More often than not, after windows start-up, my PC was getting too slow and unresponsive. When i saw the task manager, I noticed that there were quite a few instances of svchost.exe process and CPU usage was nearly 100% due to them.
Svchost.exe is actually a system process belonging to the Microsoft Windows Operating System. It handles processes executed from DLLs. Off late, Microsoft started moving all of the functionality from internal Windows services into .dll files instead of .exe files for the sake of better re-usability. However, this created a little problem as a .dll file cannot be executed directly. Thus, the svchost.exe process was born to facilitate running those .dll files.
What I observed was, the memory hogging issue cropped up only after I turned on Automatic Updates from Microsoft. Follow the steps given below to resolve the issue.
How to Fix svchost.exe Memory Hogging Issue on Windows?
- Download Windows Update v3 WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe and save it to your C: drive.
- Download fix_svchost.zip and extract the zip and save the file to your C: drive.
- Download WindowsXP-KB927891.exe (right click and choose save as..) and save it to your C: drive.
- Reboot the PC and log in to Windows in safe mode. To do this, press F8 just before the Windows logo shows up during boot and press up to choose “Safe Mode”.
- Login as the admin and Click Start > Run, choose the Browse button and find the fix_svchost.bat file you saved before, press Open, then OK.
- A black screen will pop up and white text will scroll past. Wait for this process to finish as it could take several minutes. It will close itself when its finished.
- Once the black screen disappears, Click Start > Run, choose the Browse button and find the WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe file you saved before, press Open, then OK. Follow the prompts as it installs.
- When Windows Update Agent finishes installing, Click Start > Run, choose the Browse button and find the WindowsXP-KB927891.exe file you saved before, press Open, then OK. Follow the prompts as it installs and reboot the PC.
That’s it, you are done!
Thanks to Technibble for the fix.
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September 9th, 2008 at 11:24 am
added in my website and provided the source as your blog
Thanks
Regards
MuthusrinivasaN
September 11th, 2008 at 2:52 am
The “WindowsXP-KB927891.exe file” was rejected as it didn`t support Norwegian language. Any work-around for this?
September 11th, 2008 at 2:58 am
Hello! The “WindowsXP-KB927891.exe file” didn`t work out as a message said that the language on this computer was different, ie Norwegian.
Any work-around?
September 11th, 2008 at 8:38 am
What exactly does this do to stop this SVCHOST plague?
September 11th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Ubuntu will fix it!
September 11th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Will this work with Vista as well?
September 11th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Awsome article, I have also added this to my site. and sourced. THanks!
October 4th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
downloand WindowsXP-KB927891-v3-x86-ENU.exe or other languages suit you.
good luck!
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:09 pm
I installed Ubuntu. It solved the problem.
Max Malms last blog post..Ubuntu: Can’t play some songs i Rhythmbox
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:07 pm
@Max Malms
Smart fellow
October 23rd, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Sorry for being an ass, great article, i was just in a bad mood
Max Malms last blog post..Ubuntu: Can’t play some songs i Rhythmbox
November 7th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
How to- get rid memory leak cause by svchost.exe in Windows XP.
Make sure you have plenty of RAM to do this (minimum 515mb preferred). Get rid of the current page file (virtual memory), it may be corrupted causing memory leaks.
>Right click My Computer on your desktop
>Choose Properties
>Click the Advanced tab
> In the Performance panel,
>Click the Settings button
>Advanced tab in the Performance options
> In the Virtual memory panel,
>Click the Change button
>Select C drive/partition, if it isn’t already selected
> Tick ‘No Paging file’ in the paging file size for selected drive panel.
> Press the SET button
> Then click OK, OK, OK.
>Reboot, the system will re-create it.
This possible solution should end your worries.
August 28th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Hello,
How to- get rid memory leak cause by svchost.exe in Windows XP.
I think cleanning your registry is the most easy way to fix this error.
You can try Registry Easy. It is free scan now.
http://www.keep-pc-clean.com/
February 9th, 2010 at 4:58 pm