svchost.exe - baring access to Chrome

[USER0005]

Running Windows XP and accessing the web through Google Chrome, I am finding that when I try to browse in Chrome and enter a web address, Chrome won't access the new page. It will via a Google search however.

When I go to Task manager I can see 90% of processing being taken up with svchost.exe.

If I stop the process this frees up Chrome and everything works fine.

I have repeat this exercise every time I start the machine.

Is the svchost.exe some sort of trojan or virus, and if so how can I kill it off. I've done a malwarebytes sweep and it hasn't flagged any problems up.

Anyone else experienced this, or have any solutions?

[jetcollie]

You will probably find several instances of svchost running. They control different groups of services. There is probably only one service causing you problems. This article What is svchost.exe And Why Is It Running? explains what is going on and nearer the end it provides a solution for Windows XP, utilising a download of Process Explorer to identify the culprit then how to disable the service if you don't need it.

[seacue]

But the svchost process which is eating 99% of my cycles has a few dozen services attached to it. Some seem important. Which is bad? What to do?

[Mike-Bracknell]

You most likely have a virus. Don't focus on svchost.exe but download (and choose to update but not run) Malwarebytes' Antimalware, reboot your PC into "Safe Mode With Command Prompt", and navigate the command prompt using DOS commands to

c: \program files\malwarebytes' antimalware

or if you're using a 64bit version of Windows:

c: \program files (x86)\malwarebytes' antimalware

and then run mbam.exe from there, and scan your PC. You will probably find several nasties. Choose to remove them all when prompted to do so. Reboot following this and bob should hopefully be your uncle.

[seacue]

Thank you Mike,

Starting malwarebytes normally just got the infected svchost eating all the cycles. Will try your suggestions. I brought the offending PC home from its place of work.

Downloading will be hard since the svchost problem stalls the browser used to download. Since there is a dual-boot Mint/Ubuntu on the same PC, maybe that's the way to do the download. Or I'll see whether I can do it on another pc and carry it on a USB flash to the sick one.

thanks again,

seacue

Added: It's getting late here. Will try things tomorrow.

[seacue]

I finally ran malwarebytes and didn't find anything. Though nothing was found, performance seemed better except on Firefox. Things, especially <control panel - remove software> and Firefox were extremely slow. I eventually reloaded Firefox and Thunderbird and the slowness seems to have been cured. I know not why.

Thanks for the suggestions.

seacue

[gemma10]

Seacue, see my post above re firefox. Another bit of help if mwbytes doesnt find anything, try doing a boot time scan with Avast in safe mode. Not using the command prompt.
gemma