svchost making CPU usage high.

[Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,022
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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.

Comments

  • chrisjrchrisjr Posts: 33,282
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    svchost is a sort of "helper" application that assists other services to run. You may well have several instances of it running. So you need to know what process it is assisting to track down what may be going on.

    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! :)
  • LoobsterLoobster Posts: 11,680
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    It's probably Windows Update. Turn it off teporarily and see what happens.

    I have mine turned off now permanently and just do a manual Windows Update when I know there are updates available.
  • OrbitalzoneOrbitalzone Posts: 12,627
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    Loobster wrote: »
    It's probably Windows Update. Turn it off teporarily and see what happens.

    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.
  • JeliteJelite Posts: 2,755
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    Is it definatly sVChost and not sCVhost as the latter is a trojan.

    I've also had the windows update issue which seemed to go away when i reinstalled the updated version of Comodo firewall.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,022
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    I tried turning off automatic updates and that has made no difference.

    it is definately svchost, not scvhost.
    chrisjr wrote: »
    svchost is a sort of "helper" application that assists other services to run. You may well have several instances of it running. So you need to know what process it is assisting to track down what may be going on.

    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 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 :(
  • aljdaviealjdavie Posts: 650
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    I have had this in the past. It is usualy windows update causing this.
    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.
  • chrisjrchrisjr Posts: 33,282
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    asdigi wrote: »
    I tried turning off automatic updates and that has made no difference.

    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 :(
    You can use What's Running to stop and start the services to see which one is actually doing the nasty.

    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.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,344
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    Go to the Microsoft Technet site and download "process explorer". You need to extract it to a folder on your machine, and then run it from there. It will give you a list of processes, similar to how "What's Running" works, however, if you then double click on the process that's using the most CPU time, it will show you a lot more information about that particular process.

    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
  • etldlrletldlrl Posts: 6,162
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    This problem was plaguing a lot of people some time back. It was caused by incompatible patches and seems to only affect people with MS Office. I think the solution is to back out of Microsoft Update and revert to Windows Update. Do a complete update and then switch back to Microsoft Update. That worked for my Dad. It did one final very slow update and then it has been OK ever since.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,022
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    jbeavon wrote: »
    Go to the Microsoft Technet site and download "process explorer". You need to extract it to a folder on your machine, and then run it from there. It will give you a list of processes, similar to how "What's Running" works, however, if you then double click on the process that's using the most CPU time, it will show you a lot more information about that particular process.

    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.
  • whoever,heywhoever,hey Posts: 30,992
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    start menu->run-> type 'msconfig' with out the '' then run.

    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.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,022
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    excellent, thank's very much everyone, my cpu usage is now back to normal :)
  • JamesEJamesE Posts: 6,456
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    I've recently had some bother with this but yesterday the CPU usage went up to 99% and wouldn't come out. After a lot of b*****ing about and googling I found a cure by turning off Windows Update. (I'm using XP with most of the updates). I've turned it back on today and the problem seems to have gone away.

    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?
  • MaxatoriaMaxatoria Posts: 17,980
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    Given its the time of the month for updates it may be that the updater is refreshing the patch database etc and there is quite a few updates this month so it may be worth letting it get on with it for a few hours while doing other stuff as once its probably downloaded the patches/rebooted a few times and checked again it'll probably go quiet again
  • JamesEJamesE Posts: 6,456
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    Yes, there were some updates but once I'd done the off and on procedure it proceeded to do them quite quickly. There's a bug somewhere, it must get itself into an endless loop.
  • flagpoleflagpole Posts: 44,641
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    i've not read the whole thread. but identifying the culprit as svchost is not so useful.

    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.
  • oilmanoilman Posts: 4,529
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    asdigi wrote: »
    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.

    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.
  • flagpoleflagpole Posts: 44,641
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    oilman wrote: »
    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.
  • mossy2103mossy2103 Posts: 84,307
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    JamesE wrote: »
    I've recently had some bother with this but yesterday the CPU usage went up to 99% and wouldn't come out. After a lot of b*****ing about and googling I found a cure by turning off Windows Update. (I'm using XP with most of the updates). I've turned it back on today and the problem seems to have gone away.

    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?
    I am trying to sort out something similar for someone, looks like it is related to Windows Update:

    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-windows_update/latest-windows-xp-update-and-svchostexe-problems/57ff2a95-3a9c-4e85-a879-b340c65acfa5
  • JamesEJamesE Posts: 6,456
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    mossy2103 wrote: »

    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!
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