Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: mediterranean on October 12, 2005, 06:08:17 PM
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I noticed in the Task Manager that the system process ashServ.exe uses a substantial amount of CPU (50%) and runs for a loooooooong time in my Windows SP2 P4 2.8 system.
What gives?
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Have no clue, but I've noticed exactly the same thing last two days... booting into Windows after logging on lasts forever comparing to what it looked like before.
Alwil, what is happening ?
Note: Haven't installed any new program since two weeks ago...
Firewall: Kerio 4.2.0
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No problems at all here.
mediterranean,
check if avast is scanning something and tell us what provider is causing this.
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Did you chose to scan all files?
It makes slower on scan of zipped files.
And if you have too much downloads at the same time through web or some kind of P2P.
If so, you can exclude that folder where downloads is, and scan it after download completed.
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It's not during the downloads, and it's not related to any avast! provider. I am long enough in here to overlook it just like that.
I don't have any problems with avast! whatsoever, but the problem is I've noticed ashServ.exe is using CPU a lot during the Windows startup. Once it finishes, everything is fine.
No P2P started nor running at all... And not all files are chosen to be scanned. My avast! is properly tweaked and configured to fit my needs, and I never ever had those startup problems before.
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May be it is good to do defrag of disk?
This will speed up disk reading and minimizing time for avast to scan files on start.
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May be it is good to do defrag of disk?
That's always a good idea and you might try BootVis (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=664) also to decrease those boot times(if you don't already have it ofcourse) ;)
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May be it is good to do defrag of disk?
This will speed up disk reading and minimizing time for avast to scan files on start.
Mr.Babis, I am computer technician by profession and I do fix computers for living. Defragmenting of disks is so crucial, that there is no chance to forget to do it...
I repeat, once avast! is uninstalled, everything goes back to normal...
EDIT: Absolutely nothing is wrong with booting untill ashServ.exe kicks in... ;) So, right now starting of Windows after logging in, takes around one minute... and it was always just few seconds...
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So, right now starting of Windows after logging in, takes around one minute... and it was always just few seconds...
Same here... :'(
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I just want to add that i've been noticing a bigger system drag lately on my machine , with avast! enabled, my multiplayer gaming suffers sudden drops in framerates from time to time however with avast! completely disabled everything is fine.And everything worked OK before with avast! enabled, i haven't been changing anything on my machine so there's something weird going on i'm positive cause the ashServ.exe is eating more CPU than it used to ... ??? Also like Sasha said the boot time is now around 1 minute and before it was under 45 seconds i'm sure.....
Cheers
Mikey
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It's not during the downloads, and it's not related to any avast! provider. I am long enough in here to overlook it just like that.
I don't have any problems with avast! whatsoever, but the problem is I've noticed ashServ.exe is using CPU a lot during the Windows startup. Once it finishes, everything is fine.
My avast! is properly tweaked and configured to fit my needs, and I never ever had those startup problems before.
I experienced a similar problem in that my boot time increased and I identified the problem as my very nosey firewall sticking its nose into hundreds of files, something of the order of 450-500 file accesses. Now this also started suddenly and I can't remember if it was after an avast program update or a firewall update.
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=14062.0
The upshot is I disabled the firewall totally on boot and start it with a batch file after boot. This works fine for me as I'm on dial-up and not connected to the internet shortly after boot as with broadband users.
So you might want to disable programs one at a time to see if you can find one that reduces the avast ashServ.exe activity, it isn't scanning unless there is file activity, a program opening, reading files, etc. so find what program is doing this and decide if it needs to run on boot.
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I totally understand you David, but this is what I have inside my startup items... and they were always there... nothing more nothing less...
(http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/1548/untitled15ue.jpg)
The only thing to check now it Kerio... both, Miha (darth.mikey) and I, are using Kerio, so it could be that... maybe... I'll check...
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Mikey just asked me to post this instead of him... it's quite late in Slovenia and he went to bed...
his startup items list:
(http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/9310/untitled19tu.jpg)
And this is a quote from his PM to me where he asked me to do this as a proof:
And also here's my startup list you can post it in that thread cause i'm going to bed REALLY......
Oh and also tell DavidR that my avast standard shield scanned list is 200-230 in case he wants to know but that Kerio may be to blame i agree research it like you said....hehe ;)
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I have to agree with the rest of the folks who've experience an increase in system resources and a severe slowdown in system
startup.
ashServ.exe is one culprit and Microsoft AntiSpyware is the other program that's causing delays.
Avast's ability do do a good job at protecting my system and do it without degrading my system was my main reason for
selecting it in the first place. Hopefully, this efficiency can be restored.
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I have to agree with the rest of the folks who've experience an increase in system resources and a severe slowdown in system
Microsoft AntiSpyware is the other program that's causing delays
I give up on it... It's a resource hog all the time, detects the same as the others and worse, more false positives.
Which on-access (resident) anti spyware are you using?
