:mrgreen: OK - my first post - took 12 hours but tenacity and refusal to"reformat an re-install" (per dell support) wins. I hope this saves someone a lot of pain and frustration. I figured there are a million posts on the problem - why not start a new post with just a solution that worked for me. so you won't have to read for an hour. also a link to a cool utility to monitor the processes on your machine is at the bottom.


Situation: CPU utilization would hit 100% with svchost.exe. Could not figure it out but saw that little shield letting me know Windows automatic update had updates for me to install. When you tried to install them it never happened because of the cpu utilization. If you went to microsoft.com to check for update it would not work/ microsoft updates hang on checking your computer for updates or error out.

Solution: in a nut shell: In Services - the service 'Automatic Updates' - says it is started but in reality it is not.

Resolution:
I am going to give you the fix now rather then at the end of a 200 line write up.

1) Reboot as normal - the moment you see your desktop hit cntrl - shift - esc all at once to bring up the windows task manager. You want it to load before cpu utilization hits 100%

2) When task manager opens click on the services tab to show the services and then click on the cpu column heading to sort the processes by cpu utilization - sort it so the process using the most cpu is on top and you can see it. svchost.exe will show itself there soon enough. (when it does just kill it - I know I will get grief for saying that but you have to because you cannot do anything else.... remember my system did a windows update or was at least trying to)

3) If you have the time and you are not yet hitting that 100% mark with svchost.exe, click Start - run -and type in "services.msc". when the services window loads sort the services by name a-z by clicking on that column heading.

4) find the service 'Automatic Updates' - my guess is it says STARTED and AUTOMATIC on this screen however - double click on it for more details - I will venture to guess in here it says STOPPED on the top even though the other screen says started. It may have even said started at the bottom third of the details screen as well - any how - it is a mismatch. Change this service to "Disabled" and hit apply - you may have to hit STOP (I do not remember but I think you do) when it says disabled and stopped click OK to close I also cannot remember if I rebooted here or not. I think I did but I don't think I needed to. If you do, you will have to go through the steps all over again, so I would try it first without rebooting.

5) On your list of services, find the service called "Background Intelligent Transfer Service" double click to verify but it should be set to Manual and stopped - if so click OK. If not change it to be so.

6) On your list of services, find the service called "Event Log" double click on it should be automatic and started. If not change it to be so.

7) reboot - repeat steps 1, 2, and 3.

8) Again, find the service 'Automatic Updates' - double click change it to Automatic and then start the service. ( you are done)

That's the fix - the automatic update services says it is started but it is not.

Follow up steps I took:
I then double clicked on the windows update icon (yellow shield) I choose a custom install - I installed the update - cpu did hit 100% for about 1 to 2 minutes - You need to be patient. when the update installer minimizes I actually click on it to maximize it again just so I can monitor the status. I was about to give up when it started the actual 'installing update' rather than saying initializing which is where it hung in the past. again be patient - 2 minute wait time is long but it will work. The update did install successfully in about 5 minutes. I was fine.

I went to microsoft.com and the updates and ran an update check and all is good - 1 optional update but it ran error free. cpu utilization is at 4%.

A tool you need: Very cool tool. Free tool. Windows XP services.
Called process explorer for windows.

URL: www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/ProcessExplorer.mspx

You can see every process - every application running the process - color code them tons and tons of details and options. really cool - small - quck and easy. 10 out of 10. I will try to attach it here as well


Hope this saves someone a lot of pain and frustration.

Enjoy your day - Please don't ask for personal or additional support from me - I did that when Dos 2.1 was an upgrade ... too old and tooo tired : )

Ralph I

You are welcome. Nice post.

By the way, I posted here
the probable solution to the 100% CPU load by Automatic Update service.

Thank you! I am having this same problem right now with my laptop!

Thanks for this, I am new in here and after much searching the topic, I came to very similar conclusion. Seems to be something in the latest udates that are doing this as both my desktops and laptop all got these issues in the last two days.

Follow up after trying fix: svchost still hogs CPU. The download appears top be trapped in a loop, say downloads are ready, then it is ready to install, then says unsucessful in installation. Download is outlook 2003 malicious ???. only I dont have outlook installed. Tried to access the MS update site and system just put the brakes on for over 30 minutes. Any clues?? Now I know why they invented Linux!

If you do not use M$ apps like office etc then restrict your updating to Windows updates only - this results in you getting security updates only.
If you are interested in this then go programs > microsoft update, when the web page loads hit options and make your selection there.
Anyway, the idea of the checkboxes in updates is for you to make selections. Be wise tho.

What was posted here didn't seem to work on my computer.

I just ended up going to www.windowsupdate.com. On the left side of the screen, there is a "change settings" link. I went there and at the bottom of that page, I disabled microsoft update. This way, you can return to windowsupdate.com and download the updates from there without the cpu reaching 100%. After I got all of the updates, I went back and reinstalled microsoft update and svchost.exe jumped to 100% again.

Unfortunately, now my computer doesn't update on it's own.

Did you try the info in the original post? I had all the same issues - it took me 12 hours to get the resolution. The way it was fixed was what I put in my original post. You need to stop the services for auto update as per the first post. The utility you download will tell you what service is putting svchost at 100% - just turn that service off by disabling it and reboot. Hope this helps. Ralph

I tried your method again and this time it seemed to work this time. Thank you.

By the way... Is it known what is causing this? Is it a virus?

Thanks for all the help!

Further development. Did it all again, now system seems ok until I do a Microsoft update. This is where it all hangs up. As per advice "gerbil", I reset to "Windows "only updates. Now computer is happy. Reference check boxes, very aware of them and the risks associated. thanks.
Jeff