Author Topic: Ashserve.exe 100% CPU Usage  (Read 62128 times)

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Jeruvy

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Re: Ashserve.exe 100% CPU Usage
« Reply #30 on: February 16, 2006, 02:41:08 PM »
Agreed, so I decided after a fresh reboot on one system to see what happens, the entire boot phase is 5x longer than normal.  For the record a normal boot on this machine is a little over 2 minutes, today it was closer to 10.

Do you have any firewall installed in your computer?

Of course, Tiny PF 2005 Pro.  Don't even think of blaming this on my firewall.  I personally configure this product and have a expert knowledge of it.

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Upon looking at task manager, I can see ashserv.exe is hogging all cpu.  Attempts to reduce it's priority resulted in an 'access denied'.  Pausing or terminating the various sheilds with the Avast GUI did nothing to reduce the load.

So, are you saying the even if you choose "Stop on-access protection" from the avast! tray icon context menu, ashServ.exe keeps using 100% CPU?


That is exactly what I'm saying.
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So, OBVIOUSLY some update has changed vast characteristics about how this process starts and the interference level of said startup.

I would like to hear a concrete answer to this issue, and verification of the changes to the program.

I'm afraid I'm not aware of any such changes.

What were the changes in the last program updates?


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Hmm, I have merged my icons, so I don't know if one or the other is happening, but I'm positive my settings are not to generate databases during activity.

When VRDB is being regenerated, you can see the VRDB icon - even if they are merged in the normal state.


Then this is not an issue for me.

« Last Edit: February 16, 2006, 02:44:00 PM by Jeruvy »

Jeruvy

  • Guest
Re: Ashserve.exe 100% CPU Usage
« Reply #31 on: February 16, 2006, 02:42:15 PM »
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Upon looking at task manager, I can see ashserv.exe is hogging all cpu.  Attempts to reduce it's priority resulted in an 'access denied'.  Pausing or terminating the various sheilds with the Avast GUI did nothing to reduce the load.

This looks a lot like my problem. Have you checked that the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers are set to some DMA mode and not to PIO mode.

You can find this if you go to Control Panel - System - Hardware - Device Manager - Expand IDE ATA/ATAPI controller - Right click each IDE channel - Properties - Advanced Settings - Look at Current Transfer. If one of these are set to PIO mode, you are in this kind of shit.

If that's your trouble, the remedy is in http://www.michna.com/kb/WxDMA.htm.


Not for me, I'm using SATA drives in a raid array on this particular PC.


HeDiBo

  • Guest
Re: Ashserve.exe 100% CPU Usage
« Reply #32 on: February 16, 2006, 02:50:50 PM »
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Not for me, I'm using SATA drives in a raid array on this particular PC.
Ok then, install Process Explorer http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html and have a look at the graph of the Interrupts process. If that is constantly high, you have a hardware problem similar to mine.

Offline igor

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Re: Ashserve.exe 100% CPU Usage
« Reply #33 on: February 16, 2006, 04:43:32 PM »
Do you have any firewall installed in your computer?

Of course, Tiny PF 2005 Pro.  Don't even think of blaming this on my firewall.  I personally configure this product and have a expert knowledge of it.

Well, you might have expert knowledge of it, but the fact is that some firewalls perform a "scan of applications" when they start, probably extracting icons from every executable they have a rule for, maybe even more of them. This scan, however, also triggers avast! scanning of the corresponding executables - as they are accessed. Such a thing really increases the boot time significantly, even by minutes.


So, are you saying the even if you choose "Stop on-access protection" from the avast! tray icon context menu, ashServ.exe keeps using 100% CPU?
That is exactly what I'm saying.

There must be some scan causing the CPU consumption... if you stop Standard Shield and let the changes be persisted (and restart the computer) - does the high initial CPU usage still remain there?

What were the changes in the last program updates?

http://www.avast.com/eng/av4_revision_history.html

Jeruvy

  • Guest
Re: Ashserve.exe 100% CPU Usage
« Reply #34 on: February 17, 2006, 12:52:38 AM »
2+ years I've been using Avast, and Tiny Together, NEVER had an issue of 'scanning'

Yes, TPF does scan files in REAL TIME, just as AVAST does, so this is not the problem.  ONLY AVAST has had any recent changes, so again I attribute this cpu issue to avast.

