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

By +Warwagon
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Grand Master

+InsaneNutter MVC

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The IE6 link worked for me on a clean SP3 install of XP Pro in Hyper-V. The VM was stuck at 100% CPU usage for well over an hour, installed that update and about 30 seconds later i was able to use Windows Update.

Thanks a lot!

Also nice to see Neowin randomly appear in Google searches!

Grand Master

+Warwagon MVC

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Also nice to see Neowin randomly appear in Google searches!

 

Not only randomly but if you do a search for Svchost 100% we are 4 down from the top on page 1. Quite a accomplishment for such a broad search term. :D

Grand Master

ViperAFK

Posted
Posted

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!.

My grandfather had this issue recently too. Only way I was able to make it stop was turning automatic updates off :/. They currently don't even have it connected to the internet though and only use it for one very specific program so I just left it disabled.

 

I'll give that IE6 update mentioned above a try next time I'm there

Grand Master

+Warwagon MVC

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My grandfather had this issue recently too. Only way I was able to make it stop was turning automatic updates off :/. They currently don't even have it connected to the internet though and only use it for one very specific program so I just left it disabled.

 

Had a customer bring his computer into my office yesterday. Because it was so slow. The issue is when the 100% kicks in on Svchost it BRINGS MACHINES TO THEIR KNEES! In this case I tried all the fixes and nothing helped. Was even going to uninstall IE 8 and reinstall it. He decided to replace the machine and get a new one. It was pretty old.

 

For fun i just let the computer sit to see how long it would take. It was still going at 100% after 1 1/2 hours. So finally I just killed it and shut the computer off because he was going to get a new one anyway. This was an old Celeron from 2004 or earlier.

 

Food for though, imagine how many XP machines are out there are having this exact problem, rendering the computer unusable.

Grand Master

MtnDewCodeRedFreak

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To warwagon, my Dell computer is over 9 years old (July 2004) and the XP update workaround worked successfully for me.

Neowinian

Stu06

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Hi all.

 

I would like to add my contribution to this thread.

 

I regularly fresh install versions of XP on multiple systems and have encountered these annoying symptoms,I have found that installing IE8 after the OS installation has terminated and ensuring you permit IE8 do it's updates (leave the sneaky default box ticked) and then let it do its fruitless malware scan and updates on your newly formated/installed installation immediately prior to accessing the update sites that the CPU spikes are extremely minimum and the updates can be accessed within a few minutes.

 

Hope this may assist.

 

Regards

Neowinian

entilza

Posted
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Hi I just wanted to say, at our factory we have a bunch of machines using XP.  We will continue to be using XP after April '14 and I have been repairing some of our old machines just to be used for basic terminals.  Anyway this bug was driving me crazy to be honest.  I just setup a fresh XP SP3 machine and though the last KB2898785 seemed to solve the 100% cpu use from svchost during windows upgrade checks, I continued to have it while trying to install KB905474? ( Windows Genuine Advantage ) This was always causing 100% svchost.exe almost immediately.  I had all the updates but this one... I almost gave up until I found something that solved it.

 

When you go to install KB905474 windows installs a temporary directory: C:\0bc0babcde084230\  (Example)  Within this directory are 3 files:  wga_eula.txt, wgasetup.exe, and wganotifypackageinner.exe

 

By clicking wganotifypackageinner.exe the installer was able to install KB905474 finally.  Not by using wgasetup.exe! 

So if you are still plagued by this issue for this KB try this solution... 

Rookie

globalist

Posted
Posted

Hi I just wanted to say, at our factory we have a bunch of machines using XP.  We will continue to be using XP after April '14 and I have been repairing some of our old machines just to be used for basic terminals.  Anyway this bug was driving me crazy to be honest.  I just setup a fresh XP SP3 machine and though the last KB2898785 seemed to solve the 100% cpu use from svchost during windows upgrade checks, I continued to have it while trying to install KB905474? ( Windows Genuine Advantage ) This was always causing 100% svchost.exe almost immediately.  I had all the updates but this one... I almost gave up until I found something that solved it.

 

When you go to install KB905474 windows installs a temporary directory: C:\0bc0babcde084230\  (Example)  Within this directory are 3 files:  wga_eula.txt, wgasetup.exe, and wganotifypackageinner.exe

 

By clicking wganotifypackageinner.exe the installer was able to install KB905474 finally.  Not by using wgasetup.exe! 

So if you are still plagued by this issue for this KB try this solution... 

 

Can you maybe detail this a bit more? My WU is now also stuck at trying to finalize the installation of WGA - right at "running processes after install" it just hangs there. Are you saying you let it hang there and ran wganotifypackageinner.exe which caused it to finally finish then? Or did you reboot, ran wganotifypackageinner.exe and then ran WU again and this time it went through the WGA install alright?

 

I'm having no luck with either method...

Neowinian

entilza

Posted
Posted

Can you maybe detail this a bit more? My WU is now also stuck at trying to finalize the installation of WGA - right at "running processes after install" it just hangs there. Are you saying you let it hang there and ran wganotifypackageinner.exe which caused it to finally finish then? Or did you reboot, ran wganotifypackageinner.exe and then ran WU again and this time it went through the WGA install alright?

 

I'm having no luck with either method...

 

 

First I checked my C:\ Drive and I had many temporary directories as listed above and deleted them first as they were all WGA install attempts.  

 

I downloaded the KB905474 manually from:  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20888.  Then when it begins installation I cancelled it then went into the C:\temporary_directory manually.

