100% CPU Usage

G

Guest

Using Process Explorer I determined that one of the following services
running in svchost.exe process is causing constant very high CPU usage:
Audiosrv, Dhcp, Eventlog, lmhosts, and wscsv. I stopped each of the
services except for the Eventlog. Eventlog would not stop because other
running services depend on it. There was no change to the high CPU usage.
Casting caution to the wind I killed the svchost.exe process. I received an
error popup stating "could not open the system event log." My CPU usage
plummeted, applications were responsive, and all was well.

I need advice on how to determine the source of this problem. Where would I
look in the event viewer?

The problem started after I "upgraded" an XP SP2 installation to Vista
Business. Hardware is more than adequate and works very well after killing
the svchost.exe.
 
G

Guest

I'm having the same issue, except it was an upgrade from XP SP2 to Vista Home
Premium.
 
G

Guest

Like Dylan, I have almost the exact same issue. More often than not, the
problem will go away after while. If not, try deleting some major programs
that you usually don't need (i.e. Movie maker, some games, things you really
don't use), De-fragment, and then restart. If that doesn't help, you could
try disabling some programs from starting:

1) Go to RUN
2) Type in MSCONFIG
3) Go to the STARTUP tab
4) Un-check all of the programs you want to disable.
5) Click OK, then restart.

All should go well after this.
 
M

mikeyhsd

how about opening the event logs and trying to see were the reports are ..
might give a hint as to what the problem might be.
have patience, there are LOTS of logs.



(e-mail address removed)



Using Process Explorer I determined that one of the following services
running in svchost.exe process is causing constant very high CPU usage:
Audiosrv, Dhcp, Eventlog, lmhosts, and wscsv. I stopped each of the
services except for the Eventlog. Eventlog would not stop because other
running services depend on it. There was no change to the high CPU usage.
Casting caution to the wind I killed the svchost.exe process. I received an
error popup stating "could not open the system event log." My CPU usage
plummeted, applications were responsive, and all was well.

I need advice on how to determine the source of this problem. Where would I
look in the event viewer?

The problem started after I "upgraded" an XP SP2 installation to Vista
Business. Hardware is more than adequate and works very well after killing
the svchost.exe.
 
G

Guest

I agree the answer is in the logs, but I'm having trouble interpretting them.
Any advice?
 
K

Kerry Brown

Control Panel - System and Maintenance - Performance Information and Tools -
Advanced Tools

On this screen at the top there may be some hints as to what is causing
performance problems. You can also access many tools here to help diagnose
problems.
 
G

Guest

Kerry,

Thanks for the advice. I generated a system health report and was warned
that:

Process svchost.exe [ProcessId: 940] has a high CPU consumption of 77.8%.

I can find no information beyond that included in my initial post. I tried
using the event viewer and filtering all events by process ID (940 in this
case) with no results.

I could do a clean install but would rather solve this problem.

Thanks,
Chris Konrad
---
 
G

Guest

Some progress. After disabling the service "Eventlog" (windows event log)
and rebooting I have normal CPU usage indications. The adventure continues.

Chris Konrad

Wyman said:
Kerry,

Thanks for the advice. I generated a system health report and was warned
that:

Process svchost.exe [ProcessId: 940] has a high CPU consumption of 77.8%.

I can find no information beyond that included in my initial post. I tried
using the event viewer and filtering all events by process ID (940 in this
case) with no results.

I could do a clean install but would rather solve this problem.

Thanks,
Chris Konrad
---

Kerry Brown said:
Control Panel - System and Maintenance - Performance Information and Tools -
Advanced Tools

On this screen at the top there may be some hints as to what is causing
performance problems. You can also access many tools here to help diagnose
problems.
 
G

Guest

Figured out my problem too! It was the damn Linksys WMP11 PCI wireless card.
Uninstalled and replaced it with a WMP54G and the system is screaming fast
(feels like it anyway... =)
 
K

Kerry Brown

Process Explorer is a great help figuring out stuff like this.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/ProcessExplorer.mspx

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca


Wyman said:
Kerry,

Thanks for the advice. I generated a system health report and was warned
that:

Process svchost.exe [ProcessId: 940] has a high CPU consumption of 77.8%.

I can find no information beyond that included in my initial post. I
tried
using the event viewer and filtering all events by process ID (940 in this
case) with no results.

I could do a clean install but would rather solve this problem.

Thanks,
Chris Konrad
---

Kerry Brown said:
Control Panel - System and Maintenance - Performance Information and
Tools -
Advanced Tools

On this screen at the top there may be some hints as to what is causing
performance problems. You can also access many tools here to help
diagnose
problems.
 
G

Guest

I agree. It has been very helpful. At present I can achieve normal CPU
usage by killing the SVCHOST process. Stopping the individual services
within the process (as noted in earlier post) did not have any impact on CPU
load. The only service I could not stop was the windows event log. This
leads me to believe that the event log service is causing the problem.
However, after killing the SVCHOST process I restart the windows event log
and CPU load remains low. I can work around this by preventing the event log
service from starting, but there must be a more elegant solution.

Chris Konrad

Kerry Brown said:
Process Explorer is a great help figuring out stuff like this.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/ProcessExplorer.mspx

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca


Wyman said:
Kerry,

Thanks for the advice. I generated a system health report and was warned
that:

Process svchost.exe [ProcessId: 940] has a high CPU consumption of 77.8%.

I can find no information beyond that included in my initial post. I
tried
using the event viewer and filtering all events by process ID (940 in this
case) with no results.

I could do a clean install but would rather solve this problem.

Thanks,
Chris Konrad
---

Kerry Brown said:
Control Panel - System and Maintenance - Performance Information and
Tools -
Advanced Tools

On this screen at the top there may be some hints as to what is causing
performance problems. You can also access many tools here to help
diagnose
problems.

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca


Using Process Explorer I determined that one of the following services
running in svchost.exe process is causing constant very high CPU usage:
Audiosrv, Dhcp, Eventlog, lmhosts, and wscsv. I stopped each of the
services except for the Eventlog. Eventlog would not stop because
other
running services depend on it. There was no change to the high CPU
usage.
Casting caution to the wind I killed the svchost.exe process. I
received
an
error popup stating "could not open the system event log." My CPU
usage
plummeted, applications were responsive, and all was well.

I need advice on how to determine the source of this problem. Where
would
I
look in the event viewer?

The problem started after I "upgraded" an XP SP2 installation to Vista
Business. Hardware is more than adequate and works very well after
killing
the svchost.exe.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Similar Threads

100% CPU usage 18
See CPU usage for indivitual services? 4
CPU usage spikes 6
100% CPU taken away 5
Need help! Cpu usage at 100% after startup 8
CPU usage 100% 20
CPU Usage? 2
svchost.exe keeps use 100% CPU 3

Top