Services.exe spikes to 100% cpu

[Craig]

[Win2k Sp4, updates current as of 13 Sep 07...p4 2.8GHz, 1GB RAM]

Howdy;

Can anyone point me in the right direction to resolving this? Articles
I've found on MSDN and past postings here refer to a fix...from a couple
of years ago yet my system's up-to-date. Any leads would be
appreciated. Details below are gleaned from Process Explorer v10.06.

thx,
-Craig

About every 30 minutes, services.exe spikes to 100% of cpu. The thread
is listed as services.exe+0x85f7 and is initiating a UDP session w/a
local address of "clientname:bootpc." The spikes last about 30 seconds
apiece.

This is on a LAN with 3 (DHCP) Windows clients, a (fixed IP) NAS and two
(fixed IP) networked printers.

Services registered to services.exe are:

Dhcp
dmserver
Dnscache
Eventlog
lanmanserver
lanmanworkstation
PlugPlay
ProtectedStorage
Wmi

 

[Craig]

During a Spybot Search & Destroy v1.5 install, the script also installed
Spybot's own HOSTS file (can't remember if it was a user-selectable
option).

At 175KB and over 6,300 lines the Spybot HOSTS file caused my dnscache
client to time out repeatedly but not before sucking out ever last ounce
of my cpu's strength. It was the events log that really helped me zero
in on the problem...

Btw, I could've also solved this apparently by disabling the dnscache
client instead <http://support.microsoft.com/kb/245437/EN-US/> and then
re-enabling the HOSTS file. If anyone's read this far and has an
opinion as to which represents a better security profile, please chime in.

-Craig