Generic Host Process For Win32 Services

**TCH-Thomas** · February 20, 2005

For the past 2-3 weeks I have met this message 6 or 7 times when I start windows XP (with sp 2):

Generic host process for win32 services discovered a fault and need to close.

If you want more info, please click here.

If I click it, it says:

szappname: svchost.exe sczappver: 0.0.0.0 szmodname: unknown

szmodver: 0.0.0.0 offset: 00000000

What does all this mean? Do I have to reinstall windows?

Sorry for the lack of info, but I dont know how to explain it more.

Also, I dont know if I translated the error message correctly.

Anyone needs more info, just ask. All help greatly appreciated.

**stevevan** · February 20, 2005

Strange! You may want to try looking in the support section on Micro$oft's website for some clues. Sounds like you may have a bad dynamic link library (dll) somewhere. But it's weird that there's not version number listed.

**Madmanmcp** · February 20, 2005

Thomas, first scan for a virus or Trojan. the Svchost.exe is used by RPC or RASMAN for Remote Access and hackers are using these to take over computers.

**youneverknow** · February 20, 2005

I found this on the web which makes sense if Bob is correct

"A windows repair install will often clear up windows errors. Just boot with your win. CD and follow prompt to install windows, then "repair installation". You shouldn't lose any of your data, but its always a good idea to back up just in case."

Hope this helps but,

youneverknow

**TCH-Thomas** · February 20, 2005

Thanks guys

I have scanned my computer with both Spybot and Norton antivirus so it doesnt look like there is a trojan or virus (not found anyway).

As for repairing windows...

I tried that once. Not with my own computer (and for another reason) but for some reason it did not work. Since that repair thing don´t have the sp 2 and so on, wouldn´t my computer loose all updates if I run it?

**youneverknow** · February 20, 2005

Good point Thomas. I really don't have an answer for that. I don't know how the repair utility handels all the updates they have released.

youneverknow

**Madmanmcp** · February 20, 2005

wouldn´t my computer loose all updates if I run it?

Yes, this will wipe out all the security updates and Service Packs that you have installed.

A better way to do this is to use the System Restore feature that comes with XP. You can start by picking a Restore Point dated before the error stated occurring and see if this will fix your error.

**TCH-Dick** · February 20, 2005

If you want to check for corrupted or incorrect system files.

>Start

>Run

>cmd

@ the prompt type

sfc /scannow

**TCH-Thomas** · February 20, 2005

If you want to check for corrupted or incorrect system files.
>Start

>Run

>cmd

@ the prompt type

sfc /scannow

I did what Dick told me but after 9 times of telling me I need to insert the cd for Microsoft Windows XP Professional server I gave up since I have Home edition (and not professional or server). I did insert the home cd first time thinking it may work, but no.

Next thing was to do new scans of both Spybot and Norton Antivirus since I hadn´t done it since the day before yesterday.

Result: Clean computer.

Next I reinstalled Microsoft Antispyware. I had uninstalled it for some reason, but thinking its worth a try since it did find things last time I had it installed that no other antispyware have found before.

Result: Clean.

Should I do a new system file check even if it keeps telling me to insert a cd I dont have?

It sounds to me like the only option is to reformat the whole thing and install it again (since updates will get overwritten anyway).

By the way, I forgot to tell before that I dont have the System Restore feature enabled since it have to be disabled if a virus is found anyway and I normally have very little use for it.

**dcumpian** · February 27, 2005

If you want to isolate which "service" is having the problem, then open your Services panel and note which ones are listed as "Automatic" but are not started. This should give you a good idea of which service or services failed to start.

Finally, you can use MSCONFIG to temporarily disable the suspect service(s) one at a time and reboot until you don't get the error. This will tell you which one is the problem. Once you know this, you can decide if you really need it or not. It may very well be a service for some application that you recently removed from your system.

Regards,

Dan

**TCH-Thomas** · March 2, 2005

I wanted to wait with an update about this so the chance that I am wrong is small.

A few days after my original question, Raul asked me if I had run a virus scan with another program. Raul recommended me a program to run. I run it and it finds 2 viruses in 3 files.

None of the infected files have anything to do with the startup process that I know of, but since I removed the files with the viruses, the original problem has not appeared again.

Thanks everyone involved. :dance:

**Madmanmcp** · March 2, 2005

Ahh, what I originally suspected. Glad you found a way to catch them and get rid of them.

