Author Topic: AvastSvc.exe memory leak  (Read 15814 times)

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Offline irongod

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AvastSvc.exe memory leak
« on: January 11, 2014, 06:58:51 PM »
Is there any way to shrink the memory footprint of the AvastSvc.exe process in AIS 9.0.2011? (it's constant at 130-160Mb after few hours)

In v8 it could reach those values, but after that was shrinking by itself to more normal values (30-60Mb) when closing programs or when "in idle"... is there any manual way to patch this memory leak?  ::)


(Win XP SP3, 2Gb RAM)
« Last Edit: January 12, 2014, 08:39:28 PM by irongod »
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Offline Asyn

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Re: AvastSvc.exe memory leak
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2014, 07:04:16 PM »
No problems here on XP.

- Other security related software installed..??
- Which AV(s) did you use before avast!..??
W8.1 [x64] - Avast Free AV 23.3.8047.BC [UI.757] - Firefox ESR 102.9 [NS/uBO/PB] - Thunderbird 102.9.1
Avast-Tools: Secure Browser 109.0 - Cleanup 23.1 - SecureLine 5.18 - DriverUpdater 23.1 - CCleaner 6.01
Avast Wissenswertes (Downloads, Anleitungen & Infos): https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=60523.0

Offline irongod

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Re: AvastSvc.exe memory leak
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2014, 07:20:21 PM »
No other security problems installed... used Avast IS for 3 years now (from v6 to v8 without any problems.... up to v9!)
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Offline Asyn

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Re: AvastSvc.exe memory leak
« Reply #3 on: January 11, 2014, 07:21:17 PM »
1. Download avast! Internet Security: http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_internet_security_setup.exe
2. Follow instructions: http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility (Run this tool for all prior installed avast! versions..!!)
3. Reinstall avast! with the downloaded installer from point 1.
4. Reboot.
W8.1 [x64] - Avast Free AV 23.3.8047.BC [UI.757] - Firefox ESR 102.9 [NS/uBO/PB] - Thunderbird 102.9.1
Avast-Tools: Secure Browser 109.0 - Cleanup 23.1 - SecureLine 5.18 - DriverUpdater 23.1 - CCleaner 6.01
Avast Wissenswertes (Downloads, Anleitungen & Infos): https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=60523.0

Offline irongod

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Re: AvastSvc.exe memory leak
« Reply #4 on: January 11, 2014, 07:32:31 PM »
I cannot count the times I did this operation since v9 came out... even cleaned manually after all the pieces of Avast left by the cleaner program!! :P  Anyway, this is not the main issue with v9, I can survive with a 150Mb process running (having 2gigs of RAM), I struggled with serious hangs and crashes due to v9, so that I always reverted to v8! Now I've tried again v9 after "some cleaning" of Host, ARP Cache and IPv6... and with the online AIS installer (instead of the full offline...) let's see if I face again the random hangs / crashes as always happened before in the last 3 months since v9 was first out!

I've noticed severals had the same leak problem and wanted to understand if there was a manual way to make processes release memory in case it is only a leak ...   
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Offline Asyn

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Re: AvastSvc.exe memory leak
« Reply #5 on: January 11, 2014, 07:36:10 PM »
I've noticed severals had the same leak problem and wanted to understand if there was a manual way to make processes release memory in case it is only a leak ...

Well, I also run it on an old XP with only 256MB RAM, I would've seen the leak there. ;)
W8.1 [x64] - Avast Free AV 23.3.8047.BC [UI.757] - Firefox ESR 102.9 [NS/uBO/PB] - Thunderbird 102.9.1
Avast-Tools: Secure Browser 109.0 - Cleanup 23.1 - SecureLine 5.18 - DriverUpdater 23.1 - CCleaner 6.01
Avast Wissenswertes (Downloads, Anleitungen & Infos): https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=60523.0

Offline igor

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Re: AvastSvc.exe memory leak
« Reply #6 on: January 11, 2014, 08:40:41 PM »
In my opinion, there is no leak (even the first post says it gets constant after a few hours - a leak would grow indefinitely).
Yes, a program can tell the operating system to "forget" its memory - and the operating system either forgets the stuff it can read back from files, or writes the data into the swap file (so that it can read it from there later again). I believe that's what the previous versions of avast! were doing quite frequently (or rather, too frequently). However, it's not a good thing to do - because it slows things down (when the data are needed again, they have to be read from disk - which is million times slower than just accessing the memory). It's the OS'es job to perform the memory management - programs shouldn't really interfere with that, it's not their business (they don't have the information the OS does - it knows the overall memory usage and when it's too high, it starts "forgetting" as I mentioned - but only when needed, not sooner).

