MSE-MsMpEng.exe

[seekermeister]

I have read so many posts raving about MSE, that I decided to give it a try. While it has been okay on my primary rig, I'm having a problem with MsMpEng.exe spiking the CPU to 100%. I read one thread elsewhere that said that this was due to some kind of conflict with some other process, but since I just started setting up the rig today, I have a lot less running than I do on the primary rig. I did go to msconfig and disabled everything, but that didn't solve the problem.

Before sending MSE to the outer limits, I wanted to see if anyone here can offer a solution?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I haven't noticed the issue.

How often? How long does it last?

Is it scanning when it does that?

Mine is using 0% CPU as I type this and 49 megs of RAM.

Do the config related tabs in the program look ordinary?

 

[seekermeister]

I may have posted prematurely...I'm not certain, because it has become erratic and unpredictable. It should not be scanning, because I have it set to do so at 2:00 AM on Sundays, and I have not yet found any direct correlation to any other process. Yet, at the moment it has calmed down, so I'll have to wait and see.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I'm not sure--is MSE supposed to do a full scan by default when first installed??? That might explain it, but I can't recall if that occurred when I installed it.

 

[Zidane24]

I'm not sure--is MSE supposed to do a full scan by default when first installed??? That might explain it, but I can't recall if that occurred when I installed it.

It will do a special "first time scan" upon installation IF you check the box in setup for it to do so

 

[seekermeister]

Checking the tab, as you suggested, I thought that I had found the cause, but experimenting farther, it is apparent that I didn't. On the Update tab, it showed that the last update occurred at 12:36 AM, which was close to the time of the problem, but when I directed it to update again, it did cause a big CPU spike, but the process involved was scvhost, not MsMpEng.exe, and when completed, it shows the time of 6:21 PM which is far from my current time. Even if it were recording another time zone, it still wasn't correct, so that doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Zidane24]

Checking the tab, as you suggested, I thought that I had found the cause, but experimenting farther, it is apparent that I didn't. On the Update tab, it showed that the last update occurred at 12:36 AM, which was close to the time of the problem, but when I directed it to update again, it did cause a big CPU spike, but the process involved was scvhost, not MsMpEng.exe, and when completed, it shows the time of 6:21 PM which is far from my current time. Even if it were recording another time zone, it still wasn't correct, so that doesn't make sense to me.

Are you using the version from MS or a BETA from connect?

 

[seekermeister]

I'm not sure--is MSE supposed to do a full scan by default when first installed??? That might explain it, but I can't recall if that occurred when I installed it.

I unchecked the default scan on installation, because there really wasn't much to scan, since the entire system is only a few hours old.

 

[seekermeister]

Are you using the version from MS or a BETA from connect?

MS.

 

[seekermeister]

I think that I might have found the problem. It just started spiking again, and when I moused over Process Explorer, it showed the acs.exe (Outpost Firewall) as the cause, but repeating the mouseover a number of times MsMpEng.exe would appear. I'm beginning to think that there is a conflict between MSE and Outpost. If that is the case, Outpost will win and MSE will go looking for another home.

Very odd!, I had not seen this problem on my primary rig before, but while typing this, it started doing the same thing, but didn't last as long. I guess that I'm going to go back to Outpost Security Suite, instead of just the firewall, so that I can use their AV.

EDIT: An addendum to the above, I just remembered that twice today MSE has popped a alert about some process belonging to Outpost, that it said was an unknown risk, and wanted to send it to MS, but in each case I canceled it out.

 

[Greg S]

I think that I might have found the problem.

You probably haven't found the problem. If it's spiking CPU like you say, then it's always going to do that for your system and setup at least that's the case for me and half the MSE users I've read about. I've tested MSE on XP and Win 7 over a half a dozen different times each, and the results are always the same. Excluding processes and files tips from Microsoft makes no difference other than the one issue of opening Explorer window which has quite a few icon/apps in it. My last test of MSE began early November and it's still presently installed in XP and Win 7 but not for long. The CPU issue is way too much for me. Loading desktop takes forever with 100 percent CPU, downloading semi large files of 20mb or more take about 7 minutes of continuous high CPU. I said all that to say this, I'm done with MSE CPU magnet on my setup anyway. I do and will still recomend it, but it's not for me and my system for whatever reason and from what I see and read on the net, I'm not alone and in good company,lol.