 

I did not use the windows update method otherwise you will be hung.  You will also hang if you run the above KB manually and click next to continue.  When you first run it, it will extract the installation into the temporary directory.  So do it on a reboot, if you are hung you have to kill a few tasks in your task manager including the KB905474 install executable.  So yes I ran the wganotifypackaginner manually do not use the other one or it will get stuck on the 'running processes after install'

 

When I ran the wganotifypackaginner it does the installation without hanging, you do not need to use the windows update at all for this method.  I noticed almost immediately the installer got by the hang part and began doing the proper installation right away.

 

See if you can get farther now...

Community Regular

brink668

Posted
Posted

This has been happening for years, I'm not surprised.  I tried updating Server 2003 with SP2 to the latest updates with IE6 installed and it took over 52 hours for it to find the updates to install....  After installing all those updates it is much faster, it had to create the database of what it had versus the windows update location similar to what SCCM Server does but much slower of course.

Neowinian

Stu06

Posted
Posted

Hi again.

 

After wasting even more time on this nag I have discovered a solution that has cured the CPU usage and the massive delay waiting to access the updates at MS,I didn't take time out to see if this method has been mentioned previously on the thread,if it has my apologies in advance.

Downloading and installing the kb2898785 did the trick(select your OS language firstly)

 

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=41404

Neowinian

IS G33k

Posted
Posted

I can confirm that after a clean install of Windows XP (Service Pack 3) the svchost.exe and wuauclt.exe files will redline the CPU resources to 99%. Every single "solution" that has been listed here by others -- have all failed. I can also confirm that while the computer does appear to be locked up, in fact it is not! I can say this with 100% confidence because after letting the computer run over night, the Windows updates finally came through. It is unknown which update clears this up! After several updates (about 150-some) installed, the issue no longer presented itself.

 

I for one, will not be holding my breath on Microsoft on this one. Seeing as how support ends April 2014, they most likely will not be putting any man-hours into a fix. Until then, I'm afraid the only thing you can do is let the computer run until updates come through. The only solid solution I can offer you -- is to use some type of cloning software. Be it Clonezilla, Ghost, etc only after all updates have come through. This way, you will have an image of Windows XP with SP3 including all updates and will not have to wait on svchost.exe ever again.

 

Good luck!

 

 

IS G33k

:geek:

 

*Edit 1: Apparently Microsoft is aware of this issue and is working on it but does not have an ETA on this fix. See the following: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/12/exponential-algorithm-making-windows-xp-miserable-could-be-fixed/

Grand Master

JustGeorge

Posted
Posted

I just performed a fresh install of XP on a POS HP Pavilion laptop, which was about 8-10yrs old. After installing SP3, I manually DL'd IE8, and applied the very latest cumulative update, restarted and it took all damn night before she showed me the boobs. After 5 billion updates and switching to Microsoft Update, it doesn't take long to scan. Of course none of that means squat, since its fully up to date now. Imaged that SOB right after because I'll be damned if I go through that crap again when they bring it back too me in two weeks infected with the latest fake security suite or whatever the hell else they clicked "yes" to :angry:

Grand Master

+Warwagon MVC

Posted
  • Author
  • MVC
Posted

I just performed a fresh install of XP on a POS HP Pavilion laptop, which was about 8-10yrs old. After installing SP3, I manually DL'd IE8, and applied the very latest cumulative update, restarted and it took all damn night before she showed me the boobs. After 5 billion updates and switching to Microsoft Update, it doesn't take long to scan. Of course none of that means squat, since its fully up to date now. Imaged that SOB right after because I'll be damned if I go through that crap again when they bring it back too me in two weeks infected with the latest fake security suite or whatever the hell else they clicked "yes" to :angry:

 

This is why after every new clean install I do weather it's XP, Vista, 7, or 8 I image their drive onto a one of 2 "Customer Drive Image drives " 1-1 and 1-2 (backup of 1-1) ... minus their data. This way if a new drive that was installed prematurely dies, I can just restore the image.

Neowinian

firefighter7100

Posted
Posted

Hi everyone

 

I am also having the same issues since about Sept. I have wasted a lot of time trying to find a fix.

 

Let me start by saying that I am a technician with a Point-of-Sale company and we have hundreds of computers in the field running WINXP and POSREADY2009.

 

My helpdesk staff and I have to deal with this on a monthly basis and it continues for at least 3 days after patch tuesday. Being that POSREADY2009 was released in 2009 MS has said that it will be supported until 2024. I was hoping that MS would have fixed it by now; but apparently they have not. We cannot afford to waste our resources on this and we are really trying to find a fix.

 

If anyone finds a possible fix please let me know.

 

Thanks to everyone for your help

Grand Master

User6060

Posted
Posted

Hi everyone

 

I am also having the same issues since about Sept. I have wasted a lot of time trying to find a fix.

 

Let me start by saying that I am a technician with a Point-of-Sale company and we have hundreds of computers in the field running WINXP and POSREADY2009.

 

My helpdesk staff and I have to deal with this on a monthly basis and it continues for at least 3 days after patch tuesday. Being that POSREADY2009 was released in 2009 MS has said that it will be supported until 2024. I was hoping that MS would have fixed it by now; but apparently they have not. We cannot afford to waste our resources on this and we are really trying to find a fix.

 

If anyone finds a possible fix please let me know.

 

Thanks to everyone for your help

turn off windows automatic updates, don't download updates automatically and don't install updates automatically should stop trigging scvhost

Neowinian

firefighter7100

Posted
Posted

turn off windows automatic updates, don't download updates automatically and don't install updates automatically should stop trigging scvhost

Unfortunately in the POS world we need to do the auto updates for PCI (CC Security) compliance.

Mentor

francescob

Posted
Posted

Unfortunately in the POS world we need to do the auto updates for PCI (CC Security) compliance.

 

Are you sure you installed all the roots certificates updates (including optional ones)? That usually cuts the update search time down by a lot.

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