Microsoft KB Archive/839017

= Help and Support causes Windows XP to stop responding =

Article ID: 839017

Article Last Modified on 8/29/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows XP Professional

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SYMPTOMS
When you start Help and Support, your computer may become slow or may stop responding. After several minutes, the computer may respond normally.



CAUSE
This problem may occur if the Helpsvc.exe process exhausts your computer resources. The Helpsvc.exe process may use up to 100% of the CPU resources on your computer for several minutes. To view CPU usage for Helpsvc.exe, start the Task Manager, and then click the Processes tab.



Service pack information
To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Windows XP. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322389 How to obtain the latest Windows XP service pack

Hotfix information
A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. This hotfix might receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next service pack that contains this hotfix.

To resolve this problem, submit a request to Microsoft Online Customer Services to obtain the hotfix. To submit an online request to obtain the hotfix, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6294451

Note If additional issues occur or any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. To create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support

The English version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.  Date         Time    Version        Size       File name      Platform 15-Apr-2004 01:59                     2,435  Dataspec.xml  IA-64 15-Apr-2004 02:07  5.1.2600.1517  2,636,288  Helpsvc.exe   IA-64 15-Apr-2004 02:00                     2,435  Dataspec.xml  x86 15-Apr-2004 22:02  5.1.2600.1517    703,488  Helpsvc.exe      x86



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the &quot;Applies to&quot; section. This problem was first corrected in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2.



MORE INFORMATION
For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

824684 Description of the standard terminology that is used to describe Microsoft software updates

Keywords: kbqfe kbhotfixserver kbwinxpsp2fix kbwinxppresp2fix kbfix kbbug KB839017

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