**wallysparks** · April 4, 2005

What program did you run ? I think I may have a similar problem. I also have no sound. I use Norton security suite. It runs clean.

Any ideas ?

I wanted to wait with an update about this so the chance that I am wrong is small.

A few days after my original question, Raul asked me if I had run a virus scan with another program. Raul recommended me a program to run. I run it and it finds 2 viruses in 3 files.

None of the infected files have anything to do with the startup process that I know of, but since I removed the files with the viruses, the original problem has not appeared again.

Thanks everyone involved.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

**TCH-Bruce** · April 4, 2005

Welcome to the forums, wallysparks :cool2:

I'm sure Thomas will be along to answer your question.

**TweezerMan** · April 4, 2005

Welcome to the forums, wallysparks!

**stevevan** · April 4, 2005

Welcome to the forums.

**TCH-Don** · April 5, 2005

Welcome to the forums, wallysparks

**mike** · April 5, 2005

Take note of the fact that most anti virus do not catch everything.

I personally gave up on Norton after their 2002 system works blistered my xp and forced me to reinstall because norton had a faulty uninstall........ and I even used add/remove instead of theirs. But everyone told me they had the same problem and so now I use AVG or AntiVir

**wallysparks** · April 6, 2005

Take note of the fact that most anti virus do not catch everything.
I personally gave up on Norton after their 2002 system works blistered my xp and forced me to reinstall because norton had a faulty uninstall........ and I even used add/remove instead of theirs. But everyone told me they had the same problem and so now I use AVG or AntiVir

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

THANKs for the info. maybe I'll look for something else when the subscription is finished.

**TCH-Thomas** · April 6, 2005

Welcome to the forums, wallysparks. :thumbup1:

I used Clamwin to get rid of the viruses. It was Rauls idea so he should have any credit.

I ran this antivirus program which took a long time, much longer than any other antivirusprogram I have ever used, but it did its job.

However, the problem isn´t gone yet. On saturday last weekend same problem showed up again. This time I knew that my computer was virus free. I was really annoyed about it coming back so I decided it was time reformat my hd and reinstall windows.

When I was done with that I installed a couple of other things, rebooted and...

the problem was back.

Now I got really mad and went to microsoft site and read every single word about this problem in their knowledgebase and it looks like its my printers drivers (HP or Hoepless Problem) that giving me this problem, the only thing is that there is no newer drivers to replace with.

**wallysparks** · April 6, 2005

Welcome to the forums, wallysparks.

I used Clamwin to get rid of the viruses. It was Rauls idea so he should have any credit.

I ran this antivirus program which took a long time, much longer than any other antivirusprogram I have ever used, but it did its job.

However, the problem isn´t gone yet. On saturday last weekend same problem showed up again. This time I knew that my computer was virus free. I was really annoyed about it coming back so I decided it was time reformat my hd and reinstall windows.

When I was done with that I installed a couple of other things, rebooted and...

the problem was back.

Now I got really mad and went to microsoft site and read every single word about this problem in their knowledgebase and it looks like its my printers drivers (HP or Hoepless Problem) that giving me this problem, the only thing is that there is no newer drivers to replace with.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks, you just confimed what I thought might be the problem because I started getting that message after I installed hp OJ7310 network printer.

But I still don't have any sound/audio. I'm not sure when I lost it so I don't have any idea what might have caused it. I did find another person in a forum who has the same problem but not sure if he got it fixed.

this is what he posted :

I'm sure hoping someone here can help me out, because this is starting to drive me insane. I came downstairs this morning to find my laptop screen black, thought it was still running. So I tried moving the mouse around, hitting the power button briefly to bring it out of hibernation (o_O), etc. Nothing. So I manually restarted, and now no sound works. Absolutely nothing. I opened dxdiag, tested the Sound and got this:

DirectSound test results: Failure at step 19 (User verification of software): HRESULT = 0x00000000 (error code)

I tried updating drivers, nothing. New version of DirectX, nothing.

later response follows :

I just need to know where to get a hold of the Driver for a ASUS P4S800 and to be more specific i need the driver that is Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\portcls.sys, 5.01.2600.1106

cause i am have the BSOD problem and this should fix it but i can't find this driver anywhere and yes i have tried the ASUS website. can anyon help?

end of post

Unfortunately he couldn't find the driver he was looking for and how that would fix the problem. I have tried numerous adware/antivirus all clean.

