HELP! SVCHost = CPU usage too high

[Exospeed]

I'm having an issue with the PC i use for work projects at home. (win 7)
A few min. after turning the PC on, the CPU usage shoots up to 85+ and never comes down.
under task manager, there is an SVCHost.exe that is using ~45% of the CPU, with ~145,xxx memory usage.

I scanned the PC with Avira AV, malware bytes, and Spybot and nothing was detected.

Anyone have any other ideas on what is going on and how to resolve this.
It just started happening on Sat.

I thought it may be windows update trying to force me to DL win10 since my mom's PC was forced to install win10 Friday, but windows update is set for me to manually check and install updates.

[ojisan]

Don't overlook the mechanical stuff...

I had a similar problem a couple weeks ago.
My PC was shutting down without notice, usually during a youtube vid.
Investigation showed that my CPU temp and at rest / nothing-open usage was sky high.
It turned out to be the cooling fan and heat sink assembly had come loose from the CPU, causing it to overheat, which I think lead to high usage.
I did a complete clean and dust-out, got new heat paste and reattached the fan and heat sink correctly.
It's been a couple years since a cleaning, but why the heat sink and fan came loose is a mystery.
It works great now, temps are low again and my usage is very low at rest.

[LowThudd]

When I had that problem, someone recommended uninstalling and reinstalling Google Chrome. It worked. Not sure what net browser you use, but if chrome, that might help.

[Kyle1886]

Last week I had a similar incident with high CPU usage that stayed up. In my case after an hour of messing with it, I suspect it was a service host associated with MS Windows Update.

Check and see if Windows Up-date and the service host are both running. I ended up stopping the service task and re-booting.

I am NOT a PC expert...so....

Kyle

[chorpie]

Use Process Explorer, provided by microsoft. Download, unzip, and run procexp.exe as an Adminstrator.

Then you can mouse over the svchost.exe entries and see which services are registered to each instance.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/processexplorer.aspx

[Misterclick]

How far are you behind on updates? There was a updated specifically on the windows update process (oh the irony). It caused a run away SVC host process...

[Exospeed]

That's a Service Host process and you need to determine which services it's running to resolve the issue.

In task manager, right click that process and click "Go to services." Then scroll through the list and note all of the highlighted entries, report back here with the list.

Here are screen shots of what is happening. Without using any other software the CPU usage is at 65%.



Here is a screen shot of the list of services that are highlighted

[Exospeed]

How far are you behind on updates? There was a updated specifically on the windows update process (oh the irony). It caused a run away SVC host process...

As far as I know i'm up to date on updates. it shows only 2 optional updates when i scanned for updates earlier.

[the86d]

Maybe this can help?

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/processexplorer.aspx

[Exospeed]

From the services in your screenshot, it is very likely this is an issue with Windows Updates.

To test this, you can temporarily stop the update service easily with the following, then observe if your CPU usage returns to normal when idle.

1. Click the start menu, in the search box type: cmd
You'll see the "cmd.exe" appear at the top of the list, right click this and choose "run as administrator."

2. In the black "command prompt" prompt, copy paste the following:
net stop wuauserv


You should then see the following:
The Windows Update service is stopping.
The Windows Update service was stopped successfully.



If your cpu usage returns to normal, then windows updates isn't working correctly and I can point you in the right direction to fix it.

I will try this tomorrow morning.

[Mute]

From the services in your screenshot, it is very likely this is an issue with Windows Updates.

To test this, you can temporarily stop the update service easily with the following, then observe if your CPU usage returns to normal when idle.

1. Click the start menu, in the search box type: cmd
You'll see the "cmd.exe" appear at the top of the list, right click this and choose "run as administrator."

2. In the black "command prompt" prompt, copy paste the following:
net stop wuauserv


You should then see the following:
The Windows Update service is stopping.
The Windows Update service was stopped successfully.



If your cpu usage returns to normal, then windows updates isn't working correctly and I can point you in the right direction to fix it.

This is more than likely the case. I usually find Windows Update to be a real resource hog. If it isn't the problem then do as chorpie suggested and download Process Explorer so you identify the specific process that is using that svchost entry.

[Exospeed]

Thats the plan, Thanks everyone so far. I'll get to this in the morning.

[Exospeed]

From the services in your screenshot, it is very likely this is an issue with Windows Updates.

To test this, you can temporarily stop the update service easily with the following, then observe if your CPU usage returns to normal when idle.

1. Click the start menu, in the search box type: cmd
You'll see the "cmd.exe" appear at the top of the list, right click this and choose "run as administrator."

2. In the black "command prompt" prompt, copy paste the following:
net stop wuauserv


You should then see the following:
The Windows Update service is stopping.
The Windows Update service was stopped successfully.



If your cpu usage returns to normal, then windows updates isn't working correctly and I can point you in the right direction to fix it.

finally got to try this and after typing "net stop wuauserv" it says access is denied

[Mute]

finally got to try this and after typing "net stop wuauserv" it says access is denied

Click on control panel, administrative tools and then services. Find windows update and right click and select stop and see if the stop command works from there. If not, right click and select properties. In the properties window, change startup type to disabled and reboot your computer. That should prevent windows update from starting.

[Exospeed]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction guys!
It was windows update that was causing the issue.
apparently it was constantly checking for updates even tho there were no new updates available.
I tried to "check for updates" and I got an error that said:
"Windows cannot check for updates because the service is not running. You may need to restart the computer."
I did a system restore to a restore point that was set over a month ago (way before the issue started).
After that I was prompted for an update. On reboot there was an error that the update failed.
The update that failed was KB3035583, and after a google search it appears to be the update that forces an install of Windows 10.
after this the CPU usage was off the charts again and did not go down for over an hour before i did another system restore.
after that I went to the list of updates and hid update KB3035583. So far almost 24 hrs and no more problems.