# Tivo Desktop 2.3a & MS process lsass.exe = High CPU Usage



## miller890 (Feb 15, 2002)

Whenever I have TivoDesktop 2.3a running on XP SP2, *TivoServer.exe* and *lsass.exe* seem to be gobbling up most of the CPU on a 3.2GHz system. No other applications are running and lsass.exe CPU usage only subsides from *35% to 0%* when I kill the TivoServer.exe. Anyone else experiencing a similar condition with lsass.exe and their TivoDesktop?


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## miller890 (Feb 15, 2002)

I have (4) auto-transfers where the total of (55) 30 minute shows are on my Now Playing which have previous been transferred to My Tivo Recordings. I can remove the (4) auto-transfers and lsass.exe drops to 0%, re-add the auto-transfers and lsass.exe goes back to 35-40%. 

Best I can tell... It looks like the high CPU usage of TivoServer.exe and lsass.exe together are related to the auto-transfers I have setup in Desktop 2.3a.


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## miller890 (Feb 15, 2002)

This may not be a problem for everyone - 2.3a actually fixed the problem where TivoServer kept crashing. Now TivoServer.exe and lsass.exe run high if I have a single Auto-Transfer set to transfer from TiVo to PC. This time I choose a show that I had a single episode of, allowed the desktop to download and convert.....Still TivoServer.exe and lsass.exe are KILLING my CPU! Any ideas?


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## basf_audio (Feb 25, 2005)

This is killing me as well. I upgraded to 2.3a to test out the new version and I'm swamped with the 100% CPU issue as well. I've even tried it on a second instance of VMWare...

Has anybody found anything to make this work?


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## miller890 (Feb 15, 2002)

bump


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## cfneumann (Jun 20, 2003)

LSASS.EXE should be effected by:

Net Logon
Protected Storage
Security Accounts Manager

Perhaps you have some security issues you need to resolve before it will work correctly. Also, go to http://www.sysinternals.com and get the Process Explorer to use instead of Windows Task Manager.


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## icurnvs (Apr 14, 2006)

I'm having this issue as well. Both TivoServer.exe and lsass.exe both spike to take up 100% cpu. The "Protected Storage" aspect of lsass is intriguing. Here's Process Explorer's description of it:
"Provides protected storage for sensitive data, such as private keys, to prevent access by unauthorized services, processes, or users."

I'm guessing this has something to do with copy protection of some kind? Any thoughts anyone?


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## WITechGuy (Oct 4, 2006)

basf_audio said:


> This is killing me as well. I upgraded to 2.3a to test out the new version and I'm swamped with the 100% CPU issue as well. I've even tried it on a second instance of VMWare...
> 
> Has anybody found anything to make this work?


I noticed this issue last week, I was able to get most of my processor power back by doing the following steps.

1. Stop the Tivo Server, Don't Pause it. - This is the quick fix 
2. Uncheck Start Tivo Server at Start Up, The transfers work via the TivoTransfer.exe process. - This is the best fix I could find until Tivo updates Tivo Desktop with a better process manager in the program so it does not lock up the computer.

Hope this helps


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## orchew (Apr 30, 2003)

I'm also suffering the lsass.exe problem. I have a box that does nothing but run TivoDesktop, and it's only recently started having the problem. It's clearly related directly to TivoServer.exe - problem goes away as soon as I stop TivoServer.

Since it started well after my TivoDesktop upgrade I would guess that it's been triggered by a microsoft update of some sort.

I sure hope someone is looking into this, I'll have to disable the new features (again) so I can play my music reliably.

May as well ignore the non-sequitur below... 



cfneumann said:


> LSASS.EXE should be effected by:
> 
> Net Logon
> Protected Storage
> ...


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## cfneumann (Jun 20, 2003)

orchew said:


> May as well ignore the non-sequitur below...


If you do not understand the security of Windows then I cannot help you. That website is far from being a 'dumb' website.


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## icurnvs (Apr 14, 2006)

orchew said:


> I'm also suffering the lsass.exe problem. I have a box that does nothing but run TivoDesktop, and it's only recently started having the problem. It's clearly related directly to TivoServer.exe - problem goes away as soon as I stop TivoServer.
> 
> Since it started well after my TivoDesktop upgrade I would guess that it's been triggered by a microsoft update of some sort.
> 
> ...


Any idea as to which Microsoft update triggered it?


