CPU Usage 100% - svchost.exe

chrismox · 23 Aug 2009 at 15:26

My netbook has recently become extremely sluggish and a quick look at task manager suggests that svchost is the culprit, frequently sending the CPU usage up to 100%.

It seems to be a network service that is causing the problem - the related services appear to be:

CryptSvc
Dnscache
KtmRm
NlaSvc
TapiSrv
TermService

Any ideas why this might be?

Thanks.

(not at 100% in pic but you get the point)

Mattus · 23 Aug 2009 at 16:53

Perhaps disable the services one by one - then you'd know for sure which one it was?

ChileanLlama · 23 Aug 2009 at 16:59

Use Process Explorer to understand what is calling svchost

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb795533.aspx

Also, in Task Manager, processes you can add a column to show the PID. If you check the Services tab and find the corresponding PID it will give you an idea of what programs/services are running in that instance of svchost.

The Process Explorer is probably an easier way though

chrismox · 23 Aug 2009 at 19:05

Thanks for the tips.

I'd researched each of the associated services and they all seemed legit and fairly essential so was unsure about turning them off.

Will give it a go though, ta.

chrismox · 27 Aug 2009 at 11:52

Well I never managed to solve this - I tried removing the services 1 by 1 but went for a re-format instead which did the job.

Thanks anyway.

Sirius · 27 Aug 2009 at 15:29

Good little tool for future reference is svchost viewer - http://www.codeplex.com/svchostviewer

"Ever wondered what all those svchost.exe files are running ?? well here is an app
to tell you, gives you some basic information like the Name, Description and the
program path."

I use this on my NC10 & desktop along with Process Explorer to kill the niggles

IAmATeaf · 27 Aug 2009 at 15:36

Sirius said:
Good little tool for future reference is svchost viewer - http://www.codeplex.com/svchostviewer

"Ever wondered what all those svchost.exe files are running ?? well here is an app
to tell you, gives you some basic information like the Name, Description and the
program path."

I use this on my NC10 & desktop along with Process Explorer to kill the niggles

Good little util there, having a play around with it at the mo, thanks

Happy · 27 Aug 2009 at 18:46

I used to get this back when I used XP, so glad those times are over

modo77 · 28 Aug 2009 at 02:10

Seen windows update cause that a few times

bledd · 28 Aug 2009 at 08:12

modo77 said:
Seen windows update cause that a few times

this

it's a weird issue to do with Windows Update's Automatic Updates service.

if you use process explorer, then hover on the svchost.exe that has high CPU usage, it'll tell you this. (there are multiple svchosts exe's running)

iirc, the problem is that your machine has too many CAT files on it and when Windows Update scans through them, it starts looping and eats all your CPU.

I've only seen XP SP2 machines suffer from the problem personally, and on newer (faster) machines, you don't notice the problem

a quick and dirty fix is disable automatic updates, and the service.

edit, I see that's Vista running, I'd try updating the Network card drivers, did you have any 3rd party apps besides Kaspersky running that could have affected it?