Automatic Update causes SVCHOST.exe high CPU

re: Automatic Update causes SVCHOST.exe high CPU

Don Etling — Wed, 30 May 2007 18:35:33 GMT

Tried both patches with no success. The only way I was able to get Windows Update to work was to reset my display driver to absolute minimum (640x480 - 16 colors). The updates ran fine. I haven't had a chance yet to reset the resolution to something real to see if it still works. Maybe something changed in your scrolling green bar?

re: Automatic Update causes SVCHOST.exe high CPU

Draino — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 02:29:42 GMT

I have found that either sometimes a computer has to stay on overnight before it will complete the scanning process. This is possibly due to either certain older (non dual-core) systems can't cope with the massive CPU load that is generated by svchost.exe or the WSUS service can't cope with more than a few client requests at once. Either way it takes on average 2 days to get a Windows XP system updated from a basic SP2 install... quite annoying since the users here expect a turnaround time of a few hours!

re: Automatic Update causes SVCHOST.exe high CPU

Tom — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:01:59 GMT

Tried them all still the same issue.

This seems to be caused by updating from WSUS 3.0 to WSUS 3.0 SP1.

I have got some machines working killing all the update services processes and Deleting %windir%\SoftwareDistribution, %windir%\System32\SoftwareDistribution, %windir%\System32\CatRoot and %windir%\System32\CatRoot2

Ran the WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe

After the installation ran "wuauclt /detectnow"

Let me know if there is a better solution for this....

re: Automatic Update causes SVCHOST.exe high CPU

Sageadvice — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:41:08 GMT

I ran the KB927891and WUA3.0 but the problem remained, although better thanit was. Tom's solution clearing out %windir%\SoftwareDistribution fixed the issue. However, the cause is not clear. In this case an update to the Genuine Windows Validation tool had occurred about 3 days before the issue started. On the 3rd day a Windows update was flagged to be installed on shutdown, which it was. On next boot the problem started. My client's other PC had the same Genuine Windows Validation tool update applied about a week later, and it too developed the problem 3 days later (ie a week after the first PC).

re: Automatic Update causes SVCHOST.exe high CPU

Sageadvice — Thu, 15 May 2008 06:05:46 GMT

Further to my earlier post I have now confirmed that the SVCHOST/update high CPU problem was caused by installing the Office 2007 converter pack which, on next boot, caused Office 2007 patch KB947801 to be installed. The high CPU use stared on next boot. This process has been followed on a second PC with the same result.

re: Automatic Update causes SVCHOST.exe high CPU

Chris — Sat, 24 May 2008 06:04:08 GMT

I also used Tom's solution to correct this annoying problem. I am running Windows XP Professional with SP2 and all current updates as of 5/23/08.

Thanks for the info Tom. Now to fix the rest of the PCs having this problem. One thing I noticed is that it's only happening to my Intel based systems. AMD doesn't seem to be affected though I don't know if that has anything to do with it.