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General discussion

100 percent CPU usage caused by SVCHOST process, need help

Apr 17, 2009 7:24AM PDT
Question:

Hi, I am most frustrated by a process that takes the CPU to 100 percent use and then lets it drop back to about 50 percent every couple of seconds, which seems to run while my Vista 32BIT computer is idle with no programs actually running other than Windows. The usage report shows the offending "thing" to be "svchost," whatever that is-?but it can hog up to 78 percent of the CPU, making everything else run like it was an old 286! Can you please tell me what this process is? Is it something I can disable? How I can fix this very frustrating problem! Thank you.

Submitted by: James T.

Here are some featured member answers and link to articles to get you started, but
please read all the advice and suggestions that our
members have contributed to this question.

Possible Solution on 100 Percent CPU Utilization --Submitted by gwiljr
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-12546_102-0.html?messageID=3028420#3028420

100 percent CPU usage caused by SVCHOST process --Submitted by callmebond
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-12546_102-0.html?messageID=3027123#3027123

Check your system thoroughly for viruses and adware --Submitted by darrenforster99
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-12546_102-0.html?messageID=3027183#3027183

Here's the solution --Submitted by chazzsubscribe
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-12546_102-0.html?messageID=3027032#3027032

What is svchost.exe and why is it running?
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/what-is-svchostexe-and-why-is-it-running/

Stop svchost.exe from stealing CPU cycles
http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-9865052-12.html

Read all member contributions to this topic
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-12546_102-0.html?messageID=3026704


If you have any additional advice for James, please click on the reply link and post it. Please be as detailed as possible in your answer. Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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McAffe suite? humm..
Apr 24, 2009 5:54PM PDT

I bought a new Toshiba NB100 netbook with factory installed WinXP Home and Mc Affe (demo) suite. I did not work as it should; I had to uninstall the McAffe SW because it was freezing the computer too often and for too long periods.

I installed Norman AV instead and everything is fine since then.

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Norton?
Apr 19, 2009 7:21AM PDT

If I recall, I had issues with that particular process on an XP machine. It was related to Norton Anti-Virus or some other Norton software. Stopped using Norton and solved it.

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Possible Solution on 100 Percent CPU Utilization
Apr 19, 2009 11:39AM PDT

In my case, the problem was due to a service associated with a multifunction HP print device (HPSLPSVC). After installing the printer via its associated CD, it took what seemed like an eternity for my computer to boot and reach a point where I could intermittently use the mouse and keyboard. Applications took way to long to initiate. CTRL+ALT+DELETE would take some time to take effect. Something was seriously wrong.

This problem greatly frustrated me. Neither Microsoft nor HP (the manufacturer of my machine, and most of my peripherals) were of any help. Each kept pointing the finger to the other. HP would blame Microsoft (due to SVCHOST), and Microsoft blamed HP (due to HPSLPSVC). My conclusion was that HP was at fault since SVCHOST is a "wrapper" around services and functions fine for most. The problem had something to do with the HP service and either how it was designed or how it was initiated under SVCHOST.

Window's Task Manager was of little help. It did not provide the level of detail I needed to figure out the problem at first. Ultimately, the utility Process Explorer helped me drill down into my system to find the item consuming so much of my CPU's time. Here is a link to the lastest version as of my writing.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

After starting Process Explorer, I ordered the list of items by CPU usage. This allowed me to find the specific SVCHOST bundle that appeared to be consuming so much of my CPU. I then expanded the view to show everything within the SVCHOST package. With the CPU column still displayed, it was here that I found a service called HPSLPSVC utilizing so much of the CPU. After displaying the Command Line column, I then traced the service back to a program, HPQTRA08.EXE, which I disabled using MSCONFIG. After rebooting, I again had use of my computer.

By the way, I had to kill the service in order to interact with my computer. The situation got so bad, the system would not even shut down until I killed the CPU hog.

I tried to do a little research on the problematic service. I found references to the service performing scan for HP devices through hard connections (e.g. USB and router) and soft connections (wireless). One article indicated the default frequency needed to be decreased (through a registry modification). I never pursued testing these items.

