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

By +Warwagon
in Microsoft (Windows)

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Neowinian

firefighter7100

Posted
Posted

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

 

The updates have been set for all updates to be downloaded and installed automatically.

Neowinian

Stu06

Posted
Posted

In a final attempt to clarify.

 

Initially for those of you with existing installations of XP SP3 with IE8 and are experiencing current difficulties delays/accessing/retrieving the MS updates you must download and install the IE8 patch designated kb2898785  from http://www.microsoft...s.aspx?id=41404

The root of the problem is quite simply coming from IE8.

 

For others experiencing the same glitch concerning fresh installations the details for the fixes are similar.

 

I will post the details if and when I see any response to my input via this thread.

 

Regards.

Neowinian

firefighter7100

Posted
Posted

In a final attempt to clarify.

 

Initially for those of you with existing installations of XP SP3 with IE8 and are experiencing current difficulties delays/accessing/retrieving the MS updates you must download and install the IE8 patch designated kb2898785  from http://www.microsoft...s.aspx?id=41404

The root of the problem is quite simply coming from IE8.

 

For others experiencing the same glitch concerning fresh installations the details for the fixes are similar.

 

I will post the details if and when I see any response to my input via this thread.

 

Regards.

Yes my team and i did the Nov update and the Dec update and that helped it run faster for that month. I have a feeling we will have the same issue in a week and a half when new updates are out. 

 

It is hard when you have 200+ computers running WINXP and POSREADY2009 to do that every month to every workstation. 

Veteran

manroweb

Posted
Posted

Yes my team and i did the Nov update and the Dec update and that helped it run faster for that month. I have a feeling we will have the same issue in a week and a half when new updates are out. 

 

It is hard when you have 200+ computers running WINXP and POSREADY2009 to do that every month to every workstation. 

 

Disable auto updates, and use WSUS Offline weekly to patch your machines.

Presumably you can pull updates from a single central network location.

Neowinian

Katermerlin

Posted
Posted

After days and hours of trying to fix this bug (I have to take care of several XP installations) and following lots hints of internet  I'm giving up...

After a certain time svchost.exe / wuauclt.exe takes 100% of CPU again.

 

Decided to stop the the update service. April 2014 the update function is obsolete, anyways, and nobody needs it anymore.

 

Who likes to fast switch on and off the service here my hint:

 

Make two batch files (e.g. startwinupdate.bat and stopwinupdate.bat) containing

 

sc start wuauserv

 

and

 

sc stop wuauserv

 

and put it onto the desktop... So one who wants to stop or start the service can do that very fast.

 

I also believe that MS did something deliberately, or does not feel like doing something anymore...

Neowinian

Stu06

Posted
Posted

"and following lots hints of internet ...."

 

Have you by chance read or taken notice of any of the fixes posted on this thread ?

 

Personally I don't have anymore problems updating XP whether new installs or existing versions.

 

Good luck to all

 

Au revoir !

Experienced

xdot.tk

Posted
Posted

Why are you folks installing XP and then updating it when you can make it fully updated before install? I've never personally seen the 100% CPU usage. Just the sometimes 6-8 hours of scanning that the WU website performs. I just go to bed and forget about it when that happens.

 

Anyways, the steps are simple.

  1. Download nLite from http://www.nliteos.com/. (Requires .NET Framework 2.0)
  2. Download my UDC (Updates downloader, checker and nLite add-on creator) script from http://xdot.tk/updates.html.
  3. Extract the UDC zip file. Double click the UDC-MM-DD-YY.bat and in a few minutes all the updates, except for the MSRT, from the release of SP3 till present will be downloaded.
  4. Run nLite and when you get to the section "Hotfix, Add-ons and Update Packs" of nLite drag and drop all the files there or browse to the folder with the downloaded updates and select all (CTRL-A) then click open.
  5. Proceed along and make your ISO then burn it or you could have nLite do a direct burn. I prefer the former and then use ImgBurn to burn

?All that will be left is to install the latest MSRT by visiting WU and you will be completely up to date.

Neowinian

microsofthatesus

Posted
Posted

I rarely comment on any forum, but this topic is so critical and I've spent so many hours on it that I was compelled.

 

I am an A+CT and an MCSE. I've been in the business for close to thirty years. The first desktop computers I worked on were pre-IBM clone, when every computer was uniquely designed and built from the ground up by the manufacturer, software packages were written for each specific model, and many ran CP/M. Standard drives were 8" floppies with no hard drive, and many keyboards had each key hard wired so the cable going to the back of the unit was as round as your thumb  We're not talking dumb terminals (what today they more generously call 'thin clients' even though they're just as dumb), but standalone units, since many small businesses could barely afford the workstation itself let alone a network. 