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## basf_audio (Feb 25, 2005)

Just a quick reminder... I know which piece is causing the 100% CPU - so yes - shutting down the TiVo Server of the desktop component will drop your CPU usage to "nothing" - but then, of course, the application doesn't work.

The 100% CPU is only related to when you're using the desktop with an auto-transfer selected. Better yet - it's only related when you have an auto-transfer selected AND it can connect to a TiVo. If you take your TiVo off the network and leave your computer alone when it's at 100% CPU, it'll drop to 0% as well...

So I'm not sure how this is part of some MS upgrade since if it was, everybody would be having problems.

Help?


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## Jolest (Mar 11, 2003)

Same problem here. Really a shame if it really is connected to just having auto-transfers set up... That's one of the nicest parts of the new TiVo desktop. Or was until I read this thread. :down: 

Hope TiVo reads these forums and fixes this soon...


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## bicker (Nov 9, 2003)

From what I can gather, TiVo does read these forums, and fixes things with a priority commensurate with the gravity of the problem, including how much it adversely affects the functionality and how many customers report the problem to Tech Support.


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## hnsez (Dec 11, 2004)

(skip to bottom to see cause/resolution)

Symptom: 100% utilization by TivoDesktop 2.3a (tivoserver.exe and lsass.exe) every 30 seconds 

I have a well optimized system with a fast (3500 AMD) 64 bit CPU, 1 Gb mem, and a solid 100 mbit network.

My OS is a new install of XP pro.

There are absolutely no *other* issues with my system

It does this even if I have no antivirus and no antispyware running. Having no photos or music shared doesn't help.

/edit - I figured it out - every 30 seconds the folder gets scanned by tivoserver, if you have more than 40 files in the mytivorecordings folder the cpu utilization gets hit hard and above 50 it is pegged. The table below shows how cpu util goes from 20 to 100 by having only 10 more files.

#tivo files %CPU util
# %
35 15
40 27
45 31
46 33
49 50
50 90
51 100

It would seem we will have to *hope* for the tivoserver caching to be fixed unless Tivo can find some other resolution so I can keep more than 50 files in that folder. Does the upgraded version have this same limitation? I would rather not pay to find out.


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## Hooger158 (Feb 5, 2002)

Removing some of my files worked for me. Of course it kind of defeats the whole purpose of having the archive, but at least the CPU isn't completely tied up when I'm not using the serverr. Hope they fix this soon.


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## miller890 (Feb 15, 2002)

Reducing the number of files in 'My TiVo Recordings' directory seem to have solved the high CPU problem when the 2.3a Tivodesktop is configured to Auto-Transfer a series. Thanks for the solution hnsez!


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## CuriousMark (Jan 13, 2005)

hnsez said:


> /edit - I figured it out - every 30 seconds the folder gets scanned by tivoserver, if you have more than 40 files in the mytivorecordings folder the cpu utilization gets hit hard and above 50 it is pegged. The table below shows how cpu util goes from 20 to 100 by having only 10 more files.


If you have a lot of files you want to archive, you might want to switch to using galleon instead of TiVo Desktop. Among other niceties it allows you to put the programs in folders and probably doesn't get hammered by having a folder with many programs in it.

CuriousMark


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## cfneumann (Jun 20, 2003)

Another possibility:

Make sure the lsass is running from the system32 directory instead of the windows directory. The one in the windows directory is actually a virus (search the trojan horse IRC/BackDoor.SdBot2.JYN)


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## redjoy (Mar 15, 2003)

Remember that Microsoft had several updates last week. One of them had to do with system.web.dll


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## plbsplbs (Oct 17, 2006)

I found this thread after noticing some odd internet connection attempts by tivobeacon.exe, which I only caught after installing a new software firewall. TivoBeacon was attempting to send and receive UDP packets on port 2190, and the destination was 127.0.0.1 as proxy for the range 209.86.66.91 through 209.86.66.95. I searched for any info on these IP addresses and found a bb thread about a different application that was connecting to this exact IP range and receiving spoofed DNS translations. Well, this came after a week of beating my head against the wall trying to find the source of DNS spoofing that was causing a translation from Symantec's domain to another one... blackoff dot info (so that i couldn't access symantec's website and Norton Antivirus update wouldn't work, among other things). While this was happening, I was also experiencing CPU hogging by Tivo Server, which can't be explained away, since I only have one of my Tivo's connected right now and have never used Tivo desktop for storage, auto transfer, or anything. 

