Solution to Windows 7 SVCHOST.EXE Nightmare

[Appletax]

I've reinstalled Windows 7 SP1 on three laptops and all three had the high CPU usage and memory leak caused by SVCHOST.exe. Tried many, many things to fix the issue and found a solution that has worked on the latest laptop I've worked on.

The laptop I was working on is done and updated 100%. SVCHOST.EXE did not gobble up RAM or CPU time during the entire update process.

Here is my solution

1. Install Windows 7 and do NOT enable automatic updates
2. Install drivers
3. Manually install Windows 7 SP1, if needed
   1. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5842
4. Install latest Windows Update Agent (this may not be necessary)
   1. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/949104
5. Install offline updates with Autopatcher (important first and then recommended - don't install IE 11 because it doesn't work)
   1. http://www.autopatcher.net/forum/
6. Change power settings to now allow PC to sleep or hibernate
7. Turn on automatic Windows Updates and leave computer alone
8. Keep updating the system until there's nothing left to update

Please let me know if this procedure does or does not work for you

• Windows Update Client for Windows 7: June 2015 did not help

• After installing Windows 7 SP1 with automatic updates, leaving the computer alone for potentially a long period of time may eventually lead to the system updating, despite the SVCHOST.exe issue
  • On the last laptop I worked on, I did this and it took 1.5 hours to find and apply the first round of updates
  • The next round of updates were the big one: 192 important updates
    • I let them download and the progress was stuck at 0% for at least half an hour
    • Went to bed and let them download and install overnight. Woke up to the updates being stuck at number 142 and had to do a hard shutdown and start over.

 

[SAFCasper]

We are getting loads of Windows 7 machines in recently with this issue. Not re-installs, just normal machines that suddenly are going really slow. Take a look at task manager and svchost is using 1GB+ of memory along with 50%+ of CPU. The second we stop wuauserv it drops down to ~100Mb memory and the machine comes back to life. Happens even on machines that are fully patched.

As of yet we don't have a real solution. Most of our clients install updates on a schedule so we just use scheduled tasks to enable/start the service a few hours before, then another scheduled task to stop/disable the service a few hours after they have been installed.

I would love to know a real solution if anybody has one. My colleagues think MS is slowing down 7 so people will upgrade to 10

 

[Appletax]

We are getting loads of Windows 7 machines in recently with this issue. Not re-installs, just normal machines that suddenly are going really slow. Take a look at task manager and svchost is using 1GB+ of memory along with 50%+ of CPU. The second we stop wuauserv it drops down to ~100Mb memory and the machine comes back to life. Happens even on machines that are fully patched.

As of yet we don't have a real solution. Most of our clients install updates on a schedule so we just use scheduled tasks to enable/start the service a few hours before, then another scheduled task to stop/disable the service a few hours after they have been installed.

I would love to know a real solution if anybody has one. My colleagues think MS is slowing down 7 so people will upgrade to 10

Let Windows Update run for hours. Maybe it will eventually install the latest updates and fix the issue. There may be a specific update that fixes the issue, such as the one people have mentioned that was released in June 2015. Can also try using Autopatcher first.

 

[Nate the Great]

We have had the same issue ,and tracked it down to a memory leak in windows management 3.0 framework. It can be resolved by installing the following hotfix from microsoft, which is located here: http://support2.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=2889748&kbln=en-us

Please note windows 7 SP1 must be installed first, or the hotfix will fail to install.

 

[FremontPC]

Nice work, Nate!