Since no one wants to explain this behaviour, other than assuming it's something I'm doing, which is not the case, I will have no choice but to dump Avast in favor of a better more effective solution.

Thanks anyways.
« Last Edit: February 17, 2006, 01:07:09 AM by Jeruvy »

Jeruvy

  • Guest
Re: Ashserve.exe 100% CPU Usage
« Reply #35 on: February 17, 2006, 12:55:00 AM »
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Not for me, I'm using SATA drives in a raid array on this particular PC.
Ok then, install Process Explorer http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html and have a look at the graph of the Interrupts process. If that is constantly high, you have a hardware problem similar to mine.

Done, unfortunately this simply back up what I've already said.  Truthfully Tiny firewall has a full process inspection tool since it does provide excellent stateful inspection, and true host integrity functions unlike many other inferior firewalls.

Cheers.

Offline igor

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Re: Ashserve.exe 100% CPU Usage
« Reply #36 on: February 17, 2006, 09:42:42 AM »
OK, I am just saying that there were no relevant changes in avast! recently.

FreezyLocc

  • Guest
Re: Ashserve.exe 100% CPU Usage
« Reply #37 on: February 17, 2006, 02:58:57 PM »
im getting very high cpu usage also .. with uTorrent running..

HeDiBo

  • Guest
Re: Ashserve.exe 100% CPU Usage
« Reply #38 on: February 17, 2006, 03:03:11 PM »
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Done, unfortunately this simply back up what I've already said.
What did it say on the hardware interrupt process?
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Truthfully Tiny firewall has a full process inspection tool
Yeah, but does it filter out the hardware interrrupt process?

HeDiBo

  • Guest
Re: Ashserve.exe 100% CPU Usage
« Reply #39 on: February 17, 2006, 03:04:22 PM »
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im getting very high cpu usage also .. with uTorrent running..
What were your results in the CPU time taken by hardware interrupts?

FreezyLocc

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Re: Ashserve.exe 100% CPU Usage
« Reply #40 on: February 17, 2006, 03:15:51 PM »
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im getting very high cpu usage also .. with uTorrent running..
What were your results in the CPU time taken by hardware interrupts?

come again ?

HeDiBo

  • Guest
Re: Ashserve.exe 100% CPU Usage
« Reply #41 on: February 17, 2006, 04:59:48 PM »
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come again ?
This is from an earlier post in this discussion:
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One of the disk drives was running in PIO mode in stead of in DMA mode. This may happen over time when there have been errors on the disk. Resetting the values in the registry and rebooting cured this problem.

So, disks running in PIO mode will typically show high occurrence of hardware interrupts. Avast makes it even worse, probably also because of some disk activity while scanning.
This I found out by running Process Explorer.
Please read pages 1 and 2 of this discussion. It's all there.

FreezyLocc

  • Guest
Re: Ashserve.exe 100% CPU Usage
« Reply #42 on: February 17, 2006, 06:00:52 PM »
ive already read the entire thread.. just didnt understand the question...

and ive already checked.. no pio here ..
« Last Edit: February 17, 2006, 06:03:32 PM by FreezyLocc »

PacShady

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Re: Ashserve.exe 100% CPU Usage
« Reply #43 on: February 19, 2006, 05:44:25 PM »
I'm getting a high CPU usage as well.

It's not a recent update problem. I'm using 4.6.691, a build that's worked perfectly up until recently, now it's coming up with the same problem.

Shutting down all scans does nothing (ie. "Stop On-access Protection") ashServ.exe still hogs processor usage, is stuck on "High" priority, and refuses to let me change it's priority. The only way to fix it, besides restarting the computer, is killing the process.

My hard drives are also set at DMA, not PIO, before anyone asks. Plain, simple IDE drives, none of this fancy SATA stuff LOL.

Any ideas so far?

'Shady

HeDiBo

  • Guest
Re: Ashserve.exe 100% CPU Usage
« Reply #44 on: February 19, 2006, 05:54:13 PM »
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and ive already checked.. no pio here ..
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My hard drives are also set at DMA, not PIO, before anyone asks. Plain, simple IDE drives, none of this fancy SATA stuff LOL.
Apparently nobody wants to run Process Explorer to look at the hardware interrupt process time.