Re: How to prevent SVCHOST.EXE from taking over 100% of CPU!?

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

Andrey Tarasevich wrote:
| Frank D wrote:
|| Please help -- I'm going crazy!!!!
||
|| Every 3 to 5 minutes this "Generic Host Process for Win32 Services"
|| starts up (I'm using Process Explorer so I can see everything that's
|| running and how much of the CPU it's using) and takes over my entire PC
|| for 2 to 3 minutes each time. For example, in the middle of the previous
|| sentence I was prevented from doing *anything* with my computer for at
|| least 2 minutes while this thing was running. No matter what I do it
|| keeps running and interfering with everything I try to do. I can kill it
|| but it just comes back in a few seconds. It happens whether I'm connected
|| to the Internet or not. I tried shutting down all programs -- even those
|| running in the background -- and it made no difference. I can't record
|| music to my hard drive because this process keeps interrupting the
|| recordings. Can anyone help?
||
|| This is not a case of a virus or spyware or trojan. It's purely
|| Microsoft's stuff.
||
|| Frank D
||
|| Note: As I tried to send this it happened again!!!
|| ...
|
| This is a well-known issue and it is indeed a native Windows problem, no
| malicious software involved.

That's good to know. But if this is a known Windows problem, wouldn't Microsoft have issued a patch or hotfix, or some sort of advisory on how to avoid it or correct it?

| Unfortunately, I haven't seen any good
| research done on this issue so far (maybe someone can post a good link?).
| Some service hosted by svchost suddenly starts to consume 100% of CPU for
| a period of 30 sec up to several minutes. The first step to solving the
| problem is to identify that particular service.

I'm curious to know why I haven't seen any other calls for help on this topic.

| The main obstacle here is that every active svchost process runs (hosts)
| not one but several services at once. Every time you hover your mouse over
| the name of a svchost in Process Explorer, it will give you a popup
| listing all services this instance of svchost is hosting. The instance
| that's acting up (eats 100% of CPU) normally hosts a large number of
| services and, for this reason, it is impossible to tell which particular
| service is actually responsible for this problem right away.

I've done what you suggested and I see 27 services listed for the largest SVCHOST. (Each of the other three has only one or two.) Here they are: 6to4, AudioSrv, Browser, CryptSvc, Dhcp, dmserver, EventSystem, FastUserSwitchingCompatibility, lanmanserver, lanmanworkstation, Netman, Nla, NtmsSvc, RasMan, Schedule, seclogon, SENS, SharedAccess, ShellHWDetection, srservice, TapiSrv, Themes, W32Time, winmgmt, wscsvc, wuauserv, WZCSVC.

| One thing that comes to mind is to use the registry parameters described
| here
|
| http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=314056
|
| and "split" the services hosted by the offending svchost into two equal
| groups, wait for the issue to show itself again, then split the offending
| group again and thus eventually find the culprit. I wonder if anyone has
| done it already...

Thank you for your good information and that last suggestion, Andrey, but I'm not confident enough to make experimental changes to the Registry and then understand the results of those changes.

Frank D

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: How to prevent SVCHOST.EXE from taking over 100% of CPU!?
    ... | Frank D wrote: ... || running and how much of the CPU it's using) and takes over my entire PC ... | The main obstacle here is that every active svchost process runs ... | the name of a svchost in Process Explorer, it will give you a popup ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: How to prevent SVCHOST.EXE from taking over 100% of CPU!? <== Progress to report
    ... Frank D wrote: ... starts up (I'm using Process Explorer so I can see everything that's ... | concrete instances of svchost can vary from machine to machine. ... FastUserSwitchingCompatibility, lanmanserver, lanmanworkstation, Netman, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: How to prevent SVCHOST.EXE from taking over 100% of CPU!? <== Progress to report
    ... Frank D wrote: ... starts up (I'm using Process Explorer so I can see everything that's ... | concrete instances of svchost can vary from machine to machine. ... FastUserSwitchingCompatibility, lanmanserver, lanmanworkstation, Netman, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
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