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Absolutely nothing except SpywareBlaster which is best of the best IMHO. Never ever had any problems with it... such a wonderful product. Besides that I have Ad-Aware and Spybot - Search and Destroy only. Nothing else... and system is clean and running great. Ad-Aware never finds anything, second opinion I get from Spybot and sometimes I visit TrenMicro's Housecall where I also run some spyware tests... nothing, nothing... SpwareBlaster does it's job perfectly... and as far as I know, it doesn't interfere with avast! in any way...
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Absolutely nothing except SpywareBlaster which is best of the best IMHO. Never ever had any problems with it... such a wonderful product. Besides that I have Ad-Aware and Spybot - Search and Destroy only. Nothing else... and system is clean and running great. Ad-Aware never finds anything, second opinion I get from Spybot and sometimes I visit TrenMicro's Housecall where I also run some spyware tests... nothing, nothing... SpwareBlaster does it's job perfectly... and as far as I know, it doesn't interfere with avast! in any way...
It's not enough to me Sasha... very disapointing on blocking new spyware detections... even updating it almots just in time, spyware blaster is not as good as it seems it was.
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Anyway, after installing it (few months ago) nothing goes through... Ad-aware, Spybot, not Bazooka can find anything any more. It does it's job.
However, this is not a spyware/adware issue, we are talking about ashServ.exe and it's excesive CPU usage... As I mentioned before, once avast! is uninstalled, Windows starting time immediatelly goes back to normal. I tried it two times... always the same story.
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I give up on it... It's a resource hog all the time, detects the same as the others and worse, more false positives.
Which on-access (resident) anti spyware are you using?
Tech you're so right about MS Anti Spyware it is a huge resource hog, i gave up on it months ago... ::)
I'm only using Ad-Aware for my resident anti-spyware protection along with SpywareBlaster and Spybot(only the SDhelper without TeaTimer).... ;)
Cheers
Mikey
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As I mentioned before, once avast! is uninstalled, Windows starting time immediatelly goes back to normal. I tried it two times... always the same story.
Same goes for me guys(i just tried it out a couple minutes ago)... ::)
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Lets get this straight ashServ.exe doesn't just increase its activity (cpu use %) it has to be scanning something, what you have to find is the program that is causing the file access activity that causes avast to scan the file.
The CCleaner, MS Startup list shown are not the only programs that start on boot I use Code Stuff Starter and that shows more (insluding the ones that I have disabled), but even so the Task Manager will show what is starting in the way of services.
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However, this is not a spyware/adware issue, we are talking about ashServ.exe and it's excessive CPU usage...
As I mentioned before, once avast! is uninstalled, Windows starting time immediately goes back to normal. I tried it two times... always the same story.
ashServ.exe doesn't initiate activity it responds to activity, so can't have excessive cpu activity.
Absolutely true if you uninstall avast nothing will be scanned, that doesn't mean that ashServ.exe is the culprit. You have to find the program that has excessive file accesses during boot, disable or uninstall that and you will see a reduction in cpu activity because ashServ.exe doesn't have to scan the file accesses for that program.
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Those things are easily checked if you simple use msconfig... see yourself that there is nothing unusual... and best of all, absolutely nothing that wasn't before in there. As I sadid before, I haven't installed any new application since 2 weeks ago...
(http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/8753/untitled10sl.jpg)
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However, this is not a spyware/adware issue, we are talking about ashServ.exe and it's excessive CPU usage...
As I mentioned before, once avast! is uninstalled, Windows starting time immediately goes back to normal. I tried it two times... always the same story.
ashServ.exe doesn't initiate activity it responds to activity, so can't have excessive cpu activity.
Absolutely true if you uninstall avast nothing will be scanned, that doesn't mean that ashServ.exe is the culprit. You have to find the program that has excessive file accesses during boot, disable or uninstall that and you will see a reduction in cpu activity because ashServ.exe doesn't have to scan the file accesses for that program.
I uninstalled Kerio yesterda, relied on Windows SP2 Firewall and mu router... nothing has changed. PopPeeper is mail notification program unbelievable small and not causing these things. IU'm using it more than one year without any problems. Those things are the only things started... other stuff that can be seen in msconfig are the stuff that was always there... Indexing services are disabled forever in my system btw...
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However, this is not a spyware/adware issue, we are talking about ashServ.exe and it's excessive CPU usage...
As I mentioned before, once avast! is uninstalled, Windows starting time immediately goes back to normal. I tried it two times... always the same story.
ashServ.exe doesn't initiate activity it responds to activity, so can't have excessive cpu activity.
Absolutely true if you uninstall avast nothing will be scanned, that doesn't mean that ashServ.exe is the culprit. You have to find the program that has excessive file accesses during boot, disable or uninstall that and you will see a reduction in cpu activity because ashServ.exe doesn't have to scan the file accesses for that program.
David
Certain programs and services are load at boot time because they are required. Others are loaded for convenience.
If the same program is loaded each time, then there are faster ways to compare it to what was loaded the last time than scanning the file.
