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General discussion

High memory usage for svchost+wuauclt; USB hubs don't work

by crazedsadist Sep 2, 2010 3:32PM PDT

My 5- year old laptop (Compaq nx8220: Intel Pentium(R) M processor 1.86GHz; 512MB DDR2 RAM, ATI Mobile Radeon X600 128MB, 80GB 5400rpm hard drive) gets very hot underneath. In addition, I have two particular problems:

1. Both svchost.exe + wuauclt.exe's memory usage occassionally increases rapidly even if my laptop is idle. I have to terminate wuauclt.exe manually (through End Process in Task Manager) in order for the 'Commit Charge' to return to late 300/early 400M figures. Why is this happening?

2. If my 'Commit Charge' is 5XXM or above, if I plug any USB devices Windows XP won't recognise them. I have to terminate memory consuming programs (e.g. Firefox), restoring the Commit Charge to 4XXM, then Windows XP will recognised any USB devices I plug in. However, if I plug any USB devices right at the beginning when I turn on the laptop, I won't encounter any problems. Why is this?

Discussion is locked

3 Posts
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Toxic combinations and cleaning.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Sep 2, 2010 6:18PM PDT

1. Can't tell given the clues. There are many combination's of protection software (spybot, old zone alarm issues) that trigger that. You might try it with just one or the other. Then again it could have malware on the machine. Follow Grif's advice at http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6121_102-0.html?threadID=378815&tag=forums06;forum-threads

2. See 1.

3. You wrote about heat but didn't reveal if the laptop got it's yearly cleaning. More at http://forums.cnet.com/5208-19681_102-0.html?messageID=3196452&tag=forums06;posts#3196452
Bob

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Microsoft Update
by rhabdomantist Sep 3, 2010 1:55AM PDT

There is a problem with Microsoft Update that is causing excessive memory usage of wuauclt.exe and svchost.exe. The workaround is to disable Microsoft Updates and use Windows Update only to ensure
you receive security updates for your XP, IE, MSE. Other Microsoft products(Office, Silverligt, etc)requiring supdates will have to be done manually until the issue has been resolved. Discussion of this and more details here,

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistawu/thread/7f401392-268c-4840-a458-8b063fbda084

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I read that and
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Sep 3, 2010 3:04AM PDT

I see where other security software could trigger this issue. Above I noted that I am constantly running into what I call a toxic combination. When I read your reply you call it a Windows Update issue.

Since I've cured it too many times without such a disable. But if that helps, why not? It beats diving into this machine for clues.
Bob

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