I found several other articles during my research about the same symptoms involving other multifunction devices as well as scanners. I suspect the issue may be in how the software for these devices are designed to scan for signals (like a keypress). For me, I was able to disable the problematic programs in favor of initiating a scan from with an application interacted with the device via a better managed driver.

I hope this information will help you in your efforts to drill down to the specific program within a SVCHOST bundle causing your problems.

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CPU Utilization
Apr 24, 2009 12:52PM PDT

I just wanted to thank you for the help!!

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Possible Solution on 100 Percent CPU Utilization
Apr 24, 2009 1:48PM PDT

To gwiljr
Thank you for your descriptions and information. In my case it started happening after installing a Vodafone 3G PCMCIA card and software. Many emails to and from MS, Vodafone etc yeilded no solution. Eventually I reformatted the whole system and am currently busy with a rebuild! If the problem comes back I will be using your information to try to solve it.

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Processes eating up CPU cycles/time.
Apr 25, 2009 2:09AM PDT

From all I read here and from my own experience this is almost always related to files or programs which want to auto update all the time. It seems that the more files that want to auto update you have on your computer, the worse it is. What I have done is to use msconfig startup panel to turn off most auto updates from starting up at turn on and afterward, and choose to manually update every month or two or three depending of frequency of actual updates available.

BTW, on a related topic, in England they recommend two things: keep your programs on one hard drive (or partition) and your data on another. Then reinstall your operating system and reinstall your programs (the ones you really want to keep) every two to three years. That way your system is cleansed of the junk and installed/uninstalled junk programs you downloaded and really don't use or need. I did it and my boot time cut in half and things like DVD creation cut in less than half!

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Solution to your HP problem
Apr 24, 2009 7:33PM PDT

I have seen that HP problem at least a half dozen times om systems running XP. Try this. It's worked every time so far:

Start->Run->services.msc

search for service "HP Network Devices Support" . Service name is HPSLPSVC Edit this service and set to "manual". Reboot. That should solve the problem and does not affect Printer functionality at all.

As you know, this is a known issue that has yet to be addressed to my knowledge by HP. This solution can be found on the HP user forums.

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svchost 100 percent cpu
Apr 25, 2009 1:55PM PDT

Note: This reply is associated with WinXP, not Vista

I had a similar problem with HPSLPSVC which is part of the HP Multi-function printer programming; however only on one of my machines. It turns out the it is somehow connected to Intel CPU's with hyperthreading. A dual core one does not seem to have the problem and neither does an older Pentium without hyperthreading. Just recently I had a similar problem with Skype on this same hyperthreading system. It went full bore on the cpu (not svchost in this case). I don't know whether it is a problem with the cpu but I seem to have isolated it to this type of cpu. Things work fine on my other systems.

One thing that helps is what was in another post. Run services.msc and change the HP network devices support startup to 'Manual' instead of automatic.

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Which generation of of CPU are you using?
Apr 19, 2009 1:15PM PDT

I've had the same issue when turning the computer on. When it first came on the computer would be at 100% CPU usage for about 30 minutes. I had just installed Vista 32 bit on a Pentium 4 3.0(Northwood 512k cache) on a Asus 865 motherboard and 1 gig of memory. Tried everything listed here to but to no avail. The only thing that worked is when I upgraded to a dual core computer with 2 gigs of memory. My suggestion is to 1) Upgrade your PC or 2) Downgrade your OS to Windows XP until Window 7 comes out.

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answer to James T.
Apr 19, 2009 5:56PM PDT

I had the same problem with my windowas vista, it put so much strain on my pc that my CPU ran twice the heat than on windows XP. i dont know how but the problem was corrected wen i loaded the new Tuneup Ytillities 2009 and i haven't had a problem since. a word of advice for all vista users, use tuneup utils for better OS usage.

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Similar Problem
Apr 19, 2009 7:14PM PDT

Sorry Lee Koo, I do not have an answer for you but also suffer from a similar problem. Every time I log on to an alternative LAN (home or office) i get a message syaing that 'Host Process for Windows Services stopped working and was close. A problem caused the application to stop working correctly. Windows will notify you if a solution is available.' The problem is that there are many of these SVCHost that run and it is not possible to know which has been stopped and why. Can anyone help. I use a Sony Vaio VGN-SZ460N and Sony has not been able to resolve.

