Windows XP: svchost.exe Consuming 100% CPU

[rmcinnes]

In Windows XP, one instance of schost.exe was consuming 100% of CPU time, making my notebook virtually useless.

There are a lot of suggestions published on the Web for Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 10, but little specific to Windows XP, so for Windows XP Users, here is my recommendation:

It took me a while to figure it out for Windows XP, but ultimately, I found the solution:
Disable Automatic Updates [wuauserv] in Services.

For Windows XP Users, here is the detail:
Start, Run, services.msc, and select Automatic Updates, right click, and select Properties to display the detail.
The Service name is: wuauserv,
Set the Services: to Stop, and Startup type: to Disabled.
Your PC will immediately snap back from 100% to a normal CPU load.

Note: this is one of several services running under this one instance of svchost.exe,
To see what else this instance of schost.exe is doing, open Command Prompt, and type: taskslist /svc.

You can identify the Task PID of the offending instance of svchost.exe via Windows Task Manager [type Ctrl Alt Del],
Select: View, Processes, and sort by Image Name to see a list of all instances of schost.exe [from all the other tasks running at the time]
If PID is not visible...
Select: Columns, and tick PID (Process Identifier), CPU Usage, and CPU Time, Memory Usage, Session ID, and User Name.
The offending instance of schost.exe will be using close to 100% CPU.

Use your PC normally.
svchost.exe (wuauserv) should not kick in again.

When convenient, confirm that svchost.exe (wuauserv) does not kick in again after a Reboot
(Typically, before being disabled, svchost.exe (wuauserv) is set with a delayed start up of up to an hour, so keep your figures crossed until then)

 

[geofelt]

Sounds like you are running windows update.
My suggestion is to turn off windows update entirely.
The default will be to check for updates which will happen daily.
There are some issues with high utilization.
I tried to fix it for my son's windows 7 with utterly no success.
I decided to turn off windows update altogether.
Now, I turn it off also on my windows 7 pc.
On occasion, when I decide to check, I first take a system checkpoint before turning it back on.

Since there are no more functional updates for XP or windows y, there is no real need. Secdurity updates for your antivirus should be unaffected.

 

[rmcinnes]

geofelt,
Even with Automatic Updates turned Off, in...
Start, Control Panel, Security Centre, Automatic Updates, Turn off Automatic Updates,
the service continued to kick in, rendering my Windows XP un-usable.
Security Centre does show Automatic Updates is turned off, so the setting sticks there, but does not stop it.

I had to resort to services.msc to disable the service, and the setting sticks, after multiple Reboots,
wake from Standby, or Hibernate, and Wake on Network Access works for the the first time in years.

Windows XP is running better than it has for ages, responsive and very useable...
0 to 1% CPU usage when idle, and 140 MB of free memory (Sony PCG-XE17 is maxed out at 256 MB)
Am very happy, there a many more years of usability in this beautiful circa 2000 notebook.

Prior to this debacle, I was regularly seeing Windows XP Updates from Microsoft, the last in September 2016.
ESET NOD32 Version 9 provides low overhead but very solid protection.