svchost.exe is driving me crazy!

Pretty much every day svchost.exe runs at around 50% cpu for 30 minutes or so then settles back down. I have checked by doing a google search and found nothing that helped. I have KIS 2010 and checked their forum but found nothing there either. Apparently the main suspect is either DcomLaunch or Plug and Play and I have no idea what the deal is with them. This started a couple weeks back when I did a Windows Update and installed KIS 2010 about the same time. So I don't know which, if either, of those is causing the problem.

Any ideas?

 

Though this is not a solution to your problem, but if you download and install Prio, and then in the task manager hold your mouse on the problematic svchost.exe, it will tell you the services hosted by that particular svchost. It is a good way to narrow down which service is actually causing the CPU load.

Edit: Oops! It seems that you already know which service is causing the problem.

 

That's a Odd one. Honestly the only thing I can think it could be is maybe a Bad install of a Windows update or KIS conflicting somewhere on the system. (sense you stated it was after those two things were installed) You can simply uninstall the Windows update and redownload them if you remember the date it was on. Also you might try uninstalling KIS see if the problem goes away if so then at least you will know where to start.

 

You may want to try bitsum processlasso :
http://www.bitsum.com/prolasso.php

It will give you more details on which service causes that (probably Windows Update) and dynamically adjust priorities so as to minimize the impact on your system.

 

Does this work with Win 7?

 

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll give them a look.

 

With Win 7 you can right click the process in Task Manager and select "Go to Service(s)"

 

I know that but the "Silent Elevation" option got my attention. I installed it but so far the only "Silent Elevation" that's worked is the one for Task Manager. With it set, Task Manager opens up with all processes being shown without the UAC prompt. I also like the tooltip for viewing the processes without having to Go to Services. The Tcp/Ip tab has some useful info as well. I think I'm going to test it for a day or so before rolling back

 

I have 32-bit Vista so I can not say about windows 7. It most likely should work with windows 7, as win 7 is almost a 'tweaked-Vista' under the hood. Keep in mind that Microsoft made changes to the UAC in windows 7 and that might be different than Vista's.

I typically use Prio for assigning priorities to specific programs and have never played with the "silent elevation" option.

 

Process Lasso from Bitsum is indicated as Win7 compatible.

 

I paused the KIS protection but that seemed to have no effect from the svchost.exe memory issue from starting up again. I also uninstalled most of my Vista MS updates- back to 11-10-09. One problem I have come across is that two updates will not uninstall. Those are the Office 2007 SP2 from 11-10-09 and 2007 Office Update KB967642 from 11-10-09.

Is there any way to forcibly uninstall these updates? Or should I be looking at some other cause of the svchost.exe issue?

thanks for those who helped.

 

I had similar prob with XP, I had it for over two months and then suddenly gone.

 

Try http://www.neuber.com/free/svchost-analyzer/

Doesn't require installation and hassles. Not sure it's Win 7 compatible, but works with 64 bit.

 

I read something once about an incompatibility with CA Internet Security Suite, caused by a CA update (Computer Associates).

Also, some reported that this problems comes after installing windows live messenger (did you do that recently). Bad news is that there was no solution at the time.

 

Are you using MVPS HOSTS?

If so disable DNS service.

 

Don't have MVP Hosts but have updated MS Messenger lately. I think the svchost.exe problem pre-dated the MS Messenger update.

I'll see how things go after uninstalling all the updates thus far. I suspect that the updates that were unable to be uninstalled might be the culprits.

 

will def give this a look
thanks

 

Here are the pics from running the SvchostAnalyzer. I ran it during an episode of svchost running at 50%. The svchost that had the high cpu did not show anything unusual pursuant to the analyzer though. Can anyone decipher these pics?

 

I don't see the CPU usage of all these svchost... If you use process lasso from bitsum you may get this info.

 

I deleted the past few MS updates (that allowed me to delete) and that seems to have solved the svchost.exe issues. Also I notice now that some programs that open my documents (pdf, paint, etc) open much faster now. I previously thought that was just a side effect of Kaspersky.

Did I happen to get a bad update previously? Patch Tuesday is coming up and I will have updates from the last 2 Patch Tuesday's offered. Not sure if I want to update at this point or not or just pick and choose the critical updates.