It should not be necessary to rescan the files each time. It's the constant rescanning that's taking so long.
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Exactly my point... once ashServ.exe is done, which is around just few seconds, it goes back to 75% of CPU usage at one point... and it does that during the whole minute... I repeat when I start task manager there is nothing unusual loaded, nothing that wasn't before in there...
EDIT: Btw, LifeView HID Service is my TV/SVHS capture card and I have it more than one year now. I also tried to uninstall it completely just for the fun of it... not just uninstall drivers, but physically remove the PCI card from the slot... same thing...
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We have not had any program changes to avast recently that would have changed how ashServ.exe works so it can't of its own volition start scanning files for no reason. So what else has changed to cause the increased activity?
I was probably one of the first to bring this up and as a result of extensive testing totally disabled my firewall on boot as it made 450-500 file accesses, now they weren't all to the same files, yes log and ini files will have multiple accesses, but that doesn't make up the entire file access load.
Yes I think that Alwil should improve the boot up scan and as far as I'm aware it shouldn't scan multiple accesses to the same file as is the case in standard shield. However, because this is so early in the boot it may not be able to store and access the information in the avast files I just don't know and it was something that I don't feel was very well answered by the Alwil Team I the thread I created.
Perhaps there should be different levels of scanning at boot that could be included in the settings, low (just those files that are loaded, normal (Loaded and important system files) and paranoid (???) which would increase the number of files scanned.
There are files in my Program Files folders (I have two) that are scanned on boot that aren't used from one week to the next, so only files that are actually opened to run or for modification should be scanned by default.
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I have to say i have much more "clean" startup than you DavidR(and BTW i don't even use Msconfig i have other program for that ;D...) and it has been like that for ages no changes no new programs that add to startup, the only thing that i think of at the moment that has changed is the MS updates that were added recently..... Sasha my services look very similar i may have 1 or 2 more (i'll post a screenshot later right now i have to EAT haha) And did i mention my C: partition is defraged as hell(i use PerfectDisk for that).I'm sorry but it really looks like there's something going on with avast! :'(
cheers friends
Mikey
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Perhaps there should be different levels of scanning at boot that could be included in the settings, low (just those files that are loaded, normal (Loaded and important system files) and paranoid (???) which would increase the number of files scanned.
There are files in my Program Files folders (I have two) that are scanned on boot that aren't used from one week to the next, so only files that are actually opened to run or for modification should be scanned by default.
Yes that's a pretty good idea David ;)
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I have to say i have much more "clean" startup than you DavidR(and BTW i don't even use Msconfig i have other program for that ;D...) and it has been like that for ages no changes no new programs that add to startup, the only thing that i think of at the moment that has changed is the MS updates that were added recently.....
But I'm not noticing the same effect considering that your start up is cleaner than mine ;D not to mention I don't have a super fast system.
I don't use msconfig either, just used it as an example that msconfig (for those that use it) doesn't show everything my default is CodeStuff Starter.
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I have to say i have much more "clean" startup than you DavidR(and BTW i don't even use Msconfig i have other program for that ;D...)
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Mikey, msconfig is really nice addition to Windows and it's standard part of it... just type in inside the RUN box and that's it (but I'm sure you already knew that). I mean, there is no need for any other application aside if you just wanna see running processes, disable them or enable them... Usually I go with right-clicking MyComputer / Manage / Serviced and Applications / Services to manage all my services, but msconfig is really fastest way just to preview them all...
David wrote:
Perhaps there should be different levels of scanning at boot that could be included in the settings, low (just those files that are loaded, normal (Loaded and important system files) and paranoid () which would increase the number of files scanned.
There are files in my Program Files folders (I have two) that are scanned on boot that aren't used from one week to the next, so only files that are actually opened to run or for modification should be scanned by default.
Exactly...
Cheers !
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I have to say i have much more "clean" startup than you DavidR(and BTW i don't even use Msconfig i have other program for that ;D...) and it has been like that for ages no changes no new programs that add to startup, the only thing that i think of at the moment that has changed is the MS updates that were added recently.....
But I'm not noticing the same effect considering that your start up is cleaner than mine ;D not to mention I don't have a super fast system.
I don't use msconfig either, just used it as an example that msconfig (for those that use it) doesn't show everything my default is CodeStuff Starter.
I wouldn't exactly call my machine a super fast system David haha ;D But the program i use is Startup CPL (http://www.majorgeeks.com/Startup_CPL_d619.html) and i love it because it integrates into control panel ;) For those Windows Services i use Service Controller XP (http://www.majorgeeks.com/Service_Controller_XP_d4313.html) i know i know i can do it all in windows but i like these programs anyway cause they make things easier... ;) And also Sasha one of the reasons i don't use msconfig is because i cannot delete the whole entry of the startup item if you know what i mean, it's still there somewhere not in use but the text is still there when you look at msconfig... ::)
Cheers
Mikey
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And also Sasha one of the reasons i don't use msconfig is because i cannot delete the whole entry of the startup item if you know what i mean, it's still there somewhere not in use but the text is still there when you look at msconfig... ::)
Cheers
Mikey
Yes I know, but as I said, it's just for fast disabling/enabling. I use Manage console and from there you can completely control what you want to do with some certain service... see here:
(http://img446.imageshack.us/img446/39/untitled14pe.jpg)
Once you stop/disable process in there, you will not see it inside msconfig's services list any more... until you reenable it again of course...
