Comments on: How to fix svchost.exe 100% CPU usage

By: edwards

edwards — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 18:44:50 +0000

Seemed to work for a while, then same problem happened. Seems to be true for everything from Windows. Time to save up for a Mac I guess.

By: Edson

Edson — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:18:00 +0000

Worked really well, thank you very much!

By: BobMonahon

BobMonahon — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 19:56:51 +0000

Hi – I just did this section, and it worked for me. Thanks, BobM
1. Click Start, Run, type: cmd and press Enter. Please run the following command in the opened window. “net stop WuAuServ” (note, you might need to reboot before the net stop command will work… I did not have to reboot)
2. Click Start, Run, type: %windir% and press Enter.
3. In the opened folder, rename the folder SoftwareDistribution to SDold.
4. Click Start, Run, type: cmd and press Enter. Please run the following command in the opened window.
net start WuAuServ

By: Jordan

Jordan — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 05:37:20 +0000

As far as I can tell, this has seemingly worked after NOTHING else I’ve tried has. Hopefully it’s not just a temporary fluke. Thanks for this!

By: Admin (HowToHacks.com)

Admin (HowToHacks.com) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:42:48 +0000

Please note: Comments before this message are real however the dates may be innacurrate becuase I imported them from my previous site.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:41:59 +0000

I am really impressed. This has worked a treat on my netbook. It means I can delay a tricky re install from USB. Thanks dude, you are the bomb!!!

By: Cliff

Cliff — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:41:40 +0000

Just wanted to thank you for this post. I followed these steps (but also I first un-registered each DLL) and then was able to re-upgrade to Microsoft Update and now it behaves properly!

By: JC

JC — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:41:19 +0000

Thanks a bunch! being a hard core PC gamer I am always downloading patches which mostly contain viruses, adwears ect. Thanks to these directions My computer is now working perfectly and even tho my virus scan deleted the virus the cpu usage was still high! Thanks again!

By: Zub

Zub — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:40:42 +0000

Hi! nice post, but, is WUAUENG.DLL a localization dependant file? I have the spanish XP version, do you think there is some other dll meant for the spanish version of the SO? something like WUAUESP.DLL? where is thsi file located?

By: Leendy

Leendy — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:37:57 +0000

We recently had this exact problem on multiple PCs on the same day. All appear to have been triggered by either windows XP service Pack 3, or transition from the “windows automatic update” to “microsoft update” (which are apparently different programs entirely) or some combination of the two. Running this fix removed the “microsoft update” program, putting the systems back to “windows update”, which functions perfectly. We have been able to install XP SP3 and all other fixes, but I have not added the microsoft update option back in at this point (don’t think it is needed).

The fixes listed on this page worked perfectly, with some added details:
- Prior to running anything on this page I:
- a. Disabled automatic updates completely
- b. Set a restore point using system restore (start->all programs->accessories->system tools->system restore)
- c. Installed windows Process Explorer, which gives much nicer detail on the task manager screen to see what is actually going on with the CPU.

- In part 1, #5, when trying to “start” Automatic Updates and BITS, they were already running on our systems. I had to stop them, then restart them.
- In part 3, #1, WuAuServ was already stopped. I did this step anyway, and did not need to reboot.
- In part 3, #2, after typing “%windir%” to determine the windir location, cd to that location (mine was c:\windows) and then type: rename c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution SDOld (if your windir is not c:\windows, you will need to change the rename command I listed)

After running the rest, I rebooted and went to the microsoft update website. There are now “3″ options:
- Install Microsoft Update (this option was not present before this fix)
- Express Updates
- Custom Updates

Express and custom updates worked fine for me, and installed the windows genuine advantage software and XP SP3 without any issues. I then turned automatic updates back on, and I have not reinstalled the microsoft update thing at this point. Everything is running great, and I honestly think a couple older PCs are running a bit faster now… perhaps the MS update was bogging it down continuously.

Thanks for the great posting!