I'm not sure I can help much but I tried to do a search for the file including Intel's site and found nothing - very unusual.  Lots of users listed it as running on their pcs but that means nothing.  It sounds something to do with the motherboard (monitoring?) but it could be a dummy name if the file is hostile.  If the workstation is connected to the internet I would try a spy/adware scan.

You could try looking in the Intel folder to see if there are any readme or other text files that may be relevant.  That may also confirm if the folder and file are genuine Intel.

You did not specifically say the process was causing the problem (just that the cpu was jumping to 80%).  One assumes you observed ASFAgent using 80% of the cpu.

I sent your other post a related reply here:

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=pw_other&message.id=3044

I'm not 100% sure why we need ASFAgent.exe, but can tell you that ASF 1.0/2.0 is:

(snipped from http://www.dmtf.org/data/presentations/devcon02/KlineHighfill-ASF.pdf)

What is ASF? What is ASF?

•

De facto industry standard for alerting

–

Specification supported by the DMTF, Pre-OS Working Group

•

Provides:

–

Notification of error conditions in OS-Absent states

–

Ability to respond to system issues over the network via

Remote Management and Control Protocol (RMCP)

•

Standardizes the interfaces between:

–

Sensors to SMBus

–

SMBus to NIC Alert Sending Device

–

BIOS to Alert Sending Device

–

Alert Sending Device to Mgmt Console

(end snip)

According to my research it first appeared on Dell Optiplex GX-260's but any standards compliant vendor (i.e. Intel with the IntelPRO nic series) will have this.  I don't think the typical home user will care to eat CPU cycles. 

From the other side, if anyone knows how to make it do a simple Wake-On-LAN in a small workgroup environment (i.e. - not exactly going out to purchase HPOpenView), please post.  Is there where Dell OpenManage fits in?

J