 

I need to first state that my situation is identical to warwagon's who started this thread: I am a break/fix technician working on primarily consumer and small business units, many still running Windows XP. A common process is to wipe the hard drive and re-install a clean copy of XP from scratch. These can be either manual re-installs or the running of a built-in recovery routine, the former being installed with a XP SP3 disk + case label COA, while the latter are almost exclusively SP2 and require the subsequent SP3 install. They are all clean installations with no viruses, etc. This is the scenerio I'm addressing: if yours is different, then some or none of this may apply to you.

 

In any business, time is money. You don't have the time to jerk artound with all kinds of patches, jumping through hoops, etc. You don't have time to start the update process and then go to bed and let it run overnight. The older machines with Northwood or even Willamette Celerons with tiny caches may never succeed even after an all night stand. And for quality of service, you cannot simply not update the machines or turn off automatic updates, like many think-they-ares, wish-they-weres weekend warrior amateurs and hacks helping elderly Aunt Mary with her machine or selling 're-installs' to unsuspecting consumers for $50 a crack have been doing for years. The pro MUST have a solution to do the job right. So those reccomendations in this thread suggesting that or other elaborate and tedious time-consuming process do not apply.

 

I have tried virtually all solutions in this thread. Most do nothing. Updating the certificates does nothing. WSUS runs the EXACT SAME ROUTINE as does the Windows Update site, only on your local machine. So, on such clean install machines I'm speaking of, WSUS also runs the CPU perpeptually--same thing, been there done that have the tee shirt. Plus you have to keep creating new WSUS installs for each version of Windows each time MS releases new updates. Not a practical solution. Upgrading to IE8 does not itself solve the probem. Neither does MS fixit, running custom scripts, messing with ,net framework, shutting off services in the console, etc etc yada yada  Remember, warwagon and myself need a quick, no nonsense solution that will work on EVERY XP clean re-install machine, no matter what the brand, over and over and over, time after tiime after time, then immediately on to the next. Many of the solutions suggested did not take this into account, but approached from a perspective of dealing with a single stubborn machine. Any solution that does not take this into account will not be workable to us. And please forgive me but those who suggested just upgrading to Windows 7 get the "I'm only impressing myself with my dumb answer" award because they did not read the original post or did not take the time to understand/comprehend its context or were too busy demonstrating how so much more clever they were than all these other 'stupid' people struggling with this real-world problem to even care. Nor have they probably had to continuously work on other people's machines in a professional context. Real techs must pay attention to every detail; amateurs and hobbyists do not. 

 

I've tried many things over the last 6 months or so since this problem began, and tried all the fixes in this thread. However, the letter from the Microsoft employee of the Windows Update team another member posted combined with all the other acquired knowledge held the key for me. I have now over the last couple of weeks clean re-installed seven machines that went absolutely flawlessly and quickly every time, including various brands, a couple having recovery routines that required SP3 installed after, and even a Dell with recovery that was recently lamented over in here. Here's what I did. Remember, these are CLEAN fresh installs, no use by any user prior to this process:

 

1) Do none of the fixes you've read about here. If you have, you may need to do another clean install. It may very well be like the poor person who spent hours on the phone with their ISP support to get online and was told to mess with so many settings that you have to do a re-install just to get the machine back to a clean baseline.

 

2) Turn off Automatic Updates at the System Properties tab: no need to go into the mmc console.

 

3) Connect to the internet.

 

4) Install IE8 using the standard standalone installer IE8-WindowsXP-x86-ENU.exe.

 

5). Doing the IE8 steup wizard process, deselect the "Install Updates" option.

 

6) After completetion and reboot (it should go fairly quickly), locate and install the LATEST "Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 8 for Windows XP." To me, this was the kicker. The reason why many people failed with this suggestion was because they were coming into the thread and trying this update from previous months, and so which had already expired. Apparently, each time MS releases new updates for this patch (usually in the first two weeks of each month), something is also changed in the update process on the Windows update site so that the previous month's culmulative patch is no longer 'syncronous' (for lack of a better term) with the current Windows Update Page routine. I learned this the hard way, but this is the ticket why so many failed when using the KB version cited in this thread--they had already expired.

 

7). Locate and install the updated Windows Update Installer Agent installer, of which there is only one version. Do a search for this file: windowsupdateagent30-x86.exe. Download and install it.

