Need a computer doctor

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

My computer is sick. Shortly after I boot up, the CPU pegs at 100%, and basically the computer will do nothing. It takes it a full five minutes to respond to a shut down command, and pretty much the same thing or worse when I try to open Outlook or Internet Explorer.

In Windows Task Manager, Processes tab, I'm seeing a System process called SVCHOST.EXE that shows its CPU usage hovering at 98-99. It's using almost 69,000 K of memory. What is this, and why is it jamming up my CPU? Can I use the "End Process" command to shut it down?

Best Regards,
Wayne

[bobgpsr]

My computer right now is fairly responsive -- but it has five svchost.exe processes running. Did you check the box that says "Show processes from all users" ? My understanding is that svchost processes do functions for other applications (and you don't want to kill them). One of them (an application) is tying up the computer with hefty requests to a particular svchost process. You need to dig deeper and find the offender app -- I know it is messy and hard to do. For instance when my AOL does a computer diagnostic (per request or when scheduled) it really ties up the computer for up to a half hour (during which a svchost process is showing heavy CPU time)

[Hakka]

Here's a link to a program called Process Explorer, its free download from Microsoft, its similar to the task manager but it gives you a lot more info, you should be able to track down your problem pretty quickly with this.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sys...sExplorer.mspx

Hakka.

[drf]

the only advice a I can give is to try this and see if it is a third Party software issue or an integral part of windows:

1. Click Start, click Run, type msconfig in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. On the General tab, click Selective Startup.
3. Under Selective Startup, click to clear the following check boxes: • Process SYSTEM.INI File
• Process WIN.INI File
• Load Startup Items

4. On the Services tab, click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and then click Disable All.
5. Click OK, and then click Restart.

Following these steps should cause windows to restart, but this time it will not start any program that isn't necessary to windows (E.G antivirus, media players and apps) it should also hide standard running windows services. This, technically, should leave you with either the computer running fine which would indicate a thrid party software issue like printer software etc, or, if it is still running bad then you have a corrupted windows service or worse a virus.

Hope this helps.

Dr F

P.S I'm not exactely a pc doctor so If this doesn't work don't think ill of me.

[Sonnie]

If all else fails... throw it down on the ground really hard and stomp on it.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Yup – sometimes all they need is a little old-fashioned discipline!

Thanks everyone for the constructive comments. Here’s an update. It appears to only happen when I’m booting up. If I wait several minutes and don’t try to open Explorer or Outlook, it settles down and everything seems to work fine. Outlook and Explorer will open fine then, but not before.

Even after it settles down, it does seem put a high demand, 75% or more, when I open a webpage, but they open fine. It may have always been this way – I’ve never checked the CPU usage until now. I have a 1.2 gig processor, if that helps.

So I guess the big mystery is, what’s going on when I first boot up?

Hakka, I downloaded that program, but now I can’t find it. It didn’t give me a desktop icon, and I can’t find it anywhere in “All Programs.”

Regards,
Wayne

[Hakka]

Wayne A. Pflughaupt wrote:

Hakka, I downloaded that program, but now I can’t find it. It didn’t give me a desktop icon, and I can’t find it anywhere in “All Programs.”

Regards,
Wayne

Its been a while since I used it but I don't think you need to install it, just click the .exe to run the
program.

[buggers]

The service host problem you are referring to happens only on the older (Below 2 GHZ) proccessors and it is directly attributable to the windows update function. There is nothing you can do about it that I have been able to find except turn the computer on and wait a couple minutes until its done. Yes you can kill the process in task manager but I don't recommend that action. There is nothing wrong with your computer.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Thanks for the info, Michael. I did notice that it was only happening when I was docked (it’s a laptop, forgot to mention that). The only difference there is that docked I have a wireless internet card. And a 19” monitor, but I figured that wasn’t causing any problems. So the Windows update seems a likely candidate.

I also noticed that each subsequent day I booted up, it was taking less time to “stabilize.” Everything appears to be working fine now.

Regards,
Wayne

[buggers]

I'm the helpdesk for the Corporation I work for and we still have some older machines like 500MHZ amd's and these can take about 10 minutes to stabalize. Once you get beyond the 2GHZ processors the issue is no longer a problem.

[wig]

Wayne if you make the decision to buy a new buy a duel core.I have a AMD 5200 that's two 2600's in the same chip.Haven't bogged it down yet.The only bad thing for me was it when down a 100 dollars a week after I bought it. Wig

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Thanks for the tip, Scott.

Regards,
Wayne

[wbassett]

You definitely have/had a rouge process that is running on startup. I assume you have a spyware program and run it regularly?

The other obvious questions is when did it start to happen and did you install any new programs or hardware at that time? Worse case could be a hard ware malfunction that's eating CPU and memory. I'd say for now check that there is no spyware running.

Also, how full is your hard drive?

[eugovector]

When you get it up, I'd pull all your info off and do an OS reinstall. There's nothing like a complete reinstall to make windows fly again.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

You definitely have/had a rouge process that is running on startup. I assume you have a spyware program and run it regularly?

Yup – AVG.

The problem kinda solved itself; don’t know how or why. I would open the Task Monitor when I booted up, and the time that the CPU would be maxing out got shorter and shorter to the point that it’s not a problem anymore. I can open Outlook or Explorer pretty quick after boot-up now.

It may have helped that I cleared up some space on my hard drive – I was down to a gig or so. I intend to upgrade top a bigger hard drive soon, which of course will require a fresh install.

Regards,
Wayne

[Jusbegood]

After reading all of the posts, I would suggest that you make a (what I consider) a cheap investment in a software program named A1 Click Ultra PC Cleaner. I had the same exact problems you did. My computer just slowed to a crawl. Whether I used my browser or tried to read my email, the dreaded hourglass would come up and turned and turned for days. A friend suggested that I look into the program. I did. The trial version only cleans 10 errors. I sprang for the paid version, ran it, and wow! I had an initial 1400 problems! When it finally stops , and you want to clean up the mess, it will ask you if you want to save your .bak files. I would do so if you have any version of Micrcrosoft Office on your computer. If you do remove the .bak files, you'll have to ire-install a file that allows you to read your email in either the Outlook, or Outlook Express mode.
I would also suggest that you take a look at another program named RegVac Registry Cleaner from the same vendor. The Url is <Http://www.superwin.com>

Since I've bought both programs, my computer acts as though it's on steroids.

One other note: As I'm such a freak about not having any malware on my computer, I'd suggest that you download Ad-Aware SE Personal, and SpyBot Search & Destroy.
They're freebies. You just need to routinely run them each, every week, to have your computer run on steroids.

[nova]

Jusbegood wrote:

One other note: As I'm such a freak about not having any malware on my computer, I'd suggest that you download Ad-Aware SE Personal, and SpyBot Search & Destroy.
They're freebies. You just need to routinely run them each, every week, to have your computer run on steroids.

I'd also add Grisoft's AVG Anti-Spyware and of course AVG Anti-Virus,... outstanding free software!

[mechman]

Another good free anti-spyware is Super Anti-Spyware. I run Spybot, AdAware, Defender, the afore mentioned, as well as Grisoft's. Can never have enough anti-spyware these days. As for anti-virus, you should only run one. And my choice is free AVG as Nova mentioned.

mech

[wbassett]

AVG here too. If it's good enough to the Digital Goddess Kim Komando, it's good enough for me

[eugovector]

+1 avg, been using it for years and put it on every new system I get for family and friends.