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I keep getting SVCHOST failures. Why?

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When reporting a failure it's important to include all the relevant information. We'll outline some of the basics that help get your question answered.

I keep getting SVCHOST failures. Why?

I’m seeing a questions about svchost failures come by on the
Ask Leo! web log on a regular basis.
Unfortunately most of the questions are just about that detailed often without even including the message text. So I’ll cover here what a good error report looks like and then include a few steps that may start to help
identify the cause of some of these svchost related failures.

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In order for any technical support resource to assist you
with a problem there are a number of standard bits of information that
you should just always provide up-front. Most are easy and if you
don’t supply those they’re just going to ask you for them anyway. Why not speed up
the process a little by providing these details from the very
beginning:

  • The operating system you’re running, and its version.

  • The machine brand, its processor speed and the amount of memory it
    has.

  • Any hardware add-on devices that you think might be related to the
    problem you’re seeing.

  • Whether or not you are running a firewall, a virus scanner, or a
    spyware scanner, and what brand and version of each.

  • The exact text of the error message, if any that you are
    seeing. I know this can be a little bit of a pain, but the exact error
    can convey a lot of information. And trust me, this more than anything
    else, will be the first thing that your technical support person will
    ask about. (I’ve got a few tips on capturing those messages
    here.)

  • If the problem is reproducible a summary of how to make it happen.

  • A list of any changes that either happened or that you perhaps
    made to your computer around the time that the problem started;
    particularly any software or hardware that you installed or setup.

Now, on to svchost. Svchost is particularly hard fella to diagnose
because as I outlined in a prior
article there are typically several copies of svchost running at
the same time.

In addition to the information above I would collect the
following to begin diagnosing a svchost related problem:

Any change in behavior after the failure. Does something
stop working once you’ve experienced the error message referencing
svchost and if so what?

Capture the output of “tasklist /svc” if at all possible after rebooting but sometime before the svchost related failure.
Then after the failure run “tasklist /svc” again and see
what if anything is different.

That’s not meant to be a solution but a starting point. That
information might be enough to help you understand what’s failing. If
not it’s valuable information for the technical support person you’ll
be talking to.

Do this

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9 comments on “I keep getting SVCHOST failures. Why?”

  2. When I start up my computer, the background freezes up and it takes a while to unfreeze. Then it shows an error message that says there was a problem with svchost.exe. The program had a virus before and I think my virus scan deleted it. How do I restore or fix the file? If it helps, I am running Windows XP on a Dimension 4550 computer.

    Reply

  3. My recommendation is to read the article referenced in the previous comment, and then make sure your virus checking software has an up-to-date database and re-run. Some viruses are hard to clean, and depending on which, several virus software manufacurers have specific clean-up tools. I tend to visit Symantec (http://ask-leo.com/d-symantecavc ) they’ve proven to have very reliable information.

    Good luck!

    Leo

    Reply

  4. C:\Documents and Settings\^nEgAt!vE>tasklist /svc

    Nazwa obrazu PID UsƂugi
    ========================= ====== =============================================
    SVCHOST.EXE 612 RpcSs
    SVCHOST.EXE 648 AudioSrv, CryptSvc, Dhcp, dmserver,
    EventSystem, FastUserSwitchingCompatibility,
    helpsvc, lanmanworkstation, Messenger,
    Netman, Nla, RasMan, Schedule, seclogon,
    SENS, ShellHWDetection, TapiSrv,
    TermService, Themes, TrkWks, uploadmgr,
    winmgmt, WmdmPmSp, WZCSVC
    SVCHOST.EXE 724 Dnscache
    SVCHOST.EXE 736 Alerter, LmHosts, RemoteRegistry, SSDPSRV,
    WebClient

    after the shutdown of the svchost.exe(99%CPU use) or after BEEP(and crash) i get this msg :

    C:\Documents and Settings\^nEgAt!vE>tasklist /svc
    BƁĄD: Serwer RPC jest niedostępny. (There is no RPC server)

    -=-
    this one is making problems :
    SVCHOST.EXE 612 RpcSs
    -=-
    Any solutions Leo ? Thx :)

    Reply

  6. I tried every program that you mentioned in your article and I still have the error message at the start of WindowsXP. ‘Windows cannot find C:\windows\svchost.exe. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, check the Start button, and then check Search.’

    Any suggestions?

    Thanks,
    Mark Richards

    Reply

  8. I used Internet Connection Sharing For My second PC. And i Have problem with the Internet 
 It’s show one windows from Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and it want to debug svchost.exe [ pid 1232 ]. and whes that windows show the internet at the second pc stop. i’ve check tasklist /svc for that proccess. It’s show that:
    svchost.exe 1232 AudioSrv, BITS, Browser, CryptSvc, Dhcp,
    dmserver, EventSystem,
    FastUserSwitchingCompatibility,
    lanmanserver, lanmanworkstation, Messenger,
    Netman, Nla, RasAuto, RasMan, Schedule,
    seclogon, SENS, SharedAccess,
    ShellHWDetection, TapiSrv, TrkWks, W32Time,
    winmgmt, wuauserv, WZCSVC.
    And when the windows for debug show there isn’t the proccess svchost.exe with pid 1232 

    Any solutions ???

    Sorry for my Bad English

    Reply

  9. System:
    Microsoft Windows XP
    Professional
    Version 2.1.2600 Service Pack 2
    Computer:
    Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU 1.50GHz 1.52GHz

    Anti-virus:
    NOD32 anti-virus system

    Firewall:
    Windows,also the firewall included in my antivirus

    excuse me Leo i have a problem with svchost it keeps getting an error down here im going to type everything than appears on that error window:

    Generic Host Process for Win32 has encountred a problem and needs to be close.

    Error signature

    Event type:BEX P1:svchost.exe P2:5.1.2600.2180
    P3:41107ed6 P4:netapi32.dll P5:5.1.2600.2756
    P6:432105e7 P7:0000a510 P8:c0000409 P9:00000000

    The following files will be included in this error report:
    C:\DOCUME~1\user\LOCALS~1\temp\WER9057.dir00\svchost.exe.mdmp
    C:\DOCUME~1\user\LOCALS~1\temp\WER9057.dir00\apprompat.txt

    that’s all
    i hope you can help me
    Any soultions to this problem?

    Reply

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