WMI Provider Host high CPU caused by XPSOSD process.

Question

I have an XPS 13 Laptop and noticed that the 'WMI Provider Host' process constantly runs at 25% to 35% CPU. This seems to be caused by the XPSOSD process. When I look at the 'WMI-Activity->Operational' Event Log I see repeated warnings and errors...

Warning: Namespace = root\wmi; NotificationQuery = select * from biosevent; UserName = XXXXXXXXXXX\xxxxx; ClientProcessID = 12352, ClientMachine = XXXXXXXXXXX; PossibleCause = Temporary

Error: Id = {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}; ClientMachine = XXXXXXXXXXX; User = XXXXXXXXXXX\xxxxx; ClientProcessId = 12352; Component = Unknown; Operation = Start IWbemServices::ExecNotificationQuery - root\wmi : select * from biosevent; ResultCode = 0x80041032; PossibleCause = Unknown

The process ID is the XPSOSD process.

Restarting the 'Windows Management Instrumentation' Service generally fixes the issue. The 'WMI Provider Host' process returns to a normal CPU utilisation.

Although sometimes the 'Dell Data Vault' Service which is a dependency of 'Windows Management Instrumentation' Service fails to restart causing the WMI Host Process to not restart. I then need to reboot the Laptop in order to try again.

I have checked that I have all the latest Dell drivers.

Any ideas what may cause this?

Saintsfc76 · Accepted Answer

This was finally tracked down. Although XPSOSD reports errors in the Event Log when the high CPU occurs, it was not actually the culprit. It transpires that Garmin Express was the root cause. By disabling Garmin Express at startup the issue no longer occurs.

MoeElnono · Answer

This solution worked for me... Thanks

Robert-RJ-M · Answer

Indeed, Garmin Express is the culprit, although how his is connected to the process ID of XPSOSD is a question.

I had very high WMI CPU utilization (~50%) and when I uninstalled XPSOSD it got better (down to 30%) but not by very much . after disabling Garmin express the WMI problem disappeared. WMI CPU now ~3 to 5%

Robert-RJ-M · Answer

@Saintsfc76

Dear User,

Thanks for your solution. Can you enlighten us how you tracked this down to he Garmin app?

Was this by trial and error, i.e simply disabling everything running in the background one after the other until the problem disappeared or did you use a more educated approach to track this down.

It would be good to hear how you did it in case a similar problem appears with another application or service

KInd regards

Robert

Saintsfc76 · Answer

Hello

I followed the following instructions to do a clean boot:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows?linkId=89054938

When it restarted without the issue I then switched on half the Services from the System Configuration, and performed another reboot. Again no issue so switched on the remaining Services and again after the reboot all was good. I then did the same for the Startup applications in Task Manager initially selecting half the Programs. If the problem did not occur I switched those back off and enabled the other half. This did reintroduce the issue after a reboot. I then did a 'binary chop' of those processes and rebooting until I had the culprit.

By starting Garmin Express at anytime the WMI Provider Host immediately starts using high CPU.

I have reported the issue to Garmin. They have acknowledged some other Clients have also reported this issue but as yet have been unable to reproduce it themselves.

btw - at this time I started trying the Clean boot I had already uninstalled the XPSOSD process, however the issue was still occurring. I have not reinstalled the XPSOSD process as I'm not clear what benefit I get from it - I haven't noticed any negative effect by not having it running.

XPS

WMI Provider Host high CPU caused by XPSOSD process.

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