Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: jagiello on March 28, 2004, 03:10:32 PM
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I noticed that quite often ashDisp.exe locks up and takes almost all CPU time. Is there any solution for that?
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I noticed that quite often ashDisp.exe locks up and takes almost all CPU time. Is there any solution for that?
Which is your OS?
Did the computer freeze or not?
Using CPU time and releasing it for other programs is a common behavior. No matters at all ;)
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My OS is Windows XP SP1. ashDisp uses almost all of the CPU time (99%), but it does not release it to other applications, so that it becomes almost impossible to work, as any program I use suddenly stops responding and if it even responds, it takes ages. The computer does not lock up completely, but it becomes unusable :( I don't think it is normal, and if I don't find a solution I will have to switch to another antivirus program.
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Are you maybe using Shareaza when this lockup accours?
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My OS is Windows XP SP1. ashDisp uses almost all of the CPU time (99%), but it does not release it to other applications, so that it becomes almost impossible to work, as any program I use suddenly stops responding and if it even responds, it takes ages. The computer does not lock up completely, but it becomes unusable :( I don't think it is normal, and if I don't find a solution I will have to switch to another antivirus program.
I agree, this is really annoying.
But, today is Sunday, maybe tomorrow morning you can get some help from the programmers of avast! It seems that a drive (Microsoft's one perhaps) is not interacting well with avast!
Can you low the sensitivity to Normal (Standard Shield)? Does this make any difference?
If not, can you disable the Resident providers for a while to see if they work when re-enabled?
You are free to change your antivirus, but try to find a better support than avast! ;D
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I don't use shareaza, but I use Overnet. May it be a problem?
I'll try now to lower the sensitivity.
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What language version of avast are you using, by the way?
And do you have the latest build? [4.1.357 at the moment]
Thanks
Vlk
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I'm using polish version and yes, I have the latest update.
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Does this start as soon as you enter Windows or randomly when you're using windows?
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It starts randomly when using windows.
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Could you try temporarily switching the language to English?
Also, how well do you know computers? I mean, would it be possible to send me some debug logs next time it happens, if I instructed you how to do so (e.g. where to download the debugger etc.).
Thanks
Vlk
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Yes, it's no problem switching to english. About my computer knowledge, well.. I study computer science, so I guess I can do what you're asking for :)
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OK thanks a lot. Here are the instruction for installing and using the debugger: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=1040;start=msg5657#msg5657 (http://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=1040;start=msg5657#msg5657) . The procedure should be identical as the one described in that thread - with one exception - you wouldn't be debugging ashSimpl.exe but (obviously) ashDisp.exe instead.
All I need is the dump file.
If you don't feel you can do it - just don't worry, it's no sooo important. ;)
Thanks a lot
Vlk
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Well....I read the post you indicated...So I should run the debugger whe the problem appears? If so, you should wait a bit, because I don't know when it happens, as it is random.
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Sure...
Or you can have it running all the time - since it may actually be a bit difficult to launch it at the moment ashDisp is taking all the CPU time... :)
Thanks
Vlk
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Sure... Or you can have it running all the time - since it may actually be a bit difficult to launch it at the moment ashDisp is taking all the CPU time... :) Thanks Vlk
I'm downloading it right now and I'll try to learn how to run it...
Will it be good that I have the debugger running in background for you?
Will this help in anyway?
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What language version of avast are you using, by the way?
And do you have the latest build? [4.1.357 at the moment]
Thanks
Vlk
Why did you say that? Sometimes avast take a lot of my CPU time too... I do not worry to much (loggoff or reboot) but could it be a problem in the Portuguese version too? Does the English version do not have this error?
Can the user avoid this:
.dump /ma c:\avast.dmp
This command can take some time to complete (depending on the speed of your Internet connection, because it will be donwloading the symbols from the MS site).
Probably, when I have a problem I cannot get connected and so, I won't be able to download such symbols... Can't I have if off-line, already downloaded in my PC? ::)
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I'm having the same problem using the English version. I noticed that the problem did not occur until the last program update.
