I have a 2005 Dell 3000 with WinXP Pro SP3 . I am running Avast Free ver. 8.0.1489 and have been for about 3 years without any complaints.
When purchased, the computer had only 256mb of RAM. I upgraded the memory to 512mb a few years ago, but when that became insufficient for today's higher memory needs, I installed 1gb of RAM 2 months ago. For some reason, after that last memory upgrade, every process showing in Task Manager shoots up from their normal 1-5mb operating CPU usage to 15-25mb CPU usage after running my usual weekly Avast scan and all processes stay at those higher CPU values. I end up having to shut down and reboot the computer after the scan is done to get those CPU values back to normal again. Nothing like this happened after the upgrade to 512mb. None of my other installed programs cause this problem to occur, only the Avast scan.
I was just wondering if anyone out there has experienced a similar problem and/or might have a solution? I don't believe it's Avast that is causing the problem, that it's more a Windows configuration issue related to the new higher RAM capabilities if anything, unless this version has some bugs that cause the high CPU values (a friend mentioned Avast had a glitch in earlier versions that caused memory leaks, whatever those are). That model computer is made to handle up to 2GB of RAM, so the 1gb I installed shouldn't be overwhelming to it.
Thanks ahead of time.
