Filed under: Problems & solutions | Tags: amsn, crash, excessive resources, pidgin, windows live messenger, wlcomm.exe, wlm, wlm contacts server
I’ve used the newest version of Windows Live Messenger for some time now, and I’ve noticed there’s a bug which is really annoying. What happens is that the WLM Contacts Server (wlcomm.exe) uses excessive amounts of resouces, which eventually leads to a total hang-up for all the applications running. This happens randomly, atleast in my case. What happens is that the wlcomm.exe process tend to use from about 15 to 60% of the CPU, and makes the computer run slow, and in worst case a hang-up or a system crash. It may also use excessive amounts of memory, but this hasn’t happened on my computer.
If you try to kill the wlcomm.exe process from within task manager, you will be logged off WLM. wlcomm.exe will start again when you log in the next time.
After a bit of searching around the net, I found a solution, it’s not perfect, but atleast it works. You will have two (2) options. The first is to downgrade to an older version of WLM/MSNmessenger, or the second, which is to install a different MSN client like pidgin or amsn. (There are other open source msn clients, just google it :-) )
Note: If you choose to downgrade to an older version of WLM / messenger, you will have to run the Microsoft Install Cleaner after the uninstall of WLM. Otherwise you will get an error while trying to install the older version, with the message that there is a newer version installed. Open the CleanUp Utility and highlight the Windows Live (WL) and Windows Live Messenger (WLM) files. Kudos to the user Bobbye from the techspot forum for this information, see techspot url under sources for more information.
If you have a solution for this error, without downgrading or installing another client, please post the solution in a comment, and I’ll update this article and include the solution.
Comments appreciated :-)
Sources:
