Why does dllhost.exe Com surrogate consumes memory untill crash

Why does dllhost.exe  Com surrogate consumes memory untill crash.

It happens when I highlight or view a folder containing video files, Even if I close the folder or select a different folder the memory keeps getting consumed.

It seems to happen mostly with 3D Video files but it has done the same with 2D files.

So it seems to be a problem with the windows thumb nail system dealing with these files.

By the way trying to delete or move the file or folder while the Com Surrogate is consuming memory Delete can not complete the task.

What I have been doing is finding offending file selecting Delete, then go to task manager stopping Com Surrogate, then the file will delete.

Try running system file checker through cmd.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833

It is recommended to perform scan using:

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Make sure your system is clean first. use CCleaner to get rid of junk files: http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

Perform scan for spyware also using superantispyware http://www.superantispyware.com/

You could also use this one http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/eek/

 

Also scan for viruses using your antivirus program and make sure it is uptodate. if you don't have one then I recommend Avast FREE antivirus.

 

It is recommended to perform all scans in Safe made with networking so that you can use internet to update your programs.

If above did not fix the problem then:

Go to msconfig (type in search box in startmenu or run in xp then press enter) then prepare your PC for clean boot by disabling all start up items and none windows services then restart your computer. See if it make a difference? if it did then you have to find out which ones caused the problem.

Also make sure your windows is up to date and drivers are working properly (Check device manger for danger signs) and they are up to date too. Also check hidden drivers for danger sign by showing hidden devices through view menu in device manger.

Uninstall programs you don't use or you have recently installed that might have caused the problem.

Uninstall toolbars, any registry cleaners or any other unused or rarely used third party programs. 

 

 You can also visit my blog here: http://safeworldwidewebsurfing.blogspot.co.uk/ for more tips on how to surf web safely!

While Your information is great for finding spyware or virus problems.
I did as you said and found no problems.
My problem is with generating thumb nails for 3D video files with extension .MP4.
2D *.MP4 files are working fine, dllhost.exe-com surrogate comes up consumes about 3k of memory then goes away and the thumb nail is done.
As for the 3D *.MP4 video files dllhost.exe-com surrogate comes up and keeps consuming memory about 14GB then My system freezes and crash.
I have a total of 16GB memory installed.

Fix

"MS are aware of problems with certain chipset/driver combinations and the KB2670838 update
They are also aware of problems with the IE10 install

They are working on both issues, and will update as and when they are satisfied that they have solved the problems.
The recommendation in the meantime is that if the update doesn't install first time, make sure it's uninstalled, and then hide it - Windows Update will unhide it when it is updated."

 

So Uninstall IE10 and KB2670838 update, hide them from auto updating when thy pop back up to be updated the problem should be fixed.

 

Proof that MS knows that IE10 has problems on some hardware platforms is here.

 

  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/jj898509.aspx

 

Hope this helps Every One.

While Your information is great for finding spyware or virus problems.
I did as you said and found no problems.
My problem is with generating thumb nails for 3D video files with extension .MP4.
2D *.MP4 files are working fine, dllhost.exe-com surrogate comes up consumes about 3k of memory then goes away and the thumb nail is done.
As for the 3D *.MP4 video files dllhost.exe-com surrogate comes up and keeps consuming memory about 14GB then My system freezes and crash.
I have a total of 16GB memory installed.

Did you run the System File Checker? If you did what was the results?

 

Did you try clean boot ? Did it make a difference?

 

Also make sure that all your drivers are working properly as I said before.

 

Consider checking your disc for error. See if that helps?

 

Consider resetting your folder settings from control panel > Appearance and Personalization then folder options then restore default settings for all tabs there Or try reset folders button in view tab then apply then ok.

 

Consider updating or re installing your media player if possible.

 

Consider disabling thumbnails, will it still crash without thumbnails enabled? 

 

Does your graphic card support 3D? What your graphic card spec?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's really interesting - I am having this same problem with all 3 of my computers - and as a 3D filmmaker they all have 3D .mp4 files on them.

