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Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: antdude on May 12, 2010, 03:47:45 PM

Title: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: antdude on May 12, 2010, 03:47:45 PM
Hello!

On Sunday, I had to replace a client's Norton AntiVirus CE on an old Dell Optiplex GX260 PC with an Intel Pentium 4/IV Prescott CPU, 512 MB of RAM, IDE Maxtor HDD, and an old updated Windows 2000 SP4 (IE6) due to its slowness (much faster without it). After researching and being told to try the latest Avast free/personal, I installed it and it seems to mostly work. However, there were a few problems.

I noticed AvastUI.exe likes to hog CPU (50% on hyperthreading Intel Pentium 4/IV Prescott CPU) when I access real-time shields option in Avast GUI program. I do see graphs gets updated. I can't exit or do much in Avast when this happen. I can't even kill it. Windows 2000 is almost very slow too. I have to wait a long time after clicking close/exit on it. I did not see any intense disk access. What's up with that? :(

I did also notice updating showed avast.setup hogging a little, but not horrible. I assume that's normal on a slow old PC.

I believe the PC has the latest drivers, but it's very old from early 2000s. Are there fixes for these CPU issues?

Thank you in advance. :)
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: doktornotor on May 12, 2010, 03:57:41 PM
The fix would be to use the Norton Removal Tool I'd say... and after that, do manual digging and uninstalling their left-over drivers which get ignored by the removal tool as well.
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: antdude on May 12, 2010, 04:04:11 PM
The fix would be to use the Norton Removal Tool I'd say... and after that, do manual digging and uninstalling their left-over drivers which get ignored by the removal tool as well.
I don't see one for this Corporate Edition v7.60.926. I did manually remove its left over registry datas, files, folders/directories, etc.

FYI, the major slow down only happens in GUI's real-time option. Other options and in background/minimized are OK.
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: doktornotor on May 12, 2010, 04:16:18 PM
I don't see one for this Corporate Edition v7.60.926. I did manually remove its left over registry datas, files, folders/directories, etc.

Well, not really something we could solve here. The policy w/ "enterprise" products has always been that their removal tools are super-secret and available on-demand only after providing a proof of valid license and wasting ages w/ Symantec technical support. I could give you a "warez" version of SEP removal tool, but for outdated stuff such as 7.x of their corporate client, sorry, no idea. One thing I'm sure about is that their standard uninstall procedure fails miserably, causing whole lot of after-effects.

Sorry I can't help you more with this one.  :(
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: Asyn on May 12, 2010, 04:25:29 PM
That's bad... :(
Don't know if Ccleaner can help you, but you could try...
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
asyn
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: antdude on May 12, 2010, 04:31:37 PM
Thanks. Now come come the slow down only happens during real-time shields screens though? Is the graph part doing something intensive to majorly slow down?
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: doktornotor on May 12, 2010, 04:32:47 PM
Is the graph part doing something intensive to majorly slow down?

Well, the graph part is using ActiveX version of Adobe Flash... junky enough as well.
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: antdude on May 12, 2010, 04:36:27 PM
Is the graph part doing something intensive to majorly slow down?

Well, the graph part is using ActiveX version of Adobe Flash... junky enough as well.
ActiveX of Flash? What the? I think that's the problem. I know Flash v10 is choppy in Web browsers on that old PC due to onboard Intel video chipset. Is there a way to disable the graphs or use lower quality? Or slow down the monitoring?
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: Asyn on May 12, 2010, 04:53:35 PM
Thanks. Now come come the slow down only happens during real-time shields screens though? Is the graph part doing something intensive to majorly slow down?

You're welcome..!! :)
Just leave these screens closed, they're not that important.
asyn
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: antdude on May 15, 2010, 11:23:59 PM
FYI if this helps at all.

