I'm having a very annoying problem, and I just bought my system last week, totally clean. I installed my own video/sound/everything else myself, and then I installed my own copy of Windows 2000. I have not installed any other programs yet, other than drivers for devices, but the very first time Windows booted I knew something was wrong because the system was dreadfully slow. I found svchost.exe to be eating about 70% of the CPU time. There is absolutely NO CHANCE that I have a virus because the problem surfaced before I was even online. Please help, I'm getting really frustrated. I have tried everything. Flashing the BIOS, deleting the partition and starting over, even running all the antivirus junk (which I knew was useless). Just to clarify, I do NOT have the blaster virus.

Might want to look here to see what svchost is doing: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q250/3/20.ASP&NoWebContent=1

This is what tlist produced. I'm not exactly sure how to interpret this because I've never used the tlist command before. If anyone could analyze this log and find any problems I would be grateful. D:\>tlist -s -2 Idle.exe 8 System.exe 160 smss.exe 188 csrss.exe 208 winlogon.exe MM Notify Callback 236 services.exe 248 lsass.exe 412 svchost.exe 440 spoolsv.exe 476 CTSVCCDA.exe 496 svchost.exe 528 mssvc32.exe 756 regsvc.exe 824 mstask.exe SYSTEM AGENT COM WINDOW 856 stisvc.exe STI Monitor 896 svchost.exe 1064 explorer.exe Program Manager 1168 msnmsgr.exe DDE Server Window 1156 EM_EXEC.exe Logitech E/M Executive 988 rundll32.exe Found New Hardware 1056 IEXPLORE.exe DDE Server Window 1016 wuauclt.exe Auto Update Client Window 952 cmd.exe D:\WINNT\System32\cmd.exe - tlist -s 1048 TLIST.exe -2 _Total.exe

I just installed Win2k over the weekend (was 98SE)and had exactly the same problem...system process was about 25-30%, svchost ate up the balance...task manager graph was straightlined at 100% CPU usage! I tried re-installing my NAV-corporate but got errors when I tried the live update. I went to Micro-trend website it did their free PC-cillin scan (took forever because the CPU was bogged down). anyway, it found 4 viruses, one of which I had to go into the registry top remove (in safe-mode). Once I rebooted, CPU hummed along at 3-5%! Even though you're convinced it wasn't a virus (so was I), you might want to give them a shot, worked for me.

Thanks for the tip, can you give me the URL for the site you went to?

Here it is. On the right side, you'll see 'Micro Trend Housecall'. Click on 'scan now' & just follow the steps. good luck. http://www.trendmicro.com/en/home/us/personal.htm

Okay I've solved the problem. I feel a bit red in the face because I was *so sure* that the problem wasn't a virus, but low and behold, that's exactly what it was. It turns out, I was installing Windows while my ethernet cable was connected directly to my cable modem. I used to have a router which acted like a firewall but now I just connect straight to the modem - big mistake. I run Nortons firewall now but DURING THE WINDOWS INSTALL before I could get Norton installed my system was being attacked and svchost.exe was being altered. I decided to reinstall Windows one more time but this time I unplugged my ethernet cable until I had Norton set up, and wow, my system is blazing fast. Lesson learned - viruses are relentless.