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Hehe i know all of that i use managment also ;) , no i was talking about startup items....
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Oh Startup items are different term than Services. I thought you meant on services. Anyway, I also have StartupCPL but I mostly use CCleaner for that, and it's always there anyway, so it's very easy to go into Startup items and remove anything you want from the list. Removing them that way is permanent, and in msconfig's startup list you won't see them any more... same thing as with StartupCPL
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Oh Startup items are different term than Services. I thought you meant on services. Anyway, I also have StartupCPL but I mostly use CCleaner for that, and it's always there anyway, so it's very easy to go into Startup items and remove anything you want from the list. Removing them that way is permanent, and in msconfig's startup list you won't see them any more... same thing as with StartupCPL
Exactly ;D
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We can keep going around in circles forever. Unless someone from Alwil has some answers or explanations,
nothing will ever really be solved or even properly explained.
As I've already mentioned in another thread, I just want my mean, lean avast! AV program back.
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Well, it's rather strange. There was no avast! update for some time, so I have no idea what might have changed recently to cause such a behavior.
Are you really sure that ashServ.exe is taking that much CPU without the avast! tray icon spinning? Does it (= the CPU usage) stop after the boot is finished, or does it go on forever?
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Does it (= the CPU usage) stop after the boot is finished, or does it go on forever?
I don't know about the rest but it stops for me after the boot is finished but Igor my PC is acting so strange lately everything seems to open up slower....I've scanned with a million different scanners i checked everything the only time things go back to normal is when i uninstall avast! unfortunately... ::)
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..just guess, can it be BIOS again? or you have not enough RAM? Look in "My Computer" properties. There you can find options on how windows will use VirtualMemory or someting like that.
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Uninstall avast do complete regcleaning with several regclear tools then... install avast! again
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..just guess, can it be BIOS again? or you have not enough RAM? Look in "My Computer" properties. There you can find options on how windows will use VirtualMemory or someting like that.
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Uninstall avast do complete regcleaning with several regclear tools then... install avast! again
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Mr.Babis thanks for trying to help out but if you read my signature you'll see i have more than enough RAM onboard(pagefile i let windows handle...) here besides i tried completely uninstalling avast and reinstalling it back but it's still the same unfortunately...
cheers
Mikey
EDIT: We havent heard anything from mediterranean who started this thread ??? Are you there?
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It can also happends that some of programs go slow bufferovrlov or something
Here ram cleaner "FreeRAM XP Pro v1.40"
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22441,00.asp
That also helps sometimes. It is not alwas matter how much RAM you have, but how fast it will be used by unknown.
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Well, it's rather strange. There was no avast! update for some time, so I have no idea what might have changed recently to cause such a behavior.
Are you really sure that ashServ.exe is taking that much CPU without the avast! tray icon spinning? Does it (= the CPU usage) stop after the boot is finished, or does it go on forever?
igor,
The ball continues to spin for some time after the system has rebooted. It eventually stops at which time computer response returns to normal.
Thanks for your reply. :)
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Igor Thanks for your respond ! It means a lot like always ;)
Yes, as Bob already mentioned avast! blue sphere keeps spinning for a while. At one point AshServ.exe uses up to 75% of CPU activity. Then it stops, and it starts again few times. After around 40 secs, it stops and everything goes back to normal. Only System Idle Process is up to 98% and it should be like that, since nothing is using CPU, so Idle takes it's part... When I take a look at Task Manager (at startup time while AshServ.exe is using a lot of CPU time) under Processes, the only other thing that uses CPU at that point is Explorer.exe (a little bit) and svchost.exe
Everything else is on zero CPU usage.
Memory amount is not an issue here as it wasn't an issue before. I have 1Gb or Kingston DDRAM (PC3200) and my virtual memory (Paging file size) is properly customized... minimum of 1 and a half amount of total RAM, and maximum as 3:1. See here:
(http://img439.imageshack.us/img439/3912/untitled15ar.jpg)
Cheers !
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And this is what FreeRAM XP Pro v1.40 shows before and after "Freeing" the RAM... yes it's just one screenshot because it's exactly the same. After the "cleaning", it shows exactly the same amount, which is btw great...
(http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/4466/untitled14yh.jpg)
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A couple things. If oyu guys want to see everything starting up use:Autoruns (http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html#Utilities)
Msconfig misses some startup areas. Look at the logon tab in autoruns.
