SVCHOST.EXE causing major slowdown on Windows 7 computer

[Mike Lewis]

I have a desktop computer running Windows 7 Professional, which I only use occasionally.

My problem is that the machine is extremely slow. For example, it takes several seconds just to open the Start menu or to switch browser tabs. Launching a program such as Firefox can take a minute or more.

Checking the Task Manager, I see that svchost.exe is hogging resources. Most of the time it using about 50% of CPU time and around 100,000 KB of memory. This is true even when no applications are running.

If I right-click on this entry in Task Manager and select "Go to services ..", I see around 15 services, with names like "Windows Management Instrumentation" and "Shell Hardware Detection" and "IP Helper". I've got no idea what all these mean, let alone which ones might be causing the problem and which ones can be safely stopped.

Can anyone advise what I can do to get the machine running at a reasonable speed.

For what it's worth, the system is completely up to date with patches, etc. I have done a full virus scan and malware scan, with no problems reported.

Thanks in advance,

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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[edfair]

These items you see are built in windows services that start up with boot. One or more is likely running amok to cause your problems. Most start up, initialize, then quieten down.

I use service host viewer to see information about the individual services. Some can be shut down via the control panel, admin services, services. Some can be shut off permanently.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Ed, many thanks for your prompt reply. I will download the tool you mentioned, and give it a try. My worry is that, even if I can identify the problem service, I might not know whether or not it is safe to disable it - but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

In any case, I'll report back.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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[Mike Lewis]

Well, I haven't solved the problem, but it does seem to have gone away - at least, for now.

For the benefit of anyone else with a similar problem:

I downloaded the utility that Ed recommended (a very useful tool, by the way). But then I had other things to do, so I tried to switch the computer off. It then displayed a message telling me not to switch off or disconnect, because it had to install 130 updates. That's right: 130. (The reason is that I only use the computer occasionally, so there was obviously a big backlog of updates.) Four hours later, it still hadn't finished the updates, so I went home.

The next day, I turned the computer on, and it immediately told me to wait while it "applied" 52 updates. That took another two hours.

Given that trying to solve the svchost.exe problem would probably involve several reboots, I decided to temporarily disable Windows updates. When I did, the problem disappeared. Just to be sure, I have been using the machine all this morning for various routine tasks. Throughout the morning, svchost.exe is not using any noticeable resources, and System Idle Process is between 90 and 99 percent most of the time, which is what I would expect. What's more, the system seems to be running at an acceptable speed.

Obviously, this is not a permanent solution. I am aware of the issues of not keeping the OS up to date. But it does give me a good starting point if and when I have another shot at tracking down the cause of the original problem.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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[apstef]

It is more likely that the hog you were experiencing was that the OS was trying to figure which updates it needs.

It is well known that windows 7 has problems with slow update scanning, see

https://www.askwoody.com/2016/possible-fix-for-the-abysmally-slow-windows-7-update-scans/

for more info and a potential fix.

 

[goombawaho]

That process handles windows updates among other things. If you don't use that computer often, it will be using that process to analyze available windows updates and WILL take a lot of processing power.

Link

Link

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[edfair]

The update search and download was likely the only problem. Not only is it time consuming to figure out what is needed but then it is dependent on the Microsoft servers to give them to you in a timely manner. I suspect that there was a problem on the MS end and your box was just trying to do what it was supposed to do.

I'm mostly on XP and still get the issue. Don't even think about it any more, just shut the process down then restart it when I have time to let it run.




Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Thank you all for the useful information - plenty for me to get my teeth into it. I'll try those suggestions and let you know if it makes a difference.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads

 

[goombawaho]

My suggestion is a "known issue" IF your problem is caused by that. I'd say likely YES. The problem has been getting worse as the updates have piled up since Windows 7 SP1 was released. The roll up package was designed to help with the problem on a newly loaded Windows 7 SP1 computer so it wouldn't have to sort through hundreds of old/superceded patches.

Here is the whole story if you want to read. Very good article.
Link

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.