That's really interesting - I am having this same problem with all 3 of my computers - and as a 3D filmmaker they all have 3D .mp4 files on them.

I am running Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium on two of them, and Windows 7 Pro on the third PC.

It cannot be that all have become infected at the same time, and I've seldom had any infections over 15 years on computers.

I think that perhaps the last Windows System update has done something that is causing this.

If you think that the problem is caused by recent windows update, try System Restore Point, see if you can go back.

Also If you think that this happened after installing certain program then the first step would be uninstalling the program.

The problem can be caused by anything even malware, virus etc. Therefore it is always recommended to check for malware, virus etc., before doing anything else.

This also can be caused by certain system files being corrupted by malware or virus or even registry cleaners or drivers not working properly therefore that is why it is recommended to run System File Checker and Check your disk for errors and do not use registry cleaners for your information.

Another way to determine what is causing this problem is Clean Boot as I mentioned earlier.

 

 

That's really interesting - I am having this same problem with all 3 of my computers - and as a 3D filmmaker they all have 3D .mp4 files on them.

I am running Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium on two of them, and Windows 7 Pro on the third PC.

It cannot be that all have become infected at the same time, and I've seldom had any infections over 15 years on computers.

I think that perhaps the last Windows System update has done something that is causing this.

If you think that the problem is caused by recent windows update, try System Restore Point, see if you can go back.

Also If you think that this happened after installing certain program then the first step would be uninstalling the program.

The problem can be caused by anything even malware, virus etc. Therefore it is always recommended to check for malware, virus etc., before doing anything else.

This also can be caused by certain system files being corrupted by malware or virus or even registry cleaners or drivers not working properly therefore that is why it is recommended to run System File Checker and Check your disk for errors and do not use registry cleaners for your information.

Another way to determine what is causing this problem is Clean Boot as I mentioned earlier.

Amiroof You are somewhat confusing You told Me to get

  http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download is this not a registry cleaner.

Well any way I used system file checker here is the result.

2013-04-24 22:22:05, Info                  CSI    00000009 [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:05, Info                  CSI    0000000a [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:05, Info                  CSI    0000000c [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:05, Info                  CSI    0000000d [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:05, Info                  CSI    0000000e [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:05, Info                  CSI    00000010 [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:06, Info                  CSI    00000011 [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:06, Info                  CSI    00000012 [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:06, Info                  CSI    00000014 [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:06, Info                  CSI    00000015 [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:06, Info                  CSI    00000016 [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:06, Info                  CSI    00000018 [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:07, Info                  CSI    00000019 [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:07, Info                  CSI    0000001a [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:07, Info                  CSI    0000001c [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:07, Info                  CSI    0000001d [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:07, Info                  CSI    0000001e [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:07, Info                  CSI    00000020 [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:07, Info                  CSI    00000021 [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:07, Info                  CSI    00000022 [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:08, Info                  CSI    00000024 [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:08, Info                  CSI    00000025 [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:08, Info                  CSI    00000026 [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:09, Info                  CSI    00000028 [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:09, Info                  CSI    00000029 [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:09, Info                  CSI    0000002a [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:09, Info                  CSI    0000002c [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:09, Info                  CSI    0000002d [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:09, Info                  CSI    0000002e [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:10, Info                  CSI    00000030 [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:10, Info                  CSI    00000031 [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:10, Info                  CSI    00000032 [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:11, Info                  CSI    00000035 [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:11, Info                  CSI    00000036 [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:11, Info                  CSI    00000037 [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:13, Info                  CSI    0000003c [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:13, Info                  CSI    0000003d [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:13, Info                  CSI    0000003e [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:13, Info                  CSI    00000040 [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:14, Info                  CSI    00000041 [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:14, Info                  CSI    00000042 [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:15, Info                  CSI    00000045 [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:15, Info                  CSI    00000046 [SR] Verifying 100 

I using Microsoft security Essentials to prevent mall ware etc, But I did use you suggestions and found some old program garbage ware remnants. Thanks for the help cleaning out My start up.
Did the clean boot and the problem does not exist there because the thumb nails wont display in safe mode only pictures will make thumb nails.

