One core starts spinning in the kernel occasionally (25% cpu usage on my 4-core machine). It happens irregularly. It seems to be connected with my Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160 card driver and maybe Win10 Mobile Hotspot. Can anybody help me ?

[PKubi2]

Hi everybody,

this is a continuation of the thread https://forums.intel.com/s/question/0D70P000006i3LV. 

I communicated with AndrewM_Intel and he recommended to open a new (this) topic on the CPU usage.

I try to sum up all the information I have so far : 

My computer has been running ok for a long time. Before April 2020, I didn't encounter any problems. 

However, in April 2020 I started to use Windows 10 Mobile Hotspot feature more often. (I started to work from home.)

Since then I notice in Process Explorer that one processor core is spinning in kernel. This high cpu state occurs 

irregularly usually 3-4 times in a week. When it appears it persists until I turn off the computer. 

[See ScreenShot of Process Explorer and thread (right) that takes 25% of cpu with ID = 14696]

 

So far, I've created 4 complete memory dumps using Ctrl+ScrollLock (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/debugger/forcing-a-system-crash-from-the-keyboard)

 of the incident. There was always one thread spinning in the kernel. The stack trace of this thread [ThreadID = 14696] shows that it is spinning in the Wireless driver module :

[See the thread 14696 and its callstack circled in red].  

I tried to replace my existing driver with the latest Intel driver 

(generic driver version 18.33.17.1, https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/28817/Intel-PROSet-Wireless-Software-and-Drivers-for-Intel-Dual-Band-Wireless-AC-3160?product=75442), 

but the system started to occasionally crash. After discussion with AndrewM_Intel in the previous topic I returned back to the original OEM drivers and the problem is back.

I suspect it is a bug in the Wireless card driver, because:

- It never happened before and when it happens I always use the Mobile Hotspot feature.

 - When this happens there is a lot of logs in the Event Viewer regarding the Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160 driver

 - After I do a complete manual kernel crash dump, the stack of the spinning thread is in the Wireless driver. 

 If anybody needs additional data from dumps or from my Event Log or any other information just ask. 

 Thank you very much 

 Any help is highly appreciated, as it is quite annoying.

 Peter Kubini

[PKubi2]

I forgot to add the output of Intel System Support utiility.

It is in the attachment.

Thanks

Peter Kubini

[Wanner_G_Intel]

Hello PKubi2,

Thank you for posting your question on this Intel® Community.

We found another thread describing the issue where your computer reports high CPU usage while using Windows* 10 Mobile Hotspot feature. An update was made to the Windows* 10 Mobile Hotspot feature. 

For this reason, our recommendation is that you keep troubleshooting this issue on the original thread.

We will close this thread, but if you need assistance with other inquiries, please start a new thread. We will be glad to help you.

Wanner G.

Intel Customer Support Technician