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Legitimate Microsoft Windows File name is SVCHOST.EXE
Apr 19, 2009 9:14PM PDT

SVHOST.EXE is a Trojan.

What you have is a virus program running on your
computer. Update your software or use a different
vendor to remove the infected file.

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SCVHOST.EXE
Apr 19, 2009 9:33PM PDT

Let me add to that question. I am running XP Pro.

I have svchost.exe running EIGHT times in my processes. 3 times as SYSTEM, 3 times as LOCAL HOST and twice as NETWORK SERVICE.

What the **** is all this?
Shelia

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2 different spellings there.
Apr 20, 2009 3:01AM PDT

Your subject title says "SCVHOST.EXE".
Which is a problem, Unless you misspelled it, it is a trojan or some other thing.

But what you wrote in your actual message ALL 8 of those "svchost.exe " are more than liekly legit applications,
Your internet connection, windows or some other firewall, antivirus programs, spyware programs abd thinbgs like that.
BUT to be sure therre is a program or 2 mentioned somewhere in this thread that you can use top find out what exactly those are controlling.
Process Explorer one of the programs that was mentioned it does not even have to be actually installed as a program on your computer it will run right from the folder you use it from. and I believe can be downloaded right from here at Cnet, go to the downloads section of Cnets Download.com

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having same problem
Apr 19, 2009 11:26PM PDT

running xp operating system

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100 percent CPU usage caused by SVCHOST process, need help
Apr 20, 2009 12:43AM PDT

Some of your installed programs may require manual updates and install a firewall where you can configure it to accept SVCHOST process. I suggest PC Tools Firewall Plus might help you manage this problem by allowing it to access your network. You can acquire this free software from CNET Download.com.

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SVCHOST Process 100% CPU
Apr 20, 2009 1:11AM PDT

Hi.
I beleive this comes from a Scanner.
I have the same problem with a Canon 9950F.
I did not powered it up since 60 hours and the Process Explorer indicates CPU Usage 2% when idle.
In the past, I moved the Scanner USB cable and this gave me 2 scanners.
I disabled the Scanner #1.
The Registry entry is for 2 scanners.
So I applied the solution to the first entry.
To resolve this problem, either disable polling for the scanner or increase its poll timeout value:

Locate the scanner in the following registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet
\Control\Class\{6BDD1FC6-810F-11D0-BEC7-08002BE
2092F}
NOTE: Under the preceding registry key, you may locate Multiple subkeys, the actual number of which depends upon how many imaging devices that you have installed. The scanner can be identified by the device name in one of the strings.

You may have more than one subkey for your scanner if you Plugged the device into different USB ports and the manufacturer did not use serial numbers for the device.
In this situation, you can often observe a "#2" after the device name that corresponds to the correct version as listed in Control Panel.
When you have located the device key for your scanner,open the following DeviceData subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet
\Control\Class\{6BDD1FC6-810F-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}\0000\DeviceData
NOTE: There can be multiple values in this key, such as, Server and TwainDS.
To change the polling time interval, create a new DWORD value under DeviceDate called PollTimeout, and then set its value to have a polling interval in milliseconds. A value of 1000 can poll every second. The default value is set at 700.
To disable the button functionality and the polling capability, create a new DWORD value called DisableNotifications, and then set the value to 1.
I must add: this solution works most of the time.
A reboot and not using the sanner will work.
Regards

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...looks like you might have a virus, spyware, adware,. etc.
Apr 20, 2009 2:08AM PDT

Hi James,

Although svchost.exe is usually detected to be the culprit that is eating up your system?s resource, it does not cause much damage. Because, in reality, svchost.exe is just a holder process for other services running on your system. For instance, virus, spyware, adware or Trojan programs may hide behind the svchost.exe process and consume a large amount of CPU and memory resources. This is the reason why when you open the Process tab of your Task Manager, you may see the svchost.exe process creating 100% CPU usage problems on your system.

