Win7 Svchost.exe at 1.7mllion Processes...NORMAL??

I'm not sure if I have a Firefoxv47.0.1 issue, a Windows7 issue or both. Here's what I have observed.
Is the number of processes for the SVCHOST.EXE normally supposed to be this high based on my description below? I just don't ever remember this being the case.
Thanks in advance!!


In the past few days since I updated to the latest version of FF 47.0.1, after surfing the net (with NO other computer activity going on), the FF windows stop getting rendered on my screen. Sometimes I have 3-8 tabs open, sometimes 1. The computer will have been on for about 5 hours.

The sites I have open are simple static websites, just text on a web page, no video/audio. At the same time I would open MS Word or another program like Adobe Reader, and there's no issue w/displaying the data from those windows.

When data isn't rendered in a FF window or tab, the screen will be black with a dashed white line around all four corners of that FF window. The FF menu always appears normal as do all my folders in the folder bar.

Sometimes if I move my cursors over a black area/window the information gets shown to me. Even reloading the page itself doesn't solve a thing. The only thing that solves it is closing down FF. Re-starting FF has it sitting at it's normal 200-350,000 processes in the Windows Task Manager

I looked into the Windows Task Manager and FF is listed with 2.78million processes going on when this occurs. I can't believe this is normal, any ideas??

I have a hard time believing its showing millions of processes since a normal heavily loaded system has a few hundred running at a time. Post a screenshot.

thideras said:

I have a hard time believing its showing millions of processes since a normal heavily loaded system has a few hundred running at a time. Post a screenshot.

Click to expand...

Ah, shoot, I didn't realize I typed that incorrectly!

Here's the screenshot, the value is for the memory usage. Sorry about that!!!

I've never seen the memory usage that high for either FF or Svchost.exe

I have Firefox open with quite a few tabs, and its running 1.3 GB. I've seen it higher with more tabs or more complicated websites open. That svchost is probably Windows Update.

thideras said:

I have Firefox open with quite a few tabs, and its running 1.3 GB. I've seen it higher with more tabs or more complicated websites open. That svchost is probably Windows Update.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick response.

What do you think causes the "blacking out" of the web pages though as mentioned in my initial post?

Viper69 said:

Thanks for the quick response.

What do you think causes the "blacking out" of the web pages though as mentioned in my initial post?

Click to expand...

How long has your browser been open? I find Firefox needs to restart every few days or it starts having serious issues. Additionally, if there are problems with the video driver, browsers will use the graphics card to speed up rendering, so an unstable card/drivers may cause it to black screen.

Viper69 said:

Thanks for the quick response.

What do you think causes the "blacking out" of the web pages though as mentioned in my initial post?

Click to expand...

thideras said:

How long has your browser been open? I find Firefox needs to restart every few days or it starts having serious issues. Additionally, if there are problems with the video driver, browsers will use the graphics card to speed up rendering, so an unstable card/drivers may cause it to black screen.

Click to expand...

As Thideras mentioned you would be surprised how well a restart, or even better, a reboot every few days solves many memory issues.

That is not normal for svchost and usually indicative of a problem with the background services it controls. It's nothing serious, but it can eat up processor cycles and as you can see, ram. Usually, just force closing the svchost.exe that has the issue will clear it up, though sometimes only temporarily. One of the issues that can cause that ram usage to sky rocket is the svchost Windows Update component running.

Also, running Firefox anywhere around 2GiB is asking for trouble, as Firefox (last I used) was still programmed without extended ram usage ability (I can't remember what it's called so maybe a programmer can jump in with the correct name, but it has to do with Firefox still being only a 32bit program), and become unstable as you near 2GiB. Definitely will error and eventually crash after 2GiB. Throw in Flash and even with just 1 tab open, Firefox will give problems, including a memory leak that will eventually lead to a crash. I've had that happen with as little as a 1 or 2 Youtube videos watched.

Firefox is very close to crashing without warning at that memory usage. The pages blacking out are a sign that the FX process is nearing the physical limits.

If your browsing habits are such that you use more than ~1.8GB, use a 64-bit browser. I use Pale Moon x64 for this reason.

As already stated the SCVHost (right-click it and go to Services and check which ones it's using) is probably Windows Update.

Thank you all for replies. I didn't have access to my PC and couldn't respond sooner.

Everyone has a response, and there are some questions I have. I haven't had the problem today, but I've only had one FF window open with at most 3 tabs (not on purpose, just out of use). The value is hovering at about 400-495,000, which seems pretty standard for my system and current type of usage.

One FORUM related question. In the Attachment window where one selects files to upload to a post, how do I delete ones I no longer need?

thideras said:

How long has your browser been open? I find Firefox needs to restart every few days or it starts having serious issues. Additionally, if there are problems with the video driver, browsers will use the graphics card to speed up rendering, so an unstable card/drivers may cause it to black screen.

