# Svchost.exe consuming 75% and more all the time



## Captain Howdy (Apr 17, 2011)

Can't recall how to spell that svc/scvhost.exe thing, but its consuming an extreme amount of My mates laptop, it's running vista and apparently windows updated recently. didn't happen veggie update, can't kill processing tree either, help :c?


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## Jashwa (Apr 17, 2011)

It was doing that to me as well, but it went away after a while. I don't recall what it was doing that was making it take up so much CPU.


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## Bobskunk (Apr 17, 2011)

Since SVCHost runs another program as a service, it is a little hard to tell what is _actually_ taking up all that CPU, since SVCHost by itself does not.  Hell, many of the essential windows workings run on a single instance of svchost.

In task manager, in the view menu, select "select columns."  Turn on Process ID/PID, should be the first one.

Then, in a command prompt, type "tasklist /SVC".  Match up the process ID that's taking all your memory to the process ID in that list.  Depending on what it actually is will define how things go from there.


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## Cain (Apr 18, 2011)

Get this program: http://game-booster.en.softonic.com/ i've got the premium version, and fuck it helps alot considering I have a crap PC, the free version is great too!


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## ArielMT (Apr 18, 2011)

It's been a long time, but I've seen this happen when Microsoft Security Essentials is installed.

Complimenting Bobskunk's suggestions above, you could try SysInternals Process Explorer to get a picture of what's running better than Windows Task Manager can show.


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## Garfang (Apr 18, 2011)

hm.. yeah it used to happent on XP and Vista... no in Windows 7  Does restarting your Computer Helps? just try to end tank one of them if there are more than one.


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## CyberFoxx (Apr 18, 2011)

Stupid question... But 75% of what? Memory? CPU? Meatloafs? Saying exactly what it's "consuming" would help in diagnosing the problem.


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## Runefox (Apr 18, 2011)

One utility I LOVE for this kind of thing is Prio. It integrates into Task Manager and gives it a bunch of extra functionality (saving priority/affinity, showing live netstat info in a tab, highlighting signed/unsigned processes, etc). With Prio, hovering over an svchost gives you a list of the services running inside it (right-clicking gives you the option to jump directly to a service inside the svchost in the Services tab where you can start/stop services). Using that, you can try stopping whatever services are in there and seeing if it makes a difference (_stopping_ services USUALLY doesn't cause problems so long as you don't disable them outright).

Basically, Prio makes Task Manager super useful.


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## Jashwa (Apr 18, 2011)

CyberFoxx said:


> Stupid question... But 75% of what? Memory? CPU? Meatloafs? Saying exactly what it's "consuming" would help in diagnosing the problem.


 I'm almost positive that he's talking CPU. I don't think I've ever heard of svchost taking up that much memory.


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## Captain Howdy (Apr 18, 2011)

Thanks for all the tips guys, trying to save him a trip to a tech group that'll charge him 50 bucks to go "Derp derp done". :v He's trying the stuff out, but he's a work friend, so I don't have access to him directly to see how things are going >c


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## SnowFox (Apr 18, 2011)

When this used to happen to me, it was always the windows update service causing it... If that helps.


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## Captain Howdy (Apr 18, 2011)

SnowFox said:


> When this used to happen to me, it was always the windows update service causing it... If that helps.


 
This is AFTER windows updating as mentioned in the OP.


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## LizardKing (Apr 19, 2011)

Runefox said:


> One utility I LOVE for this kind of thing is Prio. It integrates into Task Manager and gives it a bunch of extra functionality (saving priority/affinity, showing live netstat info in a tab, highlighting signed/unsigned processes, etc)...


 
That thing is fucking awesome.

Downloading that like a boss.


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