Why is Windows Module Installer churning my CPU?

[mohcho]

I noticed the same thing happening to my system this morning. I turned it on, ran into a meeting and came back and the fan was running but no applications were running. I checked and the Windows Module Installer was eating up 23% of my CPU cycles.

I checked my update history and there was only one update that failed, but got installed properly right after.

There might be some issue with Windows update, try the windows update troubleshooter, I had to use it yesterday after my updates screwed up.

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9830262

I ran this and there were three issues and I repaired them and immediately I could hear the fan slow down and the Windows Module Installer shut off and wasn't part of the running processes anymore.

Thanks.

 

[bluegrass]

WTF over. I haven't been one that has ever heard my fan running but than again I don't have the best of hearing. I would like to hear more people that have been having serious fan noise and heat problems to do what is said above and report the results. I know from years of working on a computer that after I rebuild one people are happy with the speed again. Frankly I don't know how the general public gets buy without their computer being scrubbed and rebuilt at least every year or two without their system slowing to a crawl. Our computers & disk drives or like a closet where your just keep throwing stuff in and never.

 

[mitchellvii]

Well, even when the fan is cranking full blast on this it is still the quietest fan I've ever heard one any device. Sounds like one of those sleep noise machines on low.

 

[phositadc]

When people mention factory reset, are they referring to formatting the ssd and reinstalling Windows from scratch? Or is there an actual factory reset option on the sp3?

 

[kundas1]

there is actually a factory reset on the SP3

 

[GreyFox7]

Just to be clear are we really talking Reset OR REFRESH?

I don't think RESET does anything REFRESH doesn't do except Delete All Your Files.

Reset removes ALL files and reinstalls Windows.

Refresh Keeps all your files and reinstalls Windows.

 

[malberttoo]

Just to be clear are we really talking Reset OR REFRESH?

I don't think RESET does anything REFRESH doesn't do except Delete All Your Files.

Reset removes ALL files and reinstalls Windows.

Refresh Keeps all your files and reinstalls Windows.

Although I haven't looked it up so I may be wrong, I always thought refresh was just an in-place installation, which like you said re-installs the OS but keeps your files. I also for some reason don't think very highly of that option but I don't know why.

Reset wipes everything, periods, and re-installs the OS.

I guess part of there reason I don't think highly of refresh- and like I said I have no evidence to point to on this and so I could probably be swayed- is that if I want to start completely over, I guess I want to know that every single thing has been removed, and thus no trace is left behind of something problematic.

 

[GreyFox7]

All I can say is, Refresh has cleared up the problems I have had and I have not done a reset.
Those problems were: Blank Display on external monitors, CPU temp running 10C hotter than normal, System and System Interrupts processes using High CPU, SleepStudy showing HD Graphics using resources during sleep, Shorter than normal battery life.

 

[GreyFox7]

I should add that I have done two Refreshes.

The first one was because of the blank display issue. After that refresh I had a shutdown issue installing updates which unbeliever was the cause of most of the other problems.

The second Refresh was after the 8/19 Firmware update and I had noticed better thermal regulation but the HD Graphics issue was still there causing short battery and the higher base CPU temp. I didn't encounter any problems with the second refresh or redoing all the updates.

Now I'm back to great battery life and cool operation in general.

 

[mitchellvii]

Just to confirm, refresh leaves all of my installed apps as well as my data?

 

[mohcho]

Here's the official word from Microsoft on the differences between Refresh and Reset.


Refresh Surface
Refreshing your Surface reinstalls Windows and keeps your personal files, settings, apps that came installed on your Surface, and those you've installed from the Windows Store. Desktop apps you installed on Surface Pro will be deleted, but you can reinstall them after refreshing Surface.

Note
If you updated Surface Pro from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1, refresh will reinstall Windows 8 (not Windows 8.1) and apps that came with your Surface Pro. Other apps and your settings will be gone. You can reinstall them after the refresh is complete.
If refreshing Surface doesn't resolve the problem, reset Surface.

Reset Surface
Resetting your Surface reinstalls Windows, but removes your personal files, settings, and apps that did not come installed on your Surface. Reset keeps the apps that came installed on your Surface.

Note
If you updated Surface Pro from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1, a reset will reinstall Windows 8 (not Windows 8.1). You’ll need to reinstall the Windows 8.1 update.

I've done both a Refresh AND a Reset on my SP3 before I exchanged it for another unit.

 

[Knuck]

I ran it and the first time it told me there were two errors and confirmed fixing them successfully. Ran it again and told me there were three errors, two the same as before, and that they were successfully fixed. Ran it again and it told me there were the same three errors. Appears that if you run the program and apply the fix and rerun the program it will always find the same errors. Not sure if they are fixed if it keeps reporting finding the same errors after fixing them and yes I did reboot between fixes.