Question Having a problem with "ntoskml.exe"

Status
Not open for further replies.

Roger R

Distinguished
Jan 20, 2010
16
0
18,510
Dell Vostro 7500
I7-10750, GTX 1650, 16gb Ram, windows 10 pro

"ntoskml.exe" starts running randomly,can not attribute to
any application. causing delays in whatever I'm doing.
Have to run "Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth" (does not always work) or reboot to stop.
Has occured after closing Firefox, Chrome, Excel, Freecell, Hoyle card games etc.
Have all the updated Dell and MS drivers.

How do I determine what is causing this
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
If only the solution was to simply delete it... i wonder how well windows would work

NTOSKRNL = windows kernel. It handles all driver requests, power management, and memory management. It sits between Hardware and Applications.. It does almost everything on your PC.

Stopping it means windows would also stop. The only way to stop it is a restart but ironically it has to start again before windows can do anything for you.

define running randomly. What is the problem??
 
Last edited:

Roger R

Distinguished
Jan 20, 2010
16
0
18,510
Dell Vostro 7500
I7-10750, GTX 1650, 16gb Ram, windows 10 pro

"ntoskml.exe" starts running randomly,can not attribute to
any application. causing delays in whatever I'm doing.
Have to run "Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth" (does not always work) or reboot to stop.
Has occured after closing Firefox, Chrome, Excel, Freecell, Hoyle card games etc.
Have all the updated Dell and MS drivers.

How do I determine what is causing this
Running randomly = high cpu usage with no apps running
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
ntoskrnl is always running.

Ntoskrnl.exe (Short for Windows NT operating system kernel) otherwise known as kernel image, is a system application file that provides the kernel and executive layers of the Windows NT kernel space, and is responsible for various system services such as hardware virtualization, process and memory management, thus making it a fundamental part of the system. It contains the cache manager, the executive, the kernel, the security reference monitor, the memory manager, and the scheduler.

Now one cause for it using lots of CPU is outdated drivers, have you gone here and clicked detect drivers - https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/vostro-15-7500-laptop/drivers (I saw you say you had newest drivers, just checking)
Try running a Malware scan

why doesn't dism always work? what error you get?
Have you run sfc /scannow as dism just cleans image, SFC cleans the system itself.
 

Roger R

Distinguished
Jan 20, 2010
16
0
18,510
ntoskrnl is always running.



Now one cause for it using lots of CPU is outdated drivers, have you gone here and clicked detect drivers - https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/vostro-15-7500-laptop/drivers (I saw you say you had newest drivers, just checking)
Try running a Malware scan

why doesn't dism always work? what error you get?
Have you run sfc /scannow as dism just cleans image, SFC cleans the system itself.
  • Dell drivers checked weekly
  • dism completes but no change in cpu usage
  • will run sfc/scannow and advise
 
  • Dell drivers checked weekly
  • dism completes but no change in cpu usage
  • will run sfc/scannow and advise
ntoskrnl
nt = new technology
os= operating system
krnl = kernel

the file just shows its old roots.
os/2 name was incremented each letter to NT/3 later they remove the pm interface and put on a windows interface when Microsoft broke up with IBM. Over time it was later renamed to windows and the old windows was thrown in the trash.

anyway you should use this tool to find out what is using your cpu
Process Explorer - Windows Sysinternals | Microsoft Docs
find the process, and right mouse click to bring up properties. then find out what is actually running. then we can figure out what it should be doing.
 

bonkers_bananas

Prominent
Dec 19, 2020
29
0
530
i've been having a similar issue since march and im at a total loss, just tried a fresh install of windows 10. i've since: booted from active killdisk as uefi and ran 0's on all my drives then, ran memtest, installed amd chipset drivers, gpu drivers, bios update, sfc /scannow, and gave msi live update 6 a whirl and i still have 2 dump files since. swapped mobo's from a b450 to a x570 hoping that was the issue and ive even checked other ram sticks out of friends builds and i still BSoD randomly, i'm ready to hurl mounds of money at it just need to know what im replacing.

in case you wanna rip into them here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AhOEGPPq1NBwgtNqh7tA9YwSpKsB4g?e=OEQKn1
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
i've been having a similar issue since march and im at a total loss, just tried a fresh install of windows 10. i've since: booted from active killdisk as uefi and ran 0's on all my drives then, ran memtest, installed amd chipset drivers, gpu drivers, bios update, sfc /scannow, and gave msi live update 6 a whirl and i still have 2 dump files since. swapped mobo's from a b450 to a x570 hoping that was the issue and ive even checked other ram sticks out of friends builds and i still BSoD randomly, i'm ready to hurl mounds of money at it just need to know what im replacing.

in case you wanna rip into them here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AhOEGPPq1NBwgtNqh7tA9YwSpKsB4g?e=OEQKn1
i get frustration but you already have a thread on that so shouldn't really hijack another thread :)

in case john beats me to it, its this thread - https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/my-pc-has-been-bsoding-since-march.3672590/#post-22119517
 

bonkers_bananas

Prominent
Dec 19, 2020
29
0
530

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
This ntoskrnl thread isn't about a BSOD though, most are but this is the system is using too much CPU.

ntoskrnl often gets the blame when the PC crashes, as its the central processor for the PC. Almost every action you ask PC to do is handled by ntoskrnl.
 

Roger R

Distinguished
Jan 20, 2010
16
0
18,510
ntoskrnl
nt = new technology
os= operating system
krnl = kernel

the file just shows its old roots.
os/2 name was incremented each letter to NT/3 later they remove the pm interface and put on a windows interface when Microsoft broke up with IBM. Over time it was later renamed to windows and the old windows was thrown in the trash.

anyway you should use this tool to find out what is using your cpu
Process Explorer - Windows Sysinternals | Microsoft Docs
find the process, and right mouse click to bring up properties. then find out what is actually running. then we can figure out what it should be doing.
This has been no help. ntoskrnl.exe!SeAccesscheckWithHint+0x1c620 is what is running but this leads me nowhere Have to restart my laptop frequntly.
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
Last edited:

Roger R

Distinguished
Jan 20, 2010
16
0
18,510
seems to effect laptops = https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkP...CPU-SeAccessCheckWithHint-0x1c620/m-p/5050451
I don't know what the actual command means though
SeAccesscheckWithHint+0x1c620 is specifically the address i see around. John may know what it means.

some clues it might be tied to indexing.
try rebuilding the search index and see if it helps = https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/58569-rebuild-search-index-windows-10-a.html
Rebuilt search index, problem appears less frequent, not sure I can attribute that to the rebuild
 
Status
Not open for further replies.