SVCHOST (Pro SP1)

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My system is sometimes so slow it seems to have stopped altogether. It’s a 2.4GHz P4 with 512 MB of RAM so it shouldn’t be. I checked the Task Manager and it seems to be SVCHOST. There are four instances of this running; one as a local service, one as a network service and two used by the system. The problem seems to be one of the system uses, as it is using 96% of the CPU. How can I find out what is going on, and how do I stop SVCHOST from hogging the system like this. MSKB article 314056 contains some information, but I don’t know how to interpret it to help with my problem.

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Andrew,
I also have the same 4 occurances of svchost in the same services, however, they don’t take up more than a few % of the CPU total. You may want to try looking into the listing of the one that shows high useage.

Svchost is a generic host process that hosts services run from DLLs. During development, it’s customary to separate new or changing services to increase the reliability and ease of troubleshooting; thus, on a beta OS version, you see more svchost processes running than on a release version.

To find out what’s inside each copy of svchost.exe, use the Resource Kit Support Tools’ tlist.exe (with the -s switch). (You need to install the Support Tools from supporttools on your product CD-ROM; they don’t install by default.)
This list may show you just what is gobbling up those useage times.

Bob

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Hi, Bob ~

I would like to know more about how to use the -s switch with tlist.exe.

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Hi Bruce,
That info was taken from an article by John Savil. More detail is given at: http://www.ntfaq.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=20609%5B/url%5D

Bob

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Right on! Thank you!

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Bob,

I had installed the support tools but there is no tlist amongst them and tlist is not mentioned in the release notes. What gives?

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Andrew,
Strange goings on. MS advises that tlist was replaced with tasklist.exe in Win XP. Tlist.exe was a Win200/NT prog. HOWEVER, now it seems that tasklist is amongst the missing also. Supposedly, you would type start/run/cmd/tasklist /? and get a list of switches for tasklist. Now all I get is that it isn’t recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. ?????
I’ve got to do some searching around to try to find out the where-abouts of this thing. Seaching the MSKB turns up a reference to svchost and the instructions to run tasklist as described above, but NG?
I’ll keep you posted on this.

Bob

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Bob,

Tasklist.exe is installed with Win XP. That’s why it’s not in the support tools. But it doesn’t work the way you described tlist. It seems you have to specify the dll you want to check for and it will list all the processes using it. I haven’t fully explored all the parameters yet, but it certainly doesn’t seem to do what tlist did.

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Check out “Help and support” and search on tasklist, you will get the following, which is about 1/4 of the data. Be in a DOS Windows to try out the different options.

TasklistDisplays a list of applications and services with their Process ID (PID) for all tasks running on either a local or a remote computer.

Syntax
tasklist[.exe] [/s computer] [/u domainuser [/p password]] [/fo {TABLE|LIST|CSV}] [/nh] [/fi FilterName [/fi FilterName2 [ … ]]] [/m [ModuleName] | /svc | /v]

Parameters
/s Computer
Specifies the name or IP address of a remote computer (do not use backslashes). The default is the local computer.
/u DomainUser
Runs the command with the account permissions of the user specified by User or DomainUser. The default is the permissions of the current logged on user on the computer issuing the command.
/p Password
Specifies the password of the user account that is specified in the /u parameter.
/fo {TABLE|LIST|CSV}
Specifies the format to use for the output. Valid values are TABLE, LIST, and CSV. The default format for output is TABLE.
/nh
Suppresses column headers in the output. Valid when the /fo parameter is set to TABLE or CSV.
/fi FilterName
Specifies the types of process(es) to include in or exclude from the query. The following table lists valid filter names, operators, and values.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Thanks Dave, but that doesn’t really help. It’s the same as typing ‘tasklist /?’ at a command prompt which I’ve already tried and which I discussed in my earlier post. What I want is something that does what tlist apparently did in Win2K.

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Andrew,
Check out Process Explorer at http://www.sysinternals.com[/url%5D. There may also be something in the pstools package at sysinternals.

hth,
Joe

--Joe

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Dave,
I’m not even getting that far. As I described in the previous post, the tasklist command just isn’t being recognized at all. A search for tasklist.exe doesn’t find anything. (including system & hidden files) Yet MS says it should be there in XP !

BTW, the red print is a dog to read with the skin I’m using.

Bob

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Are you trying to do this from a “Run” pane, or a DOS window?

All I did was go to “Start, Programs, Accessories, and then Cmd Prompt” and then type in the command tasklist and then the enter key and it ran.

Have you turned ON show system files, if NOT Search (find) can NOT find it. You shoeld NOT need to locate it , just do as I listed above and see if that works.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Dave,
This must be a difference in Home & Pro versions.

I don’t have a cmd prompt in the accesories tab. I DO try to go to start/run/ & type CMD, which brings me to command prompt. When I type tasklist, that’s when I get the message mentioned in my other post, about not recognizing the command.

I did a search for “tasklist.exe” in order to find IF the file was somewhere on the system. (show hidden & system files are enabled). I wasn’t just trying to locate it and run it, just see if it was there. (it wasn’t)
So, you can’t run a file if it isn’t there… Why, I don’t know. MS claims that it is part of XP, like tlist was a part of Win2000.

Bob

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I am running Pro SP1 what version are you running?

Just fired up the wife’s laptop running Home and it does NOT have tastlist.

It is in Windows/system32 folder on the Pro machines.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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That must be it, Dave. I’m running Xp Home and the file is nowhere to be found. Funny, since I’m almost sure MS said it was in both?

Bob

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Bob, This KB article A Description of Svchost.exe in Windows XP talks about the use of tasklist and says it applies to XPP only.

Joe

--Joe

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Joe, Right again.
Guess I didn’t read it thru or something, Thanks,

Bob

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Hi Cowboy,
Yes, Svchost is part of XP Home also. Svhost, I don’t want any part of

Bob

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“SVHOST is NOT a Virus”

You are going to need to have this running from time to time.
Check out http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314056%5B/url%5D

MORE INFORMATION
The Svchost.exe file is located in the %SystemRoot%System32 folder. At startup, Svchost.exe checks the services portion of the registry to construct a list of services that it needs to load. Multiple instances of Svchost.exe can run at the same time. Each Svchost.exe session can contain a grouping of services, so that separate services can run, depending on how and where Svchost.exe is started. This allows for better control and easier debugging.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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I know that Svchost is part of XP. (mentioned above)

It’s SVHOST (without the “c”) that’s part of a virus. Do a google on svhost, it shows the difference.

Bob

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Sorry, MY ERROR.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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No Problem, Dave.

Bob

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