Click to expand...

When the screen blacks out, I'm only estimating, perhaps 5 hours. Certainly not 8 hours. Though my computer may have been on for 8 hours, sitting idle.

RollingThunder said:

As Thideras mentioned you would be surprised how well a restart, or even better, a reboot every few days solves many memory issues.

Click to expand...

I shut down my computer at least once a day, usually a few times a day. I know about that practice, thanks!

Mpegger said:

That is not normal for svchost and usually indicative of a problem with the background services it controls. It's nothing serious, but it can eat up processor cycles and as you can see, ram. Usually, just force closing the svchost.exe that has the issue will clear it up, though sometimes only temporarily. One of the issues that can cause that ram usage to sky rocket is the svchost Windows Update component running.

Also, running Firefox anywhere around 2GiB is asking for trouble, as Firefox (last I used) was still programmed without extended ram usage ability (I can't remember what it's called so maybe a programmer can jump in with the correct name, but it has to do with Firefox still being only a 32bit program), and become unstable as you near 2GiB. Definitely will error and eventually crash after 2GiB. Throw in Flash and even with just 1 tab open, Firefox will give problems, including a memory leak that will eventually lead to a crash. I've had that happen with as little as a 1 or 2 Youtube videos watched.

Click to expand...

Thanks I thought svchost was an abnormal value. I looked into the bottom right of my sys tray and in the box that displays "hidden icons" various programs like KAV, and other programs that used to appear on the system bar in XP- now collected in that box in Win7, I noticed a Win7 Update icon that appears. Which jogged my memory that only a few days ago this icon popped up indicating there are Win7 updates. Would this be the likely cause of the svchost having such a large value at times?

Currently I don't see svchost having such a large value. I posted an image of the current Task Manager screen for you.

satrow said:

Firefox is very close to crashing without warning at that memory usage. The pages blacking out are a sign that the FX process is nearing the physical limits.

If your browsing habits are such that you use more than ~1.8GB, use a 64-bit browser. I use Pale Moon x64 for this reason.

As already stated the SCVHost (right-click it and go to Services and check which ones it's using) is probably Windows Update.

Click to expand...

I had a feeling it was due to physical limits. I haven't seen this in Win7 w/my rig. I recall days like this at times in WinXP, it seemed similar but I wasn't sure.

I'm not aware of Pale Moon, I will look into it.

The next time I see such a large value, I will do as you suggested and see what services are causing this.

As satrow and I said, high memory usage by a single svchost process is almost always Windows Update. It has been that way since XP. I wouldn't worry about it.

Update or reinstall your graphics drivers. If it only happens when gaming, check your temps and clean out your case.

thideras said:

As satrow and I said, high memory usage by a single svchost process is almost always Windows Update. It has been that way since XP. I wouldn't worry about it.

Update or reinstall your graphics drivers. If it only happens when gaming, check your temps and clean out your case.

Click to expand...

Will do. I had left open FF last night with about 20 Pintrest tabs for about 3-4 hrs (and not using the computer) and the value back to 1.7 like it was when I first posted for FF, but not for svchost. FF didn't black out this time, but I was also shutting down the computer. So it seems for FF it's "simply" a memory issue to my limited knowledge.

I have to update Win7 and I wonder when I do, if svchost will drop consistently back to normal. Since I have posted, svchost hasn't jumped back up to those ridiculous values

Viper69 said:

I have to update Win7 and I wonder when I do, if svchost will drop consistently back to normal. Since I have posted, svchost hasn't jumped back up to those ridiculous values

Click to expand...

If Windows Update is idle, memory usage on its process should be normal.

thideras said:

If Windows Update is idle, memory usage on its process should be normal.

Click to expand...

It's "idle", in the sys tray I recently got an icon indicating "New Updates" are available. So I'm wondering if that is what caused svchost to explode. Though if so, I would think it's a continuous usage of resources until the updates were installed etc. I wish I had clicked on the svchost to see what was behind it.

Checking for updates may trigger it. The service also prepares the system and the updates to be installed, afaik. If this is causing slowness, throw more RAM at it. Otherwise, it shouldn't be a concern unless its pegging a processor core all the time.

WU eating RAM/CPU for hours/days is a fairly long-standing issue, creeping in around August last and affecting Vista/W7 and 8.1. Fixes vary by date, what works one month doesn't the next month.

Currently, I think the best 'fix' is here: http://wu.krelay.de/en/ it got me down to ~1 minute last month, ~1.5 today, with just a slight memory jump, CPU rise was insignificant.

Vista? Oh my, no. This has been an issue since XP.

Sure, XP had much the same issue during the latter years of support.