 

8) Reboot, then go to the Windows Updae link and start the process. You'll be surprized how quick it is too!

 

9) After installing the first bulk round of updates and the computer reboots, you can now go back and turn the Automatic Updates for your customer. You can go back to the WU site and get the rest. No more problems. This is not to say that the customer will subsequently install something else or otherwise mess with the settings that will screw up the update process, but if all related system elements stay clean, automatic updates will work as they should from then on.

 

10) Copy these files and a brief instruction file on flash drives and place one at every work bench. Tell employees that to remove it will result in at least three Biblical plagues that will inflict them and their descendents for uncounted generations.  

 

11) Keep checking back to the MS site for a newer version of the "Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 8 for Windows XP." Download and impliment immediately. Remember, the Knowledge Base number for the file CHANGES WITH EACH NEW RELEASE! The KB number you'll see in these posts is likely already defunct when you encounter it. As of this writing, the current one is KB2898785 from I believe December 13. It's about to change again almost any day now.

 

As I said, this has worked EVERY TIME with a variety of machines with both clean installs and clean recoveries. Every time. I cannot say if this will work for everyone, nor can I say if it will work after some of the other suggestions have been executed and the OS is messed with. I can only tell you that it's working flawlessly, time after time, machine after machine in assembly line fashion. Simple, quick, uniform. Just the way warwagon, myself, and those like us need. Praise the Lord. Finally.

 

 

Experienced

xdot.tk

Posted
Posted

7). Locate and install the updated Windows Update Installer Agent installer, of which there is only one version. Do a search for this file: windowsupdateagent30-x86.exe. Download and install it.

 

Sorry but there are 3 official versions of WUA from whenever I started keeping track. There's probably many more versions before that. The ones I know about are..

 

7.0.6000.374
7.4.7600.226
7.6.7600.243  <=== This is the latest you can get from MS and it's outdated. Windows Update requires 7.6.7600.256 and Microsoft Update requires 7.6.7600.257.
7.6.7600.256 was put out because of the Flame virus but has not and will not ever be released as a standalone installer according to their KB article.
 
A few of us at MSFN.org, getting an awesome starting point from ricktendo64 from RyanVM.net, built a batch script that will download.from MS, all the components to make a 7.6.7600.256-257 WUA. It contains nothing but 100% Microsoft files. Of course the digital signature is not valid anymore but you can review the source code to see that is contains nothing malicious.
 
Grab it here if you wan't. It's got 159,000 downloads since 8/2013 and I've received  zero complaints. I used to tell people about if on the MS forums.
It's also included in my UDC downloader package that I mentioned earlier.
Neowinian

microsofthatesus

Posted
Posted

 

Sorry but there are 3 official versions of WUA from whenever I started keeping track. There's probably many more versions before that. The ones I know about are..

 

 

I think you're confusing the issue. So what if there may have been others in the past? All cars used to drive on bias ply tires too, Microsoft currently has only one version as a standalone download, and that version WORKS. The ONLY ONE that is currently available from MS for a standalone download gets the job done, and so from a practical perspective, my statement was absolutely correct in that this is the only one available from MS for download, my point being that the person does not have to worry about different versions to get the job done as they do with the IE8 culmulative update version (I was trying to make the solution the least confusing as possible). That's all the tech needs to get the job done. That's what warwagon, myself and other professionals are seeking.

 

I looked at your site, and it appears fabulous to me with LOTS of good stuff. And sometimes there's a real need for this kind of deeper esoterica of compiling scripts, expired certificates or reviewing source code. But here, your attempt to label my statement as wrong (a disagreement from a practical perspective for which any ensuing debate will have absolutely no practical relevance to the theme problem of this thread or its solution) and then use that as a launching pad to promote the impressiveness of your own site and work is essentially moot. Yes, I agree that if someone said that the only car tires that exist are radials would be technically incorrect, but from a practical view, it would be completely correct to say radials are the only tires they need to be concerned with. The problem is that there's a subliminal inference that because there exists other version numbers of the file in question, that somehow the solution I offerred may not work right. That does the readers who are looking for answers in here an injustice. Rest assured folks that the existing files that anyone anywhere can currently obtain directly from the MS site with very little technical prowess are all that is needed to get the job done easily and consistently. That's what most of us who have come here to study this thread are really looking for. If you follow the steps I laid out, it will get you where you need to go. A highly sophisticated robot is a thing of wonder and beauty, but you don't need to build one when a screwdriver will do the job, at least not in this instance.

 

I'll need to carve out time to check your site out more thoroughly. It looks to have very interesting and useful content.

