Saturday, August 8, 2015

Windows 8.1 powercfg.exe Power Settings Command-line Tool shows high CPU usage


Recently I noticed my laptop fan was working harder, and there was this process using about 35% of CPU: powercfg.exe Power Settings Command-line Tool


I'm using Windows 8.1 and have never run that utility before myself.


The only noticeable change before this was that I installed CCleaner, did a cleanup and uninstalled it.


What I've done to fix the problem:



  1. Updated Windows -> No result

  2. Diagnostic startup -> The problem was gone


Update:
Today I noticed that even after ending the process, when the system was idle for a while, two instances of that process were back again and taking up to 50% of CPU.
Task Manager snapshot
Details view
Both of them where associated with this file:
"C:\Windows\System32\powercfg.exe"


How can I find what caused this problem? I have a restore point for a couple of days before this but the problem is that it says some of the programs and drivers I updated may not work correctly. Should I ignore it and just restore?


Answer



I restored the system and the problem has gone. Since there's been no other answer, I consider this the only solution. Two takeaways:



  1. Don't turn off the restore point service of Windows. It can literally save you in such situations.

  2. Keep away from CCleaner. It has a history of being infected before.


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