How to fix svchost.exe errors and problems with high CPU usage
Posted on October 6, 2007 at 8:11 am
Make sure to read other posts from the Fix Windows Errors series!
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- How to fix runonce.msn.com runonce2.aspx error in IE7
- How to fix Microsoft Windows Search Indexer stopped working and was closed
- How to fix access is denied, file may be in use, or sharing violation errors in Windows
- How to fix "there no active mixer devices available" error message in Windows
- How to fix svchost.exe errors and problems with high CPU usage
SVCHOST.EXE is one of those mysterious processes that constantly runs in Windows and is utterly essential, yet you never know exactly what it is doing. So what is SVCHOST.EXE? Identifying the actual services and programs that are running inside each SVCHOST.EXE process is a task well worth knowing, especially when the process eats up 99 or 100 percent of your CPU!
So before we dive into solutions, let’s get a deeper understanding of what this process actually does and how you can go about fixing some of the problems that might occur. Firstly, svchost stands for “service host” and it does exactly what as the name suggest: helps to “host” services. A service in Windows is simply a program in the operating system that does a particular job and runs in the background at all times when your computer is on, even if you are not logged in.
Most programs that you are familiar with run as stand-alone executables, such .EXEs. However, most services are implemented in the form of DLLs, which cannot run on their own. Hence, svchost loads those DLLs and runs them itself. That’s why when you open the Windows Task Manager, you’ll see a bunch of svchost.exe processes running. If you want more info on the Task Manger, check out my articles on understanding the Task Manager.
You’ll notice that there are currently eight svchost processes running on my computer, all using up various amounts of memory and running under different user names. So let’s say one of them is running at an excessively high CPU usage of 100 percent, how can we identify the actual application running?
There are actually two ways to go about this: doing it all manually using the command prompt and Services tool or by using a third party application. I’m going to mention both here in case one does not work for you.
Identify svchost.exe processes using command prompt (hard way)
1. First, go ahead and click on Start and then Run and type in CMD and click OK
2. Type in the following into the command window and press Enter
tasklist /svc /fi “imagename eq svchost.exe
You should get an output as shown below with the name, PID, and service description
You’ll now see each svchost process along with it’s unique ID number and the services it is responsible for running. However, these names are still very cryptic and are all short hand names. In order to get some more useful information about the process, we can use the Services browser in Windows.
3. Right-click on My Computer, choose Manage. On the resulting screen, choose Computer Management and then choose Services and Applications. Finally, choose Services.
4. Now try to match the cryptic Windows service name with the easily readable names in the Services tab. This is a little and can take some time because if you take the process with ID 1436 and it’s name WudfSvc, you have to try to find it in the list. If you double-click on one the service names, you’ll see their cryptic name also, so that’s how you can match them up. In my case, I guessed that the W means the process starts with Windows… and opened them until I saw a match.
As you can see, the Windows Driver Foundation service is actually called WudfSvc also!
Use Process Explorer to find programs running as svchost.exe (easy way)
If you found to be too difficult, there is a much easier way! Check out the Process Explorer tool from Microsoft (originally from SysInternals). The tool is completely free and gives you detailed information for each process currently running.
Once you download it, just run the exe file as it does not have to be installed. Hover your mouse over the svchost process and you’ll get a popup showing you which service is running under that process.
Fixing SVCHOST high CPU usage
Now that you have figured out exactly which process is eating up all of your CPU, we can address how to fix it. If you have found that the process is not a Windows process, such as Windows Update or Windows Firewall, etc, then simply kill the process and uninstall the program.
However, most of the time that this problem occurs, it has something to do with a Windows process. The best solution in this case is to install all of the latest updates from Microsoft’s web site. If you’re not able to do so normally in Windows, try restarting the computer in safe mode and try it again.
Also, if you can get to the Services tab like we did above, go ahead and right-click on the service and choose Disable. Even if it’s Windows Update or the Firewall, don’t worry, you can re-enable it later. Then restart the computer and go to Microsoft’s web site and manually get the updates. Re-enable the service and restart the computer again and hopefully things are working!
In order to disable a service in Windows, right-click on it from the Services tab and choose Properties.