Neowinian

Stu06

Posted
Posted

A common process is to wipe the hard drive and re-install a clean copy of XP from scratch. These can be either manual re-installs or the running of a built-in recovery routine, the former being installed with a XP SP3 disk + case label COA, while the latter are almost exclusively SP2 and require the subsequent SP3 install. They are all clean installations with no viruses, etc. This is the scenerio I'm addressing:

 

 

My elderly Aunt Mary has a question for the guy with the 8" floppy,how does he bypass the activation stage prior to accesssing the updates?

Neowinian

microsofthatesus

Posted
Posted

My elderly Aunt Mary has a question for the guy with the 8" floppy,how does he bypass the activation stage prior to accesssing the updates?

Please let dear old Aunt Mary know that you don't need to. In XP, activation is accomplished though an interface that's a part of the windows installation on your local machine over a standard tcp/ip connection to the MS activation server. You don't even need to use the IE browser. Activation has nothing to do with the theme issue of this thread.  

 

If you are installing from a manufacturer's Windows branded re-install CD or  recovery CD(s) specifically for that computer, or running the built-in recovery routine in the hard drive, the Windows installation will be 'pre-activated'.

 

If you are  installing with a non-OEM branded Microsoft Windows XP CD onto a new (blank) hard drive, or on a machine with no built-in recovery/reinstall routine or CDs, the procedure has been the same in my shop for years with untold hundreds of XP machines:

 

1) Be sure the computer is not connected to the internet.

 

2) If there's still data from a previous windows installation in the hard drive, boot to a DOS disk and run the debug routine to clear the boot sector (you'd be surprized at the occasional 'gotchas' this simple process will eliminate!). This step is unnecessary with a brand new drive.

 

3) Install Windows using the appropriate disk for your XP version and serial number (Home, Professional, or Media Center Edition, an OEM version disk for a case COA label number of a retail disk for a retail number).

 

4) When completed, install the fax console from the CD through the add/remove programs applet in Control Panel (it does not install automatically with windows, and a few folks still use it for faxing over a dialup modem). 

 

5) Remove the windows CD and perform any desired interface tweaks (like killing the fading menus and other performance robbing nonsense or enabling Clear Type for flat panel monitors and laptops).

 

6) Install your device drivers. These should be on the original mobo disk if it was a custom build or a branded computer with an off-the-shelf mobo replacement, or having downloaded them from the computer manufacturer's site  (drivers can be a whole other bag that would be the subject of a different thread). Download them with another computer and be sure to have them on flash drive or CD BEFORE you begin this process.

 

7) If you did not have an Install CD with Service Pack 3, install the service pack now. If you only had an original version disk, you'll have to install SP1 or 2 first before SP3. (making slipstreamed CDs is another topic).

 

8) When the computer reboots from the service pack install, turn off automatic updates (you don't want it to be doing any nonsense in the background while you're online activating).

 

9) Connect to the internet and Activate Windows through the 'keys' icon that may be in the system tray or from the link near the top of the Start/Programs menu. Follw the instructions in the activation wizard.

 

10) After activation is completed, go to step 4 of the Windows Update fix procedure I previously posted (given that steps 1-3 are already in place).

 

Now, if by your question you were referring to how someone might bypass the activation process or circumvent the WGA so that they can successfully run a bootleg or 'illegal' copy of XP, then forgive me for misunderstanding you. But in that case, I'm not the person to ask. As an MCSE/MCP, I am not without such knowledge, but Microsoft views me as a sombody from somewhere with something that can be taken away. I worked too hard for my valuable certifications to jeopardize them over someone just looking for a free ride, even if it is endearing Aunt Mary. You'll have to find a 'nobody' from 'nowhere' with 'nothing' to lose to help you with that.

Grand Master

+BudMan MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

Thought this would be of interest to this thread, my bad if already posted .. But didn't see it on the last few pages and it was just posted.

http://redmondmag.com/articles/2014/01/16/windows-xp-resource-hog.aspx

Microsoft Quietly Fixes Windows XP Resource Hog Problem

The fix involved stopping the system from perpetually checking Internet Explorer updates. Microsoft indicated that the fix was rolled out on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Microsoft depreciated legacy security updates for Internet Explorer that had been replaced by more recent ones. We did this to improve customer experience, reducing the time Windows Update requires to check existing updates before installing new ones. This action was purely to improve update performance and does not affect customer security. - Dustin Childs, group manager, Microsoft Trustworthy Computing

  • rogdog and +Zlip792
  • Like 2
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