Sorry if I seem to have a lot of promblems but I need help again. Occasionally when my computer's running, the CPU usage skyrockets and the culprit is one of many processes named svchost.exe. If i terminate the errant process, any program that plays sound cannot unless it was running prior to shutting svchost.exe down. Is this a virus? And if so, is there a way to get rid of it? Norton Antivirus 2007 doesn't notice if it is a virus/trojan. Please help!
svchost.exe is a Windows (Network) Service.
If the CPU skyrockets, I'm thinking it has something to do with some program abusing something. You could always take a look at what exactly it's doing with Process Monitor.
You could also scan the system using NOD32 (best AV on the market).
Originally Posted by Adak
Process Monitor? What's that? Also, why would shutting down one of the svchosts shut down the sound card for processes started after svchost's manual terination with Task Manager?
Don't know why it would happen, but Process Monitor:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896645.aspx
I'm having the same problem with one of my laptops. I am still looking for a permanent solution.
Search microsoft.com and manually download the hotfix updates. If that still doesn't help, disable automatic updates. Just remember to check for updates every few weeks.
I copied it from the last program in which I passed a parameter, which would have been pre-1989 I guess. - esbo
Or just installing none of them. I've found that installing hotfixes needlessly will only break your system. Far better to wait for a Service Pack instead.
So how long do we have to wait for SP3?
I copied it from the last program in which I passed a parameter, which would have been pre-1989 I guess. - esbo
Aprilish I think. But there's no saying it needs a hotfix. I've never had that problem and I'm just running SP2 with (almost) no hotfixes at all, and certainly no svchost fix.
Most people will have no problem with it. I have no idea what causes the problem (and the way it sounds, neither does microsoft). But basically what happens is in addition to a svchost.exe using 100+ mb of memory and 99% cpu for long periods of time, the automatic updates will not work and neither will the "windows update" or "microsoft update" from microsoft.com. Apparently, the hotfix works for some people, so I say you might as well give it a shot, or else (like me) you're going to have to look at that annoying little red shield until we get SP3.
I feel extra-bad for Alex since he also uses Norton, which can bring even the fastest PC's to a crawl.
edit: to alex: You can check and if svchost.exe is running from the system32 directory, then it's definitely not a virus. However, what you describe (losing sound and probably other things when you kill it) sounds normal. svchost (there might be 4-6 of them running at any given time) along with explorer.exe and a few others essentially ARE Windows, so don't kill them. The last I heard, Microsoft has acknowledged this problem, but not much else, so at worst, you will have to turn off automatic updates for awhile. Hopefully, it will be fixed in SP3 though.
Last edited by NeonBlack; 03-23-2008 at 02:49 AM.
I copied it from the last program in which I passed a parameter, which would have been pre-1989 I guess. - esbo
Yes, scrap Norton.
Individual hotfixes can be downloaded and installed with, hopefully at least, most times, no problem. But downloading all hotfixes will invite trouble. But the question is, which hotfix is the right one?
let's see.... it was
KB927891
I copied it from the last program in which I passed a parameter, which would have been pre-1989 I guess. - esbo
It hasn't given me a problem since I rebooted my comp yesterday after losing sound. After the reboot, an error message box popped up and said that svchost.exe tried to reference memory at 0x000000 and Windows shut the process down. I'm assuming that this was the errant svchost.exe, and I haven't lost sound. I think the losing sound problem only occurs if I use Task Manager to kill the process. I also did an Explorer search of my computer and found one svchost in the system32 folder, one in a compressed folder called $NtServicePackUninstall$, and one in ServicePackFiles\i386. All of these folders are subfolders of C:\WINDOWS, so I don't think it's a virus. Any ideas about what's wrong?
That's why your Windows is throwing a tantrum.
Svchost isn't probably the cause, since it only "hosts" services. Basically svchost provides some common interface for the services, where the service itself is just a DLL loaded into svchost. So you should check what's the actual service behind this.
"The Internet treats censorship as damage and routes around it." - John Gilmore
That's why it isn't throwing a tantrum. Applying updates just causes blue screens or erratic behavior. Every time.That's why your Windows is throwing a tantrum.
I wonder why it only does that for you...
Anyway, I check updates like once in two months but then I install them all.
"The Internet treats censorship as damage and routes around it." - John Gilmore