Next choose Disabled from the Startup type combo box located in the middle of the dialog box:
I have gone through this process a couple of times and it’s worked for me. So again, it’s disable the service, restart computer, install updates manually, re-enable service, and then restart computer again.
Any questions, comments, add-ons, or tips? Post a comment!
[tags]svchost, svchost high cpu, services, task manager, process[/tags]
» Filed Under Computer Tips
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Comments
46 Responses to “How to fix svchost.exe errors and problems with high CPU usage”
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Get detailed information on hidden Windows processes Says:
[...] you ever gone to the Task Manager in Windows and clicked on the Process tab only to see that svchost.exe is taking up 100% of your CPU? Well, unfortunately that doesn’t help you figure out which program in Windows is actually using [...]
October 31st, 2008 at 4:41 am
This information was “right on” and helped me find the process causing the CPU high usage. The process involved happened to be a HP monitoring process for a network printer that I really didn’t need all that much on this computer. I disabled it and the problem disappeared. My question, rather than disableing it, could I not have made it a “manual” function so I might use this feature?
Thanks for your help.
Jerry
correct preceding email address. sorry. Jerry
This is the best explanation of sleuthing out svchost.exe that I have read. Most articles either say “it a Windows thing, you wouldn’t understand” or “it’s a virus so nefarious that none of the 12 anti-virus programs I used could detect it.” Thanks for *teaching* me about svchost.exe. You are now on my RSS reader and an official genius.
THANK YOU
I tried everything, from every web site, telling me it was a virus, or related to Microsoft updater and no luck.
I tired registry mechanics and no fixes. Finally I read your web site, downloaded the Microsoft Process Explorer, and found the problem with svchost.exe was related to some software that came with a new printer I had recently installed.
I un-installed the software that was of no use anyway and everything works. Likewise, the CPU usage is normal. Thanks you, have the correct answer!
Dear sir
My name is uday frm India. I have windows 2000 system. I am gettings problem that whenever i start computer I gets a startup command prompt window (cmd) with nothing written inside and only it flashes that c:\winnt\system32\svchost.exe at bar.If i close that window, it reopen immidiately.
While i scanned my pc with many antivirus but no virus found.
Please help me asap.
Uday
If you have any info how to fix the following problem please contact me.
xfire – sabrewolfpack
msn – ph34r_m3@usa.com
I am having problems with svchost.exe eating up all of my Memory Usage aswell as some Virtual Memory… is there anyone that would know of a fix for this? Thanks!
Hi I am running windows XP. When I get to the task manager the PID is not stated next to the processes so I cant identify which svchost is on high CPU usage. Please help.
Hi Chua,
If the PID is not next to the process name, you have to show the column. You can do this by going to View at the top menu and then choosing “Select columns”. The second checkbox in the first column is called PID (Process Identifier), just check that off and the PID column should now be visible!
Thanks Akishore!
The information on svchost.exe is great. I have identified the problem, but there is a list of programs running under this svchost.exe that are very important – dhcp client, network connections, windows firewall, windows audio, wireless zero configuration…a total of 27 services. I tried to disable them all and restart, but I couldn’t connect to the internet to install updates. I have installed all of the most recent updates, but nothing seems to fix my problem.
When the problem first started, I had installed an HP printer on a home network. So, I uninstalled the printer. It seems to have helped, but it takes about 10 minutes to reboot and to get the svchost.exe back down to normal.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
I’m running Windows XP on a Dell Latitude.
i have problem with my svchost it has a virus. When i opened my computer it won’t run
A big thanks!!!! You had the info that was needed to remove this big problem. As some of the others, it was the HP Ntework software that was the problem. This was on my wireless laptop and the software wasn’t needed
Thanks Again
Rich
While installing Oracle, I had to stop several services that were interfering with the installation. I actually had to disable a few. The install was successful, however, I have returned to re-enable these services, and get errors when trying to start them “Error, 1068, the dependendency service or group failed to start”. In other instances, I cannot even access the Properties of these services to re-configure.
I also notice that any window that I attempt to minimize actually closes instead. Any help will be appreciated to sort this one out.
Thanks a lot… It was really a great help to me.Very helpful topic.
