Avast using up alot of CPU

[Mnemonic]

Lately I've started to notice that from time to time, avast is using up 20% of CPU when basically doing nothing. Slows down games and effects the stability of the computer. The task manager labels it "very high" in terms of power and cpu usage, and marked red.

How am I to fix this without being have to uninstall the product ?

[mchain]

Since Avast is resident, it scans all processes, files, and data in real-time when your system is running.  Real-time protection is what keeps your system protected.

Only way to fix this issue for good would be to turn on Passive Mode in avast troubleshooting.  This would make avast not resident and not run in real-time but only on demand.  No resources are used when avast is not resident but set as passive mode.

Then you'd need another antivirus to run as resident to replace Avast.

More information about your operating system, how old your system is, desktop or laptop, etc., will help.

[DavidR]

If the OS is Windows 8 or later then I guess putting Avast into Passive mode, would cause the OS to enable Windows Defender.  I don't know which is worse.

[Mnemonic]

I'm running windows 10 64bit home edition(1809 build).
32gb ddr4 ram @ 2666mhz i7 7700k @ 4.8ghz on samsung 850 evo 500gb ssd.

I turned off defender completely via registry and group policy editor. So it won't kick back in even when I uninstall avast. I'll try the passive mode and see.

[mchain]

Certainly do not recommend running your system without an antivirus; real-time protection will have some degree of impact on a system.

You certainly have a system that is powerful enough, could Meltdown or Spectre patches have an impact or stability of your system?  What happens when your system crashes?