Windows 7 COM Surrogate Opens and Closes

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matt965

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Oct 18, 2012
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Unlike everybody else here, I have a different problem with COM Surrogate. I noticed something wasn't right when I got random freeze-ups playing audiosurf which is sensitive to CPU usage. I opened task manager and saw about every 15 seconds, there is a spike in the CPU usage. I checked the processes and saw dllhost.exe (COM Surrogate) is opening up and closing in just a few seconds, and repeats this about every 15 seconds which is eating my CPU. I do NOT get any error messages anywhere. I can view photos just fine. HOWEVER, I do see that any new photos' or videos' thumbnails are not updating. Any videos and photos I had before this problem have thumbnails, but not any new ones I create. I am running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

Has anybody else had this problem? I don't want to go through another re-installation (I just re-installed because Windows Update kept breaking).
 
Solution
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Sorry for late reply. Found out the cause of everything: LOOSE SATA CABLE. I replaced the cable since the old one had a bad design and it didn't have a tight fit.

Shortly after the last reply, my secondary hard drive, where I was having the problems, suddenly unmounted itself and kept doing this randomly after each reboot. Sometimes it would stay there for about an hour, sometimes a few days before it unmounted. I replaced the cable and I have tested everything. All is well now. I should have tested to see if the same problem occurred on a different hard drive. Oh well, lessons learned. Thank you Saltgrass for the help.
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That doesn't sound like my problem. I tried the solution anyway and the problem isn't fixed.

Just before I tried the solution, I see that the process isn't opening and closing anymore. However, everything else remains. I can view photos just fine, but the recent photos and videos don't have thumbnails yet the older ones do have thumbnails. No error messages anywhere.
 
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I see that the process starts opening and closing non-stop after I open a video or photo. Then, after a while, it stops. I don't know how long it takes though since I am away from my computer for too long.

I would like to get this fixed. I used my last activation on the key I have. I don't want to pay another $200 for a key.
 
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Did the problem start before Audiosurf, whatever that is..?

When I open Task Manager, a dllhost opens for about a second. When I view a photo in PhotoViewer, a Dllhost opens and stays open to host photoviewer.dll. If I open a photo in Paint, no dllhost appears....

What are you using to view your photos?
 
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I'm using Windows photo viewer (default)

Audiosurf is a game. The problem started a couple weeks after I re-installed it. I usually record some runs with it using Fraps. After a few recordings, that's when the problem popped up.

I have been experimenting and now the problem seems worse. Can't remember what I did in the folder options but now none of the thumbnails for VIDEOS ONLY are showing up yet image thumbnails are working now. If I try viewing any video thumbnails, dllhost.exe opens and stays open, eating 100% of my CPU, until I close the window that I tried viewing the thumbnails in, then it closes and stays closed until it is needed again.
 
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You have run a System File Check, which would be the first thing I would recommend. I don't see a place in Folder Options for thumbnails, except as part of an icon. I believe a previewer has to be running or available to make the thumbnails, but need to do some research on that.

Does it make any difference as to where the pictures are located or where they came from?

Could you use the snipping tool to take a picture of the situation and attach using the paperclip on advanced returns?
 
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It's happening no matter where the files are. For some reason, images are working again.

Attached is a picture of the situation. In task manager, you see the dllhost.exe process taking over 100 megs of memory with a high use on the CPU. Explorer on the right is the folder where the videos are stored. The 2 blank files used to have thumbnails but they are no longer there. These files were there BEFORE the problem started. The ones with the icons never update their thumbnails. These were created AFTER the problem started. Any ideas?
 

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It seems when I open a folder with videos, the dllhost.exe does not open. So perhaps something is going on that causes it to open. Maybe it is trying to complete an action, and cannot, or one of the files, or type of file, is causing the problem.

All I might suggest right now is to get Process Monitor from System Internals and run it to make a log of what the computer is doing. Letting it run while the problem is happening might show where the activity is. If you get a log, you can send it out to be analyzed. And there is training information about how to use it, but we can help with that. The file can get fairly large so it should only need to run for a short time. Keeping track of the time when something happens, accurate time, can be very helpful so you can narrow down the log entries.
 
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The program makes a backing file with a .pml extension. You can stop the logging after a very short time and then save the log. Check it yourself to see if you notice anything, or we can talk about having it checked if you desire.

I am guessing it will only take about a minute or less to see what is going on. There are options on the top menu to see what is using the most CPU time or most number of entries.. Play with it for a while to see how it works.

I just ran mine and Dllhost.exe will show up as a PID (Process ID) so you have the name and PID number to search for. You can then just include the PID or name, and see just what it is doing. I would expect some action to repeat multiple times, and if you can find that, you might be able to tell what is causing it.
 
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I will upload 3 pml files here. Could you check them? I don't know what I am looking for.
Sometimes the process keeps opening and closing, right now it is not doing that. Just opens once, then closes and that's it.
 
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If we are talking about Photoviewer, the process should start and stay open while the photo is open. If it is not, possibly something is still wrong with your system files or something is interfering.

Check the file size before you upload, they can be quite large. My 1.5 second log was around 7 MB. Zipping it would help.
 
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Sorry for late reply. Found out the cause of everything: LOOSE SATA CABLE. I replaced the cable since the old one had a bad design and it didn't have a tight fit.

Shortly after the last reply, my secondary hard drive, where I was having the problems, suddenly unmounted itself and kept doing this randomly after each reboot. Sometimes it would stay there for about an hour, sometimes a few days before it unmounted. I replaced the cable and I have tested everything. All is well now. I should have tested to see if the same problem occurred on a different hard drive. Oh well, lessons learned. Thank you Saltgrass for the help.
 
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Solution
Yes I see this problem too. What did you do about it?
 
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dllhost com surrogate was opening and closing every 5 seconds on my win 7 64 bit
turned out to be spybot soon as i closed its process tree dllhost quit
i turned off spybots entry in msconfig and just load it manually when i wanna scan#
hope this helps
BigFatFrosty
 
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Frosty and everyone else I can confirm that Spybot is the culprit in this case. I had the exact same issue with dll host com surrogate opening and closing every 5 seconds on my windows 64 bit. Once I closed it out of my tray, the issue ceased. I spent a good whole days worth trying to find a way to fix this problem. Thanks to google search and this forum for helping me find the solution to this issue!
 
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So why hasn't anyone gone to Safer-Networking and reported this? Also which module did you stop to fix the problem. Was it the SDFSsvc, SDUpdtsvc, SDtray.exe or all of them. I want to refer Safer Networking to this post so they can fix the problem. How do we know if the combination of SpyBot and some other application common to windows is really causing the the problem. I read where the Icon processing and video like movies causes it to start happening. The Com Surrogate starts Throbbing right after using Media Player to watch a movie. Nothing happens before that so how could SpyBot be involved when using media player starts the problem? Please explain.
 
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