I tried csshredder and it found cws.msconfig and it removed it.

Any ideas ? Nothing seems to work. Could it be the sound card ? just guessing.

w. s.

**stevevan** · April 6, 2005

You might want to look at www.driverguide.com. Also, have you done a google search? There are quite a few others out there.

**dcumpian** · April 7, 2005

Welcome to the forums, wallysparks.

I used Clamwin to get rid of the viruses. It was Rauls idea so he should have any credit.

I ran this antivirus program which took a long time, much longer than any other antivirusprogram I have ever used, but it did its job.

However, the problem isn´t gone yet. On saturday last weekend same problem showed up again. This time I knew that my computer was virus free. I was really annoyed about it coming back so I decided it was time reformat my hd and reinstall windows.

When I was done with that I installed a couple of other things, rebooted and...

the problem was back.

Now I got really mad and went to microsoft site and read every single word about this problem in their knowledgebase and it looks like its my printers drivers (HP or Hoepless Problem) that giving me this problem, the only thing is that there is no newer drivers to replace with.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've solved this before (it depends on the HP printer) by turning off bi-directional communications between your PC and the printer.

Regards,

Dan

**wallysparks** · April 7, 2005

You might want to look at www.driverguide.com. Also, have you done a google search? There are quite a few others out there.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks Steve, In the posting he tried that web site without any luck and a couple others. I don't think he found anything. I'm not even sure how he found out about that driver. My sound worked fine before, so I don't know why I would need that driver ? Any help from anybody is appreciated.

**TCH-Thomas** · April 7, 2005

I've solved this before (it depends on the HP printer) by turning off bi-directional communications between your PC and the printer.

Regards,

Dan

Thanks Dan. :lol:

However, I have one question (due to that my english isn´t the best so I don´t know what bi-directional communications means ),

How do you turn that thing off?

**curtis** · April 7, 2005

Thomas,

You can find bidirectional support by going into the printer properties. The tabs at the top of the box, one is ports click it. At the bottom of this box are 2 check boxes. On my printer the top check box is for bidirectional support, the second is printer pooling.

**TCH-Thomas** · April 7, 2005

Thank Curtis. :lol:

Now I have a new problem, with this though.

For some reason it always install 2 printers (hp deskjet 845c and hp deskjet 845c series). The computer had set hp deskjet 845c as default which had above line grayed out. I set the other one (hp deskjet 845c series) as default now and on that I could uncheck this. Not sure if this will help since the printer I had as default had this line grayed out. We´ll see. :lol:

**curtis** · April 7, 2005

I had that problem with win 98se installing 2 printers. It was,I believe, an hp 952c.

Printer sharing was turned on but no network was setup. Everytime I tried to install the printer it would get installed twice. I turned off sharing, reinstalled and the printer setup as it should with only one printer showing.

**TCH-Thomas** · April 7, 2005

Ok, thanks Curtis. :lol:

I´ll look up the sharing option and get back in to this thread in a couple of days when I know if this works or not (since its usually just problem at boot up). :lol:

**TCH-Thomas** · April 12, 2005

I´ve had off bi-directional communications turned off now since my last post and all works well.

Thanks everyone involved.

And for the record if anyone else have this problem...

I know one more computer with the same symtoms but with an epson printer, we turned off bi-directional communications on that too, and it works on that computer too, so it may not only be HP printers that have this problem.

**TCH-Thomas** · April 15, 2005

I´m sorry to break the news, but the problem is back again :sleepy: .

So I´m open for any suggestions again, if anyone have anything I can try. :wallbash:

**iprefermacosx** · May 29, 2005

I´m sorry to break the news, but the problem is back again .
So I´m open for any suggestions again, if anyone have anything I can try.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi TCH-Thomas,

Maybe you have solved this issue already but I had the same problem

and it was related to a security update I made. (MS05-012). Apperently

this update cause the Generic Hosts Process problem on some boxes.

Try installing the new fix (for the old fix :-)) from the guys from the dark side:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...displaylang=eng

Cheers,

IPreferMacOSX.

**TCH-Thomas** · May 29, 2005

Hi and welcome to the forum, iprefermacosx. :angry:

No, I have actually not been able to solve it yet, even if the problem just shows up sometimes now. I had a look in my computer and it looks like it may need this update.