Does anyone have any other input on this... am I just experiencing an episode of paranoia?


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## ggersch (Oct 7, 2006)

I think you're a bit paranoid. Something may be funky with the IP addresses you're referencing, but port 2190 (source and destination) is the correct port for tivobeacon.exe. 

TivoBeacon sends a broadcast out to the network every 60 seconds, to let other Tivo devices know they are there. Your Tivo does it. And when your PC is running the tivobeacon process, your PC does it too. Which kind of begs the question of why you need to manually enter the IP addresses of your pc on your Tivo. You'd think it would see the beacon just add it.


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## donutsdad (Mar 27, 2005)

I found that background windows programs like "windows defender" has some sort of conflict when using 2.3a tivo. Someone on this board mentioned that running things in the background could be the cause..the moment I turned off windows defender....the problem stopped and tivotwogo opened up properly....not 100% all the time.....I found that having aol on also in background was a problem....so that sucker is gone gone gone.....


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## ggersch (Oct 7, 2006)

The main problem is the auto-transfer polling mechanism. I can't imagine why a simple list correlation sucks up so much CPU. (Why that function is in the 'server' process and not the 'transfer' process is another oddity.) Yes, you can limit the number of auto-transfers and/or the number of files in the directory, but it's annoying when you're using this for archiving.

But why does the TiVo need to be polled every 30 seconds? This seems really excessive to me. For my purposes, once a day would be enough. Once an hour should be fine for anyone. If it only polled once an hour, the ridiculous CPU load would be much more tolerable.

Is there any way to adjust how often this polling occurs? A registry hack maybe?


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## TiVoLasVegas (Sep 3, 2005)

Thanks for this thread. I created an archived TiVo file folder, put most of my files in it, and my CPU usage dropped to less than 10%. lsass.exe isn't even registering over 0%.


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## wermet (Feb 19, 2007)

Thank you for this fix. It immediately worked. :up: 

I just wish that the good folks at TiVo would get off their hind quarters and come up with a better fix. Seems to me that if the "amateur" open source community can solve the problem through programs like galleon, then TiVo should certainly be able to come up with at least as good of a fix. After all, they could always take a peek at the open source stuff in order to get an idea about how they might approach the problem. (No cheating by copying code though, just look to see that the problem is solvable.)

Thanks,
Todd


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## jz0001 (Feb 26, 2007)

I have found that Computer Associates Antivirus causes this. I found that putting most of my .tivo files in an archive folder worked, but was finding that I could only hold 5-6 files in My TIVO folder. Once I disabled CA Antivirus, I could put over 100 without any delays and my CPU usage was lower.

Are any of you also using CA Antivirus?


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## sandycityscott (Oct 8, 2002)

I think this bug has as much to do with TivotoGoBack as it does with the Auto-transfers, since it's scanning your computer's TiVo directory to see what's available to transfer back (and list in Now Playing) to the TiVo.

That explains why it's in the TivoServer.exe process.

By the way, my anti-virus has no impact on this problem.


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## rhowser (Apr 17, 2007)

I'm having this problem too. Even tried uninstalling my Norton Antivirus. The only thing that makes lsass.exe stop is killing the tivoserver. Pentium D processor so it's only running at 50%, but it makes the CPU really hot by running non-stop...

Guess I'll try moving files from my Tivo folder. Funny thing, this didn't happen on my other computer. I've had this one up and running for about 3 months and it didn't start right away, either.


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## saberman (May 4, 2004)

This is from a different issue with lsass.exe but it may have some baring on the TiVo/lsass.exe problem. It dealt with lsass.exe going into a hard loop during login. There maybe something TiVo is doing that is causing lsass.exe to scan the encryption control files describe below.

Thank you. Moving the files into a Zip archive solved the startup problem.

Please note that before you do this you should run: CIPHER /H /N /U
This will identify all encrypted files on your local drive. You need to decrypt them before you
remove the contents of the Protect directory (on an XP system the files are in a directory with a
GUID for a name under the Protect directory). Once you remove the contents of the directory you
cannot decrypt files that were encrypted earlier. You can still encrypt files after you empty the
directory and you will be able to decrypt those.

