Sep 11 2012

COM Surrogate Process and High CPU Usage

Just an observation on Windows 8 that I wanted to share which may also help others using Windows Vista and 7.

Recently, I was seeing some graphical glitches occur under Windows 8 as well as CPU usage getting stuck at 25% for unusually long periods of time on my quad-core i7 desktop. This meant that one core was being consumed persistently for no apparent reason. Obviously, this isn’t a good thing particularly with power conservation coming more into focus these days. The offending process was noted as COM Surrogate which maps to dllhost.exe in Windows.

In order to unstick the process I would reboot my computer which would temporarily resolve the problem but it would eventually come back.

I thought that perhaps the video drivers might be causing a problem so I rolled back from the official nVidia drivers to the standard drivers included with Windows 8 and restarted the system. Having done that a couple of days ago things have been working fine ever since with no further video glitches or processes chewing up the CPU for no reason.

Boydo

My name is Boyd and I’m a Service Management Specialist with a knack for operational data gathering, transformation, analysis and reporting.

In 2012, I obtained my Masters of Science in Information Technology through the University of New South Wales @ The Australia Defence Force Academy (UNSW@ADFA).

I was also part of an online community known as the Panasonic Insider Crew in the capacity of “Insider Guru” for Panasonic Australia where I interacted with other tech enthusiasts and find out more about Panasonic's latest gadgets.

I love technology, gadgets, and the Internet and maintain a keen interest in these areas locally, nationally, and globally. I hope by sharing my views on these topics that people will receive an honest point of view from someone with a genuine interest in these topics.

I have also written and edited articles for Neowin - you can check out my articles over @ https://www.neowin.net/news/poster/boyd_chan

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6 comments

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  1. This may have been some coincidence. If it is indeed COM surrogate, it might have been better if you had looked for DLLs running in that process before rolling back from the NVidia drivers.

    • tsecheng on November 28, 2012 at 23:36
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    In windows 8, this is home group problem, disable “home group”, COM surrogate hightly use CUP well solve.

      • Johnny4B on December 4, 2012 at 21:39
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      Hi tscecheng

      Every forum I have been on could not help me, came across your advice and solved issue straight away

      Thanks a million

      John

    • EddieW on March 5, 2013 at 13:13
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    I installed Windows 8 and was also getting the high CPU usage by COM Surrogate. I traced mine down to the little checkbox under the View tab of Folder Options. Place a check mark in the very first entry under Files and Folders which says “Always show icons, never thumbnails”. Click on OK, then reboot. No more thumbnail icons on my Desktop, but no more high CPU usage by COM Surrogate, either. I can live with that.

    1. Quite interesting – definitely something else for others to check if they happen to encounter the same situation.

    • Yoganand on March 14, 2013 at 04:01
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    High cpu usage by COM surrogate it’s increasing gradually.

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