Steve
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Are you sure it's ashDisp.exe that's taking up the CPU??
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Can the user avoid this:
.dump /ma c:\avast.dmp
This command can take some time to complete (depending on the speed of your Internet connection, because it will be donwloading the symbols from the MS site).
Probably, when I have a problem I cannot get connected and so, I won't be able to download such symbols... Can't I have if off-line, already downloaded in my PC? ::)
Vlk, could you say me something about my previous question? 8)
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Symbols are a great mess. In general, unless you're willing to spend lots of time and risk being frustrated to maximum insanity there's no other way than using the symbol servers (i.e. working with the debugger while online). Well in fact the debugger is trying to cache the symbols it downloaded, but it doesn't always work...
The code the problem lies in the fact that there are too many Windows configurations/service packs/hotfixes to find the symbols that would exactly match your current system...
Vlk
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Are you sure it's ashDisp.exe that's taking up the CPU??
Twice it has been ashDisp.exe but I have not been able to reproduce the problem however after reading through some of the other replies for other problems I have found that running Shareaza will cause ashServ.exe to take up 98-99 percent of the CPU. It took about an hour for me to gain control back without rebooting. What I found was that ashServ.exe priority was set to high and task manager will not allow it to be changed to normal. The only way to gain control back is to Stop on access protection. I was able to stop the service through the control panel however it was reported back as unable to stop it. After stopping on access protection, I noted that the priority was then normal. I hope this helps.
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yeah, is it really necessary to have the ashServ priority set to high? can it be changed?
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Symbols are a great mess. In general, unless you're willing to spend lots of time and risk being frustrated to maximum insanity there's no other way than using the symbol servers (i.e. working with the debugger while online). Well in fact the debugger is trying to cache the symbols it downloaded, but it doesn't always work...
Great mess...
Spend lots of time...
Risk...
Frustrated...
Maximum insanity...
There's no other way...
But it doesn't always work...
I give up! ;D
Can you at least tell me what if the 'page faults' into the Windows Task Manager (a column that could be shown there)?
ashserv.exe has a 'million' of page faults... more than any other application and/or service... Is this an error? Is it the cause of system failure or freeze?
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Can you at least tell me what if the 'page faults' into the Windows Task Manager (a column that could be shown there)?
ashserv.exe has a 'million' of page faults... more than any other application and/or service... Is this an error? Is it the cause of system failure or freeze?
Well in a sense, it's not ideal but it's really not a problem either.
Page faults are caused by almost anything a program does - a 'page fault' is a process in which a piece of memory is being recalled from the paging file. Since ashServ.exe is polling the system (checking the status) in pretty short intervals (couple of seconds), if you have long uptimes, you'll see a huge number of page faults. They accumulate...
Actually the current version of avast (4.1) is much better in this aspect than the original 4.0. In other words, we're trying to push this value to minimum...
Hope this helps,
Vlk
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Can you at least tell me what if the 'page faults' into the Windows Task Manager (a column that could be shown there)?
ashserv.exe has a 'million' of page faults... more than any other application and/or service... Is this an error? Is it the cause of system failure or freeze?
Well in a sense, it's not ideal but it's really not a problem either.
Page faults are caused by almost anything a program does - a 'page fault' is a process in which a piece of memory is being recalled from the paging file. Since ashServ.exe is polling the system (checking the status) in pretty short intervals (couple of seconds), if you have long uptimes, you'll see a huge number of page faults. They accumulate...
Actually the current version of avast (4.1) is much better in this aspect than the original 4.0. In other words, we're trying to push this value to minimum...
Hope this helps,
Vlk
But is it necessary for ashserv.exe to have it's priority set to high when it is running. Having it set so high makes it all but impossible to break out of it when it starts absorbing all of the CPU time. Also, do we know why it starts to run rampant bringing the rest of the system to a near halt.
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Thanks Vlk...
The question about the ashserv.exe priority (High or Normal) remains :-\
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For the time being, I have disabled P2P Shield and so far have not had anymore problems. But is still early as sometimes the problems are unpredictable. This may be a good place to start looking at the code.
Steve