Also RAM Defragmenters don't do anything positive: Myths (http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/XPMyths.html#Optimization)
To really analize what is running in memory use Process Explorer (http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/DiagnoseXP.html#Advanced)
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Autoruns... I have that one as well. Nothing unusual inside the startup:
(http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/3663/untitled17cz.jpg)
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Thanks for the tip on Autoruns, a great program... ;D
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It's wonderfu Miha, of course...
And also Process Explorer... my readings (of course Total Commander entry is inside because I started it from there, otherwise it's never up and running, just on-demand):
(http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/2742/untitled11tz.jpg)
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Yes a great program too, i've had that one already, Polonus recomended it to me just the other day(thanks Damian) and i love it! ;D
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Yes Mr. Mark Rusinovich (our leaf ;D ) is wonderful and all his little wonderful tools.
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Little off-topic, but Mastertech, if you haven't received a PM from me, you can go here:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=16931.0
I made a little avatar for you (of course if you want it...)
Cheers !
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Was there ever any progress on solving this issue?
I have a small business full of people reporting this behavior...and I experience it as well.
All systems are WinXP Pro SP2 on a domain...running managed client installations of Avast!.
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FWIW, this problem had been (temporarily) resolved for me by disabling the Net Shield provider and the Web Shield provider. Seems rather unfortunate to throttle back what I would consider to be significantly important providers.
Does this help give any direction on what's happening?
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Hi all,
I've been using Avast Home for at least 18 months without problem, in the last 48 hours my laptop has been freezing for a few seconds at the time - monitoring task manager it appears to be Ashserver.exe causing the problem.
IIRC there was a program update a couple of days ago - this appears to be the cause, as nothing else has changed. I've done full system scans for virus (using Avast), and spyware etc using spybot and adaware all of which were clean. Restarting XP (Home) in safe mode and there is no problem.
Ideas please?
Irksome
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Sorry should have added that I do use utorrent constantly, and Firefox - but that I've not changed anything for weeks .
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i have the same problem and i follow those topic very closely... and i try something : make rules to avoid detection by avast both in "resident" and "on demand scanner" from folders concerned by widows start...
it resolve partially the problem...boot time seem to be quicker but i watch the files scanned by standard shield and 200 files continue to be scanned...and all files not concerned by windows boot so i want try another way ...
and if the problem came with prefetch and other stuff like that ? i ll try to create "rules" against prefetch folder...
(my english is very limited...so read underline ^^ )
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What version of avast are you using ?
The latest version goes some way to reducing the number of files scanned on boot yet maintaining a compromise between protection and performance. Previously my boot count was in the region of 250, now it is around 100.
What setting do you have Standard Shield set, the High and Custom options are obviously going to scan more files. I would also suggest you review what programs start on boot, many don't need to, like media players that don't need to start until you click on a media file.
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Sorry should have added that I do use utorrent constantly, and Firefox - but that I've not changed anything for weeks .
Disabling P2P Shield resolved the problem for me.
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Disabling P2P Shield resolved the problem for me.
Sometimes, it's only necessary to exclude some files (or just one) from the application folder (AND NOT THE DOWNLOADED ONES).
For instance, for emule, you can just exclude onlinesig.dat ;)
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I'm using the Avast Managed client (current version). To the best of my knowledge, this has been occurring since we updated to the latest version (I believe that was many months ago that it upgraded).
I do not recall if this occurred with the prior version. If there's anything I can do to troubleshoot this...I'm very willing to. I'd really like to get at least the web shield turned back on.......
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i use the latest version avaliable. I use curently the "customize" mode in standard shield with the option to "uncheck" library at winows startup and i put some directories in the "exclude" part of standard shield..
my boot tim have reduced a lot BUT after the boot ..he just scan 593 files ! from my "programs files" and "windows" directory ! it take 30 sec more before he gave my opportunitie to lauch a program...
(so put prefetch to exclude list don't work BTW ^^)
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I have a fairly good computer (2.4Ghz P4, 1GB memory, 80GB 7200rpm hd) that has recently slowed down a lot with Avast installed. Boot up time is very long. I keep my computer defragged with Diskeeper 10 so fragmentation isn't much of an issue.
I was about to reformat it when I came across Windows Vista Beta 2. I threw in a second 20GB hard drive and dual booted between Vista and XP. After I installed Avast in Vista, the boot up time wasn't dramatically increaced, but it was definately noticeable. Also, windows vista itself said that 2 processes were slowing down system startup, and guess what... they were both releated to Avast :(. I dont rember what exact processes they were, but I can find out what they are if you want...
I've uninstalled Avast in XP and put in AVG untill I have time to reformat.
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but I can find out what they are if you want...
It would be nice. :) Thanks and welcome to the forum, VorteX
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Thanks for the welcome, although I've been going through the forums for a month or two now. And you actually capitilized my name correctly ;D
For some stupid reason Windows Vista didn't keep the event logs for the startup performance issue >:(. I am 90% sure that the processes were "ashDisp.exe" and "ashServ.exe". If it comes up again I will edit this to confirm it. EDIT: Read my next post.
