svchost.exe and/or explorer.exe hogging CPU usage

[Bob Onysko]

New Not only does svchost hog my CPU usage, I occasionally find
explorer also hogging CPU usage. Not as much as svchost - but enough to
make my PC sluggish. During research and help from some of you, I have
found that the svchost problem has been experienced by many - but no one
seems to have a sure fix. I wish there was a way to get Microsoft
involved with this problem. No one I've found to experience the problem
has found any malware on their PC's. The only way I've found around it
is to reboot over and over again until my PC runs normally.

 

[John Coutts]

New Not only does svchost hog my CPU usage, I occasionally find
explorer also hogging CPU usage. Not as much as svchost - but enough to
make my PC sluggish. During research and help from some of you, I have
found that the svchost problem has been experienced by many - but no one
seems to have a sure fix. I wish there was a way to get Microsoft
involved with this problem. No one I've found to experience the problem
has found any malware on their PC's. The only way I've found around it
is to reboot over and over again until my PC runs normally.

*************** REPLY SEPARATER ****************
Explorer.exe is the basically the desktop, and should not hog CPU time (mine
uses 0%). Svchost.exe is a service manager that Microsoft uses to load and
manage DLL (Dynamic Link Library) services. You can have several running, each
of which can manage several related processes.

The second most common cause of sluggish PC's is insufficient disk space. The
operating system sets up an area of disk space that it uses as virtual memory,
and real memory is swapped back and forth to virtual memory according to last
useage. When disk space shrinks, the space allocated to virtual memory also
shrinks, and the OS ends up "disk thrashing".

The most common cause of sluggish PC's is too many processes running. With too
many processes running, the operating system ends up spending too much time
managing the "heap" (shared memory). I have seen systems where the System Tray
occupies the entire bottom line of the task bar. Every process that is auto
loaded consumes resources, and 95% of them do not need to be running all the
time. If your PC takes an extended period of time to boot, then there are too
many processes being auto loaded. The Task Manager shows most (but not all) of
the processes that are currently running. My own system shows only a single
page of processes and 99% of CPU time relagated to the System Idle Process. For
a more complete view of the running processes, you need to use something like
the Microsoft command line program "tasklist.exe".

Without being able to ananlyze your particular machine, it is difficult to say
what the actual problem is, but I would venture a guess that it is badly in
need of a cleanup. If possible, wipe the disk and reload the operating system.
Then shut down all unnecessary processes (see
http://www.yellowhead.com/xpcfg1.htm for more detail). If reinstallation is not
possible, then you can attempt to "clean-up" what it already there, but it will
never be as good as a clean installation. You will for example still have a
bloated registry from all the programs that did not competely uninstall.

J.A. Coutts

 

[Dustin]

possible, then you can attempt to "clean-up" what it already there, but it will
never be as good as a clean installation. You will for example still have a
bloated registry from all the programs that did not competely uninstall.

With regard to the bloated registry, a program known as ntregopt (by the
creator of erunt) does a fine job of removing the bloat; by deleting the
invalid keys and rebuilding the registry files on the fly for you.

With regard to a clean install, that's fine and dandy, but the user will
most likely reinstall whatever software he previously had, and this
might very well reproduce the original problem. A clean install
shouldn't be necessary unless the box is seriously screwed.

It would be better to train the user on safer surfing habits, and how to
keep unnecessary services, startup applications from running. Wouldn't
you agree?

--
Dustin Cook
Author of BugHunter - MalWare Removal Tool
Version 1.9.2 Released August 15th, 2006
Last Pattern Update: September 1st, 2006
http://bughunter.it-mate.co.uk

 

[John Coutts]

With regard to the bloated registry, a program known as ntregopt (by the
creator of erunt) does a fine job of removing the bloat; by deleting the
invalid keys and rebuilding the registry files on the fly for you.

With regard to a clean install, that's fine and dandy, but the user will
most likely reinstall whatever software he previously had, and this
might very well reproduce the original problem. A clean install
shouldn't be necessary unless the box is seriously screwed.

It would be better to train the user on safer surfing habits, and how to
keep unnecessary services, startup applications from running. Wouldn't
you agree?