 I went through this with Vista Pro 64Bit and it fixed it self after a wile, not sure how or why.

I just gave up at the time it was not too important to me I only had a few Video files it did not like.

Today I have many 3D video titles and its a shame that I can not work with them.

I have to avoid the folder or folders completely or by the time I play about half way through a file My PC gets saturated and freezes.

As for System Restore its not practical I'm using an SSD as my primary drive the setup lowered the amount of restore points ant it has been too long.

From what I can gather without getting a PHD in Computer Science it that Com surrogate creates Your thumb nail in a Sand box, a protected area or memory be it hard drive or cache.
What I think is happening or rather needs to happen, Is when it fails to generate the thumb nail it needs a termination time or time out counter.
Instead it gets stuck on the first file and can go no further, kind of like the old divide by 0 error.
I keeps trying until it uses up all your system resources and finally crashes.

That's really interesting - I am having this same problem with all 3 of my computers - and as a 3D filmmaker they all have 3D .mp4 files on them.

I am running Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium on two of them, and Windows 7 Pro on the third PC.

It cannot be that all have become infected at the same time, and I've seldom had any infections over 15 years on computers.

I think that perhaps the last Windows System update has done something that is causing this.

If you think that the problem is caused by recent windows update, try System Restore Point, see if you can go back.

Also If you think that this happened after installing certain program then the first step would be uninstalling the program.

The problem can be caused by anything even malware, virus etc. Therefore it is always recommended to check for malware, virus etc., before doing anything else.

This also can be caused by certain system files being corrupted by malware or virus or even registry cleaners or drivers not working properly therefore that is why it is recommended to run System File Checker and Check your disk for errors and do not use registry cleaners for your information.

Another way to determine what is causing this problem is Clean Boot as I mentioned earlier.

Amiroof You are somewhat confusing You told Me to get

  http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download is this not a registry cleaner.

Well any way I used system file checker here is the result.

2013-04-24 22:22:05, Info                  CSI    00000009 [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:05, Info                  CSI    0000000a [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:05, Info                  CSI    0000000c [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:05, Info                  CSI    0000000d [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:05, Info                  CSI    0000000e [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:05, Info                  CSI    00000010 [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:06, Info                  CSI    00000011 [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:06, Info                  CSI    00000012 [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:06, Info                  CSI    00000014 [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:06, Info                  CSI    00000015 [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:06, Info                  CSI    00000016 [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:06, Info                  CSI    00000018 [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:07, Info                  CSI    00000019 [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:07, Info                  CSI    0000001a [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:07, Info                  CSI    0000001c [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:07, Info                  CSI    0000001d [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:07, Info                  CSI    0000001e [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:07, Info                  CSI    00000020 [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:07, Info                  CSI    00000021 [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:07, Info                  CSI    00000022 [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:08, Info                  CSI    00000024 [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:08, Info                  CSI    00000025 [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:08, Info                  CSI    00000026 [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:09, Info                  CSI    00000028 [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:09, Info                  CSI    00000029 [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:09, Info                  CSI    0000002a [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:09, Info                  CSI    0000002c [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:09, Info                  CSI    0000002d [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:09, Info                  CSI    0000002e [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:10, Info                  CSI    00000030 [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:10, Info                  CSI    00000031 [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:10, Info                  CSI    00000032 [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:11, Info                  CSI    00000035 [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:11, Info                  CSI    00000036 [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:11, Info                  CSI    00000037 [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:13, Info                  CSI    0000003c [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:13, Info                  CSI    0000003d [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:13, Info                  CSI    0000003e [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:13, Info                  CSI    00000040 [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:14, Info                  CSI    00000041 [SR] Verifying 100 (0x0000000000000064) components
2013-04-24 22:22:14, Info                  CSI    00000042 [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2013-04-24 22:22:15, Info                  CSI    00000045 [SR] Verify complete
2013-04-24 22:22:15, Info                  CSI    00000046 [SR] Verifying 100 

I using Microsoft security Essentials to prevent mall ware etc, But I did use you suggestions and found some old program garbage ware remnants. Thanks for the help cleaning out My start up.
Did the clean boot and the problem does not exist there because the thumb nails wont display in safe mode only pictures will make thumb nails.

