Why does Store Broker (wshost.exe) keep killing my CPU?

Anonymous
2014-01-24T23:58:25+00:00

I've got a new Windows 8 machine and, for some reason, the Store Broker keeps pegging my CPU. It seems to pop up every time I do anything with the Windows Store (makes sense) or use some Metro apps (also makes sense). However, for some reason, this process takes up 33% of my CPU and never lets go of it once it starts. This causes the machine to get hot which causes the fan to come on and the combination drastically reduces my battery life (from 11hrs to 3).

Aside from frequently checking for and killing this app, is there anything else I can do about this? Is anyone else having this problem? Is it a misconfiguration on my end? I'm running this on a new Surface Pro 2.

Thanks!

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

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Anonymous
2014-03-19T01:17:01+00:00

I SOLVED this. At least for myself. It's been a 3-day journey. Argh!

The upshot is this:

Kill Store and Store Broker from task list.

Rename the Cache folder to CacheOld at:

C:\Users(Your User Account)\AppData\Local\Packages\WinStore_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState

(Your WinStore_gobblygook might be a different bunch of gobbblygook)

Create an empty folder called Cache.

Solved! For me anyway.

Enjoy,

Ron

PS

I have been at this for days. I've read every article and post everywhere. I have updated graphics drivers, set date and time, run wsreset, sfc /scannnow, created new user account (store did work for new account), app troubleshooter, etc, etc, etc...

Today I just started digging around and looking at dates. I don't have log files to back this up but I believe I broke Store with CCleaner. I'm not sure exactly when the Store broke so this is a best guess but it makes some sense since Ccleaner does clean Store cache.

I also recently installed Tor Browser but my gut is that that was totally unrelated.

I might create a sandbox user and try to break Store with Ccleaner to confirm. But honestly I am tired of this little adventure.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-03-25T20:42:32+00:00

    I SOLVED this. At least for myself. It's been a 3-day journey. Argh!

    The upshot is this:

    Kill Store and Store Broker from task list.

    Rename the Cache folder to CacheOld at:

    C:\Users(Your User Account)\AppData\Local\Packages\WinStore_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState

    (Your WinStore_gobblygook might be a different bunch of gobbblygook)

    Create an empty folder called Cache.

    Solved! For me anyway.

    Enjoy,

    Ron

    PS

    I have been at this for days. I've read every article and post everywhere. I have updated graphics drivers, set date and time, run wsreset, sfc /scannnow, created new user account (store did work for new account), app troubleshooter, etc, etc, etc...

    Today I just started digging around and looking at dates. I don't have log files to back this up but I believe I broke Store with CCleaner. I'm not sure exactly when the Store broke so this is a best guess but it makes some sense since Ccleaner does clean Store cache.

    I also recently installed Tor Browser but my gut is that that was totally unrelated.

    I might create a sandbox user and try to break Store with Ccleaner to confirm. But honestly I am tired of this little adventure.

    Hi Ron,

    YOU ARE OUR HERO!!! This solution worked perfectly for me - too. And yes: to delete the "damaged" cache folder - simply move it to root dir of C: and then the cache folder with these strange, long named files can be deleted.

    One thing more: I have never used CCleaner...so I don't now when/what a proc damaged the cache...

    Greetings at all for which this problem was soooo frustrating

    Holger

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-03-26T02:53:48+00:00

    I SOLVED this. At least for myself. It's been a 3-day journey. Argh!

    The upshot is this:

    Kill Store and Store Broker from task list.

    Rename the Cache folder to CacheOld at:

    C:\Users(Your User Account)\AppData\Local\Packages\WinStore_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState

    (Your WinStore_gobblygook might be a different bunch of gobbblygook)

    Create an empty folder called Cache.

    Solved! For me anyway.

    Enjoy,

    Ron

    PS

    I have been at this for days. I've read every article and post everywhere. I have updated graphics drivers, set date and time, run wsreset, sfc /scannnow, created new user account (store did work for new account), app troubleshooter, etc, etc, etc...

