msiexec.exe problems

[calvinhobbes]

Yesterday I noticed that my computer was being very choppy during games. I looked in the task manager and realized that the process msiexec.exe was very active and taking up cpu usage. At idle the cpu jumps from 0 to 30 to 90 to 100% randomly because of this process. I've looked it up and it appears msiexec.exe is system process that is involved with installing programs. I've run virus scans and spyware scans and there are no problems found. This process is very annoying and is greatly slowing down my computer. I would appreciate some advice.

[glc]

msiexec.exe should not be running unless you just installed something - does it run after a fresh reboot before opening anything?

[calvinhobbes]

Yes, its been running continuously, even after rebooting, since I noticed it yesterday.

[glc]

Use msconfig and examine your startups. Also look in the startup group in your programs menu.

[calvinhobbes]

Thanks for the advice glc. After some fooling around with the the startup programs it turns out the culrprit was my hp printer monitor software. Booting up without that fixes the problem. I've been using it for over a year though. Any idea on why it might suddenly be causing problems? I haven't changed it as far as I can remember.

[glc]

There's a recent Windows update that causes problems with HP printer software. Uninstall your printer and reinstall it.

[calvinhobbes]

OK, everything is working fine now. Thanks for the help.