How to Fix SVCHOST.EXE Application Error 0x745f2780

The instruction at "Ox745f2780" referenced memory at "0x00000000".
The memory could not be "read"

I came across this error the other day at a customer's house. They have Windows XP Professional with a password set for the main administrator account.

When they turned their computer on and it came up to the user login screen. They were presented with this SVCHOST.EXE error message. The only options the error message allows are to click OK to terminate the program or click Cancel to debug the program. After asking them several questions about what they did before turning the computer off, it became apparent that Windows Update had run before the computer was shut down.

Interestingly enough, even starting the computer in Safe Mode produced the same error. While the event log in Windows XP indicates the faulting application is truly svchost.exe.

How to Repair this SVCHOST.EXE error

After some investigating into the 0X745f2780 SVCHOST error, it became apparent the problem is a corrupted Windows Update in Windows XP. Follow the steps below to fix this error.

Verify Windows Update Service Settings

• Click on Start, Run and type the following command in the open box and click OK
  
  services.msc
  
  
• Find the Automatic Updates service and double-click on it.
• Click on the Log On Tab and make sure the "Local System Account" is selected as the logon account and the box for "allow service to interact with desktop" is UNCHECKED.
• Under the Hardware Profile section in the Log On Tab, make sure the service is enabled.
• On the General Tab, the Startup Type should be Automatic, if not, drop the box down and select Automatic.
• Under "Service Status" on the General tab, the service should be Started, click the Start button enable it.
• Repeat the steps above for the service "Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)"

Re-Register Windows Update DLLs

• Click on Start, Run, and type CMD and click ok
• In the black command window type the following command and press Enter
  
  REGSVR32 WUAPI.DLL
  
  
• Wait until you receive the "DllRegisterServer in WUAPI.DLL succeeded" message and click OK
• Repeat the last two steps above for each of the following commands:
  
  REGSVR32 WUAUENG.DLL
  REGSVR32 WUAUENG1.DLL
  REGSVR32 ATL.DLL
  REGSVR32 WUCLTUI.DLL
  REGSVR32 WUPS.DLL
  REGSVR32 WUPS2.DLL
  REGSVR32 WUWEB.DLL
  

Remove Corrupted Windows Update Files

• At the command prompt, type the following command and press Enter
  
  net stop WuAuServ
  
• Still at the command prompt,
  
  type cd %windir% and press Enter
  
• In the opened folder, type the following command and press Enter to rename the SoftwareDistribution Folder
  
  ren SoftwareDistribution SD_OLD
  
• Restart the Windows Update Service by typing the following at the command prompt
  
  net start WuAuServ
  
  
• type Exit and Press Enter to close the command prompt

Reboot Windows

• click on Start, Shut Down, and Restart to reboot Windows XP

Although this method may not solve all of the issues with a SVCHOST.EXE Application error, I have found it fixed the problem with the 0x745f2780 reference error.

Other Issues with SVCHOST.EXE

I've encountered other issues with SVCHOST taking up 100% of the CPU Cycles. These issues are usually experienced with Windows Update in some form or another. To fix this frustrating problem, following these steps:

1) Download and install Update for Windows XP (KB927891)
2) Download and install an update for Windows Update Agent WSUS 3.0
3) Restart your computer and your computer should run better with slowing to a crawl because of SVCHOST.EXE