svchost.exe using too much CPU

[djkidd]

I've been having an issue over the past few weeks with my work laptop (dell latitude e7240).  One of the svchost.exe processes is using too much CPU, which is causing the computer to heat up and quickly drain the battery when off charge.  I've attached a jpeg of what the memory usage and CPU load is for this process ("Processes.jpg").  I right-clicked on it to see which services were associated with it (see attachment "Services.jpg").  I've tried ending the process, changing the priority, stopping each service one by one, and nothing seems to fix the issue.  My IT is stuck as well.  Does anyone know what could be causing the issue?  I'd appreciate any help that can be provided.

 

Btw, I'm running Win32 (i know it's crap, but my I have to), Core i7-4600 @ 2.1 GHz, 8 GB memory (obv only 3.42 GB usable).  

 

 

[Enderman]

have you installed all windows updates and tried leaving the PC on for a couple days while it finishes what its trying to do?

[AresKrieger]

svchost runs services, and some viruses hide as services so run a virus scan if you haven't and check what services are running through that svchost instance in task manager in case something weird is running

 

Just kill updater and see if that fixes it

[djkidd]

svchost runs services, and some viruses hide as services so run a virus scan if you haven't and check what services are running through that svchost instance in task manager in case something weird is running

 

Just kill updater and see if that fixes it

So i stopped the windows update service and it seems to have done the trick temporarily.  However, when I restart the computer, the issue comes back again until i manually stop it.  I spoke with my IT and they said that windows update has to be set to automatic because that's how they rollout company updates as well, so now I'm in a pickle.  

 

I also noticed that when I run windows update, it doesn't actually show me anything other than "Checking for updates".  It doesn't seem to finish checking nor does it show me any updates it's found.  Any recommendations?

[djkidd]

have you installed all windows updates and tried leaving the PC on for a couple days while it finishes what its trying to do?

Because it's a work computer, I don't think i can just leave it running.  It's a laptop I take home with me every night. Won't it need an internet connection for your suggestion to work?

[shadowcalen1]

I would run malwarebytes, I seem to recall having a pierce of malware that hid under that name that used alot of CPU on one of my other computers.  (Though it could of been another system process)

[AresKrieger]

So i stopped the windows update service and it seems to have done the trick temporarily.  However, when I restart the computer, the issue comes back again until i manually stop it.  I spoke with my IT and they said that windows update has to be set to automatic because that's how they rollout company updates as well, so now I'm in a pickle.  

 

I also noticed that when I run windows update, it doesn't actually show me anything other than "Checking for updates".  It doesn't seem to finish checking nor does it show me any updates it's found.  Any recommendations?

If you can't disable the updates you are likely stuck in a catch 22 situation since the updates won't update since there are no new ones you need but it still tries to update anyway, it's happened to me on my laptop but I was able to completely alter how the updater handles updates, unfortunately for you since this is a work PC and they piggyback on windows update there is no easy solution, you could try deleting all the updates from the time this issue started onward and hope they properly re-install, otherwise you'd have to fix it manually every time.

 

Edit: This assumes it isn't a virus, it very well could be, but my issue was not (though differed slightly from yours).

[zMeul]

this is a problem I encountered with a build I recently finished, with W7

the issue is that the Update Service takes way too much time and resources to finish whatever it's doing; in the research I did, I uncovered that this could be traced to some KB update

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/971058

there's also use Windows' Disk Cleanup:

be prepared, this will take a while

[Enderman]

Because it's a work computer, I don't think i can just leave it running.  It's a laptop I take home with me every night. Won't it need an internet connection for your suggestion to work?

sometimes windows takes a long time to make OS changes, especially if you have a HDD

every time you stop it by killing a process or restarting or shutting down it goes back to 0 and tries to redo it the next time the PC is on

 

i have found that when this happens to me, i just leave it, and after a few hours (or sometimes days) it finishes and is back to normal

but i leave my PC on 24/7, so it actually has a chance to finish

 

if you keep trying to kill it or restart your PC, it will never get a chance to finish what its trying to do