High CPU usage by servicehost.exe on Azure VM

Question

The subject says it all... one of the local services in my Windows Server VM on Azure is running amok.

Process Explorer shows it as one of 4 processes running under svchost.exe: (but doesn't tell which one)

rundll32.exe - pla.dll PLA Host - RT Events
rundll32.exe - pla.dll PLA Host - GT Events
sihost.exe - Shell Infrastructure Host
taskhost2.exe - Host Process for Windows Tasks

This is a very vanilla system only a month old... it's only hosting one small app, and stopping that app doesn't stop the CPU drain.

Is this an Azure VM issue or a Windows issue? Any thoughts?

Answer 1

Hi,
Try to perform a clean boot to disable some service to check.
Type "msconfig" in Search Bar, click "service" option, hide all microsoft service, then disable all no-microsoft service. Restart to check.
Also when you tried use process explorer. You said it is related to svchost.exe. Right click and open its properties and go to the Threads tab. Here you can clearly see that which thread corresponding service consumes the most part of the CPU and memory within the svchost.exe process.
Hope this helps and please help to accept as Answer if the response is useful.
Best Regards,
Carl

Answer 2

Thank you! I didn't know Process Explorer enough to go that deep.

The problem task was Windows Update.... wuaueng.dll WUCreateUpdateHandler I killed that task and CPU is normal.

I've disabled WU for now and rebooted, I see MANY comments online about various similar problems with WU, so I'll go down that rabbit hole and see if anyone has a fix.