wuaudt.exe is really bogging down my computer

Anonymous
2010-08-03T18:57:06+00:00

Recently, when I first start my computer for the day, wuaudt.exe runs and really bogs down my computer.  In Task Manager it shows it is using a lot of memory along with one of the many svchost.exe's that are running.  I had my computer set up to notify me when updates are available.  I have investigated this problem and found about the only thing to do is disable automatic updates altogether.  I have turned off Automatic Updates, unchecked Automatic Updates under the Services tab in msconfig and in services.msc I have set Automatic Updates to manual.  This seems to keep wuaudt.exe from running.  I read in one place that Microsoft issues updates on the first and third Tuesday's of each month so I plan on doing manual updates at those times.  Does anyone know why wuaudt.exe is suddenly such a memory hog? It only seems to be a problem the first time I time turn my computer on (I turn it off when not in use to save electricity).  If I shut it off and restart it later in the day, there is not a performance problem.  I have a Dell Dimension 5100C, Windows XP Pro SP3, 512 MB RAM, Pentium 4 3.00 Ghz processor. 

 I would like to be able to be notified of critical updates when they are issued but I don't want wuaudt.exe running every day if it is going to  bog me down.  Any ideas?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2010-08-22T19:22:13+00:00

Thanks for the info!  I've opted out of Microsoft Updates as you and PA Bear have suggested.  Keeping my fingers crossed that everything works normally tomorrow!

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Anonymous
2010-08-20T19:29:09+00:00

Update: Due primarily to exchanges with several MS MVPS on the behalf of users like you, Microsoft is aware of and has acknowledged the issue:

"We have gotten reports from multiple sources and consider this to be a live service issue and we are investigating it as a Priority 1."

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear) ~ MS MVP (IE, Mail, Security, Windows & Update Services) since 2002 ~ Disclaimer: MS MVPs neither represent nor work for Microsoft

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-09-10T22:30:05+00:00

    MS says it should be fixed now.  See...

    Sluggish XP sp3's in the August time frame (10 Sept-10)

       • http://marc.info/?l=patchmanagement&m=128413444818548

       • http://marc.info/?l=patchmanagement&m=128414795804512

    To test:

    1. Flip your default back to Microsoft Update.
    2. Run a manual check for updates:  http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

        NB: Chances are you will NOT see any improvement yet so be very patient.

    1. Reboot (optional) then run another manual check for updates & see if the "memory hog" behavior persists.

    ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear) ~ MS MVP (IE, Mail, Security, Windows & Update Services) since 2002 ~ Disclaimer: MS MVPs neither represent nor work for Microsoft

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-09-09T17:02:08+00:00

    My problems with this issue seem much diminished, too, all of a sudden. Last couple of days, I guess. To the extent that I never bothered switching away from Microsoft Updates to Windows Updates...

    Thanks for your feedback, too.

    I suspect (but at this point cannot confirm) that MS did some tweaking on their end earlier this week. "Stay tuned to this station..."

    ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear) ~ MS MVP (IE, Mail, Security, Windows & Update Services) since 2002 ~ Disclaimer: MS MVPs neither represent nor work for Microsoft

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-09-09T08:42:45+00:00

    @Ron and @PA Bear:

    My problems with this issue seem much diminished, too, all of a sudden. Last couple of days, I guess. To the extent that I never bothered switching away from Microsoft Updates to Windows Updates. I had thought it was because I'd just set automatic updates to operate once a week in the middle of the night. But then I was offered a Siverlight update in the morning (I think) the other day (the 'update available' icon appeared in the bottom right hand corner of the screen - is that called the 'tray'??), and it downloaded/installed with no fuss at all. Then, yesterday, wuauclt.exe fired up in the middle of the day - I have process explorer running so I can keep an eye on things at the moment - but it only slowed the computer up for about 10/15 minutes. And it wasn't such a bad slow-up as I had been experiencing before, either.

    Not sure if any of that is of any use to anyone, but I offer it anyway! (Oh, and I'm running XP Home (version 2002, service pack 3), with half a gig of RAM.)

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