WMI Provider Host stopped working and was closed

Computer: Dell Dimension E520 Viiv Core 2 Duo Processor E6300
O/S Vista home premium

I am receiving the following error message which pops up shortly after bootup.
“WMI Provider Host stopped working and was closed�
I uninstalled the Dell Support Centre, believing it might be causing the
problem since it appeared after I had installed that program. Initially,
that seemed to cure the problem but within a few days it was back again, I
have not, however, reinstalled the Dell Support Centre.
In the Control Panel selecting “Problem Reports and Solutions� and clicking
on “Check for new Solutions� at present 412 problems instances are listed but
no solutions are found. Under “information about other problems 18 no. are
listed eg. “Problem caused by McAfee spamkiller� but I don’t know and can’t
find out what that problem is. Under “view problem history� I see that WMI
Provider Host� stopped working on 7Nov.07 and 146 times since that date.
Details of “Problem Signature� are given as follows, but I can’t make much
sense of that information and am unable to determine from it what program is
causing the WMI Provider Host fault.

Product
WMI Provider Host
Problem
Stopped working
Date
24/11/2007 18:22
Status
Report Sent

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: wmiprvse.exe
Application Version: 6.0.6000.16386
Application Timestamp: 4549af45
Fault Module Name: StackHash_2493
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6000.16386
Fault Module Timestamp: 4549bdc9
Exception Code: c0000374
Exception Offset: 000af1c9
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID: 2057
Additional Information 1: 2493
Additional Information 2: 4f3bb3feb872865e371673b8801522c1
Additional Information 3: a64f
Additional Information 4: 58665db331ead520448d2a898940a014

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: 376790327

Any advice and/or answers to the following queries would be most welcome.

1 How do I determine what is causing the WMI Provider Host to close and how
can I correct the problem?.

2 Are there any serious consequences or risks, security or otherwise, if I
should ignore the issue and continue working with the WMI Provider Host
closed?.

have you tried clean boot to figure out the root cause?
clean boot: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331796

This is apparently a problem caused by McAfee SpamKiller which closes email
functioning. Try disabling SpamKiller.

uvbogden
It looks as though McAfee SpamKiller is the cause. I can’t be absolutely
certain because at times it can take quite a while for the message “WMI
Provider Host has stopped working� to appear although recently it had been
coming up very quickly after boot up. I disabled McAfee Spamkiller over 2
hours ago and the message has so far not appeared so it does look as though
the Spamkiller is the cause.
I am, however, now being bombarded with pop up messages from McAfee warning
me that my computer is not protected and is at risk. The Microsoft WMI
message appears less threatening so I will probably reinstall the Spamkiller
and take the matter up with McAfee to see if they have a fix or work around
to correct the problem. I am sure they must be aware of it.
Many thanks for your help

Many thanks Randy for your helpful suggestion.
I have downloaded a copy of the clean boot procedure from the web link you
gave me but I have not carried it out yet as I am now fairly sure that the
problem is being caused by McAfee Spamkiller. I will use the procedure if
the problem returns.

To get McAfee to stop alerting you that SpamKiller is disabled, Open McAfee
Security Center, go to the lower left corner and click on Configure. Go to
Protection Status->Advanced->Ignored Problems. Check "Spam filtering is
turned off"->OK. That should do it.

I've been hacking at this for months until I tried the following which works like a charm. I think the problem is some type of conflict between "security center" on Vista and various 3rd party antivirus programs.

Go to control panel--administrative tools--services (use default view if you can't find it). Scroll down to "Windows Management Instrumentation" (sort by name) and click "stop service" on the left. You will get a prompt telling you what programs will be affected (mostly b.s. and security center), but go ahead and do it. BYE BYE annoying message. McAffee works fine after this so you're "protected with your antivirus software.

For completion sake, I also ran msconfig in the run pane, clicked on services and disabled Windows Management Instrumentation there too. (you can also get there by control panel--system configuration).

I think you might get the same results by trying to disable security center in the control panel as well, but I didn't want to bother - just shut the whole thing off and my computer is humming now!

Killing the program is one way of getting rid of the message but not one that
I would care to follow. I take note of the warning notice that if the WMI
program is stopped most Windows based software will not function properly and
ones that explicitly depend on it will fail to start. Security Center and
IP Helper fail to start on my computer if WMI is stopped and I have noticed
other programs not functioning properly. So no, not for me.

I was concerned about the warnings too. I think "Security Center" is the main culprit at the end of the day so you can try shutting that down only and see if that helps. It doesn't offer a single thing that the McAfee/Norton's etc. don't offer. I'm not sure what IP Helper is, but my guess (just a hunch) is that it is not essential at all (try pausing it and see what happens). Since I've disabled the WMI my computer is running like a dream. I couldn't be happier.

[billbaly]

Have you heard back from McAfee? I too am getting this message and it is a pain in the a...

Id be interested to hear what McAfee has said regarding this issue, if
anything. Im running a Dell Inspiron 1525 w/ Vista Home Premium and
McAfee Security Suite. About a month ago my error messages (several
different ones) began popping up.

1.) McAfee VirusMap has stopped working and closed. This happens at
random times and the small pop up window appears minimized on the task
bar.
2.) Synchronization Application stopped working and was closed. This
appears when I open McAfee and click on update.
3.) Most recently I have received an additional message regarding an
Instrumentational Program stopping and closing.

I have contacted McAfee twice regarding this issue and spent several
excrusiating hours trying to get a pair of idiots to understand the
problem. Both times the issue was not resolved and I was told to contact
Microsoft.

The pop up windows arent the problem, I can deal with them by simply
closing them. But Id like some reassurance from somewhere that my
security programs are running properly and working as they should.

[The Cynic]

An old post but still relevant. My Vista Home Premium is constantly putting up the message. However, since I do not use McAfee I don't see how it can be the problem.................possibly just Microsoft! Unless, of course, the programme itself has a bug?