 

[seekermeister]

I have already uninstalled MSE on my secondary rig, but not on the primary yet. Something else that I have noticed is that when opening a folder in my file manager, it delays display the contents, while I can see msmpeng.exe is pushing up the CPU. Unless someone can tell me how to eliminate this behavior, MSE is gone from both machines.

 

[Greg S]

I have already uninstalled MSE on my secondary rig, but not on the primary yet. Something else that I have noticed is that when opening a folder in my file manager, it delays display the contents, while I can see msmpeng.exe is pushing up the CPU. Unless someone can tell me how to eliminate this behavior, MSE is gone from both machines.

I have just now gotten around to uninstalling this POS in Win 7. I've said it before but this time I mean it, I will not install MSE ever again. To my surprise, the ongoing beta version in XP, seems to have settled down. I will keep it in XP a little longer and see how it goes.

In Win 7, Windows Defender is next on my hit list to kill. Since uninstalling MSE, Windows Defender has taken it's place as a CPU hog

 

[seekermeister]

I now have MSE uninstalled from both of my machines. As Poe might say...nevermore!

 

[Jacee]

I guess each of us has different issues. For me, MSE is running with absolutely no problems on my XP SP3 home machine.

 

[seekermeister]

I suppose, but then maybe MSE was designed for XP, not W7. Then again, it could be an entirely different aspect of hardware or software. Doesn't really matter to me, because Agnitum's OSS works for me.

 

[drazenn]

I was just about to write a question about MsMpEng.exe and then saw this thread.
Since I had few really nasty infections earlier which costed me formatting,I am kind od paranoic right now,and my task manager is almost non-stop open on my desktop, and I am watching almost constantly for weird and unknown processes,and during that I noticed that weird ocassionally high CPU usage caused by MsMpEng.exe.
What is interesting,it is happening without any obvious reason.It means,it just jumps in red,out of regulary scheduled scan or during or maybe after downloading something,and what is funniest,there is no need for absolutely any activity to trigger it.
I've tried to end that MsMpEng.exe I don't know how many times,but it autostarts in 2 seconds again.
I have reinstall MSSE for a few times,but there is no success alsnly thing that changes when I reinstall it,it temporarily stops until next time.
I have tried repair install because I thought that maybe I have accidentally deleted something.
I did a clean install too,but it happens again with no difference(only thing I think I noticed is that it didn't happened for few days after clean install,but in the other way,maybe it did happened but maybe I wasn't at the PC in that moment)
Only solution is to restart PC if I want to end it,or to disable MsMpEng.exe completely.
I've just had that problem maybe a 30 minutes ago,and this time I decided to let it run so I can see what'll happen at the end,and what happened?
After few minutes(maybe 10-15,I'm not sure,I was taking a shower),it suddenly stopped in the same way as it started,without any reason.
So,what could be a problem?
Maybe there is one with that problem(and better English than me) who could ask Microsoft about that.

 

[drazenn]

MSE is running with absolutely no problems on my XP SP3 home machine.

...and what about 7machine?

 

[seekermeister]

drazenn,

Maybe there is one with that problem(and better English than me) who could ask Microsoft about that.

Why bother, there are so many good AVs available, why waste the time and headaches trying to iron out the problem. I think that it is a lost cause.

 

[drazenn]

Why bother, there are so many good AVs available, why waste the time and headaches trying to iron out the problem. I think that it is a lost cause.

Uh,kind a liked it.In fact,exept in those cases,it really doesn't need a lot of RAM and CPU power.I also like that I barely even notice it,exept when(if) some malware is on it's way in.
I don't know,I haven't tried a lot of AV's(Nod32 at my beginnings,just tested AVG and Avira,and Avast PRO in combination with ZoneAlarm for a long,long time) before MSSE,but I think MSSE required the less user interaction in every day use(install,run and forget about it),and it is pretty efficient(maybe the most efficeint between those from above),with very low percent of false alarms.
So which AV would be the most similar to MSSE now(install and forget about it)?