[alex.forencich]

svchost.exe is the windows host process for system services. I have a new Dell Inspiron E1705 notebook computer (2GB RAM, Core 2 Duo Processor, internal Wi-Fi card). Two svchost processes are showing a rather odd pattern in processor useage. I set the affinity of both processes to Core1. The processor useage graph shows very regular peaks in the processor utilization of Core1. The processes seem to spike to 100% CPU for about 1 second every 10 seconds. They idle at (I'm pretty sure) less than 1%. I read on another forum that the 1 second/10 second spikes could be caused by 3rd party wifi drivers, but I can't find anything obvious. It is a new laptop after all, and I haven't installed any extra wifi drivers. Turning the card off does nothing. tasklist /SVC /FI "IMAGENAME eq svchost.exe" returns the following:

Image Name                     PID Services
========================= ======== ===========================================
svchost.exe                    900 DcomLaunch, PlugPlay
svchost.exe                    960 RpcSs
svchost.exe                   1112 Audiosrv, Dhcp, Eventlog, lmhosts, wscsvc
svchost.exe                   1144 AudioEndpointBuilder, EMDMgmt, hidserv,
                                   Netman, PcaSvc, SysMain, TrkWks, UxSms,
                                   WdiSystemHost, Wlansvc, WPDBusEnum, wudfsvc
svchost.exe                   1172 AeLookupSvc, Appinfo, BITS, Browser,
                                   EapHost, gpsvc, IKEEXT, iphlpsvc,
                                   LanmanServer, MMCSS, ProfSvc, RasMan,
                                   Schedule, seclogon, SENS, ShellHWDetection,
                                   Themes, Winmgmt, wuauserv
svchost.exe                   1380 EventSystem, fdPHost, FDResPub,
                                   LanmanWorkstation, netprofm, nsi, SSDPSRV,
                                   upnphost, W32Time, WebClient,
                                   WinHttpAutoProxySvc
svchost.exe                   1520 CryptSvc, Dnscache, KtmRm, NlaSvc, TapiSrv,
                                   TermService
svchost.exe                   1788 BFE, DPS, MpsSvc
svchost.exe                   2840 BthServ
svchost.exe                   4060 PolicyAgent
svchost.exe                   4872 stisvc
svchost.exe                   5440 WerSvc
svchost.exe                    956 swprv

PIDs 900 and 1144 (in this instance) are the offending processes. Either of DcomLaunch and PlugPlay could be the problem; neither are stoppable for diagnostic purposes. Out of the other services, AudioEndpointBuilder, EMDMgmt, Netman, TrkWks, WdiSystemHost, Wlansvc, and WPDBusEnum were stopped to no effect. I could not stop wudfsvc. hidserv and UxSms were not stopped because they looked like they could affect the usability of the computer. Any ideas on what might be causing this odd behavior? Any possible solutions? This is only a problem because it uses 100% of my CPU. A workaround might be to write a script that identifies these processes and drops the priority to background, but I would rather not have to do that.

[Rollin' Rog]

Install Process Explorer and right click on each of those svchost entries and select "properties"

Look at the "threads" tab and click the cpu column to order the processes according to it.

You should be able to find which thread is spiking and associate it with a service.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sys...sExplorer.mspx

[alex.forencich]

They all appear to be threads related to RPCRT4.DLL.

[Rollin' Rog]

Possibly associated with email checking and scanning remotely -- if you have something like that going. It's a required MS dll and really has many uses -- but this is one of the most common.

You might try doing a "clean boot" and seeing if the problem still exists:

Run msconfig and select the "Services" tab. Check "Hide Microsoft Services" and then disable the rest. Also uncheck "load startup group" on the general page.

See this link for detailed information:


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

Now restart and test the issue at hand

If no problems, run msconfig and recheck half the disabled items on the Services tab. Test again. If the problem recurs, UNcheck half the items you just checked to narrow down the culprit.

If the problem didn't occur, check the other half, so all the Services are enabled -- proceed to do this on the startup tab as well.

Get the idea? You want to isolate the problem to a specific startup if possible.

Note: if you already have items unchecked under msconfig > startups and are in “selective” startup mode – you should note what these are before beginning. They will need to be de-selected again.

[alex.forencich]

I figured out what the problem is: VMWare virtual network adaptors. The problem disappeared after disabling both of the virtual adaptors.

Thanks for the suggestion, even though I didn't get a chance to try it - I didn't get an email reply notification for some reason.

[Rollin' Rog]

Great -- feel free to mark the thread "Solved" using the Thread Tools menu here since all is well.

You're certainly welcome for any help.

[petri816]

I was just wondering what exactly you did... i'm having a similiar problem...

[jhausmann]

On my machine it was slightly different, but related.

I had lost sound and every time I re-installed the audio drivers, the sound would last until the next re-boot. Additionally, one process continually grabbed 40-60% of my dual cores (watching a usage monitor, it was all peaks and valleys). I figured I had a worm/virus but I was wrong.

After loading process explorer, I determined that the one process was using DHCP, WSCSVC and Eventlog, although there weren't entries being written to any logs) I tried shutting off all non-Microsoft services but the problem remained. So, I took a look at the Microsoft services. Two services were stopped that I expected to be running (set to disabled), Windows Audio and Windows Audio Endpoint builder. I started them up and, after a quick re-start, I noticed, in Process Manager, that Audiosrv now had joined the 3 problem services all belonging to Audiodg.exe (wasn't displayed before this). Even better my cpu usage has flatlined at about 4%.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

[IvanH]

My notebook running Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 has the same problem with svchost.exe pointing to the DComLaunch and PlugPlay services, as displayed by the process explorer. This svchost.exe uses up to 60% of my dual-core.

I couldn't stop the DComLaunch and PlugPlay services.

The problem started a few days ago when I installed the HP PhotoSmart All-In-One Printer software.

Somebody told me to disable the "Enhancement" from "Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Manage audio devices > Speakers under Playback tab > Properties". But there is no "Enhancement" in the Speakers Properties where the controller is SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD inside the Asus A8Jr. I am already using the latest sound driver, according to Asus website.

What can I do?