Vista - svchost problem with constant hard drive accessing

Hi everyone, I've got an interesting problem. I purchased a Vista-ready
computer in November, and received my upgrade Home Premium HP disk last
month. Suffice it to say, this problem popped up when I did the upgrade, so
I did a full clean install, and the problem still exists.

Ever since getting Vista, my computer has this problem of continually
accessing the hard drive, sometimes upwards of over 1 hour. The hard drive
will just continue to work and work and the noise doesn't stop for the whole
time. I remember before I did the full clean install, I installed I think it
was process monitor or some other program from Microsoft and I found it was
svchost.exe that seemed to be continually accessing my hard drive over and
over again.

This problem can happen randomly, or it often happens when the computer is
idle for a while. The hard drive will start accessing continuously, and
sometimes if move the mouse, it will stop, sometimes not. However, it's
always guaranteed when I start the computer up. Whether I've signed in or
not, after about 30 seconds of quiet from the computer, the hard drive will
begin to access and access for upwards of 5 minutes!

Now, I've tested the svchost.exe theory and it seems to explain it. Before
the clean install, I was able to bring up the task manager, and find an
svchost.exe process that was running that was using maybe 3-4% of the CPU and
end the process and that would fix it for a while. Problem was, after doing
that, it would revert Vista to Home basic. Eventually, home premium came
back and often did the problem as well. Now, the only way to stop it seems
to catch svchost.exe when the computer is first loading everything into
windows upon log-in. But still, it reverts to home basic.

Something interesting things to note here, though, is that (1) the CPU usage
continues to stay low during all this hard drive access. (2) This problem
has surfaced both after an upgrade and a clean install, so I can't possibly
see it as being a virus or malicious software, as that would have been
cleaned away. (3) The computer is only 5 months old, and while I did upgrade
the processor and add more RAM, those are the only changes I've done, and the
problem existed beforehand. (4) I've done Vista compatibility tests, and
even though it was advertised as Vista ready, it passes the tests just fine,
so all hardware must be compatible.

So, I'm really at a loss for what to do here. If people have suggestions,
solutions, programs to help me give you more info, I'm ALL EARS! Please,
help me! While this isn't the worst thing in the world, it can be quite
annoying to suddenly have your computer decide to be noisy for a half hour or
more, especially when you want to watch TV or something...

Thanks!

Michael

PS. I do know when defrags are scheduled, and I have run them, HD usage is
low, and it still happens. HELP!

svchost is a generic shell for device drivers or programs that run in tbe
background. Open up task manager and select the services tab to see what
those are. However, if you want a better idea of what's actually going on,
grab a copy of process explorer at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sys...sExplorer.mspx

If will show you the processes in a tree view which will allow you to see
which service running within svchost is actually doing what.

Joe

"mikesay98" <mikesay98@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9644EC8A-6586-4449-966A-60753C5BC550@microsoft.com...
> Hi everyone, I've got an interesting problem. I purchased a Vista-ready
> computer in November, and received my upgrade Home Premium HP disk last
> month. Suffice it to say, this problem popped up when I did the upgrade,
> so
> I did a full clean install, and the problem still exists.
>
> Ever since getting Vista, my computer has this problem of continually
> accessing the hard drive, sometimes upwards of over 1 hour. The hard
> drive
> will just continue to work and work and the noise doesn't stop for the
> whole
> time. I remember before I did the full clean install, I installed I think
> it
> was process monitor or some other program from Microsoft and I found it
> was
> svchost.exe that seemed to be continually accessing my hard drive over and
> over again.
>
> This problem can happen randomly, or it often happens when the computer is
> idle for a while. The hard drive will start accessing continuously, and
> sometimes if move the mouse, it will stop, sometimes not. However, it's
> always guaranteed when I start the computer up. Whether I've signed in or
> not, after about 30 seconds of quiet from the computer, the hard drive
> will
> begin to access and access for upwards of 5 minutes!
>
> Now, I've tested the svchost.exe theory and it seems to explain it.
> Before
> the clean install, I was able to bring up the task manager, and find an
> svchost.exe process that was running that was using maybe 3-4% of the CPU
> and
> end the process and that would fix it for a while. Problem was, after
> doing
> that, it would revert Vista to Home basic. Eventually, home premium came
> back and often did the problem as well. Now, the only way to stop it
> seems
> to catch svchost.exe when the computer is first loading everything into
> windows upon log-in. But still, it reverts to home basic.
>
> Something interesting things to note here, though, is that (1) the CPU
> usage
> continues to stay low during all this hard drive access. (2) This problem
> has surfaced both after an upgrade and a clean install, so I can't
> possibly
> see it as being a virus or malicious software, as that would have been
> cleaned away. (3) The computer is only 5 months old, and while I did
> upgrade
> the processor and add more RAM, those are the only changes I've done, and
> the
> problem existed beforehand. (4) I've done Vista compatibility tests, and
> even though it was advertised as Vista ready, it passes the tests just
> fine,
> so all hardware must be compatible.
>
> So, I'm really at a loss for what to do here. If people have suggestions,
> solutions, programs to help me give you more info, I'm ALL EARS! Please,
> help me! While this isn't the worst thing in the world, it can be quite
> annoying to suddenly have your computer decide to be noisy for a half hour
> or
> more, especially when you want to watch TV or something...
>
> Thanks!
>
> Michael
>
> PS. I do know when defrags are scheduled, and I have run them, HD usage
> is
> low, and it still happens. HELP!