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Help with svchost.exe
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GarHomes View Drop Down
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Posts: 2 		Post Options Post Options   Quote GarHomes Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Help with svchost.exe
    Posted: 22 December 2006 at 1:22am
Sometimes when I start my computer, I will begin to check my e-mail or open IE7 or anything for that matter, and my entire computer will slow down to what seems like 10% of it's speed. I eventually get the task manager open, to find that svchost.exe is using 100% of the CPU and the Mem usage is around 115,000 K. If I stop the process, I end up losing sound, but it speeds the computer back up to normal. I don't want to lose my audio, but I want to be able to use my computer. Any suggestions?
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cola View Drop Down
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Posts: 6 		Post Options Post Options   Quote cola Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 December 2006 at 3:23am
You can use ProcessExplorer for investigation:

1. eventually you should lower a priority of the problematic svchost.exe in PE (context menu on the svchost.exe ->set priority->below normal), so you can work
2. investigate thrad activity (double click on the svchost, Threads tab). Watch the threads' CPU usage and try to see which thread(s) are taking CPU and then investigate the thread(s) stack, in order to see where this activity come from. You should try to locate the service module (dll) causing it ....
3. Investigate further why this service is behaving so or disable it

p.s. Tooltip on the svchost.exe shows which services are running in the cotainer process

p.s. Anything else can cause this (e.g. malware in form of injected library)
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Posts: 3861 		Post Options Post Options   Quote namrehto Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 December 2006 at 4:25am
Sometimes when I start my computer ... my entire computer will slow down to what seems like 10% of it's speed.

The svchost instance killed was doubtless "svchost.exe -k netsvcs", which contains a bunch of necessary services including Audio but also Windows Automatic Updates. Next time the problem occurs check in Process Explorer to see whether that instance of svchost has recently spawned wuauclt.exe. If it's just after booting it could simply be Windows Update making its check; if the monthly update has been published by MS this can often thrash the CPU for a short while.
Gil
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molotov View Drop Down
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Posts: 17492 		Post Options Post Options   Quote molotov Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 December 2006 at 9:03pm
Like namrehto, I was thinking of Windows Update / Microsoft Update Automatic Updates service as being the culprit.  Another option might be to simply disable the Automatic Updates service in the Services Management Console, at least temporarily.  That could aid you in identifying what is causing CPU usage to spike, but it won't help you resolve the issue, which possibly has to do with the sheer number of updates that are available and are being scanned for.
Daily affirmation:
net helpmsg 4006
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GarHomes View Drop Down
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Posts: 2 		Post Options Post Options   Quote GarHomes Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 December 2006 at 12:27am
The windows update scenario might hold true, however, I keep my computer up-to-date and there arent any updates available, because I go to Windows update and do it manually most of the time. I have disabled the automatic windows and I will let you know if that seems to come closer to solving the problem- appreciate the advice
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Posts: 2 		Post Options Post Options   Quote EasyNT Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 January 2007 at 6:12pm

I'm dealing with this issue quite some time on many different computers. It's always wuauclt.exe that's eating up 100% CPU load for up to 3 mins, typically right after boot time, but also now and then long after a machine has been started.

This typically is always the case when Microsoft Update is configured (instead of Windows Update), which also captures Offices applications etc.

I've been trying to find a solution for this for a long time. I think the best would be, if I could set wuauclt.exe to run with BelowNormal priority, but I haven't figured out so far how I could achieve this...

Any ideas?

Juerg
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EasyNT View Drop Down
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Posts: 2 		Post Options Post Options   Quote EasyNT Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 January 2007 at 6:23pm
I just investigated the issue a little further; it's actually not wuauclt.exe that's eating up all CPU ressources, but svchost.exe -k netsvcs (under which wuauclt.exe runs), more precisely the thread ntdll.dll!RtlAllocateHeap+0x18c... But svchost.exe is using the heavy CPU load only while wuauclt.exe is running...
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bobkat View Drop Down
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Posts: 2 		Post Options Post Options   Quote bobkat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 January 2007 at 8:16am
Had a similar problem, CPU running 50% at boot for a few minutes and maybe when connecting to the internet. If I remember correctly also traced it to svchost.exe -k netsvcs. One service running there (or elsewhere perhaps) was Remote Registry. Scared me just to see it. Disabled it via Services and CPU usage returned to normal. See the following for Remote Registry info:

http://www.theeldergeek.com/remote_registry.htm
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-6346_11-5976012.ht ml
yep
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molotov View Drop Down
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Posts: 17492 		Post Options Post Options   Quote molotov Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 January 2007 at 2:13pm
bobkat - are you running a dual-core rig?
Daily affirmation:
net helpmsg 4006
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bobkat View Drop Down
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Posts: 2 		Post Options Post Options   Quote bobkat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 January 2007 at 5:12pm
molotov ...yes... AMD Turion 64 X2...had it about 2 weeks since my XP home was detonated by ??? (got most of the data by slaving the drive to another comp...did a successful destructive recovery yesterday)
yep
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