High CPU usage

[Lev]

Been struggling with high CPU usage for a while. Someone suggested Avast as Norton is a resource hog, so I changed and it's actually worse  :'(  But I like Avast and want to stick with it so would appreciate any advice please 

No matter what I open ashsserv.exe goes mental on the CPU and for what seems a long time. Thunderbird and Firefox take forever to open; IE is somewhat quicker, but even programs which don't access the internet on opening take ages.

I've done the PC spec check against XP and it is ok. I've done virus, spyware and HJT and everything is clean.

Any ideas please guys?  ???Any help would be greatly appreciated

[RejZoR]

Which firewall are you using? I saw similar symptoms on someones machine with Sygate firewall few days ago... (removing Sygate fixed the issue).

[Vlk]

Are you using a P2P program? [Which one?] Maybe downloading many files at once...?
Check out the "Number of Scanned files" for the P2P provider (double click the avast tray icon and choose "Details...>>"

Thx
Vlk

[leekb]

For some unkown reasons the ashServ.exe process on my PC starts up as "HIGH" priority. I changed the priority from "HIGH" to "NORMAL" and it worked just as well.

Test if things improve by changing ashServ.exe priority from HIGH to NORMAL. I am waiting for experts to advice why ashServ.exe starts in HIGH in the first place.

[niko]

Hi, I had (on my brother pc) the same pb few days ago, like Rejzor it was Sygate.
I use Sygate Pro on my own pc without pb...

[XtremeKirby]

For some unkown reasons the ashServ.exe process on my PC starts up as "HIGH" priority.

Take a look a tthis thread http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=10234.msg86719#msg86719

It said the HIGH Priority is so avast can release more CPU usage to other applications that needs it.

Changing to Normal would only make the things worse.

Thanks

[SnowSurfer]

is sygate the cause of the clashing? i have sygate pro and i expierence the same problem intermittently..thanks