Thanks for the response - there are many processes running under svchost -
I'll continue to research. Question - is there any way you know of to look
more granularly at the processes running under svchost? Using Process
Explorer, I've been able to look within svchost, and can see a number of
threads which are consuming CPU, on the exact same cycle as I see via my Task
manager performance graph. This graph, by the way, looks very much like an
EKG, evenly spaced spikes of CPU, every 6-8 seconds, going up to 40% CPU or
higher. This goes on all the time, even with nothing open on my machine.

What I've not been able to determine is just what is kicking off those
threads. Is there any way you know to be able to determine what starts them?

"Leonard Grey" wrote:

There are many ways you can discover what processes are being hosted by
svchost. My favorite way is also the simplest: it uses the Help and
Support Center. Start Help and Support and select 'Use tools to view
your computer information..." then choose 'Advanced system information'
and select 'View running services'. This shows you all running services,
including those running behind svchost. If any of those services look
unfamiliar you can run a web search to find out what they do, and that
can help you uncover malicious software.

Another elegant method is offered by the File Research Center
(http://www.fileresearchcenter.com/). Click on "Do you know what's
running on YOUR computer?"
---
Leonard Grey
Errare humanum est

MG wrote:
I've read many posts regarding the lengthy start-up issues associated with
svchost and MS updates - mine appears somewhat different. After booting up,
and after all services have started, my machine runs through cycles of CPU -
viewed on Task Manager these spkies are typically around 40% of CPU,
sometimes higher, and are occurring on a very consistent cycle, around every
6-8 seconds. This happens even with nothing open on my machine.

I've run all the scans to check for viruses and spyware. I can see that
these processes running are within svchost.exe and/or services.exe. I've
tried shutting down everything that is in my startup and the problem still
exists. This cycling of CPU goes on non-stop, all the time. As it eats CPU
on these cycles, other processes are now affected - example, a full virus
scan now takes about twice as long as it used to. As there are tons of tasks
running within svchost, I have no idea how to narrow this down. I'm running
XP Home/SP2 and have applied all updates automatically. Any ideas?