Excellent info. My personal CPU hog is an HP Network service. When I try to manage it, changing from Automatic (Delayed Start) to Manual or Disable, it does change, but after 10 seconds or so the process restarts itself, no matter what I do. Any thoughts?
Brian, the HP Network service might show up in MSCONFIG under the Startup tab. You can try to uncheck it there and hopefully it will not eat up 100% of your CPU. You can also read my previous post on how to use MSCONFIG.
Thank you — running Process Explorer enabled me to identify and kill the issue after spending several hours trying to figure this out. Appreciate the help.
I have Process Explorer, and I did find the process(es) that were affecting my system. However, I get an error message when I try to use the WindowsUpdate 3.0 upgrade installation. It errors, gives a hex code, then shuts down. I really need help with this. It affects my gaming, my startup programs, my wireless internet and networking…pretty much everything is affected. PLEASE HELP!
Thanks.
I had svchost.exe warnings from my antivirus program, and my CPU use was very high. Scans with various AV programs couldn’t fix the problem.
Spybot Search & Destroy eventually did. TIP: Always make sure you can undo any fix your anti-spyware program makes. Spybot’s Recovery feature makes it easy — I’m glad because I had to undo one of the changes to keep my PC from running super slow.
Hope this helps! Also, the SysInternal programs Process Explorer and AutoRuns are fantastic diagnostic tools and should be in your toolkit.
I have a unique problem, my cpu shows 0%, I try to open My Computer to browse the C drive and the window opens but it is blank. I go back to the task mgr and it still shows 0%. I have to manually shutdown the laptop to get it to turn off. System Idle Process always shows 99%. Any ideas why this is happening and what I could check for? Already scoured the pc for viruses and what not.
Brand new laptop with plenty of RAM. Saw nothing abnormal in msconfig. Repaired registry issues and cleaned out pc with Ccleaner. Defragmented, ran chkdsk- came back good. Laptop seems to run okay when I disconnect the powersupply but this too is intermittent. How do you troubleshoot a pc that is locking up with Zero (0) percent CPU usage???
Simply the best descriptionn of svchost.exe and fixing its problems I have seen. Well done and thanks.
Dear Sir,
I have been trying to identify which service is not working only to find that this particular svchost process (that is using 100% of my CPU) does not have ANY services running under it. In task manager there is no “Go to service” option when I right-click on it. In command prompt, there stands only “N/A” in the “services” column for this process. In Process Explorer there are no services listed in the pop-up for this svchost process, either. It runs in Windows/System32 and everything else seems not at all different from other svchost processes running (I compared their properties in process explorer).
When I kill this process it restarts in about a minute and after about 10 minutes starts eating up 100% again.
What should I do?
Thanks in advance
Thanks a million times for the great info on this site. I had a svchost.exe problem where something was hogging 50% of my CPU, and I was unable to track it down until I read your advice. I downloaded Process Explorer and was able to see what was running on each svchost process. I then went to My Computer, Computer Managegment, down to Services and was able to stop each process until I found the one that was doing the hogging.
Turned out that it was an HID process that controls hot buttons, which I don’t use, so I disabled its automatic startup. My IDLE time is running in the 90% most of the time now, and my computer regained it’s old speed. All of my applications run fine without that HID process, and I am very happy. Thanks to your advice, I was able to identify and fix the problem when the GEEK SQUAD boys could not! Thanks again. Your site is now one of my bookmarks.
XP Home does not have the tasklist command, only XP Pro has it.
3 to 4 times a day a window shows up saying:
==============
Generic Host Process for Win32 Services has encountered a problem and needs to close.
==============
If I close it, my PC blocks in such a way I need to do a hard reset. I f I click on Debug, it blocks after a little while. I need to close every program before clicking on any of the 2 buttons referred, before I shutdown, restart, hoping not to see the message again, what can I do?
Thanks in advance.
What if the problem is not in the CPU usage. When i start the computer PF usage is at 200 MB and starts rising untill it fill up all of the RAM memory which is 2 GB. SVCHOST.EXE is constantly rising and the computer is working slower and slower! How to fix this problem?