Vista is nice so far, but it definately has its bugs...
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And you actually capitilized my name correctly
It's amazing how accurate copy and paste is.... ;D ;D
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OK here's an update. There is only one process/service that windows vista complained about.
ASHSERV.EXE
avast! antivirus service
Here are some screenshots of the issues (from the event log as well).
Link (http://vortex.minimanjapan.com/temp/avast%20stuff.zip)
Had to put it on my web server because your forums don't allow zip files and they dont allow more than 200kb of attachments, which is annoying...
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This is still occurring for us even after eliminating those shields. I had it occur to someone while he was scrolling some code in in VS.NET 2005...and, it's just started happening to me as I type this forum post. I feel like I'm typing this on a 286...massive HD activity and aswServ.exe using 99% CPU + 90MB+ RAM. Also strange is that it's priority is set to high. Seriously? Why in the world would you ever set a process priority on something file system related to high? Can I change this?
I've taken a screenshot of taskmgr...and I've tried attaching it to this thread...hope it takes.
Seriously, I need some help with this folks...
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The only thing that I see from your screen shot is that your using aswServ.exe when as far as I know the avast 4 home/pro uses ashServ.exe (unless this is a language variation), I don't have an aswServ.exe in the avast4 folder.
What version of avast are you using (current version 4.7.844) ?
Even though you are using vista, I don't believe there is any difference in the avast version, could be wrong.
The idea of the high priority is so it can be done with the scan and hand back quickly (not happening in your case). The memory will peak when scanning but should drop back as shown in your screen shot. However, the memory usage in the image is much higher than the VM memory usage of mine (XP Pro) when no scanning in progress.
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I'm using the Avast Managed client (current version). To the best of my knowledge, this has been occurring since we updated to the latest version (I believe that was many months ago that it upgraded).
I do not recall if this occurred with the prior version. If there's anything I can do to troubleshoot this...I'm very willing to. I'd really like to get at least the web shield turned back on.......
Thanks for the reply...I've quoted the post where I provided this info...it was on the same page in this thread. I couldn't find a support forum for the managed client...is this the wrong place?
I agree that the memory utilization is extremely high...as is the CPU utilization. I don't want the process configured as "High" priority on any of the 15 or so systems I have it on. That makes the process take priority over everything else on the systems...rendering them useless while avast does whatever it's doing. Even if that's for three (3) seconds...that's too long. Antivirus software is no longer protecting the computer if it's preventing the computer from being used at random times.
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The only thing that I see from your screen shot is that your using aswServ.exe when as far as I know the avast 4 home/pro uses ashServ.exe (unless this is a language variation), I don't have an aswServ.exe in the avast4 folder.
What version of avast are you using (current version 4.7.844) ?
Even though you are using vista, I don't believe there is any difference in the avast version, could be wrong.
The idea of the high priority is so it can be done with the scan and hand back quickly (not happening in your case). The memory will peak when scanning but should drop back as shown in your screen shot. However, the memory usage in the image is much higher than the VM memory usage of mine (XP Pro) when no scanning in progress.
To clarify,
My post above this addresses your request for information on the version I'm using.
I'm not using Windows Vista. The screen shot is from an XP Pro SP2 system (as outlined in another post of mine).
Do you know of a way to change the process priority? Even if it's just for experimental sake, I'd like to drop it to at least normal. I don't want the AV client taking over systems.
It seems like these forums may not be the right place to get help...though I do appreciate the reply. I've tossed an e-mail to the Alwil folks...hopefully, they'll read what I've shared here and enlighten me. Otherwise, I have a tough business decision to make.... :-\
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Do you know of a way to change the process priority? Even if it's just for experimental sake, I'd like to drop it to at least normal. I don't want the AV client taking over systems.
I know... but I need to dig into my Windows desktop (now on SUSE Linux 8)).
It's a process monitor that could IN THEORY change the priority to Normal.
I've tested in the past and the impact on system resources was not what I've looking for.
For high CPU consumption, I'd rather discover WHY this is happening and try to help.
It seems like these forums may not be the right place to get help...
I wish me and the others do not take this personally... :P
If you can't get help here, where we try to do our best, giving time and experience for free to the others, where will you find it? :(
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Sorry I missed the fact you aren't using Vista but the same as me XP Pro, which makes it a little more strange why you have aswServ.exe running in the Task Manager image you posted and mine is ashServ.exe also with XP Pro. Perhaps because you are running the Avast Managed client is the reason for the aswServ.exe usage.
As far as I'm aware, you can't change the priority, trying to do so from the Task manager just results in 'The operation could not be completed.' Access is denied, but that was for avast 4 Home version.
Since you are using the Avast Managed client you could be right that is particular forum might not be best for the problem but Alwil members do regularly monitor and contribute in the forums. I don't know if the avast! Distributed Network Manager is the sane as your stating the use of Avast Managed client are the same (I'm just an avast Home user), perhaps the avast! Distributed Network Manager forum would be more appropriate ? http://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=10.0
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Hi all,
I've been using Avast Home for at least 18 months without problem, in the last 48 hours my laptop has been freezing for a few seconds at the time - monitoring task manager it appears to be Ashserver.exe causing the problem.
