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Main Area and Open Discussion => General Software Discussion => Topic started by: Curt on March 29, 2007, 09:17 AM
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Taking XP into use, I have been trying to get use to the very high CPU usage right after every PC upstart. But the day before yesterday I had a bad experience with a failed removal which corrupted several program that I then was forced to re-install. After this, svchost has been VERY busy, as you can see on the picture: some 90% CPU usage for 36 minutes! Its not the updater (set to work on Sundays only), so I take it the sinner is the Recovery System making fix points or whatever. IF the Recovery System was excellent, I wouldn't mind this extreme behaviour too much, but knowing from bad experience that Recovery System really sucks and won't recover anything, this behaviour kind of upsets me.
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Can I somehow disable Recovery System's automatic fix point setting? :tellme:
- if you know what I mean.
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I always disable system recovery completely...
anyway, for tracking down which service is being bad, you can view properties of the svchost instance that takes up all the CPU, process explorer has a "services" tab that lists which services that particular instance is responsible for.
Some instances serve a *lot* of services, but it should at least help you pinpoint it.
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, process explorer has a "services" tab that lists which services that particular instance is responsible for. Some instances serve a *lot* of services, but it should at least help you pinpoint it. -f0dder
Yeah, I noticed a hughe number of services for this svchost, and of course one of all these is the very sinner itself - but Who? I realize that the reason for the present lang-term 100% CPU usage (1 hour by now!) might not be System Recovery after all; this host also runs Event Notification, and various others:
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I always disable system recovery completely...-f0dder
I too have done so, now,
- and the CPU usage is some 5%, so the sinner really was System Recovery! >:(
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Probably you had a big registry file or too many system files, so that's why System Recover spends so much time doing the backing up (I suppose...)
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Virus Scanners can slow down any moving/copying of files significantly. This could compound the problem.
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If I had just one guess, it would be BITS - background intelligent file transfer, which is used as part of windows update.
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I always disable system recovery completely...-f0dder
I too have done so, now,
- and the CPU usage is some 5%, so the sinner really was System Recovery! >:(
-Curt
Seems I was too hasty, again. After re-start the CPU usage was very high for very long again, and with System Recovery diabled, tthe sinner must be someone else. Maybe BITS or maby some major error, I am far from done with re-installing all the broken programs - in fact, I have no sound at the moment - and there are some hidden errors as well: Outpost will open, but not respond, even though I have re-installed the entire Office 2003; I cannot send or receive mails.
The extreme CPU usage is really only yet another minor frustration :(
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Bet I know what it is ...
Did you upgrade to "Microsoft Update" rather than "Windows Update" ?
I had huge problems and found a number of articles in the MS knowledge base admitting that Microsoft Update hogs the CPU during the first startup each day while it checks your system and the MS website for updates.
If you have ever gone to the Windows Update page it asks you to upgrade to Microsoft Update so you may have done it without thinking. You can opt to revert to Windows update (it is hidden in one of the links on the left) and that certainly solved my startup problems.
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Thanks Carol (and everyone else) - this high CPU issue associated with svhost has been driving me crazy. I just visited Microsoft Update and selected "Change Options" in the left hand side and then scrolled to the bottom of the page to disable Microsoft Updates and revert to Windows Updates. Too soon to tell if this will cure my problem, but I'm hopeful...
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Bet I know what it is ...
Did you upgrade to "Microsoft Update" rather than "Windows Update" ?
I had huge problems and found a number of articles in the MS knowledge base admitting that Microsoft Update hogs the CPU during the first startup each day while it checks your system and the MS website for updates. -Carol Haynes
Yes, it was Microsoft_Update. But I already had the auto-update feature set to check on Sundays only, so why would it check at every upstart each day? :mad: Following your advice I have now changed it to Windows Update - so, we're going to see...
Thanks, Carol :up:
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IME MS don't really respect the settings you enter WRT scheduling!
Try turning off automatic update altogether and see if that fixes your problems.
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... Microsoft_Update. But I already had the auto-update feature set to check on Sundays only, so why would it check at every upstart each day? :mad: -Curt
IME MS don't really respect the settings you enter WRT scheduling! -Carol Haynes
??? !!! >:(
Try turning off automatic update altogether and see if that fixes your problems.
