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svchost making CPU usage high.
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I have been having a small issue with my laptop recently, it has an AMD athlon XP2000 mobile cpu, 512MB DDR RAM and running Windows XP Home. The CPU normally changes speed depending on what i'm doing, but for the last couple of weeks its been running at full speed making the fan stay on all the time whereas it normally go on for a short while and then off again. Iv'e traced this to one of several svchost processes making my CPU usage at the bottom of the task managed screen randomly jump between 40% and 100% which i presume is why the mobile cpu is always at full speed and the fan is always on?
Does anyone have an explanation for this? I dont think its normal because my work machine doesn't do this.
I have AVG 7.5 which updates every day and i've done a full virus scan with nothing found, also have ZoneAlarm installed which is upto date. Apart from this issue the laptop runs fine.
Any help much appreciated.
Does anyone have an explanation for this? I dont think its normal because my work machine doesn't do this.
I have AVG 7.5 which updates every day and i've done a full virus scan with nothing found, also have ZoneAlarm installed which is upto date. Apart from this issue the laptop runs fine.
Any help much appreciated.
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A program I have used to do this is Whats Running (pretty descriptive name!) Not sure it is being developed much now but worth a download. http://www.whatsrunning.net/whatsrunning/Download.aspx It may ask you to register but ignore the bit at the top and click the link under Alternate Download Sites.
Install that and run it. On the Processes tab you'll find every instance of svchost. Just find the one hogging your CPU and click on it. On the left will be all the info you could need about it. if you expand the Services section that should tell you what actual service is using svchost.
Oh and be prepared to be shocked at just how much stuff is going on on your machine!
I have mine turned off now permanently and just do a manual Windows Update when I know there are updates available.
Yes I've had that on several computers, it makes the PC unusable.....even having the 'check for updates but let me download' option does the same thing.
I've also had the windows update issue which seemed to go away when i reinstalled the updated version of Comodo firewall.
it is definately svchost, not scvhost.
I installed that program and i looked in the svchost that was using most of the cpu and it had about 70 items against it but doesn't actually say how much cpu each process is using.
thanks for the help so far but im still stuck
Kill the host off through the task manager and the machine will speed up.
Make sure that the av is up to date and that your spyware protection is up to date.
This is a very frustrating issue there are various refs on the internet.
Just click on each item then on Stop Process on the left of the screen. You can see the CPU usage as you do this so it should be fairly obvious when you hit the right one.
If CPU usage isn't visible then click the View menu then Select Process Columns and scroll down to CPU and tick it.
Once you know what service it is that's causing the problem, let us know, and we can advise further about how to resolve the issue!
Oh, the link is:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx
I'm getting a bit further now! , I installed that program and i found the service that svchost is running that causes the cpu to be high is HPSLPSVC which is part of my wireless HP all in one printer software, it says "Discovers and monitors the state and the configuration of the HP devices attached to your network. If the service is stopped, and your network devices change IP address, they might become unavailable."
I stopped the service and my CPU usage went back to normal but when i restart the computer its running again. I believe i can manually set the IP address on the printer so in theory I wouldn't need that service. What do you recommend I do now?
Thanks the previous whats running program wouldn't let me stop the service but this one does.
In one of the tabs you'll find the list of files are loaded on startup. find your HPSLPSVC, in the list there, and untick.
The PC of SWMBO also did it today. Only cure was was turn it off the wrong way and on switching on again get into "Security Centre" and turn off "Automatic Updates" before svchost got going!. A restart and switch updates on again and all was well. There was supposed to be a cure, years ago, by installing 927891 but it didn't work as I just got the message that it was already in SP3 and not required.
Has anyone else anything to report?
if you install process explorer or similar it will allow you to view the command line that launched the host process.
it'll look something like
C:\Windows\system32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs
it's the netsvcs bit that is useful to know.
With wireless printers it is a good idea to set up a fixed ip address any way. If you switch off printer and connect another device, the old ip address may get reuse you try and print it may not work, and it is not usually obvious why.
Most printers have a configuration page to do this.
if you're going to use a fixed IP for your printer you need to tell your router too. otherwise it may reissue the IP whilst the printer is off.
there's nothing wrong with using DHCP. but if you want to use a static IP you have to do both sides of it.
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-windows_update/latest-windows-xp-update-and-svchostexe-problems/57ff2a95-3a9c-4e85-a879-b340c65acfa5
Yes it's definitely connected to Windows Update. The posts in your link which refer to updating to IE8 are red herrings - I've got IE8 and had it from when it came out. The post referring to MSE hogging the CPU are relevant but that only takes a relatively short while while MSE is updating itself. The svchost connected to Update is the problem as it just goes on for ever. The work around of switching off Updates and back on again does seem to be effective. We'll have to see what happens on the 10th November!