Still having a ton of system-wide stutter (audio, mouse movement, window activity, games, etc. all affected) during periods of heavy network activity. That seems to be the most consistent correlation anyway. During these stuttery periods, which're only rectified by a reboot, one or more svchosts claw their way up in processor usage, and during total hangs there's usually one of them sat at the top of the list, freezing up my computer. Is there any way to identify precisely what the culprit process is responsible for, since there are 5 or 6 svchosts? I need to narrow down the nature of the problem.
svchosts is a service to run other other non-full services. Basically, instead for a developer to programing your own service which is complicated and difficult to be very efficient and rock solid, developers can use svchosts (Service host). This service, has a set of API code that a developer can use for them to make their service much easily (this includes many Microsoft Windows own services). Using svchosts doesn't provide a latency problem because you have an added layer that is added between the event that you want to trigger your program to do something (hence, why Microsoft doesn't use it for all it's own service). In addition, you are limited to the available API codes and is depended of svhost. If there is a big in svchosts.. there is so much you can do to fix it. The downside for the user is that he sees many svchosts.exe on his task manager, all executing a different service. Windows 7 rectify the problem with a new task manager feature. If you right-click on an process (like one of the svchosts), you have select "Go to Service", and it will redirect it to the service that uses svchosts. Your problem is most likely driver related. You check your system for latency problem with this free tool: http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml Common devices that causes a latency problem are: - Network card/modem drivers - Integrated sound card (as it doesn't have it's own dedicated sound processing unit (SPU), it uses your CPU and system memory to do this. This means increase in bus usage and northbridge communication. The sound chip that you see on the motherboard just translate digital to analogue and manages and prepare the send and receive instructions to the CPU to be outputted properly to your speakers).
I don't know who this "Windows Defender" jerk thinks he is, but I'm going to be having words with his mother. edit - I think his brother Bullguard Scanner has been stealing my milk every morning, too. I'mma whup that tyke. editedit - the only thing that seems to be CPU spiking on procexp during lag periods is the "deferred procedure calls" meta-process. I have no idea what that implies about the problem.
Could you recommend a specific rootkit scanner? I only have conventional antivirus products, I'm not sure they check for low-level stuff like that...
Microsoft already checks for rootkits... It's the only one that really knows for sure, as it can compare it's OS code and separate drivers from rootkits. Windows 7 64-bit requires digital signed and approved drivers to install seamlessly. Not digitally signed drivers like beta's will pop-up a large warning in red, going "This driver was not signed by Microsoft, you SURE you know what are you doing, by installing this?" And not approved drivers cannot be installed and executed (the driver needs to be sent to Microsoft for approval). This is one reason why all DRM protection company was apposed this when Vista was out. Rootkits need to be digital signed and approved by Microsoft, which is not the case. Hence why Microsoft Windows Vista/7 64-bit caused the death of Starforce 4 DRM protection in games and software. So, it is most unlikely to be a rootkit. You can check for spyware and malware. Spyware are programmers that logs everything that you do with your computer and send it to a server to sell all that information... people are willing to pay good money for your information. For spyware: You have Windows Defender that check for that, for an alternative, I suggest Ad-Aware (there is a free edition). Obviously don't do 2 simultaneous scans form both software, to prevent conflicts, and passover spyware. Or malware: You have (also has a free version): Malwarebytes For anti-virus: I recommend Windows Security Essential (free). Installing this anti-virus will disable Windows defender (as it has it's own spy-ware check built-in). ---------- If you believe that your problem is Windows Defender, you can open Services Panel (type in services in the start menu). A panel will open. And from there you can scroll down to Windows Defender service, double click on it, and you can Stop it, and then disable it, so that it never runs again.
I'd also go with MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware. It's my favourite scanner at the moment, and it usually picks up on rootkits too.
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