svchost.exe - extremely high CPU usage and endless...

[Travis King]

Just installed XP (with SP2) on a 400MHz AMD K6 Compaq 5340 for someone last
night. (It had XP on it a few years ago when my grandma had it, and it
worked okay then but a little slow. My grandma got rid of it and someone I
know still has a computer with Windows 95 and a 100MHz processor, so I told
her she could use this Compaq as I know it's run XP before.) It was running
pretty good until this morning when I turned it on. I added a network card
this morning, and it has been slow ever since. After the computer has been
on for a few minutes and everything has loaded, svchost.exe will eat 100% of
the CPU and is very relentless and won't quit. It will eat 100% of the CPU
endlessly. Task manager and most programs will not open at all when this
happens. About the only thing that seems to work is the explorer, but it
works extremely slow. The only way I knew it was svchost that was eating
100% of the CPU usage was I opened task manager before it began eating the
CPU up. Any ideas to why this svchost is doing that? It is only one
svchost that's doing this, the several other svchost's are at 0% usage. The
Compaq's got 220MB of RAM and a 4.3GB hard drive that's still over half
free. If I 'end task' to this svchost, the computer will begin to behave a
little strangely and some but not all of Luna will disappear. The taskbar
will look like the classic, but the rest is Luna, including open windows. I
have not activated XP yet as I want to make sure everything is in place
before doing so. Help... Please... Please...

Software installed (not very much):
Avast! Antivirus 4.7
Microsft Office 2000 Small Business (Installed Word & Excel only)
Lavasoft AdAware SE Personal
Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.1 (as version 6 & 7 are very slow, so I wouldn't dare
put it on this computer.)

 

[JS]

Sounds like your PC is now trying to do a Network discovery to see what on
the network. What's your NIC card connected to?

JS

 

[Travis King]

The network card is in a PCI slot and is connected to a router with two
other computers (One with XP SP2 and one with Windows XP SP2 & Vista Beta 2
Build 5384) which is then connected to the cable modem. The Internet is
working the Compaq and has already had a few Windows updates as well as A/V
definition updates.

 

[Travis King]

I made a slight typo. *The Internet is working on the Compaq.* And to make
it just a bit clearer, three computers total are connected to a router, and
the router is connected to the cable modem.

 

[Travis King]

Came back to that computer an hour later and the task manager was on the
screen. svchost.exe was not eating the CPU up, but then again, I
disconnected the network cable. We'll see how it cooperates now. By the
way, some more Windows updates are rolling in.

 

[Chuck Davis]

Travis,

Check the spelling of svchost.exe very closely. If the "svc" is really
"scv," is is probably the scvhost.exe which is well known trojan.

If it is scvhost, try this McAfee AVERT Stinger download from
http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/

Good luck.

 

[Travis King]

Nope, it's svchost.exe.

Travis,

Check the spelling of svchost.exe very closely. If the "svc" is really
"scv," is is probably the scvhost.exe which is well known trojan.

If it is scvhost, try this McAfee AVERT Stinger download from
http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/

Good luck.

 

[Travis King]

Also the Windows Update download is stuck at 3%. update.exe is using 80% of
the CPU at the moment... If this mess keeps up much longer, I might try
reformatting and reinstalling XP again.

 

[Travis King]

I'm going to go ahead and reinstall XP. Maybe if I get really lucky, it
will work. (Ha!)

 

[JS]

Why not remove the NIC card and see what happens. Then you can do the
re-install if needed.

JS

 

[Armand Hammer]

Its Windows XP sending personal information to M$ headquarters.

 

[Travis King]

I'm also going to install Norton grudgingly instead of Avast because it
seemed like a lot of the 'ash' things in the task manager, especially
'ashserver' and avast.setup kept gobbling up the CPU as well.

 

[Travis King]

Well, if the odd behavior continues, I will, but provided that it was a
good, working system pull from a computer that the only reason it was pulled
was because the new motherboard had a built-in network adapter, I don't know
for sure. I guess we'll just find out...

 

[JS]

If it's the latest version of Norton be prepared for a big slowdown. I'd
hold off until you a have solved the other issue.

JS

 

[Travis King]

It's not... It's 2003. Well, XP is reinstalled and svchost is still maxing
out the CPU right after installation, but I was able to get into the task
manager and the device manager opened with some time. I disabled the
network card, and after a few seconds, svchost dropped down to 0%. I guess
I'll try another NIC card and see what happens. If it still misbehaves, I
guess it's just not going to like network cards. It's funny though how on
even an older Compaq that has a network card with XP, it behaves okay, so
maybe it is just the NIC card. I'll go ahead and try a different NIC card
since I have two spares.

 

[Travis King]

Well, I put in the other NIC card and the svchost still was at 100%, *but*
after a few seconds, it backed off and stayed that way, so my guess would be
that the issue has been fixed.

 

[kirk.mccann]

Turn off the windows update service and it will stop.
I am having this issue also. Its in another thread.
Kirk