So to answer the original question - there is no way to do that from avast! itself. There might be some tools that would allow you to do that - but it's a bad idea. It would look nice in the Task Manager, but you would be interfering with Windows memory management, making things slower. If you have the memory, you want it to be used - not to sit unused.

Offline irongod

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Re: AvastSvc.exe memory leak
« Reply #7 on: January 12, 2014, 07:38:15 AM »
Thanks for the reply... I was already thinking something like that!

Still I wonder a little why it grows to such a big number without any scan, or su much disk or network activity going on... in v8 it could reach these peaks, but used to shrink down by itself... does everyone know whether this might be due to "streaming" and "emergengy" updates that are kept by the service in RAM (even if they usually consists in few kb, rather than mb)?
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Offline irongod

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Re: AvastSvc.exe memory leak
« Reply #8 on: January 12, 2014, 01:36:20 PM »
Little bit of sunday troubleshooting...  8)

The machine is up from couple of hours now and the AvastSvc.exe process is about 55Mb (normal) with a peak of 99 (still normal... comparable to v8). I monitored a little the threads of this process and they are between 65 and 75 (AIS with all the shields on - no secureline installed and no grimefighter), does anyone know whether is normal number?

But, I found a "natural" way to shrink the memory of AvastSvc.exe!  ;D ... it's enough to deactivate the WebShield from the Avast Setting and after few seconds reactivate it... during the transient phase the memory remains unchanged, but the threads drop to 45-50 and as soon as the webshield is activated again the AvastSvc.exe shrink to 5-7Mb! Then slowly grows again.. but still this trick could be helpful to someone that saw it raising to 250-300Mb (as I read in December on this forum!!). I start to think that while rewriting the Webshield for .2011 they may have left out some routines to optimize the memory consumption in order to increase the compatibility (but that's just wondering...  ::) )
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David_E

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Re: AvastSvc.exe memory leak
« Reply #9 on: January 12, 2014, 03:23:17 PM »
1. Download avast! Internet Security: http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_internet_security_setup.exe
2. Follow instructions: http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility (Run this tool for all prior installed avast! versions..!!)
3. Reinstall avast! with the downloaded installer from point 1.
4. Reboot.

I'm helping someone trying to get avast! working.

How can I find out all prior versions that were installed on their PC so I can run this uninstall tool for each version?

Offline CraigB

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Re: AvastSvc.exe memory leak
« Reply #10 on: January 12, 2014, 03:39:52 PM »
I'm helping someone trying to get avast! working.

How can I find out all prior versions that were installed on their PC so I can run this uninstall tool for each version?
Unless the owner can remember what versions "4,5,6,7,8" he had installed then you cant know but you can use the dropdown within the tool to change the version number and re-run the scan.

You can also run RejZoRs clean tool he created to clean avast leftovers http://www.rejzor.tk/ run this tool after first uninstalling normally and running the avast clean tool.

David_E

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Re: AvastSvc.exe memory leak
« Reply #11 on: January 12, 2014, 03:55:59 PM »
That's a bummer not being able to determine what versions are previously installed and need to be uninstalled.

I'm not comfortable/confident with downloading/using "RejZoRs clean tool"...
If this is a legitimate Avast clean-up utility, why isn't this info included in the official clean-up instructions?
http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility





Offline CraigB

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Re: AvastSvc.exe memory leak
« Reply #12 on: January 12, 2014, 04:00:53 PM »
That's a bummer not being able to determine what versions are previously installed and need to be uninstalled.

I'm not comfortable/confident with downloading/using "RejZoRs clean tool"...
If this is a legitimate Avast clean-up utility, why isn't this info included in the official clean-up instructions?
http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility
The tool is safe, RejZor ( avast uberevangelist ) made it to remove leftovers that the avast removal tool didn't remove, I have personally used the tool on several occasions and it is perfectly safe.

David_E

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Re: AvastSvc.exe memory leak
« Reply #13 on: January 12, 2014, 04:20:57 PM »
Thanks craigb for trying to help me.

Clicking on the link you gave me, doesn't help me trying to help someone ...
That link looks like a web site for RejZor, not a link for any Avast uninstall/install utility/help...

I'm not sure if I can insert an image of what I see on that link ...

Offline Alikhan

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Re: AvastSvc.exe memory leak
« Reply #14 on: January 12, 2014, 04:26:40 PM »
Avastclear : http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avastclear.exe
Rejzors Uninstall tool: http://rejzor.wordpress.com/avast-cleanup-tool/

Scroll down to Download and click it.

Run avastclear first from safe mode then rejzors utility in normal mode.
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