Vista - CPU usage spikes

I have a Toshiba notebook with Vista Business installed. Recently I installed
tghe sidebar and added the "CPU performance meter" and noticed that it was
constantly in motion. Looking at the Performance tab in task manager, I see
that the CPU(s) (dual core) are very priodically show spikes. Every 4 to 5
seconds, the usage jumps from perhaps 10% to 70-80 %, and then goes back to
10%. The laptop shows this bahavior over long periods of time, even if no
application is running. Looking at the processe that are running, it appears
that one of the "svchost.exe" (of which there are quite a few) seems to be
the culprit, but I have no idea what is behind it. How do I find out what
this process is actually doing? Can I simply end it to see what happens, or
will that harm my laptop?

Ok, so since I'm impatient, I just ended the process. I immediately got a
message that the "DCOM Server Process launcher" had stopped and that I had to
reboot Windows. The CPU usage immediately quieted down. Does anybody know why
this process requires so much CPU time?

Then again, I just tried it again, and this time it was the "Plug and Play
Service" that shut down. But it has again quieted the CPU usage to a base
level of perhaps 10%.

What's going on here?

"mikebo" wrote:

Svchost.exe is an integral part of Windows Vista (and XP) and it is normal
to see more than one instance of it running.

Periodic spikes in CPU activity as Vista is operating in the background are
normal. No harm to your computer.

Quit worrying and enjoy the darn thing.



"mikebo" <mikebo@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5E4DF430-72DF-45E2-BB01-DECD79103A86@xxxxxx

Are you saying that it is normal for Vista to burn 60% of the processor power
of a 2.2 GB core duo processor on background tasks?

"David P." wrote:

Don't feel alone on this one. I am having the same issue, same brand
machine, Home Premium installed and svchost.exe the villain.

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"mikebo" <mikebo@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5E4DF430-72DF-45E2-BB01-DECD79103A86@xxxxxx

Using 60% CPU is NOT normal. Plug & Play Service and DCOM Launcher are
both launched by SVChost, but they should never use that much of CPU.
Something is definitely not OK. I started facing the same problem
starting a a few days ago.

I have Vista with SP1 and ALL the updates. The normal CPU usage was
around 2% to 5% when the laptop was on idle until Windows downloaded
some updates within the last week (around 7th April '08 onwards). I
noticed this a couple of days ago when my laptop battery life dropped
from 2.5 hours to around 1 hour. My HDTV recordings also started
stuttering. So David P, this is not normal. Anyway I checked what
process/activity was causing this and it turned out to be svchost
(plug & play service and dcom launcher) using excessive CPU and
accessing the hard drive. This only started happening after the latest
windows update (between 7th and 12th April '08).

What have they messed up this time?

Ok --- so what's the conclusion to this whole matter. It's the svchost.exe, but how do we fix it so this thing doesn't keep spinning up so fast that one fears one's laptop is going to spin off into orbit?
Mine only began doing this last week, but something weird and wonderful is not so wonderful. David P says it's normal --- of course it is not. Help would be appreciated!

On Tue, 2 Dec 2008 04:51:29 -0600, ripsnort <guest@xxxxxx-email.com>
wrote:
Start a new thread. The one you replied to died long ago.

DDW
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Oh so sorry --- hope the lads that were involved in this though, survived.