************** REPLY SEPARATER **************
Whole heartedly, but something akin to mission impossible for some people. I
have cleaned up the same machine several times on numerous occassions. If you
can get the user to clean up a new install, the odds are pretty good that they
will continue to maintain that installation in a responsible manner. If the
user is hell bent on using Outhouse Excuse and IE, then the odds are that they
are untrainable.

 

[Art]

If the
user is hell bent on using Outhouse Excuse and IE, then the odds are that they
are untrainable.

Time for a intelligent academic discussion on correct terminology.
It's Outlook Depressed and Ignoramus Excuse!!!

While I've never used OE, I've found myself using IE from time
to time as a alternate browser. The Internet Zone is always at
highest security, and I have a few Trusted Sites zones with
low security setting. This business of flipping between Firefox,
K-Meleon, Opera, and IE has now become such a routine habit
that I hardly mind it any more. The browsers all have their
particular quirks, strengths, and weaknessness in the current
nutty climate of "this site works better with ... " sort of crap.
Maybe someday things will get better but I swear it seems
to me they are getting worse rather than better right now.

Anyway, it's so damn easy to avoid problems while surfing
that it blows my mind that people can't seem to get the
hang of it. Protection has nothing whatsoever to do with
any kind of software "protection" and everything to do with
following a few simple rules. You can visit any site you wish
and have absolute freedom of surfing. My issues are not
malware related at all ... they are strictly annoyance issues
with so many poorly designed sites.

Art
http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg

 

[Nisko]

*************** REPLY SEPARATER ****************
Explorer.exe is the basically the desktop, and should not hog CPU time (mine
uses 0%). Svchost.exe is a service manager that Microsoft uses to load and
manage DLL (Dynamic Link Library) services. You can have several running, each
of which can manage several related processes.

The second most common cause of sluggish PC's is insufficient disk space. The
operating system sets up an area of disk space that it uses as virtual memory,
and real memory is swapped back and forth to virtual memory according to last
useage. When disk space shrinks, the space allocated to virtual memory also
shrinks, and the OS ends up "disk thrashing".

The most common cause of sluggish PC's is too many processes running. With too
many processes running, the operating system ends up spending too much time
managing the "heap" (shared memory). I have seen systems where the System Tray
occupies the entire bottom line of the task bar. Every process that is auto
loaded consumes resources, and 95% of them do not need to be running all the
time. If your PC takes an extended period of time to boot, then there are too
many processes being auto loaded. The Task Manager shows most (but not all) of
the processes that are currently running. My own system shows only a single
page of processes and 99% of CPU time relagated to the System Idle Process. For
a more complete view of the running processes, you need to use something like
the Microsoft command line program "tasklist.exe".

Without being able to ananlyze your particular machine, it is difficult to say
what the actual problem is, but I would venture a guess that it is badly in
need of a cleanup. If possible, wipe the disk and reload the operating system.
Then shut down all unnecessary processes (see
http://www.yellowhead.com/xpcfg1.htm for more detail). If reinstallation is not
possible, then you can attempt to "clean-up" what it already there, but it will
never be as good as a clean installation. You will for example still have a
bloated registry from all the programs that did not competely uninstall.

J.A. Coutts

Thanks - I've zeroed in on the same thing. However, the problem
doesn't happen every time I boot - only MOST of the time. Something
seems like it's getting caught in a "Do Loop" during boot. I'm
cutting out the startup apps one at a time to see if I can catch the
culprit. Any other suggestions? Thanks.......

 

[Nisko]

I'm with YOU!!!

With regard to the bloated registry, a program known as ntregopt (by the
creator of erunt) does a fine job of removing the bloat; by deleting the
invalid keys and rebuilding the registry files on the fly for you.

With regard to a clean install, that's fine and dandy, but the user will
most likely reinstall whatever software he previously had, and this
might very well reproduce the original problem. A clean install
shouldn't be necessary unless the box is seriously screwed.

It would be better to train the user on safer surfing habits, and how to
keep unnecessary services, startup applications from running. Wouldn't
you agree?