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I’m wondering if anyone out there can help me with this one…

On one server, running Windows server 2003 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition, service pack 1, I’m encountering this problem:

The machine often grinds to a halt, responding very slowly, and the event log is filled with:

Application log:

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: PerfOS
Event Category: None
Event ID: 2012
Date: 9/04/2008
Time: 7:41:53
User: N/A
Computer: XXX
Description:
Unable to get system process information from system. The status code
returned is in the first DWORD in the Data section.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: a1 00 00 c0 ¡..À

System log:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Popup
Event Category: None
Event ID: 333
Date: 16/04/2008
Time: 10:36:36
User: N/A
Computer: XXX
Description:
An I/O operation initiated by the Registry failed unrecoverably. The
Registry could not read in, or write out, or flush, one of the files that
contain the system’s image of the Registry.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 00 00 00 00 01 00 6c 00 ……l.
0008: 00 00 00 00 4d 01 00 c0 ….M..À
0010: 00 00 00 00 4d 01 00 c0 ….M..À
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ……..
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ……..

The only thing this machine is running is Platform Symphony, GRID computing software. This setup is identical on 4 other machines, which don’t show any problems.

After numerous googles I still haven’t found a reason or a solution. I’ve tried:

• reinstalling machine - problem comes back (it’s not clear before or after installing the GRID software…
• increasing pagefile size
• checked main drive
• tried UHCleaner - doesn’t seem to work on 64bit
• checked registry settings - all are identical
• …

In case you’re using Windows (or Microsoft) Update, you’ll probably have noticed that your PC sometimes grinds to a halt after bootup. Checking with task manager usually reveals that svchost.exe is abusing your CPU, pegging it at 100%.

This thread specifies several solutions that you can try, and for me what helped was:

• installing KB927891
• installing Windows Update Agent 3.0 (x86 / x64)
• cleaning of the SoftwareDistribution folder:
  1. Open a command prompt
  2. net stop wuauserv
  3. Rename Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder to SoftwareDistribution.old
  4. net start wuauserv
  5. Reboot

Doing the combination of these fixes (in this order) finally made svchost behave like it should. Look in the thread for more possible fixes ;)

Interesting readup.

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

Should make you think twice about that OS…