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Sophos EM Library: DLLLOADER.exe showing high CPU usage

Issue
DLLLOADER.exe showing high CPU usage. It appears that the process DLLLOADER.exe is consuming 95-99% of the CPU constantly.

Sophos product and version
EM Library 1.3

Operating system
Windows Server 2003/2000

Technical Information
The process 'DLLLOADER.exe' is associated with EM Library - it is the process which runs when the Library is downloading package updates from the Sophos servers; it also runs when EM Library is updating the Central Installation Directories.

What to do

If the process is repeatedly showing high CPU usage on automatic updates, check the following in EM Library:

  1. Right-click "EM Library".
  2. Select "Download from Parent (checksum all files)".
  3. Check the Message Log afterwards to confirm if any errors have occurred.

If the CPU problem does not recur on manual updates, verify by what method the Central Installation Directories (CIDs) are set to update.  They can either use a schedule or be set to update "automatically" from the SophosEM share, after EM Library downloads its updates from Sophos.  The latter option is the one set by default.  Again, in EM Library:

  1. Go to Central Installations, right-click on affected CIDs.
  2. Choose Properties|Schedule tab.
  3. If they are not set to it, choose "When the packages are updated (automatic)"
  4. Save change and retry updating the CID with a checksum. Allow one of the automatic updates of the Library and CID to complete and verify whether the issue persists.

If that still does not resolve the issue:

  1. In the EM Library tree, go to 'Schedules' and open the schedule being used.
  2. There is an additional option for updates, 'Hourly' or 'Frequently'.  Set the schedule to 'Hourly'.
    The frequent update schedule is every 10 minutes, and some users have sporadic trouble with frequent updates, as their CIDs are still being updated when the Library itself initiates another update.

Refer also to the knowledgebase article 13508 on article EMLibrary errors.

If you need more information or guidance, then please contact technical support.