Windows 10: How do I find the faulty app that is causing the "windows host process rundll32"?

Currently windows host processes are completely eating up my memory and causing my task manager to be super buggy and not work. I have uninstalled Geforce Experience and everything I could think of and still they are here. Every time I try to close my pc an error pops up because of these programs. How can I find this "faulty app"?

:)

 

Windows host process rundll32 running 19 instances

That is certainly not normal, you will need to find out what processes are running on rundll32.exe

Rundll32 is just a host for other processes to run, to find out exactly what is running on this process, Click HERE to download the free ProcessExplorer
from TechNet

The app will download in a zip file (approx 1.84mb), unzip it and run the appropriate version (32bit or 64bit) for your system by right clicking the exe and choosing 'Run as Administrator'

You’ll want to choose File - Show Details for All Processes to make sure that you’re seeing everything

Hover over the rundll32.exe in the list, you’ll see a tooltip with the details of what it actually is:





Alternatively you can right-click, choose Properties

Then take a look at the Image tab to see the full pathname that is being launched

You can see the Parent process, which in this case is the Windows shell (explorer.exe), indicating that it was likely launched from a shortcut or startup item.





In general, processes running on rundll32.exe can be stopped from running when Windows starts up as follows:

• Press Windows + R keys together to open the run dialog
• Type msconfig and hit enter
• On the Startup Tab will be a list of processes that start with Windows
• Check the box marked Hide all Microsoft Services'
• Look down through the remaining list for items containing 'rundll32'
• If you find any erroneous entries, uncheck them . . .
• BE CAREFUL not to uncheck items like nVidia items which sometimes use rundll32

 

Process host windows Rundll32

Hi and thanks for reaching out. My name is Glen. I'm happy to assist you.

Process host windows Rundll32 means your business computer hosts critical system files that you may never see while browsing files such as spreadsheets, expense reports and others in Windows Explorer.

Maybe it would help. I would suggest to run (SFC) scans the integrity of all protected operating system files and replaces incorrect, corrupted, changed, or damaged versions with the correct versions where possible

To run a system file check (SFC)

- Go to start>Type CMD

- Right click and run as Administrator

- type sfc /scannow

- And then restart your computer.

Hope it will help.

Please let me know if you need any further assistance.

Thank you. Keep Safe.

 

"Windows host process (Rundll32)" causing hourglass to flash every 5s

Windows 10 Pro 1909

Freshly installed less than a week ago. Noticed that every 5 seconds the blue circle or hourglass (depending on mouse pointer size) would flash. Tried uninstalling a bunch of recently installed programs including some built-in programs included with Windows that I wasn't using. Tried killing a bunch of processes. No success. Disabled all non-Microsoft services and all Startup items (including the Microsoft ones), and the problem went away.

I narrowed it down to a Startup item from Microsoft called "Windows host process (Rundll32)." Enabling all services and Startup items while leaving this one disabled fixes problem. Enabling this one item while disabling all other Startup items and services brings the problem back.

Trying to figure out what is wrong with Windows host process (Rundll32), it seems like it is probably not the problem in and of itself but is simply an intermediary for something else that is causing the problem. I found a recommendation to run "Autoruns" to see what is behind it. I have no idea what I'm looking for in "Autoruns." There's nothing listed anywhere that obviously matches "Windows host process (Rundll32)." Otherwise, the "Logon" tab seems to roughly match the other items in the Startup list. So if I go through all of the items on the "Logon" tab, and I see that there are some "n/a" entries that seem to be 32 and 64 bit versions of "mscories.dll," and if I click on them the details mention the 32 and 64 bit versions of Rundll32.exe. Searching for info on "mscories.dll" seems to suggest it is related to .NET framework which is again most likely just another middleman for whatever is the real culprit.

At this point, I have no idea what to do next. This rabbit hole is super deep, and it seems to be one middleman after another. Having the hourglass or blue circle flash every 5 seconds is something I cannot unsee now that I've seen it, and it is extremely distracting.

- - - Updated - - -

Update: I found that I could also temporarily fix the problem by killing one of the two Windows host process (Rundll32) processes in task manager. After some further searching I found that I could figure out what was behind the Rundll32.exe processes by adding a Command line column in the Task Manager. That revealed that the DLLs behind these processes were SBAVMon.dll,SBAVMonitor and SBAVMonL.dll,SBAVMonitorLauncher.

Further experimentation reveals that SBAVMonL causes the problem. It appears to re-launch SBAVMon every 5 seconds causing the annoying hourglass or spinning blue circle.

These processes are a part of Creative's Win10 drivers/software bundle for the Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro external sound card which I use because on-board audio is trash because of the noise that I guess comes from interference from all the other electronic activity going on in close proximity on the motherboard. Uninstalling everything related to the Sound Blaster does "fix" the problem, but then I have no sound. I'm not sure specifically what the SBAV Monitor even does or whether it is really necessary. I don't use any of the extraneous features or sound effects etc. that come bundled with the Sound Blaster. I'm just using it because I want clean stereo audio and a clean mic input.