How to fix svchost.exe errors and problems with high CPU usage

Posted on October 6, 2007 at 8:11 am

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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!

Technorati Tags: svchost, svchost high cpu, services, task manager, process

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13 Responses to “How to fix svchost.exe errors and problems with high CPU usage”

Jerry Curtis said on : January 1st, 2008 at 9:31 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

Jerry Curtis said on : January 1st, 2008 at 9:35 am

correct preceding email address. sorry. Jerry

Brian Jones said on : January 5th, 2008 at 6:03 am

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.

Paul Gee said on : January 13th, 2008 at 2:31 am

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!

Uday said on : January 28th, 2008 at 1:44 am

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

Im having a prob ^_^ said on : March 6th, 2008 at 11:34 am

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!

Chua said on : March 24th, 2008 at 5:50 am

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.

akishore said on : March 24th, 2008 at 8:47 am

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!

Chua said on : March 24th, 2008 at 9:52 am

Thanks Akishore!

Ryan said on : April 2nd, 2008 at 8:26 am

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.

brix said on : May 5th, 2008 at 11:36 pm

i have problem with my svchost it has a virus. When i opened my computer it won’t run

RichS said on : May 22nd, 2008 at 6:30 pm

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

steve said on : June 2nd, 2008 at 1:17 am

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.