Question about svchost.exe

[imported_Jubei]

Today, my PC has been locked up several times by svchost.exe. This process is eating up 100% of my PC's CPU usage, leaving the system in a frozen state. I have had to end the process manually, but on restart, the same thing happens and locks down the PC. When I end the process, the only thing that seems off is the taskbar at the bottom of the screen loses the XP blue colour scheme and the font changes too. I also noticed that there are quite a few instances of svchost.exe running, but one one hogs resources, which is the one I end manually.

I am running Windows XP on AMD 64 3200+ and the system has been OK for over 16 months. I have run ad-aware, a-squared and AVG. All three state I am free from threats.

What is the problem here?? Any suggestions?

 

[Schadenfroh]

Bloatfree alternatives to bloated programs

svchost.exe's cpu and memory usage off the charts

• High CPU usage by SVChost might be caused by a problem noted in the following link. You can find what svchost is actually doing by using tools from sysinternals.
• Please see Microsoft KB932494 for solutions to this issue
• Solution found by Stash

 

[imported_Jubei]

Thanks for the heads up. Applied the patches / fixes by Microsoft - didn't make any difference. It seems the problem has to do with windows updates, and as far as I keep automatic updates turned off, svchost.exe does not mess with the CPU.

 

[Chadder007]

Originally posted by: Jubei
Thanks for the heads up. Applied the patches / fixes by Microsoft - didn't make any difference. It seems the problem has to do with windows updates, and as far as I keep automatic updates turned off, svchost.exe does not mess with the CPU.

Thats what this latest patch is supposed to fix.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta...d=7A81B0CD-A0B9-497E-8A89-404327772E5A

Also some people have had to go from Microsoft Update back to Windows Update. You can go to Microsoft update and there is a change settings button there on the webpage to disable Microsoft Update. Doing this makes the PC go back to Windows Update.

 

[imported_Jubei]

I did download the fix manually and ran it from my PC. Also downloaded and installed the new windows update agent, which is supposed to solve the issue. But it doesn't really work for me. After applying the fix, when I go to Windows Update, CPU still shoots up to 99% and doesn't manage to do anything. The only thing that seems to have improved is after I close the updates, CPU usage drops back to normal percentages, while before I applied the fix, CPU would continue running at 100%. For some reason, Office Updates worked without a hitch.

Anyway, this all started when I installed the new Live Writer Beta 2. The program triggered something that made svchost.exe react this way, because I've had my windows set to automatic update for quite a while without any problems.

 

[Chadder007]

Well, I know this CPU usage crap has been going on since mid last year. Microsoft still hasn't fixed it totally, but this patch has helped quite a bit for my users that have had the problem. The issue usually shows up the most on systems that have a version of Office from XP and up and when the user has upgraded to Microsoft Update from Windows Update.