XP Windows / Automatic Updates SVCHOST.exe 100% CPU .. MS did something.

[+Warwagon MVC]

I don't know about anyone else, but within the last year MS did something to Windows update for XP which has caused, even on fresh installs, SVCHOST to RAPE the CPU at 100%

 

for the past 2 years i've been using the same XP install Sp3 discs. On a fresh install I would run windows updates it would check for updates and under 30 seconds it would ask for the WGA update and then would proceed to show me the other 100 updates.

 

Now even on clean installs SVCHOST molests the CPU at 100% for a good 4+ Minutes before showing you the updates. You click install and then before it downloads them it molests the CPU at 100% for another few mins.

 

Has anyone else noticed this within the last year?

 

Please no "XP? HAHAHA" .. comments!.

[Dot Matrix]

Welcome to XP's EoL. It's only downhill from here.

 

Do you know it's an update? If so, which one? Possibly some other piece of software? Maybe new hardware Windows XP can't completely work with? This is exactly the issues you get when working with ancient code.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Welcome to XP's EoL. It's only downhill from here.

 

Do you know it's an update? If so, which one? Possibly some other piece of software? Maybe new hardware Windows XP can't completely work with? This is exactly the issues you get when working with ancient code.

 

Zero updates, zero 3rd party apps. This is fresh install, going to windows updates to check for updates. that's when the 100% cpu issue starts where it never happened before.

[Phouchg]

This is interesting now. My colleague did have exactly this fairly recently and I, being on the high horse I was at the time, told he's just doing something wrong and didn't really take a good notice. Don't know what he did to the poor thing in the end, offline updates perhaps, but it was hanging there for way more than 4 minutes.

[flynempire]

I had this problem on 2 XP machines lately for customers. It is a pain. I disabled auto updates all together just to get it to work right.

 

What a pain..

[soldier1st]

Did you try autopatcher to bring xp up to date?this issue you speak of i have not had this issue on any xp system. also this svchost, did you try to find out what this svchost was hosting at the time?in xp there are many instances of svchost, which runs different services and what not. if svchost is not in system32 then it is malicious. try process explorer and find out what handles/dll's/activity this svchost is doing.

[Som]

I believe that has been a problem with xp for a while now, disable the windows update service....

 

 

I don't know about anyone else, but within the last year MS did something to Windows update for XP which has caused, even on fresh installs, SVCHOST to RAPE the CPU at 100%

 

for the past 2 years i've been using the same XP install Sp3 discs. On a fresh install I would run windows updates it would check for updates and under 30 seconds it would ask for the WGA update and then would proceed to show me the other 100 updates.

 

Now even on clean installs SVCHOST molests the CPU at 100% for a good 4+ Minutes before showing you the updates. You click install and then before it downloads them it molests the CPU at 100% for another few mins.

 

Has anyone else noticed this within the last year?

 

Please no "XP? HAHAHA" .. comments!.

[fatbeerguy]

Use sysinternals procexp to check which service inside of service host is actually using the CPU, and then use procmon or windbg to figure out why its hogging CPU.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Once again these are clean installs that are just doing windows updates. It's windows updates, they did something to it.

 

This thread is not a "Help me SVCHOST is taking 100% WHAT DO i DO???" thread..

 

This is an has anyone noticed Microsoft did something to Windows update that is making XP take up 100% cpu where it never use to"?

[Noir Angel]

I've noticed this happen but it turned out the machine I had the problem on had a dying motherboard. Is this a common problem for you, or just confined to a single unit?

[+Warwagon MVC]

I've noticed this happen but it turned out the machine I had the problem on had a dying motherboard. Is this a common problem for you, or just confined to a single unit?

 

Every recent XP reinstall i've done.

[Noir Angel]

Odd, I've never noticed that but then I don't work with XP much these days

[max22]

I tried going from Windows XP SP2 to SP3 and it would never work.

[Ryster]

svchost.exe is, as the name suggests, an executable host for services. Multiple services run using this executable.  Have you determined which specific service is causing the 100% usage?. Is it one of the automatic updates services, or something else? Wuauclt.exe for example.  Try disabling the automatic updates service using the services.msc applet and see if the 100% cpu goes away.

 

As suggested in several Microsoft Answers threads about updates using excessive CPU, try deleting the  C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore folder and then rebooting. 

[+Warwagon MVC]

if I kill the process and check out services automatic update is then turned off

[fatbeerguy]

if I kill the process and check out services automatic update is then turned off

 

That's not a reliable method, if that svchost was hosting 2 services, windows update and Z, and you notice windows updates isn't running any more, it doesn't mean that service Z wasn't the problem.

[francescob]

Disable Microsoft Update and reboot.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Disable Microsoft Update and reboot.

 

That's what I thought, I just had an XP machine in office doing it and checked and that wasn't enabled. It SVCHOST chugged 100% cpu for about 5 mins after I opened windows update. SVCHOST also goes bat **** crazy when I open patchmypc which automatically checks for Windows updates.

[francescob]

That's what I thought, I just had an XP machine in office doing it and checked and that wasn't enabled. It SVCHOST chugged 100% cpu for about 5 mins after I opened windows update. SVCHOST also goes bat **** crazy when I open patchmypc which automatically checks for Windows updates.

Are you sure it's Windows Update and not some third party software like an antivirus? Try using TASKLIST /SVC to find out which services are running on each SVCHOST instance. Also is the Windows XP install clean or does it have Office or other software installed? The Windows Update client usually only chugs CPU when it's scanning MSI and MSP files.

[c.grz]

Maybe the fact that it's need to check against 200+ updates is what's causing the CPU to spike...

 

You said that you saw this happen on clean installs but to make sure; is Office 2007 on the machine?

[firey]

This is happening on my Server 03 machine as we type. Not sure what the issue is.. finally got around to rebooting it from last set of updates, and now it's on the first of 20 updates and svc host is 94% cpu.

[flynempire]

This definitely is from Windows Update. I had this happen before and was able to trace it down to WU.

I would also disable Windows update and everything was back to normal. This issue though goes back several years. I have been using Windows 7 exclusively since the beginning of 2010 so been several years since I had XP on my machines.

 

I dont know why the hell they have not fixed this issue yet. Bunch of BS if you ask me.

[Dot Matrix]

I dont know why the hell they have not fixed this issue yet. Bunch of BS if you ask me.

Considering XP gets the boot next year...

[123456789A]

MS should push out Bonzi Buddy, Clippy and a bunch of other junk as XP's final update.

 

"It looks like you are still using Windows XP. Would you like to upgrade your OS?"

[bigmehdi]

I dont know why the hell they have not fixed this issue yet. Bunch of BS if you ask me.

Crippling XP  through updates, to encourage people to update.

I  would have thought Microsoft to not rely on such shady tactics.

:woot: :woot:

 

No in fact I  always wondered when they would do this.

And I'm not convinced by the need to constantly update the system, at least with a good antivirus & firewall.