Windows Media Player network sharing using 33% of CPU resources

Question

Media Media Player network sharing module chewing up cpu

I am encountering a cpu utilization problem similar to others concerning window media player cpu utilization.  I used the process explorer tool and found that the wmpnetwk process was continulally using 33% of my cpu resources even when media player wasn't started.  Media player itrself uses about 20-22% cpu when it is opened and a media upate is in progress, which is all the time. MY PC has a triple core processor so this is a pretty big chunk of cpu utilization!   I tried all the suggested fixes to no avail.  This may be a more unique problem.  I upgraded to Windows 7 64 premium from vista 64 premium but did not do a clean (wipe everything out) install.  Found a number of problems with user applications and reinstalled them.  Since media player and media center are part of the operating system apparently I cannot do this for them.  This JUST started happening.  Is it possible the last update did something?  Also I have a laptop with windows 7 preinstalled and am not having the same problem.  At this point I am considering turning media center and media player off and setting adobe media player as my default until someone can come up with a better suggestion.

Quick update.  Just deactivated media center and media player and cpu utilization is back to a low level.  Question remains.  Why is wmpnetwk  using so much cpu?

Answer 1

Actually I've found my steps might be a little over the top and quite tedious.

You can actually do the following which saves some time! wmplayer.exe is responsible for managing the shared library, the wmpnetwk.exe shares this library over the network**[please correct me if I'm wrong here]** 

1. Open Windows Media Player and remove all monitored folders and close Windows Media Player (for me Windows Media Player became unresponsive after it was consuming over 300 Mb so I forcibly closed it), open it up again keeping an eye on the Windows Media Player (wmplayer.exe) process to make sure CPU consumption is acceptable.
2. Add ONE monitored folder into Windows Media Player.
3. When the dialog opens up showing the progress of added files in the library, keep an eye if it gets stuck for a long time (around 2-5 min+, normally you will find that memory usage starts to spike rapidly) and take a note which folder/sub-folder it got stuck on. (This is a good indicator that a file in that folder may be corrupt), if the dialog completes then that monitored folder has no issues.
4. If there was an issue with step 3, close the progress dialog, remove that monitored folder, close Windows Media Player and move half the files in that folder you took note of to another unmonitoredfolder. Repeat steps 2-4 until the monitored folder completes its search.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 until you have added all folders back into Windows Media Player.

 I'm not sure why there is no code in windows media player to check if a files corrupt, but there definitely is a memory leak in the application and hopefully this will be corrected my Microsoft soon!

Answer 2

I have the same issue. When enabled, networksharing uses about 25% of system resources (on a quad core processor with 8 gigs of ram. This seems excessive to say the least.  And the slowdown in system performance is not acceptable. I have explored all the options discussed in this tread, and also for me, none have helped. Are there any new suggestions?

 I folowed the advise of Tomek W in steps 1-11, and stopped there as I am not that into computers like you all seem to be. After step 11, as described- twice thru the first 10m steps, I restarted and waited for 'wmpnetwk.exe' to take control again. It did not. I have restarted again this AM, no problem. The only difference between Tomek's scheme and mine is that the second trip thru step # 9 I 'disabled' the "startup type". Everything works fine so far.

Thanks all, Doug

Answer 3

Hi,

In Windows Media Player turn off media sharing.

1. Open Media Player
2. Go to Library >> Media Sharing
3. This will open up Media Sharing Dialog, uncheck the both of these checkbox’s and click apply.

If the above procedure does not solve your problem and you still see wmpnetwk.exe running, then you should disable its corresponding service

1. Open Run Prompt ( Press Window+r ) and type Services.msc and press Enter
2. Locate Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service
3. Right click on it and Select Properties, now stop it if it is already running by clicking Stop button and then select the Startup Type as Disabled.
4. Press OK.

Thanks and Regards:

I. Suuresh Kumar- Microsoft Support.

Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forumand let us know what you think.

Answer 4

Process is Streaming >> More Streaming options >> block all button (if automatic streaming is on).  Did this and wmpnetwk essentially went to 0% cpu.  The endless media directory updates continued though with CPU utilization of  20% to over 60% with media player opened.  I unmarked as answered, because I view this as a work around to gain back cpu resources at the expense of functionality in media player.  I found a work around for accessing music and pictures using homegroup, but the bottom line here is that there is something wrong with media player on this PC.  My laptop, also running on my home network with Windows 7 preinstalled does not have the media directory update or wmpnetwk problem, but this PC with a Windows 7 upgrade does.  Checked the version nunbers and they are identical. The question then becomes why the problem(s) and how to fix media player.  Is there a way to restore it/uninstall/reinstall it?  What is that procedure?

Answer 5

Hi,

You may follow these steps provided below to optimize Windows performance, try using the Performance troubleshooter to automatically find and fix problems. The Performance troubleshooter checks issues that might slow down your computer's performance, such as how many users are currently logged on to the computer and whether multiple programs are running at the same time.

To run the troubleshooter:

• Click the Start button, and then click Control Panel.

• In the search box, type troubleshooter, and then click Troubleshooting.

• Under System and Security, click Check for performance issues.

You can also use advanced tools to troubleshoot performance problems in Windows 7.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Open-the-Performance-troubleshooter

• To get to the tools, type Performance Info into the search box in the Start menu and hit Enter.

• In the Performance Information and Tools windows click on Advanced Tools.

• It opens up a list of different tools you can use to monitor different aspects of the system performance. From here you can do several things like defrag the hard drive, check Event Viewer, and even re-rate the Experience Index score.

• Notice there is a column for Performance issues you can click on to get additional details on how to correct the problem.

• Resource Monitor is a great tool to monitor what applications and services are using up your system’s memory, processor, disk usage, and network activity. If you find a service or program that is frozen or taking up too many resources you can close it out.

• You can even generate a system health report. With the help of this you can go through a very detailed analysis of virtually every aspect of your system.

Ways to improve your computer’s performance:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Ways-to-improve-your-computers-performance

Optimize Windows 7 for better performance:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Optimize-Windows-7-for-better-performance

**If the issue doesn’t get resolved then you may try performing a system restore to to revert back to the correctly working settings, to do that follow the instructions below:**1) Click Start, type system restore in the Start Search box, and then click System Restore in the Programs list.If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password or click Continue.

2. In the System Restore dialog box, click Choose a different restore point, and then click Next.
3. In the list of restore points, click a restore point that was created before you began to experience the issue, and then click Next.
4. Click Finish.

For more information refer this below link.System Restore: frequently asked questions

**http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/System-Restore-frequently-asked-questions**

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Hope this helped

Thanks and Regards:Suresh Kumar- Microsoft Support.Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.