IIRC there was a program update a couple of days ago - this appears to be the cause, as nothing else has changed. I've done full system scans for virus (using Avast), and spyware etc using spybot and adaware all of which were clean. Restarting XP (Home) in safe mode and there is no problem.
Ideas please?
Irksome
I've also been experiencing this over the past week or so when running µtorrent. It seems to go away shortly after closing µtorrent and return again shortly after restarting it. It's about a once-per-minute spike of CPU and memory for several seconds, stalling everything else because the process seems to run in High Priority mode.
Notice the CPU History and Private Bytes History spikes (75% CPU and three times the memory usage):
(http://steven.wilson.googlepages.com/Avastspike.png)
I managed to pinpoint the problem to this setting in µtorrent's Advanced Preferences:
diskio.flush_files makes µTorrent close file handles every minute. This helps reduce the effect of Windows managing the system cache badly. (http://wiki.depthstrike.com/index.php/UTorrent:FAQ)
Setting that setting to false fixes it for me (but judging by how they put it, this may impact Windows' performance; I'll have to see).
Since the file being torrented being scanned by the P2P Shield provider when this flush occurs seems to be the cause (the larger the file, 2GB, 4GB, etc, the longer the CPU and memory spike as Avast thrashes away to scan the entire thing over again), I'd suppose unchecking uTorrent from the P2P Shield's programs list would also stop this, but I wouldn't recommend that.
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Since the file being torrented being scanned by the P2P Shield provider when this flush occurs seems to be the cause (the larger the file, 2GB, 4GB, etc, the longer the CPU and memory spike as Avast thrashes away to scan the entire thing over again), I'd suppose unchecking uTorrent from the P2P Shield's programs list would also stop this, but I wouldn't recommend that.
You can add particular files to be excluded (but you could not 'want' to do that):
For the Standard Shield provider (on-access scanning):
Left click the 'a' blue icon, click on the provider icon at left and then Customize.
Go to Advanced tab and click on Add button...
For the other providers (on-demmand scanning):
Right click the 'a' blue icon, click Program Settings.
Go to Exclusions tab and click on Add button...
You can use wildcards like * and ?. But be carefull, you should 'exclude' that many files that let your system in danger.
But, are you sure it's the P2P provider which is checking that file, I mean, couldn't it be the Internet Mail Provider?
If you exclude utorrent.exe process of Mail provider scanning, will it help? (see details clicking 'Settings' in my signature and browsing for section [MailScanner] in the avast4.ini file).
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But, are you sure it's the P2P provider which is checking that file, I mean, couldn't it be the Internet Mail Provider?
If you exclude utorrent.exe process of Mail provider scanning, will it help? (see details clicking 'Settings' in my signature and browsing for section [MailScanner] in the avast4.ini file).
Is utorrent using port 25 ???
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I can tell it's the P2P provider because I kept an eye on the "Last Scanned" line in the P2P Shield tab and it showed a file belonging to a torrent I was downloading (a large ISO) at the exact point the spikes occured, and it's the only one that had this activity to match it.
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Is utorrent using port 25 ???
Most probably not... it was just a guess... using TCPView from www.sysinternals.com the user could check this.
I can tell it's the P2P provider because I kept an eye on the "Last Scanned" line in the P2P Shield tab and it showed a file belonging to a torrent I was downloading (a large ISO) at the exact point the spikes occured, and it's the only one that had this activity to match it.
I think you can exclude *.ISO files from being scanned by P2P provider (on-access exclusions) but unfortunatelly, utorrent does not allow to scan downloaded files after the download is finished :P
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Tech & bob3160,
a while ago avast added utorrent.exe to the list of processes automatically excluded in the Internet Mail scanner (just confirmed it is still there).
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Tech & bob3160, a while ago avast added utorrent.exe to the list of processes automatically excluded in the Internet Mail scanner (just confirmed it is still there).
You're right... in my case, new knowledge is replacing the old ones... I'm becoming old :'(
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tech-hi-very nice faq,links,settings,cleaning and control information on the bottom in your profile section
looked at it today and very helpful on some of the information i was wondering about and some tests that were helpful-thank you(i know it took a-lot of time to put together)
sorry this post had nothing to do with this topic but i had to mention what was on the bottom of your profile section so people would know and might be of help to someone.
and thank you for the comment on your above post about being old,i'm already past the half century mark :o ::) :-[
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This is still occurring for us even after eliminating those shields. I had it occur to someone while he was scrolling some code in in VS.NET 2005...and, it's just started happening to me as I type this forum post. I feel like I'm typing this on a 286...massive HD activity and aswServ.exe using 99% CPU + 90MB+ RAM.
The managed clients are controlled by ADNM... didn't the administrator run a scan of the system at this moment? Or, isn't there a scheduled scan set to be run every... don't know, day, week, ...?
