss that if you feel so inclined.

 

[jimlau]

will check into that. thanks.

oddly, the issue went away, and now only running the program, Speccy, seems to cause the issue. odd, because during the problems I started having, I was not using that program.

 

[Pauli]

wmiprvse.exe is a legitimate Windows file. It's known to cause trouble, in connection to games, and it may also attract boogies = virus and malware. Speccy may be one cause, I do have good trust in Piriform, but one never knows...
I would uninstall Speccy. Though, the CPU usage you mention is not critical, as such. If constant, even in no active use, it may be something to attend to.