Thanks.

**TCH-Bruce** · May 29, 2005

Welcome to the forums iprefermacosx :angry:

**TweezerMan** · May 29, 2005

Welcome to the forums, iprefermacosx! :angry:

**TCH-Don** · May 29, 2005

Welcome to the forums iprefermacosx :angry:

**cbkihong** · June 3, 2005

I confirmed this or a similar Hotfix cleared the error for me. Just thought you may be interested to know.

**TCH-Bruce** · June 3, 2005

Welcome to the forums cbkihong :thumbup1:

**TCH-Thomas** · June 3, 2005

Welcome to the forum, cbkihong. :thumbup1:

**TweezerMan** · June 3, 2005

Welcome to the forums, cbkihong! :thumbup1:

**TCH-Don** · June 3, 2005

Welcome to the forums cbkihong :wallbash:

**camieabz** · July 12, 2005

Hallo folks.

I googled for Generic Host etc etc. You know the issue by now.

Right. I checked out most of the possible trojans / viri via updates, fixes and regedit values. Clean!

I ran the Windows hotfix mentioned earlier. No difference!

I disabled the SSDP service (recommended in another link). No difference.

I tried the unticking of the bi-directional support, and ding ding! Seems to have stopped for now.

I too have a new XP PRo setup with XP2. In fact it's a brand new self-build. The one thing that I left until last was the installation of the HP Officejet 7310 All-In -One. Initially this problem did not occur, but after a while Norton IS 2005 flagged this and stopped the communication.

I had two other programs which would try to install on startup (occuring at the same time as this problem). One was trying to install my integrated printer fax machine capability (not currently an option for me, due to phone line reasons), and the other was trying to install..."photo gallery". I kept pressing cancel to stop them at boot up.

Looking in my startup folder I found two shortcuts:-

HP Image Zone Fast Start - Deleting this disabled the photo gallery one.

HP Digital Imaging Monitor - and bang went the other!

Now I have no reason to belive that either had a direct influence over the Generic Host issue, but there's three issues and it would seem that all are or were caused by HP device software.

When I first set it up, I had lots of problems getting an ethernet connection on the printer (wanted one for remote printing). Seems that the rinter has a default IP, and on installation you're given the option to change the IP. I changed mine to be one number up from the new PC on the internal network. This wouldn't work. However, on changing the install to default IP it worked fine??? (Default IP is 169.254 with a class B mask, and my network was class C public).

Food for thought. I went HP because they gave a decent piece of kit for the buck (print, scan, fax, copy, duplex attachment.) My Dad has a similar three year old model and I had one hard time ironing out several conflicts between HP software and varios other pieces of kit.

Not knocking HP, but for the price and 700MB of software, you would expect seamless functionality. It seems that the ethernet connection can cause quite a lot of hassle.

There's my tuppence. Hope it helps or gives ideas. :blink:

Camie.

**TCH-Don** · July 12, 2005

Welcome to the forum Camie :blink:

and thanks for the information.

**TCH-Rob** · July 12, 2005

Camie,

Thanks for sharing and welcome to the forums.

**TweezerMan** · July 12, 2005

Welcome to the forums, Camie!

**TCH-Thomas** · July 12, 2005

Welcome to the forum, Camie.

**camieabz** · July 12, 2005

Thanks for the welcome folks...

Guess what. Booted up this evening and..."Hi there, I'm that Generic thingy that you hate, and I'm back!"

Maybe it's a cold boot issue? Worked fine for 5 warm boots last night. Aw well. Anyone tried threatening their PC yet? :lol:

Edited July 12, 2005 by camieabz

**TCH-Bruce** · July 13, 2005

Welcome to the forums, Camie :clapping:

**TCH-Rob** · July 13, 2005

Anyone tried threatening their PC yet?

I gave up long ago. Computers are like cats, they do what you want when they feel like it. Hmmm, reminds me of my wi... er, nevermind.

**curtis** · July 13, 2005

Rob, You must really like that couch. :clapping:

**camieabz** · July 13, 2005

One thing I have twigged...

It is reporting the number of times that Windows prevented the process. Not Norton after all. So if I was on for a while there are more chances of more results on boot up next time.

Warm reboots show nothing, because they've not had time to generate an error.

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