|
Home »
Windows
» Windows Components
Summary: Many people are experiencing high CPU usage, often 100%, in svchost. Svchost is not a virus, but many people think it acts like one.
That's actually a composite question based on several reports I've been getting recently. Svchost is not a virus. In fact it's a required system component. You'll often find several copies of svchost running. Svchost, or more correctly "Service Host" is a program that is designed to run other programs and "hosts" many of the system services in Windows XP. Several copies of Svchost run more than one service, which is why when you kill an instance of svchost several things on your machine might stop working. So why is one of the Svchosts taking all your CPU? And what can you do about it? • From what I've heard and have been able to tell, this is nothing more than a bug. A serious and annoying bug, but a bug nonetheless. The bug appears to be related to the Windows Update service - the service that you're supposed to keep running at all times so that updates will be automatically downloaded to your machine. A quick way to tell if this is happening to you is to download Process Explorer and right click on the svchost instance that's taking 100% of your CPU and then click on the Services tab:
You can see that this copy of svchost on my machine is running not only The Windows Update service, but is actually running 29 services all totalled. So if you were to kill this instance of svchost you'd be killing all of those services and many features and functionality of your system would fail. One Temporary Solution One approach to this problem is to stop and then disable the Windows Automatic Update service. If you have it open in Process Explorer, as shown above, with Automatic Updates selected in the list then just click the Stop button. If your CPU usage then drops to more normal levels, you've identified the problem. To prevent the Automatic Update service from starting again, right click on My Computer and click on Manage. Expand Services and Applications, and then underneath that click on Services. In the resulting list on the right, locate Automatic Updates:
Right click on Automatic Updates and click on Properties. Change the Startup type to Disabled:
"There are also rumors that Microsoft will be making the
actual fix available in a future automatic update."
(You can also click Stop here if you didn't stop the service earlier.) Click OK and Automatic Update service should be disabled. IMPORTANT: since you won't be getting updates automatically, you should now plan on visiting the Windows Update web site periodically to make sure you keep your Windows up to date. As we'll see shortly, this will also become important to resolve this problem "for real". Another Temporary Solution Folks commenting on a previous svchost article have reported success by removing and reinstalling Windows Update. Specifically a series of commands detailed at amset.info labeled Remove and Reinstall of Automatic Updates seems to resolve the issue for many people. I haven't tried this solution since I've not experience the problem, but as I said, several folks are reporting good results. A Permanent Solution? There isn't a permanent solution. Not yet anyway. There are rumors that Microsoft actually has a fix, but that you need to call up and ask for it rather than getting it through normal channels. I'm not convinced that this fix is actually for this specific problem that so many people are experiencing. There are also rumors that Microsoft will be making the actual fix available in a future automatic update. Ironic, since it's automatic update that you may have turned off in order to work around the problem. That's why I recommend making certain you regularly visit Windows Update and take the latest fixes to keep your system up to date, not only for this issue but for any other issues that may crop up over time. Also, remember, once the problem is fixed be sure to re-enable the Automatic Updates feature. It remains an important part of keeping your system safe and up to date. Update! 23-May-2007 I woke to find this automatic update waiting to be installed on my machine this morning:
This is the update that's been frequently referenced as a resolution for this problem. It's possible, perhaps even likely, that this issue will now get put to bed. It's your choice at this point: you should be able to visit Windows Update to take the fix, enabling Automatic Updates again should get the fix downloaded, or you can visit visit the knowledgebase article to get the fix. Related:
FREE Newsletter The Ask Leo! Newsletter - FREE weekly updates by email with the latest answers, tips, tricks and fun information you won't find anywhere else.
Why Subscribe? • Recent Comments
when i play games my cpu usage goes high.some times system will automatically restarts.some svchost process some times some other process is taking high cpu. the same problem will revealed when i installs any software alsi i have formated entire system and reinstall but the problem still there and one thing is when i open bios also my cpu gives noice looks like my svchost is screwy too, it's been hogging CPU for a week or two and got really bad the last couple of days I'm using XP home SP2, and have updates thru KB945533 on 4/14/08 including the KB927891 patch my usual browser is FireFox 2.0.0.14 CA Security Center 4.0.0.182 didn't find a virus or spyware I had AutoUpdate turned on to download but let me manually install but turned it off completely and svchost.exe seems to be OK now except, I went to Windows Update using IE7 this morning and when I try the auto check for what update(s) I need the green status indicator just keeps moving across the bar and it never gets further, I let it run for an hour, I've tried this with both CA addons and firewall disabled as well as popup OK for microsoft.com Posted by: dave at May 9, 2008 02:12 PMI had to call microsoft support. They ran tool to re-register all the DLLs using regserv. This solved the problem. Posted by: John Schimandle at May 9, 2008 03:29 PMPatch didn't work and I, too, cannot get any updates the load bar constantly scrolls but nothing happens. Posted by: John Ponti at May 10, 2008 08:49 PMGetting updates via Windows Update site is now impossible. However, I've found a site that will allow you to get your updates using Firefox browser and presumably other browers. I installed it and it works! (I used their tool vs. the regular install because I have no knowledge of how to install unsigned plug-ins) www.windizupdate.com Posted by: John Ponti at May 11, 2008 08:04 AMUnfortunately I just found out that Windizupdate.com is no longer. They site is 'up', but they're not offering any further downloads. For another "third party" update site, try www.thesoftwarepatch.com I put Help Service and Windows Update service in their own svchost and this fixed things. I used the "sc config wuauserv type= own" and "sc config helpsvc type= own" commands Actually it did not work for Windows Update. I am pretty sure the batch file called "Reset Automatic Updates System" on this webpage worked - http://www.amset.info/windows/auto-updates.asp#Reset-Automatic-Updates I ran it yesterday, rebooted a couple of times and when Automatic Updates came on it only took 10-15% of CPU for very short periods of time. This morning on reboot it still only took 10-15% Hi, Hi, Since yesterday my laptop is getting slow because of windows updates. I did net stop wuauserv the cpu bacame 0 % busy, a few minutes later it bacame again 100% busy and again wuauserv was binded to svchost taking 100% cpu. process monitor helped a lot identifying this. The SOLUTION came up in some other forum: And the solution to my laptop cpu 100% busy problem was to run the following script: regsvr32 MSXML3.dll By the way, I believe this script should be harmless to run... Hope this may help everyone solving the same problem! Cheers Posted by: TPM at May 14, 2008 08:49 AMPost a comment on "How do I fix this high CPU usage svchost virus or whatever it is?":
|
Archives Advertisers |
|