    Today I just started digging around and looking at dates. I don't have log files to back this up but I believe I broke Store with CCleaner. I'm not sure exactly when the Store broke so this is a best guess but it makes some sense since Ccleaner does clean Store cache.

    I also recently installed Tor Browser but my gut is that that was totally unrelated.

    I might create a sandbox user and try to break Store with Ccleaner to confirm. But honestly I am tired of this little adventure.

    Hi Ron,

    YOU ARE OUR HERO!!! This solution worked perfectly for me - too. And yes: to delete the "damaged" cache folder - simply move it to root dir of C: and then the cache folder with these strange, long named files can be deleted.

    One thing more: I have never used CCleaner...so I don't now when/what a proc damaged the cache...

    Greetings at all for which this problem was soooo frustrating

    Holger

    Just as specified in this post - disabled the Store - replaced the cache as written here - re-enabled the store and everything is working well.  I also never used CCleaner - this is a brand new Dell computer - never ran anything strange on it.  The evil store was eating up almost 80% of my CPU and was making me doubtful about upgrading from my Windows 7 machine.  Everything is peaceful now.  Microsoft, please find a fix - there must be a zillion others out there who have no clue how to track down a solution like this.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-03-28T19:02:47+00:00

    I SOLVED this. At least for myself. It's been a 3-day journey. Argh!

    The upshot is this:

    Kill Store and Store Broker from task list.

    Rename the Cache folder to CacheOld at:

    C:\Users(Your User Account)\AppData\Local\Packages\WinStore_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState

    (Your WinStore_gobblygook might be a different bunch of gobbblygook)

    Create an empty folder called Cache.

    Solved! For me anyway.

    Enjoy,

    Ron

    PS

    I have been at this for days. I've read every article and post everywhere. I have updated graphics drivers, set date and time, run wsreset, sfc /scannnow, created new user account (store did work for new account), app troubleshooter, etc, etc, etc...

    Today I just started digging around and looking at dates. I don't have log files to back this up but I believe I broke Store with CCleaner. I'm not sure exactly when the Store broke so this is a best guess but it makes some sense since Ccleaner does clean Store cache.

    I also recently installed Tor Browser but my gut is that that was totally unrelated.

    I might create a sandbox user and try to break Store with Ccleaner to confirm. But honestly I am tired of this little adventure.

    Thanks a lot for sharing this solution!!

    Worked like a charm.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-03-28T22:32:18+00:00

    I SOLVED this. At least for myself. It's been a 3-day journey. Argh!

    The upshot is this:

    Kill Store and Store Broker from task list.

    Rename the Cache folder to CacheOld at:

    C:\Users(Your User Account)\AppData\Local\Packages\WinStore_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState

    (Your WinStore_gobblygook might be a different bunch of gobbblygook)

    Create an empty folder called Cache.

    Solved! For me anyway.

    Enjoy,

    Ron

    PS

    I have been at this for days. I've read every article and post everywhere. I have updated graphics drivers, set date and time, run wsreset, sfc /scannnow, created new user account (store did work for new account), app troubleshooter, etc, etc, etc...

    Today I just started digging around and looking at dates. I don't have log files to back this up but I believe I broke Store with CCleaner. I'm not sure exactly when the Store broke so this is a best guess but it makes some sense since Ccleaner does clean Store cache.

    I also recently installed Tor Browser but my gut is that that was totally unrelated.

    I might create a sandbox user and try to break Store with Ccleaner to confirm. But honestly I am tired of this little adventure.

    Thanks a lot for sharing this solution!!

    Worked like a charm.

    I would really appreciate Microsoft's opinion on this fix. How about it?

    The fix above seems to be working for folk so I'm going to give it a try in a min.  Yes, I too have had this issue since new on a brand new win 8.1 desktop put together by my local computer store a month ago.  Tried some other 'fixes' that I thought worked.....but didn't.  StoreBroker usually comes on randomly and then takes up 50-60% of CPU.

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