Unexpected, unwanted, very annoying scans

[REDACTED]

Several months ago I already submitted a post about this behavior of AAV. I had no answer at that time and several program updates later the problem is still there.
I have no scheduled scans whatsoever, smartscan is disabled but, from time to time I see a large disk activity, which I identified as being due to the Avast service.
This activity can last for several hours, accessing hundreds of gigabytes, and during that time applications working with the disk are slowed down to a point that it makes it very unpleasant. Even launching an application can last for more than 10 seconds instead of a glimpse !!!

For the time being the only workaround I have found, a drastic one, is to stop the Avast service. After 1 minute or so I can restart the service and work normally. 

I have identified one case when the unwanted behavior arises. When the screensaver scan is enabled the scan does not stop when the PC comes back to an active state.
But this is not the only case.
Strange point : during these unexpected scans the tray icon stays still. Cannot be confused with normal realtime protection.

[Pondus]

Sure it is not Windows indexing?


Tried a new clean install? .... uninstall tool   https://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility
Download    https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=168376.0

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I'm positive it's the Avast Service. I can see it in Process explorer of Systernals.
And the fact that the huge disk activity stops when I stop the servicxe is another evidence.

And I have disabled the indexing service from the very first day I installled W7.

This morning the activity started again without any reason 10 minutes after I started working.
I let it go for 10 more mns and looked at it in process explorer. 100 Gigabytes had already been read by Avast.

  And it's a fresh install on a fresh install of W7 home. I'll see what a full bleaching and re-install will do anyway.

[Eddy]

Several months ago I already submitted a post about this behavior of AAV

I only see two post from you and they are both in this thread 

[REDACTED]

]I only see two post from you and they are both in this thread 

At that time (March 2014) my alias was PoP.

Today I uninstalled AAV with AvastClear followed by CCleaner to remove registry keys, value or data, folders or files that referred to "Avast". Like the windows uninstaller AvastClear still leaves a lot of traces. Well ...
After re-installing Avast free I waited for the screensaver to start. When the PC got back to life the screensaver scan did stop as expected. I was quite happy with that ...
Alas .... a few hours later and a second start of the screensaver I could see that the avast service did not stop scanning after the PC wake up.
So the un-re-install did not solve the issue. I still need to stop manually the service to stop the scan !

[davexnet]

What components, other than the shields, did you allow when you installed avast.

Did you do the default or customized install ?

Which Windows version?

How much RAM in the PC?

[REDACTED]

What components, other than the shields, did you allow when you installed avast.
Did you do the default or customized install ?
Which Windows version?
How much RAM in the PC?

Avast free with shields and only browser protection allowed.
All other options sandbox, ... where unchecked at custom installation time.

I use only the screensaver scan. Exceptionally I perform a manual scan on some folder (Downloads, ...)

My system is W7 64b home premium sp1 all updates and hot fixes; 6G memory (no it's not a virtual memory effect). I re-installed it 2 weeks ago but the issue is at least one year older. The avast issue, among other small problems, with ie11, WMP, ... in particular, was a reason why I decided to re-install everything from the factory state.

I have made a little more investigation to understand when the problem occurs. Several times a week but at random - apparently.

One reason why the unexpected scan is not always noticed is that the disk activity associated with it is not at a constant level. Sometimes it's very high (HDD led constantly lit) sometimes it's weak (a few led blinks per second).

There is another reason why I've not always noticed the issue after a screensaver period. Actually
- the scan does stop when the screensaver stops
- EXCEPT if the idle time has been long enough that the display has been switched off for power saving
- AND not long enough for the PC entering the sleep state.

In my case 5 mns for SS, 15 mns for display off, 1h for sleep. So for less than 15 mns of SS the scan stops when the SS stops, between 15 mns and 1h the scan continues even though the SS has stopped, after 1h the scan has stopped when the PC wakes up (be it because of the sleep state or because the scan is complete, I don't know yet). Such test is time consuming, I have repeated it twice (not statistically valid  ...). I'll try with shorter delays..
Now I have set the display off delay to <never> so I should not need to stop the avast service manually, hopefully.

[carfal]

Try disabling the software updater module. It worked for me. I was scratching my head for days trying to work out my intense background scanning (which just started happening out of the blue) and finally tracked it to the software updater module. Its worth trying to see if the same is for you.

[bob3160]

Try disabling the software updater module. It worked for me. I was scratching my head for days trying to work out my intense background scanning (which just started happening out of the blue) and finally tracked it to the software updater module. Its worth trying to see if the same is for you.

Software (Program) updates are set to manual by default.
VPS (Virus data base) updates are on by default as they should be to keep your protection
against the newest discovered viruses as up to date a s possible. (streaming updates)

[REDACTED]

Try disabling the software updater module. It worked for me. I was scratching my head for days trying to work out my intense background scanning (which just started happening out of the blue) and finally tracked it to the software updater module. Its worth trying to see if the same is for you.

Thanx for the idea but I already disabled all options but the shields.

I have looked at another PC  W7 Starter 32 b.
AAV freshly installed
I see exactly the same undesirable behavior.

The screensaver scan stops when the screensaver stops EXCEPT if the display has been switched off in the meantime.
Apparently the service keeps thinking that the screensaver is on even when the PC is back to work.
Looks like it's really an AAV bug

[davexnet]

Perhaps you've found an anomaly with the screen saver scan.

I don't think that many people use it.  I assume if you discontinue this scan, every thing is normal ?

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.

Perhaps you've found an anomaly with the screen saver scan.
I don't think that many people use it.  I assume if you discontinue this scan, every thing is normal ?

Well that's a nice idea.
The option is buggy, don't use it !!!

Sorry the screensaver scan suits my needs much more than a scheduled one because unlike any other kind of scan it is supposed to stop as soon as I start working and continue from where it stopped when I stop working. And I can start and stop working at any time
Fortunately I found a workaround ...

[bob3160]

I personally don't allow my system to go to sleep or hibernate.

[Lisandro]

I personally don't allow my system to go to sleep or hibernate.

I, on contrary, let it sleep/hibernate twice a day

[lee277]

The only Chrome extension is Avast Online Security and the only plugin In Java. IObit may have had an extension installed at one time, but has long since been removed.Also, all scheduled and startup instances of IObit and ASC have been removed. However, i do still have IObit's defragmenter and uninstaller installed.