wmplayer process "resurrects" itself and hogs 50% CPU

An interesting problem certainly.

I've had issues with WMP not exiting properly and having to kill the process by hand, but this takes it to a new low. I exit, and i started to notice that firefox stopped working - frozen. I discovered that it was because the media player process was running in the background and was taking up so much processing power that firefox was lagging.

I've tried ending the process, ending the process tree, disabling the WMP network service, restarting. I don't want to reinstall because i don't think it would do much good. I don't think it's a codec issue either, that usually just keeps the process running - but it doesn't make the process start up straight away again.

After a while sometimes i can just close it, but it's not a good workaround.

Any ideas?

After reading a lot of forum posts and tinkering with the problem ... I think I've found the solution. I *JUST* fixed the problem literally a few minutes ago ... so I'm eager to help others. Hopefully I didn't jump the gun and THINK I solved it when I didn't.

Most people got the problem solved by going into the Sync Center and turning off the sync to devices. So if this helps you, then yay.

I had no devices in there. So that didn't work for me.

For me, the problem was in Side Show. (I have the Logitech G15 keyboard). So under Control Panel->Windows Sideshow, I unchecked the boxes next to Windows Media Player.

Thank you for the fix! I created this account just to tell you that you're awesome.

Heh, no problem. If you noticed, that was my FIRST post. I also created that account JUST to let everyone know how I fixed it. Just in case some random person wanted to google up how to fix the problem. Because I remember being so glad to figure out what on earth was going on. :P

@ Nestea80, you are a god... For i am that random googleing person, i also have a G15 and the wmp process never closing was staring to get on my nerves. I often make movies on sony vegas and alternate looking at clips in wmp and editing them and since i installed win7 the 2 programs have been clashing when wmp refuses to get go of the file when i close it, forcing me to end the process in task manager. Unticking the g15 slide show boxs worked like a charm, so thanx for posting.

Same here, allso a random google searching dude.
Whiternoise your Epic, thanks for your input.

nestea80 & Whiternoise, thank you very much, Like others, I just created account to thank you!

I've had to look up this issue at least twice now with new system installs, and it is still spot on. I have no idea why this has not been fixed. so many people I am sure have this problem yet have no idea how to fix it.

I am running Win7 x64 and use a Logitech g15 keyboard. I also found that wmplayer.exe kept coming on as an unkillable process and hogging resources.

As suggested, Windows Sideshow and the Logitech software was the issue. To solve this open the 'Logitech LCD manager' from your start menu. Go to Programs and then select the Windows Sideshow line (Monochrome of color, it doesn't matter). Then select 'configure' and then unselect the two options.
Alternative, the system URL to get here was 'Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Windows SideShow', so you might copy and paste that in your system folder/directory (e.g. open any folder and just copy/paste in the path/URL bar).

I registered and did a write-up just to add a few more keywords in hopes others looking for a solution can find this as well.

nestea you are the king!

I too am running Windows 7 x64 and use a Logitech g15 keyboard. I also found that wmplayer.exe kept coming on as an unkillable process and hogging resources.

logitech get your act together!!

you are an absolute legend, same problem with the g15,