High CPU utilization with svchost.exe / dwm.exe

Been running Vista Enterprise for almost a year, with no issues. This
problem just began last night.

When booting my computer, I have about 1 minute after I reach the
desktop before my CPU utilization goes way up. I have a Intel Core2Duo,
so the rogue process takes up only 50% (appears to only use 1 core).
Even so, I am unable to do just about anything (open windows, close
windows, click start menu, ctrl+alt+del). The task manager (if I had it
open already) will still update though.

I see that *svchost.exe* is using exactly 50% of my CPU, and roughly
42MB ram. Using process explorer, it would appear that the child
process of that *svchost.exe* instance is *dwm.exe*.

I've disable the Aero interface, and have disabled the *Desktop Window
Manager Session Manager service*, so it won't start. The CPU still goes
up, only now, there is no child process under *svchost.exe*, and it
still goes to 50%.

I have left the computer running over 10 minutes, with no change. No
hardware or software changes have been made. Antivirus is NOD32
(up-to-date, and even disable for troubleshooting). I am at a loss as
to what is the issue. Any ideas?


--
duucfho

-*windows vista enterprise 32-bit
intel core2duo e6400 @ 3.2ghz
2gb pc2-6400 patriot extreme performance 4-4-4-12 @1000 mhz
nvidia 8800 gts 320mb @ 640mhz core
ocz gamexstream 700w psu
antec nine hundred
*-

 

I'm getting the same problem - see above in "Boot into molasses".

Perhaps it's one of those bugs that Msoft can't/won't fix, so they prefer
to not acknowledge its existence.

 

I have similar problems but it mostly shows in JAVA and IE related
softwares... and anything with DLLs in them... Once they started though
(after a while) they seem to work fine... but IE is very sluggish...

 

Same problem. Vista is by far the worst mess MS has ever released. Nice
interface and when running right, it screams. But just lately, svchost has
started taking up in excess of 65% of both processors. The only way I can
fix it is to hold the power button and crash shutdown Vista. I wish MS would
kill Vista and go back to XP.. at least after SP2, it was reliable. The
thing that gets me is Microsoft knows from these forums that they have
hundreds of thousands of problems in Vista, but they will not aknowledge any
of them. Once I reboot, I kill MS Update, the Indexing service, the audio
service and disable security notification. I am then able to run. I am
running 100% Vista compatible components. VSTA motherboard with 2gb Ram, ATI
9600 graphics card and Athlon X2. This machine absolutely screamed and had
no problems with XP64. Vista killed this machine and it runs like Windows
2000 on a Pentium I computer.