Svchost and Svchost.exe - Crashs, CPU maximization, viruses, exploits and more.

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Hey Leo...

Great website. Thanks for putting so much time and effort into helping out total strangers.

My XP desktop has had the above problems with svchost using 50% of my cpu as soon as I boot the machine. I also have very slight, very regular network traffic. After an Ad-Aware/S&D scan and a good NAV exam, I used Proc Exp and found that the cpu usage was coming from hardware interrupts, but Proc Exp doesn't give info for them. I also used a network sniffer and it looks like my computer is sending packets to my router and trying a different port each attempt. From the sniffer, it looks like a trojan running smack into my firewall. But I would like to know if the interrupts are indicative of the same thing. I haven't installed anything new recently, and it started a month or so after a fresh C: drive format. I haven't found a site that addresses my problem with interrupts, so I'm just curious if you have an opinion. I want to avoid another format so soon, but if it has to be done, I will.

That's a hard call. It certainly smells like a trojan, but like you, I've never heard of symptoms that manifest as high CPU usage within interrupts. I assume you've run virus and spyware scans?

I am having the svchost.exe at max cpu problem on a new network i installed. it is a windows 2003 sbs server network, with a few winxp clients. everything was fine it appeared until i changed the users to roaming profiles, and suddenly they had the svchost problem on each xp pro machine (server is fine). i ran all the usual things - spybot s&d, virus scan, etc etc, went through each profile and checked for scripts that might be running, couldnt really find anything that might be causing it. changed back to a NON roaming profile, and has been fine for weeks now, but as soon a different user with a roaming profile logs in the svchost problems rears its ugly head again! and its driving me mad!!!, any ideas Leo?

I haven't been able to locate anything specific to a svchost related problem when roaming profiles are in use. Does the CPU usage stay pegged for a long time? Like hours? One thing that comes to mind is that roaming profiles do copy a lot of information, and it may simply be doing just that. But of course I could be wrong.

hi there

I am facing some problem in Win2000 server the problem is following as below:
I have installed fresh Win2k server in new hard disk,after that when i am installing SQL server 2000, Its giving the message :"setup has detected that the following tasks are using files that setup needs to install.in order to avoid rebooting the machine at the end of setup,it is recommended that you stutdown the folliwing task(svchost.exe)"
I think this problem is related to svchost service.Even i have read most of tips from microsoft site and installed antivirus from www.Free-av.com.
after more efforts problem is still persist. I do'nt know what should i do.
Pls reply me to resolved this problem asap

Thanking You Waiting for your reply

I have been working on a friends computer that I thought had a virus but I noticed that the svchost kept overrunning the buffer. I have tried looking everywhere but here. Hopefully now I can fix the problem. THANK YOU!! ~:o)

umakant: I interpret that not as a problem. Essentially it's just telling you that you may have to reboot your machine after setup finishes. You should not terminate any svchost process. I don't see this as related to any virus, and as I said, it doesn't seem like a problem to me.

I've run a few different scans for trojans, mal-ware, and viruses, all coming up clean. Since posting above I have found a quick fix, and aside from the fact I have to do it everytime I turn the computer on, it works rather nicely. I just kill the offending svchost and get into my services and start Windows Audio again, which runs on the same svchost instance. The sound was the reason I wasn't just shutting it down before. Thanks to you and Proc Exp I am now playing games again without HUUUGE lag times. Great site.

I tried to update my sytem, but am having problems. I constantly get the svchost.exe error. I can't seem to download sp4 from microsoft. I don't know if my computer is too old or what. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Richard

I'd get SP4 downloaded and burned onto a CD-ROM using another computer and install it while not connected to the network. Make sure you're behind a firewall also.

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