W2K's Device Manager says Intel 82845 G/GL/GE/PE/GV graphics controller and v6.14.104342 (6/21/2005) for the Dell Optiplex's video.
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: Asyn on May 16, 2010, 10:08:02 AM
@antdude:
You should hide your Email in the forum, so it can't be harvested by spammers...!
asyn
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: yonatan on May 16, 2010, 11:53:04 AM
Hi,

This graph is not base on ActiveX nor Flash.
does the CPU returns to normal level after you stop the shield?

thanks Yonatan
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: antdude on May 16, 2010, 03:24:56 PM
Hi,

This graph is not base on ActiveX nor Flash.
does the CPU returns to normal level after you stop the shield?

thanks Yonatan

Yes.
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: bb4buck on May 20, 2010, 05:51:22 AM
 ??? >:( I have the exact same problem on a customer's PC. Windows XP Home SP3...using S3 video drivers onboard video. Every graph causes CPU 100% and only when open. I have to close each graph to do anything at all. Is Avast only doing this on this type of hardware? It's basically un-usable. This happened when the registration window was open also...

Thanks...
-Todd
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: antdude on May 20, 2010, 05:53:38 AM
??? >:( I have the exact same problem on a customer's PC. Windows XP Home SP3...using S3 video drivers onboard video. Every graph causes CPU 100% and only when open. I have to close each graph to do anything at all. Is Avast only doing this on this type of hardware? It's basically un-usable. This happened when the registration window was open also...
It seems Avast has problems with graphic rendering on low-end/old onboard video chipsets. I don't recall having problems with the free version's registration (the one to enter an e-mail address).
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: DavidR on May 20, 2010, 03:41:28 PM
Have any of those with this problem enabled the avast! Settings, Basic, Appearance, Use special graphics effects ?
As it says this is 'nicer, but may slow down performance on some systems.'

I don't see any way of disabling the graphs, but surely this wouldn't matter if the avastUI remains minimised or on one of the options that doesn't display a graph, e.g. Summary (not statistics), Scan Computer or Maintenance sections.
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: antdude on May 21, 2010, 07:36:31 AM
Have any of those with this problem enabled the avast! Settings, Basic, Appearance, Use special graphics effects ?
As it says this is 'nicer, but may slow down performance on some systems.'

I don't see any way of disabling the graphs, but surely this wouldn't matter if the avastUI remains minimised or on one of the options that doesn't display a graph, e.g. Summary (not statistics), Scan Computer or Maintenance sections.
That seems to work! I saw 2-5% CPU for AvastUI.exe. I somehow missed that options in settings. Thanks. :)
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: DavidR on May 21, 2010, 02:17:14 PM
You're welcome, though that setting is disabled by default I believe.
Title: (special graphics effects turned off) Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: bb4buck on May 22, 2010, 04:50:33 PM
Good idea, I had the same thought and turning off "special graphics effects" was the 1st thing I tried to no avail. If anyone on the development side of Avast reads this thread, can you answer a couple of questions?

1. What does Avast use to render these graphs? DirectX, OpenGL, Windows GDI? or some form of ActiveX/Flash like another thread mentioned?
2. Can I somehow update this rendering platform? Like getting the latest .NET framework or something?

I would rather not have to uninstall Avast! and use something else.

Thanks...
-Todd H
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: DavidR on May 22, 2010, 06:01:52 PM
The statistical graphs use flash, though I don't believe that is what is meant by the "special graphics effects" as the statistical graphs still work without that setting enabled I believe.
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: antdude on May 22, 2010, 07:41:57 PM
The statistical graphs use flash, though I don't believe that is what is meant by the "special graphics effects" as the statistical graphs still work without that setting enabled I believe.
Is Flash from Flash v10 plugin or does it come with its own Flash player? I know regular Flash v10 web browser plugin do not run well on that PC. :( Yonatan's post #7 said it wasn't Flash so I am confused.
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: DavidR on May 22, 2010, 08:18:39 PM
It uses flash if you have it installed, it doesn't come with its own flash player.
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: antdude on May 22, 2010, 08:50:59 PM
It uses flash if you have it installed, it doesn't come with its own flash player.
Ahhh. Interesting. Thanks. :)
Title: Re: AvastUI.exe hogs CPU!
Post by: DavidR on May 22, 2010, 09:11:44 PM
You're welcome.