Laptop uses massive amounts of internet data

[BundyGil]

Asus E1-531 laptop data usage goes absolutely bonkers when there are no programs open and laptop rebooted. I'm talking over 250 B/sec for svchost.exe (netsvcs) as shown on the resource monitor which means a couple of hundred mb/hr download doing nothing except using up my data allowance at a rate of knots.. Then you can do nothing different, reconnect and it's fine, for a while, using 3-4000 B/sec even when using the internet, then later, off it goes again.
I've done a complete virus/malware scan, as I thought maybe my lappy was being used as a bot. This picked up a few minor problems but not cured the excessive data usage.

 

[DelJo63]

Which antivirus are you running, which browser and what plugins are active?

do you have MS Update configured to run automatically?

 

[BundyGil]

Thanks for your reply, jobeard.
Well, you seem to have got it in one. Stopped auto updates and problem disappeared. Been running a few hours and all is normal.
Thanks heaps

Gil

Which antivirus are you running, which browser and what plugins are active?

do you have MS Update configured to run automatically?

 

[DelJo63]

Here's what I did for my laptop:

• login as Admin, get the command prompt and enter MSCONFIG.
• Click the Startup Tab
• now go thru the list looking for 'xxx update' and disable them.

Stops the repetitive, and usually non-productive stuff.
BE ADVISED: You create risk by not using auto-updates and have to take responsibility to see that updates are done periodically using manual invocations. Put a repeating appointment in your calendar software to Check For Updates at least monthly.