Avastsvc.exe eating CPU time and Memory

[grenneam]

I'm running Win XP Pro with all the final updates on a Core 2 Duo E4600 with 2.75 Gigs of usable memory (4 GB) and am using Avast Free version 2014.9.0.2021.  I like Avast and have used it for sometime now but have noticed my machine has been running slowly of late.  Tonight I downloaded a file and was checking to make sure it was safe.  I always check using Avast, Mbam and Spybot.  Avast said it was clean.  I then used Mbam but it took over 14 minutes to check the same file so I cancelled it, but my PC was still running slow.  Looking at Task Mgr I saw that AvastSVC was using almost my entire CPU time (over 90%) and I had nothing running.  I killed my usual start-up programs and that did nothing.  I tried disabling Avast but that did nothing too.  I rebooted the PC and Avast came up and appeared to be running normal.  I then started a program to convert an AVI file to an MPG file and used task Mgr to monitor the process.  AvastSVC started using 50% CPU time and 26 Meg of memory while the conversion program was using the other 50% of CPU time.   The conversion program eventually ended successfully and closed.  AvastSVC continued using 50% of the CPU time.  I waited about 10 minutes with nothing but TaskMgr running and Avastsvc never changed.  I then opened another program to view the file I had converted and it looked OK.  I closed that program too.  AvastSvc is still at 50% CPU time but is now using over 35 Meg of memory.  It's been that way now for over a half an hour and isn't showing any signs of reducing to it's normal environment.   I'm looking for some suggestions as to what can be done to correct this obviously abnormal behavior on the part of AvastSvc.exe!   Please help.  Thanks.

[CraigB]

Is it possible that specific instances of your conversion program are not shutting down properly when finished and avast is still monitoring it

Hopefully you don't have Spybot running in realtime with avast ( Teatimer especially )

[grenneam]

Doesn't look like it.  Looking at my "processes" using Task Mgr there doesn't appear to be anything running that is unusual.  The conversion program had 2 or 3 individual processes going but they are all gone now.  The program I used to check the converted output I've been using for about 3 years now and it's gone too.  But AvastSvc is still hogging my CPU time and I just noticed that it's now taking just over 38 Meg of memory.  The beast is growing...

[CraigB]

Personally I would give the beta a try as it's lighter on resources but that has to be something you're willing to try the current beta is quite stable but that can be said for the next beta release which will be enabling some new features.

You could also try a clean install of the current version you have to see if it makes any difference.

[grenneam]

Yeah I'm going to try the "Clean Install" and see if that helps.

[grenneam]

Well that seemed to fix the problem - Whatever it was.  I ran the Avast Uninstall program, did a registry search on Avast and deleted any items that pointed to Avast programs, then made sure Avast was removed from all the Application Data areas.  Reloaded it and it's been working good ever since.  Big thanks to Avast for writing the Clean Uninstall program - It works pretty good, I found very little residual items when I was checking. 

[CraigB]

Glad it's fixed

[REDACTED]

"did a registry search on Avast and deleted any items"

How do you do a 'registry search' and delete?

[grenneam]

"How do you do a 'registry search' and delete?"

Modifying the Windows Operating System registry is and can be VERY dangerous.   I'm am very reluctant to pass that information on to someone who appears to have not done it before.  If you are having this problem I would recommend doing an Internet search for the Avast Uninstall tools and run that program.
Before reinstalling Avast check to make sure there are no residual Avast folders in Program Files, and all of the Application Data folders of all the Sub-folders listed under Documents and Settings.   Then reinstall Avast.  That should fix your problem if it's the same as the one I was having.  Sorry about the Registry thing - but I don't want to be the one responsible for you crashing your system...

[bob3160]

"did a registry search on Avast and deleted any items"

How do you do a 'registry search' and delete?

Why not follow the advice offered in your other post?
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=129827.msg963626#msg963626
Starting more than one posting only makes
offering help more difficult.