svchost.exe...My PC is Slow

G

Guest

Running WindowsXP; SP2, P4 1.8, 768RAM....

I have not been please with the speed of my PC on and off the Internet.
Looking at Task Mgr...I have under Processes....6 of the same Image Name
programs running....."svchost.exe". It it normal to have 6 of the same
program running? As I watch my CPU usage.....even at idle....I see it go all
the way to 100%. While watching the Process list I see one of the svchost
useage increase to as high as 99%. With CPU useage at 100% that would
certainly impact the speed of my PC.

Is there a way to improve my speed and utilize CPU usage less to allow my PC
to load and surf the Internet with increased speed?

I have gone out to msconfig and unchecked all programs in
ini.startup.....and I have no programs in my Startup Folder but I have a
total of 37 programs running.......
 
J

Jim

denmarfl said:
Running WindowsXP; SP2, P4 1.8, 768RAM....

I have not been please with the speed of my PC on and off the Internet.
Looking at Task Mgr...I have under Processes....6 of the same Image Name
programs running....."svchost.exe". It it normal to have 6 of the same
program running? As I watch my CPU usage.....even at idle....I see it go
all
the way to 100%. While watching the Process list I see one of the svchost
useage increase to as high as 99%. With CPU useage at 100% that would
certainly impact the speed of my PC.

Is there a way to improve my speed and utilize CPU usage less to allow my
PC
to load and surf the Internet with increased speed?

I have gone out to msconfig and unchecked all programs in
ini.startup.....and I have no programs in my Startup Folder but I have a
total of 37 programs running.......
Click to expand...

It is normal to have 6 (or more) processes running svchost.exe. It is
normal to have more that 37 processes running (more precisely, elligible to
run). In fact, there are
67 running on this laptop). It looks to me like you have done all that can
be done to improve the speed of you computer. 768 mb of RAM ought to be
enough, but a 1.8 mhz processor is a bit on the slow side. Another item
that wll impact the performance is the rotational speed of the disks and the
amount of cache memory that resides on the drives.

Jim
 
J

JS

From Ramesh's web site: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/svchost.htm
Also: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314056

To find out more about Svchost.exe entries try Process Explorer:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/SystemInformation/ProcessExplorer.mspx

Once you have Process Explorer installed and running:
In the taskbar select View and check 'Show Process Tree' and 'Show Lower
Pane' options.
(This will provide some of the detailed info you may need)
Expand the Process tree until 'Services.exe' has been expanded.
Next move the mouse cursor over the Svchost.exe process that you are
interested in.
Or expand the Svchost entry if you see a + sign to the left of Svchost
entry.
(You should now see a pop up with a list of services associated with the
Svchost.exe you chose)
Next double click on the Svchost.exe process that you are interested in.
The 'Properties' Window should now be displayed with numerous tabs
available.

JS
 
G

Gerry

What are your anti-virus and anti-spyware arrangements?

You need to identify which application is generating excessive use
of svchost.exe. Process Explorer provides more information than Task
Manager.

Download Process Explorer.

For further information about Process Explorer see here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/SystemInformation/ProcessExplorer.mspx

To ascertain which service is causing the problem select the svchost
producing the high CPU usage, right click, select Properties,
Services. Note there are the full names and some explanation of what
each service does.

You will find further information on Services here:
http://majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=12

To trace the particular Service involved you need to turn off each
service in turn and then restore it noting what effect it has on CPU
usage. However, you need to take care and watch what other Services
are dependent on that service. When you click on the Dependencies
tab allow it a little time to display the information.

It would be helpful if you could post the Command Line of the svchost
process generating the excessive CPU usage. In Process Explorer place
cursor on Process and select Properties, Image.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
G

Guest

Downloaded Proces Explorer...."SHOW PROCESS TREE" is Gray/inactive so I could
not select it. Looking at the list I do see the majority of what is running
is Microsoft and Symantec.

Any time I install something on my PC I always like to know how to remove
it. ProcessExplorer is Not in the ADD/REMOVE list, nor is it in the Program
List. How do you Uninstall Process Explorer?
 
G

Gerry

It would be helpful if you could post the Command Line of the svchost
process generating the excessive CPU usage. In Process Explorer place
cursor on Process and select Properties, Image.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
J

JS

Process Explorer is a stand alone executable (.exe) file, it needs no
install or un-install procedure, which is normal and why it's not in the
Add/Remove list.

JS
 
G

Guest

A svchost.exe may be hosting one or perhaps many services, but it only takes
one runaway service in a svchost.exe to send the CPU to 100%. You can use
tools included in Windows XP to find out the list of services that a runaway
svchost.exe is hosting. Please try the following:

[0] Configure Task manager to show the process id column, and note the
process id of the svchost.exe that is using 100% or the CPU.

[1] Open a command window, and run the following command to get a list of
all processes running, including the names of services hosted by each
svchost.exe:
tasklist /svc

[2] Scan this list and find the schost.exe that matches the PID you noted in
step [0]. Now note the name(s) of the service(s) being hosted by this
svchost.exe.

[3] If you recognise the name of the service as something that you have
installed, then you can deal with it by either setting the service to manual
start (meaning it won't start until you tell it to) and rebooting, or perhaps
uninstalling/re-installing the service. You can configure a service for
manual start by using the services snap-in. (Run services.msc from the
command line.)

[4] If you do not recognise the service, then you can post back here with
the details. It may be a Windows service, so you may or may not want to set
it to manual start.

Regards,

Patrick
 
J

JS

Just go to the folder where you extracted the three process explorer files
(Eula.txt, proexp.chm and procexp.exe) and delete these files, or if you
created a folder just for Process Explorer and "no other applications are
located in that folder" delete that folder.

Keep in mind that Process Explorer is as I mentioned a 'stand alone
executable' and therefore it does no harm to keep them just in case you want
to use the tool again.

JS
 
J

JS

Also note that the 'Show Process Tree' option will by default will be grayed
out until you for example sort on the 'CPU History' column, then you find
the highest CPU usage process located at the top (typically the System Idle
Process on most systems or in your case the process that is slowing down the
PC) and the 'Show Process Tree' option will now be active.

JS
 

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