Note: To open Task Manager, press the Ctrl + Alt + Del combination keys.

If on Windows Vista system, you are unable to view the svchost.exe process listed on the Processes tab of Task Manager window, and still your system is showing high CPU usage, then perform the following steps:

1. Select the Show processes from all users button.
2. In the User Account Control dialog box that opens, select the Continue button.
3. Now, you will be able to see several svchost.exe processes running on the system and you may notice one of them consuming high CPU resources.

Next, in order to find out the service that is behind the svchost.exe process and is consuming higher CPU or memory resources, you need to do the following:
4. Once you have located the svchost.exe service that is causing the problem, right-click on it, and select Go to Service(s).
5. Doing this, will open the Services tab in which some of the services will be highlighted. These highlighted services will be the ones that are associated with the problematic svchost.exe process.
6. After you have identified the services that are causing the svhost.exe process to eat up system resources, you can carefully go through them and determine the service that might be causing the problem.
7. When you have determined the suspected service, first ensure that no other services or processes rely on this service, then right-click on it and select Stop Service. You can also stop the service by opening the Services Management Console from the Control Panel.

Warning: Be careful when stopping a service because stopping essential Windows Vista services may make your PC unstable.

Possible Solution:
100% CPU usage problems and memory error may also be caused to due several other issues such as damaged registry, malware infections, and clogged and damaged hard disk. To prevent these problems you must regularly clean up and repair your registry with the help of a Windows Vista registry cleaner tool, run regular full system scans with your antivirus and antispyware tools, and keep your hard disk free from unwanted files and errors with the help of Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter tools.

===
Hope this helps!
Cheers!

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Well, pardner, I had a problem with SVCHOST....
Apr 20, 2009 5:17AM PDT

I recently had a problem with the file SVCHOST.EXE and I found out that it (svchost) was a virus file or a file that had been invaded by a virus and it would not go away. I scaned my drive over and over four times and it was still there popping up and the weirdest times for no reason whatsoever. I finally made it go away by ... reformatting my computer and replacing it with windows XP. Since then, no problem with SVCHOST.exe. Oh, yeah...it did come back for a minute when I inserted a CD in my drive to replace a file and found out that the CD was corrupted with SVCHOST when my antivirus program caught it. I immediately removed the disc and tossed it in the wastebin. Maybe someone with a greater mind than mine can help you. Sorry.

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svchost
Apr 21, 2009 2:05AM PDT

Svchost handles many network related processes. You need to figure out which one of those is causing svchost to go to 100%, if it is really an issue. The easiest way I know of to find the culprit is to the use the sysinternals tools available at Microsoft.com (see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cb56073f-62a3-4ed8-9dd6-40c84cb9e2f5.aspx ).
If you run tcpview you can see all the network related processes, and if you run another tool at the same time (I forget which one - probably ProcessExplorer), then you can match up the processes, see which ones are owned by svchost, and which one is using up all your CPU (and what it does based on the tcpview info).

Message was edited by: admin to fix link

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which interation of SVCHOST ?
Apr 21, 2009 6:17AM PDT

Get a copy of "Process Explorer", and you will find that there are 8 or 10 iterations of SVCHOST running in XP and Vista. As you scroll over the process name it will tell you what operations are being handled by that unit of the process and what fraction of CPU time is being used within it. This in turn will help you find what is chewing up your cycles. My Vista has 13 SCVHOST's running as I write this and some are memory hogs, as well as cycle hogs. Mine chews up almost 300 megs of ram, which if I didn't have a full 8 Gigs of RAM would bug the hell out of me. This is what makes Apple OS 10.5 look so good when you do a comparison, Tight code. I started back in the days of PDP 8's and my first PC was a CP/M Osbourn. 35 years from 8k of RAM to 8 GIGS, but other than the games that I play, I could still do most of my work style computing in 64K. Storage would be lacking, but a Z80H might well handle DBase-ing and correspondence. But I'm addicted to my gaming.

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100 percent CPU usage caused by SVCHOST - problem solved
Apr 22, 2009 9:48AM PDT

I appreciate all the responses. By using Process Explorer I identified the culprit and turned it off. No adverse effects yet and I am back in business.

