SVCHOST eating up CPU capacity

[mr__ed]

For the past couple of days one of the SVCHOST processes has been using almost 100 percent of my CPU. It keeps running without a break. Clicking on "properties" for this process reveals the following: Generic Host Process for Win32 Services. What can I do to tame this thing? I can kill the process but don't know if that's a good idea. I'm using a Toshiba Satellite laptop running XP3. Thanks for your asssistance.

[mlts22]

1492 wrote:
Windows XP3 update engine is known to be buggy. So not surprising an issue can crop up. Unfortunately, with XP shortly phasing out support, MS apparently has no plans on releasing additional fixes for any of these glitches.

I remember a utility that used to be out which consolidated every single fix since service pack 3 into one large executable. That way, when installing XP new, it was just installing a CD with service pack 3, then clicking on the fix, and having that toss everything else on.

In fact, one could even slipstream every single patch, so a reinstall would not just give you SP3, but every single patch since then, no multiple restarts, no installing hundreds of fixes. However, I forgot the utility, and I'm leery of just using anything out there on Google for obvious reasons.

XP is nice. I can run it in a virtual machine with 512 megs of RAM, then run Chrome under sandboxie. This way, if it does get hit by malware, if dumping the sandbox doesn't work, dumping the VM to a known good snapshot almost certainly will. Each month, I roll back to a previous snapshot anyway for patching. However, as a "main" OS, I'd run a newer version of Windows, just because XP is built around security issues from 2001, while Windows Server 2012 R2 is built around issues from 2013.

[dclark1946]

We still have two XP machines and the only time I see high CPU usage is when Windows gets updates which is not too often. I just had six updates last week however. I just leave it alone and let it do its thing and then the problem goes away. The only issue I have with XP machines is IE 8 running slowly so I use Chrome and that solves that issue.

Dick

[1492]

Windows XP3 update engine is known to be buggy. So not surprising an issue can crop up. Unfortunately, with XP shortly phasing out support, MS apparently has no plans on releasing additional fixes for any of these glitches.

[mlts22]

The worst is when it isn't the CPU, but something I/O related like some process reading/writing on the hard disk. This will slow everything down.

Usually the big culprits:

1: The Window search/index service. On Vista, I disable it. Same with XP. Windows 7 and newer, it seems to be better behaved.

2: An AV utility. Since virtually all of them are junk, I just use MSE and Malwarebytes (Malwarebytes can block by IP address, so even 0-days are locked out.) MSE is lightweight. Other brands, can chew CPU and disk, paralyzing even a high end system.

3: AMD/ATI's desktop utility. For some reason, these can memory leak into the gigabyte range (which pushes out all your other programs, forcing your machine to swap.)

4: A backup utility like Mozy, Acronis, or the like.

[MNtundraRet]

As for high CPU usage yesterday,11/14/13, anyone using Semantic (Norton) might have been the cause.

They may have been working on their site yesterday morning into late afternoon. I had a "high usage" on one of my 8-cores yesterday morning. I am set up for alerts such as this (maybe a little paranoid). I turned off DSL, ran full scan and checked usage monitors.

Norton has your computer check for updates, reputation scans and checks, during the time on line. When I ran a reputation scan there were times connecting failed, or took longer working.

Things were working better yesterday evening, and everything normal this morning. As mentioned by someone else these protection programs can cause excess CPU usage, along with the computer's own check-out program on start-up.

No big deal on an i7 8-core computer but big problems on older or smaller systems.

[mr__ed]

Hmm, even after putting Auto Updates on manual in "SERVICES" it still restarted itself and CPU usage went way up. So, I disabled the process and CPU usage is back to normal now. I'll wait and see if it remains this way. If not I'll explore the suggestions that were made on this thread. I've been considering a new laptop for a while and this may be the impetus I need to follow through. There may also be an I-Pad in my future, too. 🙂

[mr__ed]

TYSPapa wrote:
I ended up having to remove IE8 or as much of it as I could and then went to install IE 7 and it recomended that I install IE8 which I did and now everything is back to normal or as normal as things can get with computers sometime:W

I never use Internet Explorer. I always use Chrome.

[mr__ed]

MNtundraRet wrote:
I never used XP. I went from Windows98SE to Windows7 when I purchased my Asus i7 computer 2 years ago.

In my case when you open up the "Windows Update" window there is a link to see what updates have been installed. They are marked as successful of failed.

You have the option to either reinstall a failed update, or uninstall a successful update that may have caused a problem on your individual computer.

Having owned and programed computers since 1979, I never allow an automatic update to take place in the background. I always click "notify me of updates" so I have time to close any work I am doing before downloading updates.

Now days that means unclicking the "automatic" option and clicking "notify me".

As we all know "**** happens".

Thanks. I did just that...

[mr__ed]

bwanshoom wrote:
mr. ed - when you say XP3, you mean Windows XP with SP3? If so, I think you'll need to download something like Process Explorer to identify the service that's actually using your CPU (svchost is just a container for 1 or more other services ).

Yes, I'm running XP service pack 3. I also run Process Explorer. I just did something that brought CPU usage down to normal. I opened "SERVICES" and changed automatic updates from "automatic" to manual. I'll have to check for updates manually but if this solves the problem I'll be happy. It's probably time for a new computer, anyway since Microsoft is going to stop supporting XP early next year, if I recall.

Thanks everyone for your assistance.

[TYSPapa]

I ended up having to remove IE8 or as much of it as I could and then went to install IE 7 and it recomended that I install IE8 which I did and now everything is back to normal or as normal as things can get with computers sometime:W

[MNtundraRet]

I never used XP. I went from Windows98SE to Windows7 when I purchased my Asus i7 computer 2 years ago.

In my case when you open up the "Windows Update" window there is a link to see what updates have been installed. They are marked as successful of failed.

You have the option to either reinstall a failed update, or uninstall a successful update that may have caused a problem on your individual computer.

Having owned and programed computers since 1979, I never allow an automatic update to take place in the background. I always click "notify me of updates" so I have time to close any work I am doing before downloading updates.

Now days that means unclicking the "automatic" option and clicking "notify me".

As we all know "**** happens".

[1492]

TYSPapa wrote:
Yes I am using XP SP3. Now here is a twist. A couple of windows updates installed and then the comp restarted and was still having high CPU usage. I went to install a new version of IE 8 and it stopped part way through the install and said it couldn't finish and then restarted the comp and after it rebooted all is back to normal with the CPU usage.
So what gives?:h

Sometimes there can be a glitch with Windows Update Agent. I would suggest re-starting the service if it happens again. You can bookmark this as a reference here.

[bwanshoom]

No idea. I guess Windows Update just gave up - it was probably tired after beating up your CPU all morning.

[TYSPapa]

Yes I am using XP SP3. Now here is a twist. A couple of windows updates installed and then the comp restarted and was still having high CPU usage. I went to install a new version of IE 8 and it stopped part way through the install and said it couldn't finish and then restarted the comp and after it rebooted all is back to normal with the CPU usage.
So what gives?:h