iPlayer/Kontiki/KService.exe

barak

I couldn't find a thread from anybody who was getting very slow responses every few minutes owing to KService.exe grabbing most of the CPU regardless of what else was in progress.

I had this problem and discovered on another techie site a way to overcome it completely - if rather crudely - by unticking KService.exe in msfconfig/services and renaming KService.exe in my Program Files/Kontiki folder to stop it running.

It works perfectly, but presumably means that every time I want to use iPlayer I shall have to reverse these changes and reboot.

I would love to know whether anybody else has had this problem and if there a better way of solving it. :undecided

Mobeer

As general advice, if it runs as a service, it can be controlled from the Windows Control Panel. For example in Windows Vista open Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services.

Find the Kontiki service, right click on it and choose Properties.
Change the Startup mode to Manual.
From now on the service will not start unless you manually right click on it and select start. You can also stop the service from the same dialog.

You could make a shortcut on your desktop, either to "services.msc" which is the services dialog, or having shortcuts to start or stop the service, as here:
http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/235/create-batch-file-to-start-or-end-window-services/

barak

Thanks very much Mobeer :j
I have XP, but Control Panel is very similar. The result of following your excellent advice is even better than I imagined, as after changing the Startup mode to Manual, I discovered that BBC iPlayer doesn't even need Kontiki's KService at all!

I have noticed from the logs posted here that a number of others have KService.exe running - and I wonder what it is needed for.

On Startup, it was using 99% of my CPU for about 5 minutes and later it would 'return' - taking over the CPU every few minutes and preventing anything else from getting a look in.

AHAR

The kontiki thing was needed when the iPlayer downloads were done peer-to-peer but since they did away with that it's no longer used.
http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/getting_started/repair_dm

S0litaire

Do you have SKY's player installed?

I know that used to use Kontiki when i used it a few years ago!!

Uninstall it and you'll find out what programs require it ^_^

AHAR

From the BBC's uninstallation instructions I gave the link to:

"Kontiki will now be removed, unless you have another program that uses it, such as 4oD or Sky Anytime, in which case the Download Manager will not remove Kontiki."