How do I fix this high CPU usage svchost virus or whatever it is?

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Hi. Was having the exact same problem, but only after upgrading from office 2000 to 2003 for some reason. Each time it started to happen, I restored the system to before the upgrade, which always worked but was highly frustrating! Put auto update in it's own svchost as stated in an earlier - hey presto! It now works! Many thanks to all...

users should be wary of any file that identifies as:
scvhost. it is a virus...

Talk about a coincidence. The svchost.exe has been using all my CPU after installing an recent update from Microsoft, I was convinced it was a virus, carried out numerous virus checks but nothing showed up..then I read this...excellent.. it work. my cpu is no longer being drained and my only problem now is every time I activate windows update to update it drains the the cpu again...is there any thing that Microsoft can do about this ??

I have spent the last week trying to sort out what the hell was going on with my laptop. My virus protection company wanted to charge me $100 to remove a virus (I thought that's what their software was supposed to do!). Fortunately I found your site, ran the script to uninstall and re-install automatic updates and all is now well with the world. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

hey pleaes i need desperate help on how to reverse this following process:

sc config wuauserv type= own

I did it and now the same problem occurs when i terminate svchost.exe and now my computer wont play any sound files anymore, and i tried restarting it and its still no use, can someone who knows comand prompt help me reverse the process so that automatic update is back under svchost.exe again?

If it helps, there is a patch available that updates SVChost, that does't require contact with Microsoft either that I've found fixes this patch- have a look at Microsoft KB927891 (you can download it here... http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7A81B0CD-A0B9-497E-8A89-404327772E5A&displaylang=en)... I've found this has fixed it in most cases (and I've seen a lot of cases of it...). Apparently it doesn't affect all machines, so it's not being pushed out as a critical update (although, ironically, given the cause, it probably wouldn't help people much!).

I have encountered the same problem. However, I am now having a host of other issues. I am getting a warning that my virus program may be out of date, but it is not and my AOL which used to start up automatically on the bottom of the task bar no longer appears. I turned off the automatic updates and rebooted, but it has not helped. Does anyone have any faith in the various fix programs that are advertised? Also, the updates my computer was trying to install was for Microsoft Office 2003, which I only have a trial version of. The updates would never install and I can't seem to delete Microsoft Office using the Control Panel add/delete programs option. I also tried doing a system restore without success.

Seems to be my problem too. Thought it was a virus but coulnd't find a virus. I noticed Windows Update running but 0% of the updates showed as downloaded. Seemed to come about when downloading the Office 2003 updates.

I've been pulling my hair out on this one. I'm glad someone has identified this as a bug! It's totally mind-numbing that Microsoft could produce such a bug and I guess is waiting forever to fix it.

I've been dealing with this for MONTHS! I even talked to the fine folks at Microsoft, but they were not any help at the top of the year. They said it was virus-like behavior and they could have a tech scan my computer. I opted out of that one though.

Thanks Leo!

I've had this problem with my desktop for months. I abandoned it 'cause it was too slow and started using only my laptop and the same thing happened to the laptop last week.

I then found this web-site ran the reinstall.cmd scripts. I've sorted both computers out and they are working perfectly.

Microsoft ought to do something about it. 'Cos the update program is causing more headache than benefit.

Cheers Leo!

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