Can problems with SVChost cause memory errors?

[Whitebread]

Suddenly, my Dell E1505 (running XP home) has been running very slowly, I've also been getting memory errors associated with SVChost, saying the information stored as whatever location cannot be accessed and the process must be killed. I did a memory test using memtest 2.11 and it passed with no errors, so I'm thinking its not a hardware problem. Could it be software?

Thanks

 

[Joe Average]

SVCHost is the service which hosts other services (DOH!!!) and because of this, it's a prime candidate for virus infections. Regardless of whether you're running AV software or not, and regardless of what brand or even if it's updated, the issues you just described point towards definite virus or infection-like activity.

Open a Command Prompt and run the following command:

sfc /scannow

and have your Windows CD or DVD handy. It'll check the digital signatures on each file that's related to Windows itself (including svchost.exe) and report on any irregularities or corrupt files. Let the entire scan finish, and it can take some time but it's worth it.

If that ends up competely clean, then you should run some additional antivirus tests, the ones that you can find online are sometimes useful for this:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com

http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/

Those two can do intensive scans but they don't necessarily clean the infections if they exist. There are some that actually do the cleaning too, I just can't remember them at this exact moment, perhaps someone else will have more to offer.

Good luck...

 

[Whitebread]

Sounds like a reformat and reinstall would be excellent right now. I've been wanting to do one for a while so I think this was just the impetus I needed.

 

[Joe Average]

If you're gonna go that far, why not try to *ahem* locate a copy of Windows 7... I think you'd be pleasantly surprised at how kickass it really is... just for fun.

 

[Whitebread]

Is it compatible with XP software? I use matlab, CES edupak and other engineering specific software frequently and I absolutely must be able to use it if I were to install windows 7.