Computer Help -- svchost.exe is eating up my computer

RangerWickett

Legend

• Sep 26, 2004

• #1

I noticed that my computer was running low on space, and that it had added spontaneously about 500 MB of files. I tried first to check for viruses, etc., but it didn't help. The computer was making a lot of 'thinking' noises (y'know, the little brring that comes when the hard drive is working), and I eventually noticed on My Computer that the hard drive was filling up at a rate of about a meg per second. Panicking, I started randomly closing programs on Task Manager, and eventually I discovered that svchost.exe was apparently the responsible program. When I killed it, the space-eating stopped.

So, I'm afraid to restart my computer, in case the program starts up again and fills up my entire hard drive. I need help to save my computer.

I'm using Windows XP, on an HP Pavilion.

I checked the Windows help, and it suggested I download the newest 'RSA ACE/Agent for Windows.' I found the website that provides this, but I don't want to randomly download something if I don't know what it does.

I really hope someone here can assist me. I love this computer, and I don't want to lose it.

 

log in or register to remove this ad

Anime Kidd

Explorer

• Sep 26, 2004

• #2

Svchost sounds familiar. I looked it up in Google and found this. Looks like it is a normal processing thing, but maybe you got something named the same thing and its doing bad juju? Sorry I couldnt be more helpful.

 

ASH

First Post

• Sep 26, 2004

• #3

We had a virus that was calling itself SVChosting... notice the ing at the end... Because we have lots of svc host's but only 1 with an ing.. it was making my cpu usage spike to 100 percent...

It was a virus. I cant remember how we finally got rid of it. But Drew, my hubby knows. Let me tell him tomarrow about it and he should post back...

 

J

jmucchiello

Hero

• Sep 26, 2004

• #4

How are you going to read this if you don't turn your computer on?

svchost.exe is a normal windows app used by COM objects to "run". Unfortunately, that include malicious COM objects such a ActiveX controls that download innocuously with webpages. A normal copy of XP will have several such running svchost.exe instances to handle normal processees like .NET services.

Assuming you have up to date virus software, you have probably caught some spyware. AdAware should take care of it. But you have to download it and run it.

If you can just kill it from the task manager easily, it may (note: MAY) be all right to just boot up and run a virus scan/adaware check. If neither latest virus scan signatures nor latest Adaware can find this COM object, it will take more Windows-fu than I can impart in this post to help you get rid of it. (It involves poking around in the registry which can be dangerous.)

If it is spyware that adaware takes out. Do yourself a favor and download mozilla since Internet Explorer is your primary culprit in receiving COM objects you don't want from the Internet.

 

BluWolf

Explorer

• Sep 26, 2004

• #5

Another good anti-spyware tool is eTrust Pest Patrol from.

Go to www.pestpatrol.com

 

Mystery Man

First Post

• Sep 26, 2004

• #6

How much RAM do you have?

Running SP2 will block most pop-ups that throw spyware on your machine and kick in some new features to your builtin firewall. It also does not allow more than 10 connections to your computer.
It also has the potential to cause your computer to never boot up again.

 

RangerWickett

Legend

• Sep 26, 2004

• #7

I'm currently just leaving my computer on all the time. I have 128 MB of RAM.

It wasn't svchosting, just svchost. And I ran Lavasoft's AdAware and found nothing. Hmm.

 

Ferret

Explorer

• Sep 26, 2004

• #8

My dad fixes comps so I asked him. He's heard of it before, a googling turns up this site about it:

http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/library/windir.svchost/index.phtml

This site should have about detecting and getting rid of it:

http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/index.html

Basicly it uses the same name, so svchost is a windows file but also a spyware thing.

 

RangerWickett

Legend

• Sep 26, 2004

• #9

Ferret, do you trust this site's information? Is this 'Bazooka' ad-remover better than Lavasoft's Ad-Aware?

 

D

Dismas

First Post

• Sep 26, 2004

• #10

Go to www.sysinternals.com and download process explorer, it can show you the command line that each SVCHOST process started with, which might give you more of an idea.

Another couple of useful utilities available are FileMon and RegMon, they show you exactly what files / registry entires are being read / written.

PS. For those really evil people out there it also has a Blue Screen of Death screen saver