Stu

"Joe Hubele" <Joe [email protected]> wrote:

>Thanks to this posting, I realized I had also copied encrypted files causing 
>lsass.exe to take over the system for several minutes after logon. The 
>problem profile was a member of the administrators group and so I did not 
>suspect a security issue.
>
>I decrypted the local files and disabled EFS but it did not help. After a 
>lot of searching and head scratching, I finally found a bunch of files under 
>C:\Documents and Settings\problemuser\Application Data\Microsoft\Protect in 
>one of the directories. The directory was created at the time the data was 
>pushed to the problem target system. In my case, it contained over 16,000 
>files. I moved the new directory out of the Protect directory to eliminate 
>the CPU hit after logon.


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## !-HenryH-! (Sep 17, 2004)

I've having the same issue. I tried this fix and so far it seems to have worked.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/842382


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## CheezWiz (Dec 30, 2006)

!-HenryH-! said:


> I've having the same issue. I tried this fix and so far it seems to have worked.
> 
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/842382


Which OS? That is only for 2000 server...


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## FortoReibas (Nov 9, 2006)

I'm at work, but I wonder if BES will help. It's an older CPU throttling program I use for some router hardware emulators and other things. You just point it to a program, and it watches it and keeps it from using too much cpu. I will try it at home soon myself. The BBS won't let me post a URL, though. Do a google search for BES or Battle Encoder Shirase.
Hope it helps
Brian


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## FortoReibas (Nov 9, 2006)

I hit the magical 5-post limit. Here is the link:
http://mion.faireal.net/BES/



FortoReibas said:


> I'm at work, but I wonder if BES will help. It's an older CPU throttling program I use for some router hardware emulators and other things. You just point it to a program, and it watches it and keeps it from using too much cpu. I will try it at home soon myself. The BBS won't let me post a URL, though. Do a google search for BES or Battle Encoder Shirase.
> Hope it helps
> Brian


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## FortoReibas (Nov 9, 2006)

I'm trying BES right now. I had to tell it to List All applications, and I can't fine-tune the control over lsass.exe, but it has brought cpu utilization down dramatically.


FortoReibas said:


> I hit the magical 5-post limit. Here is the link:
> http://mion.faireal.net/BES/


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## msmart (Jan 3, 2007)

No need for BES. Simply copy your shows out of the TiVo folder into another one and Voila!! Problem solved.

I recently had the same problem where lsass.exe was eating up CPU cycles. After a little searching, I found this thread.

I had recently set up some automatic show transfers and had accumulated a fair amount in the TiVo folder because I didn't have time to run them through VRD. After reading the suggestion of moving the files to another folder, lsass.exe went back to normal operation immediately.

btw, I'm running Windows XP SP2


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## oldradio99 (Nov 23, 2005)

I cant believe I struggled with this lsass.exe garbage for 2 weeks.

Moving the files into a different folder drop CPU usage faster than they lose weight on Worlds Biggest Loser


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## msmart (Jan 3, 2007)

oldradio99 said:


> Moving the files into a different folder drop CPU usage faster than they lose weight on Worlds Biggest Loser




It's amazing how simple a workaround it is (once you find it). 

I now have 2.5.1 but don't let shows stack up in the TiVo folder so I don't know if the problem still exists.


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## idunno777 (Jan 27, 2005)

msmart said:


> It's amazing how simple a workaround it is (once you find it).
> 
> I now have 2.5.1 but don't let shows stack up in the TiVo folder so I don't know if the problem still exists.


Confirmed! 2.5.1 does indeed act the same (at least for me) as far as cpu resources, and I don't know if it was a problem with earlier versions, but it also ties up a moderate amount (3-5mbps) of bandwidth even when its not transferring a program...

After reading here, all my xfers will be manual now... I recently added the series 3's esata external storage option so I've got plenty of space to work with .. problem solved! :up:


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## msmart (Jan 3, 2007)

> After reading here, all my xfers will be manual now


If you happen to have VideoReDo, you can download a companion application, TiVo-VideoReDo-Automatic-Processor (TVAP) that will automatically process each file as soon as the download completes and moves it out of the TiVo folder. Read more about it HERE.

Using TVAP would allow you to set up automatic xfers again.


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## idunno777 (Jan 27, 2005)

msmart said:


> Using TVAP would allow you to set up automatic xfers again.


Looks like a great tool! Thanx for the tip .. I'll check it out!


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