100% kernel CPU on USB insertion

Bossk128 · 17 Apr 2012 at 11:07

I'm really looking to see if anybody else has ever had this problem, and any ideas for a fix.

Whenever I insert a USB device (mostly flash memory, but the same if it's mouse or keyboard) around 80% of the time, it takes many minutes to detect (4-8 minutes). During this time CPU usage spikes to 100% on one core. On task manager this is shown as a red graph, meaning it's the Windows kernel using the CPU.

Any ideas what is happening, and if there is a fix??

It's an HP computer running Windows 7 Pro 64. Reinstallation of the OS is not an option for me.

kiel367 · 17 Apr 2012 at 11:20

why is a re-install out of the question?

Bossk128 · 17 Apr 2012 at 11:21

It's a work PC!

kiel367 · 17 Apr 2012 at 11:30

might be worth trying to re-install chipset firstly and see what happens

trickynickyuk · 17 Apr 2012 at 14:45

uninstall usb drivers and try reinstalling them also try your chipset drivers as well

kiel367 · 17 Apr 2012 at 14:52

usb drivers are all included in the chipset driver

Bossk128 · 17 Apr 2012 at 14:54

I've previously deleted the USB devices from the device manager, but the problem persists: I can only assume it's using the same drivers I have just removed.

Options available fro HP are:

Intel Management Engine Interface Driver

Intel Chipset Support for Microsoft Windows

There are no specific usb drivers, so I'll give these a shot. edit: ^ like kiel367 said

Solaris · 17 Apr 2012 at 14:54

If it's a work laptop I wonder if they have any AV that runs a full scan before mounting?

Bossk128 · 17 Apr 2012 at 15:23

Desktop, but I did wonder if was AV. MCaffee 4.5. I can't see in the task list what is using the CPU though, I assume because it's kernel based.

Solaris · 17 Apr 2012 at 15:29

Could be, god damn microkernels. Monolithic ftw