Why does svchost eat RAM and Processor in Windows 7?

[JhayAhyWhy]

Is this normal? I know svchost is a Windows 7 process, but does it really eat up my RAM and my Processor? My Proc usage goes to 100% when it's running. I kill this Process whenever it pops. Any help? *Check Image Below

http://imgur.com/KNmTKMD

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Some malware is named svchost to fool the PC owner in to thinking it's a genuine system file, so give your system a full scan with a reliable antivirus product.

 

[Rabmac]

What Phillip said is correct but I would add that it is not always malware that is the cause of this high CPU usage.

svchost is also used to start well known windows processes like windows update and sometimes you get what is known as memory leaks which result in high CPU usage.

There are some known issues with some windows services (opened by svchost) that can result in memory leaks. There is a nice discussion that explains how you investigate this issue and also how to fix it: http://superuser.com/questions/583737/why-how-is-svchost-exe-using-6-5gb-of-memory