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HOW-TO-GEEK
Apr 21, 2009 4:41PM PDT

Search for SVCHOST with your browser. Scroll down until you see:
what is svchost.exe and why is it running?:: the how-to-geek

Click on this hyperlink and you will see a good explanation relating to SVCHOST. Also, this shows how to use the "PROCESS EXPLORER".

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SVCHOST
Apr 22, 2009 1:31AM PDT
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One idea: It's NBC!
Apr 22, 2009 4:58AM PDT

I had this problem when I installed an application from NBC. They purpose of this app was to give one the ability to download selected episode of their shows including some older series. If you could put up with the same Comcast ad playing for EVERY single break during an episode, it worked just fine. Then I realized I had this dreaded problem with svchost. Every day for over a week I tried every malware checker/scanner I could get my hands on. I did find a lot of old cookies I no longer needed but my system was coming up clean as I expected. I am very careful about what I use to protect my system and what I load on it. In the end, I read that many people were having the svchost problem and it was solved by uninstalling the viewer application from NBC. They hadn?t taken off the beta designation when I checked to see if they had a final release so I took it off and I system?s been fine ever since.

Good luck!

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read the answer svchost
Apr 22, 2009 8:42AM PDT
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Simplest solution
Apr 24, 2009 12:50PM PDT

Get a Mac. No more svchost no more problem.

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TaskList & TsKill
Apr 24, 2009 1:22PM PDT

There were alot of good suggestions here as to what the problem might be, however, they are guesses based on personal experiences in most cases. SVCHost is short for "Service Host" Like RunDll32, it is not possible to say what it is doing from TaskManager.

Go to Run and type CMD on NT versions/COMMAND on home versions of windows. Type (or cut and paste):

tasklist /SVC /FI "Imagename eq svchost.exe"
it will return a list similair to this:

Image Name PID Services
========================= ====== =============================================
svchost.exe 768 DcomLaunch, TermService
svchost.exe 820 RpcSs
svchost.exe 860 AudioSrv, Browser, CryptSvc, Dhcp, dmserver,
EventSystem, helpsvc, LanmanServer,
lanmanworkstation, Netman, Nla, RasMan,
Schedule, SENS, SharedAccess,
ShellHWDetection, srservice, TapiSrv,
Themes, TrkWks, W32Time, winmgmt, wscsvc,
wuauserv, WZCSVC
svchost.exe 1248 Dnscache
svchost.exe 1304 LmHosts, SSDPSRV
svchost.exe 1808 WebClient
svchost.exe 520 stisvc

There services they are running are on the right. If any of these look like something you don't want running, Type TSKILL <PROCESSID>

For example, if I wanted to kill WebClient from my list I would type
TSKILL 1248

Kill processes until you find the one that is chewing up your CPU, unfortunately, as you can see from the list, some are bundled and cannot be killed with out crippling many features (see ProcessID 860).

Good Luck

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"What is svchost.exe And Why Is It Running?"
Apr 24, 2009 1:56PM PDT

Lee,
Thanks for sharing the "What is svchost.exe And Why Is It Running?" link.
I've always wondered what svchost.exe was - now I know!
I also see some of the advantages of Vista from the examples of the Vista Windows Task Manager.
I've always been a Vista hater (until now).
Keep up the GREAT work!
Jayne L. Wells

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Excessive CPU usage by svshost processes
Apr 24, 2009 3:39PM PDT

Hi,
As some other members also pointed out, the problem is seen with XP also. Status of the active processes can be visualised through Process Manager in "Tuneup Utilities"which fixes almost all the problems with One Click.But in respect of process management it is manual and needs knoledge base on the processes; there is option for teminating the processes.
2.In my case the CPU usage in System Idling Process goes above 90-95%. Memory slash down alarmingly and system slow down and even hang.It is not known how this happens and how to handle it.Us it an essential system process? I whope for some one to assist me.
3. Incidentally the software has detected threat on the Compuer' health termed as "Possible hacker attack vulnerability point". It also suggested to turn on Protection against SYN attacks.But I am not able to carry out. Please guide.
mnbswamy