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This is still occurring for us even after eliminating those shields. I had it occur to someone while he was scrolling some code in in VS.NET 2005...and, it's just started happening to me as I type this forum post. I feel like I'm typing this on a 286...massive HD activity and aswServ.exe using 99% CPU + 90MB+ RAM.
The managed clients are controlled by ADNM... didn't the administrator run a scan of the system at this moment? Or, isn't there a scheduled scan set to be run every... don't know, day, week, ...?
Yes, the managed clients do receive their configuration via the ADNM. There seems to be a language translation issue here...but, I am assuming you are asking...
1 - Was a system scan initiated via the ADNM console when the CPU spike occurs?
2 - If a system scan wasn't manually initiated by the ADNM console when the CPU spike occurs, then was this caused by a scheduled scan?
The answer to both questions would be "no".
To reply to another poster in this forum...I do appreciate the help from everyone and of course no disrespect was intended. A couple points of feedback to share...
1 - I'm having a technical issue not with a free product but one that I paid for. It's the antivirus software used by an entire company. It's having a technical problem that makes computers unusable for 3-15 seconds while an Avast component takes control of the system. That's simply not something that I can continue with. I have e-mailed Alwil technical support, however, as yet I have not received a reply.
2 - Product unfamiliarity, lack of a formal moderator to move/direct my post to an appropriate thread, and a very obvious language barrier are all reasons I commented that this may not be the correct place for me to receive help.
This is the only place I know to go for help (until Alwil steps in). Again, these issues are not something I'm blaming on you (or any else trying to help). I really do appreciate everyone that has tried to help, and, even everyone who has even taken the time to read about my probem. This is a great community with many dedicated and talented people.
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My latest attempt at resolving this issue myself may have some positive results...
...I've added an exclusion for "hiberfil.sys" to the standard scanner. Many of our systems are configured to use hibernation, and, the hiberfil.sys is a very large file. So far my own system is not having any problem with most providers re-enabled and that exclusion set. My fingers are crossed... :D
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If aswServ.exe is using that much CPU, it must be scanning something. Either a scheduled task is running, or the resident protection is processing something. In the later case, open the "On-Access Scanner" window (normally it's accessed by left-clicking the avast! tray icon, but it can be disabled for the managed clients), select the particular resident providers in the detailed view and watch the "Last scanned" field.
Or, you may want to use heavy weapons like File Monitor - but it's necessary to find out what is being scanned.
And yes, these posts should be in the ADNM forum, but it's a little too late to attempt to split them.
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I've pushed the "hiberfil.sys" change out to all workstations, and, I'll gather that information from client systems if this is reported again.
Again, not intending anything but constructive criticism...but, can you folks make it a little more apparent that managed client questions belong in the ADNM forum? The ADNM is a separate component from the managed client (at least in my eyes), and, I could find no other threads regarding the managed client in there within recent history.
Finally, is there a way for me to lower the aswServ.exe process priority? This is one thing I would really like to do...I don't want any processes running above normal on these systems...
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OK, I watched the Avast event viewer and have narrowed down another cause of this to be the updating of the virus definitions. I'll put a separate post in to inquire if there is a way to only allow definition updates outside of certain hours (e.g. outside of business hours).
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Finally, is there a way for me to lower the aswServ.exe process priority? This is one thing I would really like to do...I don't want any processes running above normal on these systems...
I don't think so.
How long do these "spikes" take? The original post referred to long-term CPU consuption.
If it's just a few seconds, then yes, it might be VPS update.
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The spikes depend on system configuration...our fastest systems typically clear out after 5-10 seconds...but slower systems can be help hostage for over a minute. I believe it may have been a combo of the hibernation file and the updating. The following thread (thanks Vik!) may have put me on the right track...and may help anyone else experiencing the freeze-ups caused by clients being configured to auto-update:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=21779.0
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Hi first post but this thread just solved my problem so I thought I would reply with my 2 pence.
I was getting bad CPU spikes (approx 10 second spike every 60 seconds I think). I had got to the point where I knew it was Avast that was causing it. Turns out its definatly the P2P scanner for me. every minute or there about the P2P scanner is scanning the ISO that I am downloading via Utorrent. This throws the CPU to 100% and renders my PC completly unuseable for those 10 seconds.
I know this has been mentioned before but I thought I would put my situation in as well to show that this is affecting more and more people.
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i just downloaded uTorrent again (haven't used it for some time). and i have the same issue.
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I have the same problem, there are tons of topics about this and none with a solution.
I think the moderator should choose one and close any other topic about this. I think focusing in just one would help concentrate efforts to find a solution!
My CPU usage goes to 100% time to time. I'm using uTorrent.
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Wilson, towards the end of page 5, has the answer that fixed it for me. I was having 100% of my CPU used for up to 20 seconds whenever i was using uTorrent. However it has been fixed now, so thank you very much Wilson, my computer is usable... For now at least :P