Pleas help me
I had this problem ( high svchost.exe usage with windows update) after searching web, the best solution was that, go to microsoft windows update site and change settings to windows update instead of microsoft update then turn on your automatic update. My laptop works fine now
Thank you for the perfect explanation of how to solve this annoying problem! I am jumping of joy right now!!! svchost.exe is not longer eating up all my CPU and slowing down my computer! YAY!
Voya
hi , i believe this works but for my PC it’s not working i’am trying to kill the process but then i kill my computer is restarting and cpu usage is 100 % plz help me, and in my services is no file like windows Driver foundation – user-mode driver framework plz i need help
It was right on target and now my CPU usage is normal, thanks guys. However, I will add another point on this, its good if we clean up the registry with any third party tool and that will also do the trick.
I suffer from svchost.exe and cpu 100% usage problem. It’s very useful article for me. thnx
Thanks a bunch! This article really helped me in fixing the high cpu usage due to svchost. it is easy to understand and the processes are very clear explained.
I was also having the high CPU svchost.exe problem, but this solved it. Thanks!
This is great advice – thanks. I’m having a problem with excel.exe showing up in task manager, using up all of the cpu, even if Excel is not open. Do you have any suggestions. Thanks.
Kathy,
The EXCEL.EXE function should not be running UNLESS you have opened an Excel Document. [Or, at least it is not doing so on my computer]. If you are not working on an Excel document and the EXCEL.EXE Function is running, for a temporary fix, simply highlight it and “End Process”. This will end that process but as a precaution, make sure you are not working on an excel document for when you end the process, it will not save any work done. I would look at the processes on the task manager and see if it is present. If not, open an excel document and check the processor again and it should be running. When you close the document, the process should then stop. If not, that is your problem. Then you must determine why it is running continuously. I would suspect something in the start-up arrangement. Good Luck.
Thanks a lot for this info!! It’s absolutely great. I’m not a techie person, but you walked me through it step by step. Apparently, there was a Windows process that I didn’t need running inside svchost.exe that was causing the high CPU. Disabled it and everything works fine.
None of this worked for me….I tried just about everything I came across for hours last night (100% CPU under svchost.exe). The last thing I tried was running the free version of “Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware” (I had tried other anti-virus/malware that didn’t find anything up to this point). It found quite a lot the first time through and I ran it a second time for good measure. Everything is back to normal this morning…maybe this will help if none of the other recommendations are working for some poor soul out there!
Thank you very much for starting me on a path to finally figure out why this darn computer was so slow. I had a svchost.exe running near 100% all the time, but I could not figure out what process it was related to, thanks to you I was able to track it down and fix the issue. Kudos!
THANK YOU! I actually bought another new laptop and swapped a hard drive on a second one, trying to ‘fix’ this problem… Via your suggestions and Process Explorer, I was able to figure out that it was the darn HP network device support that was running as a service, that hung up both pc’s. With the help in this article I was able to reserect both laptops – Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
hello sir
first of all thanks for providing these solutions to us!!…i faced the same problem…speed of my notebook was agonisingly slow..i coudnt figure out..where the hell..problem is!!…but i tried the first method mentioned in this article..AND IT WORKED!!!…really…now my notebook is functioning much faster..i used command prompt to display all of the services run by svchost.exe and disabled the services which aint needed by my notebook…i gave a simple command on the prompt as..tasklist/svc..it WORKS!!…thanks again..!!
if you are done with checking your system against viruses,malwares,worms etc and still no sign of them but having a slow speed…then try this option..it has worked for me..i was facing the same problem…of 100% CPU utilization!!..i tried each and everything..nothing seemed to work…then I found a simple solution on net..which says..check your power adopter,it may be faulty and heating your notebook up…i did put my note book on pillows and YES!! it worked..CPU utilization got back to its normal state and my notebook is working much faster!!..it was the heating effect..which was making the speed slower..
Hi, I don’t understand the last part, I have like 20 program on the svchost that appear when I hover the mouse, How will I know which one? I tried one to disable and reboot and enable and again reboot, and nothing happened. Please help
Thank you for the nice explanation of svchost.exe. very useful!
this was so helpful with my CPU usage, thank you
Thanks a lot…