Windows Media Player Encoder Helper

[rpm]

I finally narrowed down what has been giving me fits. I thought I had a power supply problem and replaced it. Didn't stop the crashes. Replaced the CPU cooler. Didn't stop the crashes. Finally after watching the Resource Monitor for a few days I found it. Windows Media Player Encoder Helper is running wild on my CPU. I've seen CPU usage up to 80% just by that program. After it reaches that level the CPU overheats and shuts down. It will even do it sitting idle at desktop. I've run several antivirus and malware programs and nothing turns up. Has anyone had this problem and how do I fix it?

Running an AMD Dual Core 2.6G 5000+, 4G ram, Vista SP2, Radeon 4770.

[Chalenge]

1) Have you installed any new hardware? If not I would google Windows Media Player and reinstall (but read on).

2) If you have recently changed your video card, then you need to clean the drivers, your temp folder, cache, and any driver installation foders before installing new drivers. To do it right you really need to defeat windows update, so that it does not automatically connect during system reboot and pork things again.

3) If you recently updated through Windows Update and any of your video cards showed up as devices with updates waiting. . . there's your problem. Return to step 2.

[rpm]

No new hardware. No new updates. It acts like a virus, but nothing shows up in multiple scans.

[Chalenge]

If that's the case then it is possible you have a piece of hardware that has become defective, or a PSU that is about to fail. I would diagnose the problem by unplugging every USB device that you can and then check Resource Monitor. After you see that you have no issue, then plug one USB device in at a time. However, if you find that after unplugging all the USB devices that you can that the Resource Monitor still shows an issue then it is possible that it is either an expansion card or the PSU.

Remember the signs of a failing PSU are audio anomalies followed by data loss and then other hardware failures. Since you have not reported data issues I suspect it is a USB device and not the PSU. This can be caused by a failing communication cable, so don't assume it's the device (if you find a failure) until you have checked the device with a new cable.

Failing that I am sure Skuzzy will be along in a few hours with another viewpoint.