100% cpu load...Windows Update problem

[Panama Red]

I ran into an odd problem with a customer's laptop earlier this week and just wanted to share this so others can spend less time troubleshooting than I did. The complaint was the laptop was locking up and a check in Task Manager showed a 100% cpu load. I suspected a virus or some similar infection but all the scans came up clean. I had setup this pc when it was new 8months ago and they had followed my Weekly Maintenance advice of running Disk Cleanup, Adaware and Spybot. After reading several reports from others experiencing a similar problem, I finally found the fix in the MS Knowledge Base. Here's a link to the patch should anyone else experience this problem.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q927891

When you look in the Task Manager, one of the svchost.exe Processes will be running the cpu load and hogging a huge amount of memory. Disable the Windows Update Service in order to regain control of the pc before you try to download the patch.

[Panama Red]

Update. Just had a call from a second customer with the same problem on his laptop. Talking him thru the fix over the phone. I think we are going to see more of this.

[Great_One]

I had this on a win2k server, and the fix was alot worse than installin a hotfix.
Thanks Microsoft.

[Rossl]

As stated in the first post............How do you disable the Windows Update Service ( in order to regain control of the pc before you try to download the patch)?

I downloaded Update for Windows XP (927891) package. I restarted the PC and went to the Windows Update page, but I could not get any other downloads. The task manager was at 100% and svchost.exe was still hogging the processor time.

[Panama Red]

As stated in the first post............How do you disable the Windows Update Service ( in order to regain control of the pc before you try to download the patch)?

I downloaded Update for Windows XP (927891) package. I restarted the PC and went to the Windows Update page, but I could not get any other downloads. The task manager was at 100% and svchost.exe was still hogging the processor time.

You can Disable Auto Updates in Safe Mode. Tap the F8 key during startup until you are given the dos-type screen with different boot options. Pick Safe or Safe with Networking. Once it boots, go to Run>services.msc and open the Services page. Find Automatic Updates (they're in alphabetical order) and double click on AU. Change the Setting from Automatic to Disabled, Apply and close those windows. Reboot the pc and proceed to download and install the patch.

If this patch doesn't work for you, Rossi, keep in mind that svchost can also be a disquised Trojan or malware of some type. In that case, I would recommend booting to Safe Mode with Networking and running scans with Ewido.net/Adaware/Spybot-Search &Destroy/and Trendmicro's Housecall.

[Rossl]

You can Disable Auto Updates in Safe Mode. Tap the F8 key during startup until you are given the dos-type screen with different boot options. Pick Safe or Safe with Networking. Once it boots, go to Run>services.msc and open the Services page. Find Automatic Updates (they're in alphabetical order) and double click on AU. Change the Setting from Automatic to Disabled, Apply and close those windows. Reboot the pc and proceed to download and install the patch.

If this patch doesn't work for you, Rossi, keep in mind that svchost can also be a disquised Trojan or malware of some type. In that case, I would recommend booting to Safe Mode with Networking and running scans with Ewido.net/Adaware/Spybot-Search &Destroy/and Trendmicro's Housecall.


I have already scanned with Spybot and Adaware, should I try the others listed ( Ewido.net and Trendmicro's Housecall) first?

I am using AVG is that the same as Ewido.net?

[Panama Red]

Grisoft bought Ewido a while back and has renamed it AVG AntiSpyware. The Ewido site is still up and offers an online scan. AVG AntiVirus is a separate product. And, yes, run the Ewido and Housecall scans just to be sure.

[Rossl]

After the Houseware scan, I finally got the updates (62 of them). Things seem to be working much better. Thank you for the information!