[Nighteyes]

Sometimes randomly (I haven't been able to figure out a pattern yet) my computer gets really slow, and I check the task manager to find out why.. the process svchost.exe uses 80-100% in the CPU column.

This has gone on for a while and I usually just end the process and everything seems normal, but since I've had luck with this forum I decided to ask for help .

So is there a way to fix this? Or should I just keep ending it?

[5tevef]

When is the last time you checked for spyware? If you need software I recommend Spybot Search and Destroy and also Adaware personal edition. Be very careful of the choices you make when downloading antispy software as some aren't so anti.

[Nighteyes]

I check it a lot, I have Spybot Search and Destroy but I'll get Adaware to try that too.

I noticed svchost.exe takes up so much memory when Windows Defender is trying to update, or I'm just regularly updating on microsoft.com.

[Frank4d]

Svchost.exe is a process that runs services. Multiple services can be run by each instance of svchost.exe and there are multiple instances of svchost.exe running, so Task Manager isn't very helpful.

You can use Process Explorer: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896653.aspx which is like Task Manager on steroids. It will display a tree view of running processes, and within svchost.exe what services are being run. You can sort by CPU usage and it can be configured to show which service being run by svchost.exe is using the CPU time.

[Nighteyes]

The Process Explorer identified it as the svchost.exe with a PID of 1072.

Services listed are:
-Automatic updates [wuauserv]
-Background Intelligent Transfer Service [BITS]
-COM+ Event System [EventSystem]
-Cryptographic Services [CryptSvc]
-DHCP Client [Dhcp]
-Logical Disk Manager [dmserver]
-Network Connections [Netman]
-Network Location Awareness (NLA) [Nla]
-Remote Access Connection Manager [RasMan]
-Security Center [wscvc]
-Shell Hardware Detection [ShellHWDetection]
-System Event Notification [SENS]
-System Restore Service [srservice]
-Task Scheduler [Schedule]
-Telephony [TapiSrv]
-Themes [Themes]
-Windows Audio [AudioSrv]
-Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) [SharedAccess]
-Windows Management Instrumentation [winmgmt]
-Windows Time [W32Time]
-Wireless Zero Configuration [WZCSVC]
-Workstation [lanmanworkstation]

Wow that took a long time to type up... hope it helps someone help me figure out what to do .

I'll try to figure out specifically which service under this svchost.exe is using all the CPU, hopefully I can.

[Frank4d]

Double clicking the svchost.exe that is causing the problem will open another window. Click the "Threads" tab. The second column from the left is CPU usage for the services being run by that instance of svchost.exe.

Automatic updates causes high CPU use on a lot of systems.

[Nighteyes]

Thanks for helping me figure out which one it was .

The process is wuaueng.dll!DllInstall+0x1c0d0. Svchost.exe hasn't always used 99% of the CPU before, is there a way to make it use less? Even updating by going to the site takes forever now.. did I do something wrong and make updating harder for my computer?

Can I fix it? Or just end the process whenever I'm not updating, and not do anything when I want to update?

[Frank4d]

This may help: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927891/
Note, you need to download and install two files (listed under step 1 and step 2).

[Nighteyes]

The first download said it wasn't needed since my Service Pack is higher than the update or something, so it closed.

The second download said it wasn't needed since the windows update service was already installed.

But I'll read these articles on svchost and try to make it work better, thanks .