Service Host: Local System Constantly using CPU and has High Memory Usage

Q. I clean installed to Windows 10 and have been keeping up with updates. With a recent update, I have been having issues with CPU and Memory.

When I check Task Manager, Service Host: Local System is constantly running at about 25% CPU usage. It occasionally surges or stops for a couple of seconds, but soon goes back to 25% CPU usage. Its memory usage starts around 230MB as soon as I log in and then climbs at a rate of about 1MB per second to over 1.5GB. I have seen it go as high as 2.3GB. If I open Task Manager as Administrator, then I can end End Task, but then certain things like my Start Menu and Search stop working. However, after about a minute, CPU and memory usage go back to their previous states and the process shows up in Task Manager again, but the broken things continue to not work.

I assumed this could be a driver issue, but when I checked all my drivers, the only one which updated was my display driver. I have the same problem after the update.

Answer.

Restart the computer and check. Also, check for Windows updates.

Uninstall/disable any third party security software and check if it helps.

Try to run the following commands and check if it helps.

  1.  Type CMD in Search. Right click on it to run as an administrator.
  2. Type the following 4 commands at the CMD prompt:

WSReset.exe.

dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

sfc /scannow

powershell

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers |Where-Object {$_.InstallLocation -like “*SystemApps*”} | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}

  1. Close the CMD window.
  2. Check to see if the issue is resolved. If not, restart the PC.

Leave a Reply