WMI Provider Host taking up all of CPU

Hey Arthur, thank you first of all for swift replies, I really appreciate it.

1 - Yes, I did it with "Run as administrator" and I re-checked right now - doing it with or without that fetches the same result - System Error 5, Access is denied.

What would that mean?

2 - I have done most of it and I will give you a brief history again of how it started and what all I thought I could do. As I have told you, I'm a professional poker player and mostly use this PC for playing poker (on multiple clients/software's) and studying with help of solvers which run simulations (which actually is the CPU intensive work). I face the WMI problem in the former not the latter, weirdly. Now I understand it could be because of some of the programs I nailed down through the PID's and I first tried adding a dedicated GPU to my PC (at first it was just running on AMD integrated graphics on the Ryzen 7950x) thinking maybe it's about that even though poker sites are not at all graphic intensive. The problem came back again after which I thought it's some software issue and not hardware as my PC isn't heating up or anything as well. Attaching a video of what exactly the problem seems like in real time - this is an old one shot at the start of the problem and as I have told you I have seen WMI activity soaring up to 90% at times. Have said some things in Hindi but the video will give you more than enough idea. I also tried updating BIOS version told as a solution by one of my friends but everything just gave no or temporary relief. Installed DDU to remove bloated NVIDIA stuff as well - which by the way till date continues to be one of the biggest errors in Event Viewer - a process called "NVIDIA Container".

https://gyazo.com/d1a918c833e5a22917450fd9913477d7

3 - OK, I will do the clean boot. Just to be clear, this is done to identify what process is causing the problem? So I need to re-start some of those "stopped" processes in batches, play my session and try to re-create the problem and using kind of hit and trial method with what's causing problems and what's not out of those restarted programs/services? For me, it isn't certain that every time I have a playing session this WMI Activity shows up and it creeps up randomly so how do I monitor it you suggest? Make a note of it if and when it happens basically and then check what services/startup processes are on?

4 - I have already taken proper database backup for the downgrading to Windows 10, it seems like the best way but sure as you said I can try the clean boot and if that doesn't work, I can resort to downgrading.

Try the methods mentioned in below article

Fix: WMI Provider Host (WmiPrvSE.exe) High CPU Usage On Windows 10 (appuals.com)

Thank you for your reply my friend.

I'll answer from top to bottom based on your responses.

(1) I noticed that when you run "net stop winmgmt", you end up with “Access is denied”.

Did you open "cmd" with administrator privileges? Because normally the message is "Access is denied = No permission to execute".

Some commands need to be run from a super administrator account, but this one can be run by a normal administrator.

(2) There are some monitoring, tracking, diagnostic programs at the bottom of the article I sent you earlier, but it can be a bit tricky to do and there is a lot of content.

(3) Clean boot is something you can try without any other problems. Because the principle of clean boot is to use only a limited set of files and drivers to enter the system, which can effectively reduce the third-party software, driver and so on conflicts lead to problems.

Therefore, I recommend you to try it first, you just need to follow the steps in the link I posted.

(4) Your reply description mentions resetting the computer and downgrading to Windows 10.

From a technical point of view, I think this option is indeed feasible. Because resetting the computer will reinstall all the drivers and system files, it is indeed possible that it can help solve similar problems.

However, I would recommend that you do this first and try to enter the system after resetting the computer first to see if the problem still exists. If the problem still exists you can try downgrading to Windows 10 again.

Please note: Please remember to backup your data to avoid data loss after resetting or downgrading Windows!

I sincerely hope that the above solution will solve your problem. Please feel free to contact me if you have any problems or still can't solve them. (Photos related to the question would be great!) .

I look forward to hearing back from you. 

Best Regards

Arthur Sheng | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

No, I don't use any kind of remote control or monitoring services. I'm also amazed how my PC uses WMI at all because as much as I have understood having no tech background is that WMI is useful for organizations where a lot of PC's are working in tandem. My PC is just a home/work PC for my individual purposes.

I entered the same, this is the response:

I have read the forum you have sent and in fact the PDI detection method I used was from this article itself. Are you talking about the program called "WMIMon"? If so, I read about it but it seemed too complex for me to try.

Even the clean start up seems a little too daunting when I read the link you sent. But if that's necessary I'll be carrying that out very soon.

Do you think I should try resetting my PC and downgrading to Windows 10 - think a full reset will help re-establishing all drivers and WMI directory/repository and I have also researched how Windows 10 is lot lighter than Windows 11 - which in hindsight shouldn't be an issue with the specs I have but now when it is being one, I can try downgrading to 10 maybe?