Computer running slowly (possibly because of process 'WmiApSrv.exe'

Hey,

Seemingly out of nowhere for the past week my computer's been running very slowly when it comes to low intensity games / browsing. Specifically whenever I open a flash game my browser freezes. And whenever I'm playing WoW and there's like 20+ people on the screen it slows to a crawl. It's never done this before and I can't find any link as to why it's happening... The only thing I discovered was in my task manager- there is a process called WmiApSrv.exe that is constantly going from "running" to "stopped" every 3 seconds or so. My CPU/Disk usage seem to be fine in Resource Monitor but there's a huge list of these "WmiApSrv.exe" processes listed as 'terminated' every time it restarts itself. I looked online for this process but there doesn't seem to be a general consensus on whether it was a necessary service or not and I don't want to go turning off a potentially beneficial service without knowing.

So, I'm not sure if that's what's causing the issue, but it's the only thing I can find that seems out of place. I've run malwarebytes twice now, updated graphics drivers and restarted my computer.

edit- I remembered one more thing that's out of place- when I restart my computer I get an error message that pops up. I've attached a screenshot. I can only imagine it is some kind of virus attempting to start, but I'm not sure. It started popping up around the time my computer started slowing down.

Hi, have you tried absolute basics for starters?

1. Check disk(s): e.g. Crystal Diskinfo (free), Hard disk sentinel (trial)
2. Check your file system:
C:
From an admin command prompt
[Windows key + X, click command prompt (admin)]
chkdsk C: /F
Your PC will need to restart.
Post back the result, which you can get after a restart as follows:
How do I see the results of a CHKDSK that ran on boot? - Ask Leo!
Make sure the result is clear or fixed- else do not proceed.

3. From an admin command prompt run
SFC /SCANNOW
and report the result on the screen

4. Have you checked your Event log and Reliability History? (Type Reli in Cortana's search, inspect red x's)

5. Have a look at your update history. Is there any significant event about the time this started to happen?

Error message:
Presumably you've checked the dll is where it is said to be. I would guess it's no longer registered.

Do you know what UWGmedia is? Is it part of a program you could reinstall?
rtppodtw.dll is not found- you could check the properties of files in that folder for clues.

failed to transfer logged messages to the event log with status 50
failed to transfer logged messages to the event log with status - Microsoft Community

- tends to suggest a disk problem, despite the contrary indications.

Try this:
Download Macrium Reflect (free) - a disk imaging program we constantly and strongly recommend using routinely. Here we're going to use it for a particular purpose- effectively to test your disk.

You will need a large drive (usually external - quicker with USB3- but for test purposes you could use an internal drive) to write the image to.

Use 'Backup, Backup Windows' - all the partitions used for Win 10 will be automatically selected.
If a disk problem is detected, this will fail with a CRC error.

You can also try Macrorit Diskscanner (free). Difference is this checks used and unused, the above, only used.
(Ok, Macrium can do forensic images- everything- the small tool is just more straightforward).

Hi, let's assume for now the drive is ok. But it leaves the chkdsk outcome as a puzzle.

Do you have any restore points you can use?

And there's point 5 in my first post.

Is there a difference if you do a clean boot?

That's a very good and fortunate step towards identifying the problem, hopefully.
First check your task manager when nominally idle after the clean boot, and make sure CPU use is below, say, 3% and no disk or internet activity.

Next it's a process of experimentation and elimination.
I suggest you enable all services, and see if there's any change.
If so, work backwards, disabling any services you identify as having been added by programs until you find a culprit.

Once you've worked through that and take any appropriate action, turn to the start-ups.
It depends how many you've got.
If a lot, enable a small group, try again.
If a few, you could work thru one by one.
Or try a binary chop approach- enable half, if problems, disable half of those enabled.

Etc.

At this point we're assuming there's no Windows corruption. Once you've worked through the above, it will be appropriate to also check for that.