Windows 7 - Programs Stop Opening (Intermittent - reboot fixes for a few days)

Dear moderators,

Can this thread please be moved back into the Microsoft OS Forum where it was? The thread here: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/virus-spyware/f/3521/p/19343607/19761556.aspx#19761556 confirms that my system is not infected, so I would like to see if anyone has any ideas for configuration-based troubleshooting.

Right now, on the surface it seems like the overall CPU usage is down, hovering between 8-20% on average. WMIPrvSE is still consistently running, though, but it is only taking around 2-3% CPU at max. Still - on my desktop it doesn't run at all, so I wonder what's keeping it active on my laptop.

I will see how the system performs over the next couple days because it usually starts out well after a reboot but then degrades in performance over time. I'll post the results here, but if anything strikes anyone based on this post and the posts made when working with the malware expert, I'd be glad to hear it.

Thanks,
Kevin 

I'll contact  a Liaison to see if this can be moved.  It may not be moved until Monday. Thank you for waiting patiently.

Looking at this one thing sticks out - all the add on (non Microsoft) utilities.  Although a hassle, I would start with a "clean" machine (reformat and reinstall) - no add ons such as the Task Manager replacement - virtural machines, etc and see if it works OK.   If everything works OK without all the add-ons, then start adding them one at a time, run the PC for a while to see if it's stable or if problems develop.  If it runs OK with the first add on, then install a second and do the same thing - run for a while to verify stability.  Do this for each added utility.   If it crashes with a new add-on that is most likely the problem. 

Hi fireberd,

Thanks for the tips. I'd like to see what others suggest as well as per my original goal of solving this without a reformat and reinstallation. I'm a freelancer, and thus time spent on reconfiguring my system and possibly not being able to use tools important for my work is a scenario I'd like to avoid. A reasonably-performing laptop with minor issues is better than starting from scratch, so I would like to address as much as I can of any potential issues. I'm generally willing to remove third-party programs and add-ons from my system for testing purposes and with a reasonable cause, but at this point I don't think reformatting is necessary. I know it's easier, and that I'm really just borrowing you guys' time here...but hopefully you can see where I'm coming from.

Hi there,

Just to put it out there that I still face this issue.

I really feel or it really seems like it is connected to heat...on hotter days this problem seems to happen more. My desktop computer occasionally crashes from heat...that's just why I think it may be somehow affecting the laptop. Like maybe it's throttling the CPU to avoid overheating...which then results in higher CPU usage.

Turning the FlipShareService to Manual DID help...but this problem seems to have resurfaced.

How can I diagnose and troubleshoot heat-related issues? I use a Dell Dock, so one of those fans you put under the laptop wouldn't work. I'm at a loss for what to try. 

Update on this. Dell recommended I send them my laptop, so I did (of course taking a system image beforehand).

I'll see how it fares when I get it back and after restoring the system image. That should at least isolate it to software vs. hardware. After all, I checked my desktop and it isn't constantly running WMIPrvSE.exe...so there must be something prompting this behavior on the laptop. Somehow I don't think it's just default behavior. So if it persists, I guess I'll just reformat and try to start clean. I'm bad about installing too much stuff (though it's all safe in terms of malware of course).

So...I'll update this with how things go upon receiving it back. The hard drive DID return an error code in the diagnostics, but whether that was the issue or not is yet to be seen. I'll see what they did to it when I get it back...

OK, so they actually replaced the CPU and fan, indicating there was probably something going on there.

CPU usage DOES seem more reasonable now...10-20%, which I guess on a laptop owned by me isn't too bad.

The WMI service still seems to be continuously active (WMIPrvSE.exe). In turning it off, I discovered that maybe one of the dependent services is the problem...but I don't know where to go from here. The dependent services taht I suspect are:

Smith Micro Connection Manager Service
Dell System Manager Service
Dell ControlPoint Button Service
Ambient Light Sensor

Are there any known issues with any of these (if anyone knows) that could contribute to constant running of that process? It does not run constantly on my desktop, and the parent service (WMI) is also enabled there. Coincidentally, none of those four services exist on the desktop.

I've yet to try running a VM on the laptop since I don't really need it right now, but I should be able to see if the issues are really fixed over the next couple days anyway.

Somebody post back if they have an idea. Thanks :)

So I'm more or less happy with the laptop's performance for now. Still some weirdness sometimes, but at least any hardware issues should be ruled out. I got a parts dispatch for a new hard drive as well and imaged that with my backed-up image. Worked like a charm.

So, not perfect, but seems OK enough. Any ideas on the WMIPrvSE.exe service would be appreciated, but I guess if it becomes a real issue I'll just open a more specific forum post.

Thanks for the replies.

I'm having this problem as well, but started when windows automatically updated IE9 to IE10. What version of IE are you running? It could also be in the other updates windows downloaded along with IE10.

I have a Dell XPS with an Intel i7.

Wow, old post.

Not using Windows currently :)