sychost.exe help?

noodlebutty

My computer has been very creaky for a few days, I did a scan - I have Norton - and it removed some spyware a couple of days ago. I have still been having problems and been getting the message that windows virtual memory is running low. I looked up some info about this and was told to check in task manager for what is using up the most memory - there is something called svchost.exe second to top (after explorer.exe) - I think this is a virus is it not? I wonder why Norton hasn't got rid of it. How do I remove it anyone? I'm really not very technically minded and would very much appreciate anyone helping me out here.

hotkee

svchost.exe is a system file, not a virus.

[Deleted User]

noodlebutty wrote: »

My computer has been very creaky for a few days, I did a scan - I have Norton - and it removed some spyware a couple of days ago. I have still been having problems and been getting the message that windows virtual memory is running low. I looked up some info about this and was told to check in task manager for what is using up the most memory - there is something called svchost.exe second to top (after explorer.exe) - I think this is a virus is it not? I wonder why Norton hasn't got rid of it. How do I remove it anyone? I'm really not very technically minded and would very much appreciate anyone helping me out here.

How much memory are any instances of svchost.exe taking?

How much hard drive space do you have available?

toontastic

Please don't forget Norton is a resource hog and is nowhere near a great virus checker any more. There are free smaller version which pick up more and use less. Might be worth a look around for whats best for you ? This one is canny http://www.free-av.com/

John_Gray

hotkee wrote: »

svchost.exe is a system file, not a virus.

... and you are likely to find many instances in Task Manager's "Processes" tab. I have seven at present.

TonyMMM

Try disabling Automatic Updates - svchost.exe is used by that and can cause startup delays

John_Gray

TonyMMM wrote: »

Try disabling Automatic Updates - svchost.exe is used by that and can cause startup delays

No more so than any of the other instances of svchost.exe!

Suggest a read of this (for Vista, but applies also to XP)...

noodlebutty

Okay, think I got that wrong, but anyone got any ideas why I keep getting 'virtual memory running low' messages, never had them before.

[Deleted User]

noodlebutty wrote: »

Okay, think I got that wrong, but anyone got any ideas why I keep getting 'virtual memory running low' messages, never had them before.

How much hard drive space do you have available? It's a common occurrence when you start to run low that these errors start appearing.

John_Gray

noodlebutty wrote: »

Okay, think I got that wrong, but anyone got any ideas why I keep getting 'virtual memory running low' messages, never had them before.

This has nothing to do with free space on the hard drive, but relates to the Page (or Swap) File. It usually means that you have too many large programs open at the same time - Windows adjusts the size of the page file (and thus the total amount of virtual memory) upwards to compensate. This is entirely normal.

[Deleted User]

John_Gray wrote: »

This has nothing to do with free space on the hard drive, but relates to the Page (or Swap) File. It usually means that you have too many large programs open at the same time - Windows adjusts the size of the page file (and thus the total amount of virtual memory) upwards to compensate. This is entirely normal.

It does have something to do with hard drive space, as the pagefile resides on disk.

Low virtual memory errors are not 'entirely normal' in day to day computing, and are symptoms of an underlying problem either;


[*] the size of the pagefile has been manually set too low and needs to be adjusted

or


[*] the pagefile cannot expand automatically due to a lack of available space on the volume.