SVCHost.exe taking 95-98% of cpu utilization - help

[dxpaap]

any ideas what is going on and how to fix it. I'm running W2K, just did a fresh install, added all SP, updates, apps like Office2003, anti virus etc....

system was running fine, I installed MS .Net (not sure why) - system started running really slow so I uninstalled it. but sysystem still running real slow with drive being accessed almost constintely.

Just looked at the performance monitor and noticed that there are about 4 instences of SVCHOST.exe running, but one of them is consistently using 95-95% of cpu utilization.

system wount let me shut it down (even in sysadm mode).

any suggestions?

thanks in advance

Davep

 

[Markbnj]

svchost.exe exists just to provide a generic service wrapper around compliant DLLs. So what you'll need to do is use process explorer or some equivalent tool, and look to see what modules those instances have loaded. Mostly the list will be a bunch of standard Windows modules, but somewhere in the list will be the DLL the thing was started to run. Or you can look at the command line params if process explorer will let you get at them. Once you know what DLL it is running we might be able to help further.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Start > Run > CMD > tasklist /svc

that will show you what SVChost is doing

 

[Markbnj]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Start > Run > CMD > tasklist /svc

that will show you what SVChost is doing

Yeah, even better . Except I would open a command window and run it. If you run it from the start bar the command window will just exit when the program is done.

 

[dxpaap]

thanks for advice - will try and get more info - although I did notice that in W2K the "ctrl-alt-del", task mgr , processes tab shows assigned PID numbers next to the image name where as on my XP system it gives the user name (not sure how useful the user name for each process is), but for the W2k system, if I there was some way to identify PID number that may be of use?

I'm not having much luck with the "Start > Run > CMD > tasklist /svc " command string, can't seem to get any results running: cmd tasklist/svc or other iterations of it. Doesn't seem to recgonize "tasklist".

Sorry for being slow on the CMD line syntax, but its been some years!

thank

 

[oDii]

I had a similar problem.

First, stop the automatic updates service (Start -> Run, "services.msc"), then delete the folder C:\windows\softwaredistribution. Restart computer or the service.

 

[dxpaap]

oDii, now that you mentioned that, I remember a few years ago at my job, when we were still on W2k - tech support fixed a similar problem by doing the samething, but I think they re-installed the update serive and the problem didn't reacur.

Although, I'd still like to figure out how to ID the problem processes (to be sure).

thanks

 

[oDii]

Here's a thread that goes into the problem in more detail as well as providing patches to hopefully prevent it from reoccuring if simply deleting doesn't work. There's also this from a Microsoft MVP about the problem.

 

[dxpaap]

wow, good thread (Ars OpenForum) - everything I wanted to know, but was afraid to ask

Thanks - great help!

dave