-Carol Haynes
I have done so, now, and: Yes, that fixed my problems on CPU usage!
"Check on Sundays only!" Ha! They have been giving me the finger!
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No wonder 'some' are angry with Microsoft...
Thank you for this tip, Carol :up:
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You are welcome - I only knew about this because I had the same problem.
If you swap back to Windows Update it fixes the issue - if you use Office you will then need to occasionally use Office Update to check for Office product updates (from the Help menu in any Office App).
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WinDirStat is a great program to see whose doing what and eating how much space on your hard drive.
I like the graphical use chart and the fact that it tells you exactly which program is taking up space.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/windirstat/
(http://imgred.com/http://www.lifehacker.com/software/uploaded/2006-02-10/windirstat.png)
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Just popping back in to say that the changes in my system have been profound since I "downgraded" to Windows Update. svhost isn't pegging my CPU anymore...
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- same for me, only I also have forgotten to update for eight days...
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Erunt: This freeware replaces windows system restore which can now be turned off. To turn off, click on 'start', 'control panel', 'system', 'system restore' tab, and put a check mark in front of 'turn off system restore on all drives'. Every day when you start your computer for the first time that day, Erunt will automatically backup your registry files. You can also backup at anytime just before you install software or modify the registry.
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/erunt.html
zeke
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Great call. Erunt is the best and least resource hungry registry backup there is. T o tell the truth, I had lost it during my bout with rootkits and had forgotten to reinstall it. Thanks.
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System Restore has never worked for me! Even if I have a restore point it says - nothing to restore?
Does erunt replace it completely so you can roll back? I have regseeker which backs up....
:-[
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RegSeeker will only back up keys that you are using RegSeeker to delete, it will not do any "normal" kind of backups. ERUNT and ERUNT Autobackup will backup the registry only.
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Have downloaded and just to clarify.....
Am I correct that this completely replaces system restore?
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It doesn't completely replace system restore.
System restore also notes key files that have changed (and backs up previous versions). So if DLL libraries change or drivers are installed previous versions are saved in case of trouble.
As I understand it ERUNT allows you to back up the registry - this is useful but restoring an old registry after a hardware change or the installation of new software may not roll back your system to a safe or stable state as you then potentially have registry entries pointing at drivers or libraries that are at best the wrong version or at worst may not even exist!
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No, it wont replace the System Restore in the way that you can use it to Roll Back. But maybe the question is not if it will replace XP System Restore or not, but if System Restore is worth anything to you. XP System Restore has been worth nothing to me, and you told that System Restore never worked for you. So there you have it! :up:
But do remember that Erunt only will backup the registry keys. Each time you delete a program / anything, the backup cannot recreate such. If you want a genuine Roll Back option, you will have to create Images of the entire PC. Erunt cannot do that; it will not offer you the chance to roll back if you have deleted the wrong file or the wrong program, only the chance to recreate the registry - and for this it will need the original files to be present. I have learned the hard way to keep everything, until the PC have been working for several days with any new programs / updates. Don't empty your basket too soon!
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I use Acronis True Image.....and keep my install files - everything is backed up to an external enclosure. ;)
:D
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I use Acronis True Image.....and keep my install files - everything is backed up to an external enclosure. -CleverCat
I believe you should be home and free then. :up:
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However, you did forget to supply a link to Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/) [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
The price is $50 but if you abort the purchase it will offer a 10% cutdown, making it $45
- still a lot of money...
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Can't buy on net. - no credit card and SA debit cards don't have required 3 digit security number.. :down:
Have got my local pc shop scouting for the new Acronis 10 disk - which they sell for a good price! It's worth spending about R300 ($45) IMHO :D
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You might want to check out the free DriveImage XML (http://www.runtime.org/driveimage_faq.htm).
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Checked....
I like Acronis new option to image Folders though and write direct to DVD.
