Svchost.exe using 200,000kb+

^ As the title states, running a Gateway 7811 w/ Vista 64 bit Home Premium. Is this a problem, or is it normal, and that is just one process there are several instances of it...

 

that's very high... i'd be concerned on what service is actually using that. see if you can download processexplorer to have it identify the application is using that much space. it might require some messing around with processexplorer, but you should be able to track it.

 

As a preventive measure, you should run a full antivirus/malware scan as well.

 

There's no need to install anything.

Right click on this svchost, and click Go to Service(s). Sort the Services tab by PID (Process ID), and there you have it, all the services that this particular svchost is running under it, and then now accordingly (or post a screenshot here if you're not sure whether there're some services that're needed (or not), or are malicious).

 

Lots of malware cloak itself under that process.

+1 with Shyster

 

Just for the record.
Process Explorer doesn't instal anything and is possibly better than listing services as it can tell you which file (!!!) uses that much memory.

On another note:
I think I had about 95MB (currently 74MB) of memory used by svchost - on 32 Bit though.
I believe its related to my external HDDs.

Restart without any external Hardware and see if it stays the same.

And else:
I second Process Explorer!

 

I believe it's the Aero service.. the background service to the Desktop Window manager(you'll find that one listed as dwm.exe). I assume you had lots of windows open.. when you checked the memory usage..

Also.. there would be more than one instance of svchost.exe..

On my system(Business x64), it is usually between 80-170 MB..

 

Agreed. Process Explorer (and, in fact, all of the SysInternals' utilities) are free-standing executables (i.e., they really are Portable Executables, as Microsoft's PE .exe format specification implies) and do not install themselves in your system. Process Explorer itself will also provide you with a lot more information about exactly what is behind each running process.

 

I ran Malwarebytes, nothing, and I ran Full Scan on Avira Premium. Screeny's





EDIT: Forgot to say thanks to everyone for their help (and hopefully continued help!)

 

What happens when you shut down STEAM?

 

Shut it down for 10 minutes and no change on Memory for svchost.exe

 

It was worth a shot

Did you try Process Explorer to see if it can find what is using all that memory?

 

No idea what all that really means and nothing seems out of the ordinary...

 

Try stopping Superfetch.

 

Which one is that I don't see any named Superfetch...

 

Actually that isn't necessarily a good idea - even though it may seem so.
I did it - my system stayed stable (no problems) - but it has sped up since reenabling it.

Unless its the definite cause of the problem, leave it!!
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In process explorer, right click the "heavy process" and lick onto "Properties" - you'll get a Window with plenty of tabs, try "Threads" - else, fiddle around a bit.

(Threads will give you CPU usage, but it can also tell you which services are running in that process)

 

So.. yeah, any other ideas because I looked in the threads and I do not know what is what



That is what I'm seeing

 

Ok.

I'm a bit at a loss here...

In the Properties window - check the services tab

 

Can you add some extra columns to the main window? There should be a few columns that say something about Working Sets and memory. With those columns in view, you can try to find the SVCHost that is drawing all that memory and which app is causing it to do that.

 

That's pretty much most of the options...

 

EDIT: Another pic on post before this of what is running

 

Can you expand all the SVCHost items in the main list? I think I saw one SVCHost that had a working set of about 180 MB...

 

Am I reading correctly that the process isn't verified?

In my case, on 32Bit all processes are empty under "verified signer".

Edit:
The services don't seem to help

 

I think they are all expanded as far as I can tell

 

It's in the task manager (in the screenshot), try stopping it and see it helps.

 

Don't see it when I bring up TM

 

It's in there, see? Name - SysMain, PID - 424, Description - Superfetch.

This is the one eating all the RAM probably. Right click it, and the click on "Stop Service", and see if it helps.

 

THANK YOU!!! You win sorry I didn't see it earlier I was looking for it as a service name not description, it worked. What are the problems with stopping this service?

 

There are no problems with disabling it. I have it set as disabled and everything's working great for me.

In simple language, what SuperFetch does is, it "learns" your usage behaviour, like which software do you use the most, and then, after a few days when it has learnt it fully, it loads those softwares in RAM automatically as soon as the system starts, so that these programs load faster when you need them.

The advantages are - your Winamp/ProgramXYZ loads in 200ms, instead of 250ms that it would take for it to start without it being already loaded in the RAM by SuperFetch.

Disadvantages are - The programs will be loaded in RAM everytime, whether or not you have to use them in a session, thus taking up more RAM, and delaying the start-up. Plus there's useless HDD activities and clicking noise.

In other words, this service is useless, AFAIC.


Cue Gary with his big words and what not!

 

Superfetch used Cached RAM - it won't show up in RAM used by a process.
It will show up in RAM used for a/the Cache.

 

while you guys are discussing svchost.exe and memory usage, why is it that it gradually uses more and more the longer the computer is left on? On my 1530 with vista home premium 32 bit, right after startup the computer is using about 900 megs of RAM, but after a few hours of the computer being on and only browsing the internet, the memory usage climbs to about 1.5 gigs with all programs closed, and according to task manager the culprit is svchost, with 8 or 10 instances running. I did the same thing as this thread and checked which processes were behind the instance of svchost that was eating up the most memory, and i found superfetch, just like the OP in this thread, but why does it gradually use more and more memory? I don't really want to disable it, I just want to understand why it would slowly hog all of my system's resources. BTW, I'm pretty positive there is no malware on this computer that is eating up the memory, I just reinstalled Vista a couple weeks ago and I've scanned it and I have AVG running all the time.

 

Superfetch is a nifty feature that allows Vista to quickly load up applications on demand. Basically, it tries to identify the applications and documents you use frequently and loads them up in the background until you request it. I really wouldn't worry about it, as it will happily release the memory when there isn't enough available to open up another document or application.

In my opinion, don't turn off superfetch. Nothing to worry about with it.

 

If what you've identified is really superfetch, then it isn't "hogging" anything, least of all your resources. Instead, what it's doing is preloading code and data it believes you're most likely to be using sooner rather than later and keeping it ready to go if/when you want to use it.

Put it this way, it's keeping your spare RAM from going to waste, it's not using up precious resources that would be better devoted to something else. If it weren't using those resources, they'd be sitting idle and not get used at all and, if you do the unexpected and start up an app that wasn't prefetched, superfetch will immediately, and gracefully, cede the resources it's using to that app.