Laptop very slow when Automatic Updates enabled

I'm trying to help a friend whose laptop was running extremely slowly, e.g.
taking
5 minutes to open a browser window. I discovered that one instance of
svchost.exe
was taking almost 100% of the CPU time. A quick search pointed to Automatic
Updates as a possible cause. Indeed, turning them off caused performance to
return to normal. I then tried re-enabling updates, to notify but not
download
automatically. The machine became slow again. Disabling updates, speed was
restored.

Is there a known fix for this problem? If not, how can I troubleshoot what
is wrong
with Automatic Updates?

The Automatic Updates service may stop responding:
("The Automatic Updates service may increase memory consumption over
time...")
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914810/en-us
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE, Security, Shell/User)

Stewart wrote:
> I'm trying to help a friend whose laptop was running extremely slowly,
> e.g.
> taking
> 5 minutes to open a browser window. I discovered that one instance of
> svchost.exe
> was taking almost 100% of the CPU time. A quick search pointed to
> Automatic
> Updates as a possible cause. Indeed, turning them off caused performance
> to
> return to normal. I then tried re-enabling updates, to notify but not
> download
> automatically. The machine became slow again. Disabling updates, speed
> was
> restored.
>
> Is there a known fix for this problem? If not, how can I troubleshoot
> what
> is wrong
> with Automatic Updates?