 I went through this with Vista Pro 64Bit and it fixed it self after a wile, not sure how or why.

I just gave up at the time it was not too important to me I only had a few Video files it did not like.

Today I have many 3D video titles and its a shame that I can not work with them.

I have to avoid the folder or folders completely or by the time I play about half way through a file My PC gets saturated and freezes.

As for System Restore its not practical I'm using an SSD as my primary drive the setup lowered the amount of restore points ant it has been too long.

Hello there,

NOTE: I only recommend ccleaner for cleaning junk files NOT registry. If you read where I recommend it, I said for cleaning junk files.

However be careful if you are going to use it. Create backups and system restore point before use.

If all above failed to solve your problem then I would ask following questions:

 

- Before this problem, were you able to create thumbnails for 3D videos?

- When did this happen ? The problem might have caused by a third party program that has damaged your system or it could be something do with your graphic driver ... Just to be clear, when it crashes, do you get any blue screen message? or any errors that can help?

I have the same problem which surfaced recently last week. As someone said, the most likely reason is the last Windows update. Of course, MS will ignore this if it's not hitting the majority of the machines; so we may be doomed.

Hello there,

NOTE: I only recommend ccleaner for cleaning junk files NOT registry. If you read where I recommend it, I said for cleaning junk files.

However be careful if you are going to use it. Create backups and system restore point before use.

If all above failed to solve your problem then I would ask following questions:

 

- Before this problem, were you able to create thumbnails for 3D videos?

- When did this happen ? The problem might have caused by a third party program that has damaged your system or it could be something do with your graphic driver ... Just to be clear, when it crashes, do you get any blue screen message? or any errors that can help?

I haven't installed any new software since late 2012 except Video driver and Sound driver in which I kept backups of the drivers and have reverted back as far as 2010 with no change. Unless you count MS updates for the OS and MS Security in which I cannot go back that far.
System restore only allows Me to go back about 8 Days. But drivers I can uninstall and install older Versions.
Last time I had a look in my 3D Video folder was about 3 months ago some of the files failed to generate thumbnails but no problem with dllhost.exe com surrogate saturating all of my memory.
Yes if I let dllhost.exe to continue consuming the memory it will eventually will Blue Screen and restart.
This is what I get in event log after reboot.

Log Name:      System
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
Date:          5/2/2013 2:32:21 AM
Event ID:      41
Task Category: (63)
Level:         Critical
Keywords:      (2)
User:          SYSTEM
Computer:      M4A785TD-V
Description:
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power" Guid="{331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}" />
    <EventID>41</EventID>
    <Version>2</Version>
    <Level>1</Level>
    <Task>63</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x8000000000000002</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-05-02T06:32:21.131609900Z" />
    <EventRecordID>64598</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="8" />
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>M4A785TD-V</Computer>
    <Security UserID=??????? />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data Name="BugcheckCode">0</Data>
    <Data Name="BugcheckParameter1">0x0</Data>
    <Data Name="BugcheckParameter2">0x0</Data>
    <Data Name="BugcheckParameter3">0x0</Data>
    <Data Name="BugcheckParameter4">0x0</Data>
    <Data Name="SleepInProgress">false</Data>
    <Data Name="PowerButtonTimestamp">0</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>
 
This is a link to event log answer.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/080b178d-5633-4bd1-8746-b442fcdc3851.aspx