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TrueImage is great when it works... However, Acronis do two things that really piss me, and a lot of their users, off. First, they release a new version every 9-12 months and require their user base to cough up for it. This is fair enough, but over three versions I've noticed (and this point is hammered home on their users' forum (http://www.wilderssecurity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=65) constantly) that the new version invariably *fixes* major features that simply did not work as advertised in the previous version. Case in point is writing to DVD in version 9. It was advertised all over the Acronis website as a must have feature in version 9, and yet it never worked reliably (backup software MUST be reliable!). People complained strenously about it for a year without a fix. Lo and behold, Acronis brought out version 10 and it's been fixed. Read the forum (http://www.wilderssecurity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=65) and you'll see constant complaining about this practice (and it is certainly not limited to the single example I've given). The point being that they release software that is advertised with certain functions that in practice do not work. The user base essentially pays to beta test features and are then expected to pay for those features when the problems with them have been ironed out. Wouldn't be so bad if they released a solid version (ie one in which all advertised features work) and then allowed their user base to beta test unstable and UNADVERTISED features, but of course they don't do this. Upgrades run in the $30 range, IIRC.
TrueImage 9 (which is the last version I paid for) works for me as I backup to USB harddrives. It works really well. However, I am tired of paying for upgrades and am leaving well enough alone. Note too that I can confirm the problems with DVD backups in 9, having backed up my wife's C: drive to three DVD's, verified the images at time of burning and TrueImage won't recognise them as valid image files!
Caveat emptor...
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You don't want to use DVDs anyway.
I tried using DVDs to backup my system using TrueImae 9 (Workstation version) and the discs worked OK but the image was spread over 3 DVDs and the disc swapping to restore the image was intolerable - I spent more than 40 minutes swapping discs and as far as I could tell it still hadn't restored a byte. I copied the images to a hard disc and restored from there and they worked fine.
Moral is - even when the DVD images are good and work (and I too have had images that say they are invalid but verify and then work magically another time) you can't reallistically do it from DVD unless you have an image that fits onto a single disc!
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I have True Image 9 - works fine so........................
I back up to my external enclosure!
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Is this such a kind of 'external enclosure' you're using? :tellme: asked the IT-analphabetic Dane:
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A 3.5" USB/FireWire hard disk enclosure
-Wikipedia
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You don't want to use DVDs anyway.
I tried using DVDs to backup my system using TrueImae 9 (Workstation version) and the discs worked OK but the image was spread over 3 DVDs and the disc swapping to restore the image was intolerable - I spent more than 40 minutes swapping discs and as far as I could tell it still hadn't restored a byte. I copied the images to a hard disc and restored from there and they worked fine.
Moral is - even when the DVD images are good and work (and I too have had images that say they are invalid but verify and then work magically another time) you can't reallistically do it from DVD unless you have an image that fits onto a single disc!
-Carol Haynes
Yup. I can confirm this - I was trying to mount the drive image and was getting an error message from both TI 9 Home and TI 9.1 Workstation stating that the image was invalid or corrupt. After I posted above, it occurred to me to be "proactive" and read the help file :-[ and sure enough discovered that you can only mount a dvd image if it is on one disc (actually, what it says is that all portions of an image must be on the same volume) so I am copying three dvds to my harddrive so that I can use TI to extract my wife's Outlook file and move it onto my old workhorse Win2k machine. Staples/Office Depot want three weeks to fix the DVD-RW... So, most of what I rant and rave about above holds true, except for my experience with DVD's - on the two setups that I have running here - Win2k and TI 9 Home/WinXP Pro and TI 9.1 Workstation, it works, it's just as slow as molasses. I really hope that I can restore from these DVD's when my wife's notebook comes back as I returned her harddrive to a clean XP install before surrendering it...
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It should work fine.
Actually you can use multiple DVDs but it is flaky.
If you have the 9.1 Workstation version try booting from a rescue disc and then try to validate the archive.
IIRC the thing that cured invalid archives (that weren't actually invalid) was that you have to insert the last disc of the set first to open the archive - it won't accept the first disc and just says it is invalid. Another good example of Acronis quality control.
As I said though, trying to restore from multiple DVDs is like pulling teeth - I gave up after 40 minutes of disc swapping as my brain was about to explode with frustration!
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Is this such a kind of 'external enclosure' you're using? :tellme: asked the IT-analphabetic Dane:
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A 3.5" USB/FireWire hard disk enclosure
-Wikipedia
-Curt
More or less - mine looks slightly different as it's in a stand and is upright but yep - that's it!