RAM usage problem after upgra NEW Avast Version 20.7.2425

[Harry S.]

I am sorry, I put the comments on the wrong thread. My PC was fine with Avast ver 20.7.XXXX. Actually I am referring to the computer crash/High CPU usage problems with 20.8.XXXX, i.e. the issue described in the following thread

https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=238442.0

It seems some other threads are discussing the CPU usage problems. That's the reason why I suggest Avast make an announcement on top if the issues are fixed - If they just give an announcement under one thread, users may not know if they  only read the other threads and can't realize the problems are solved and hence re-installed Avast again

[dale5351]

Hi Dale5351,
thank you for provided etl log. It successfully arrived and it is full of mDNS packets. I'am not sure for 100% but these mDNS packets probably cause your problem. I found there many mDNS connections that the system never closed.
I would prepare some simple test how to verify my suspicion. Or, If you are  familiar with some firewall (Avast, windows defender etc.) you could try to set rule blocking all UDP packets from/to remote port 5353.

I did manage to figure out how to look at the firewall in Windows Defender.  I found a few items of mDNS port 5353 (whatever all that means?).  One of them was Microsoft Edge, which I never asked for and never wanted.  I managed to find an instruction about how to really get rid of it.  Did that, also disabled the other rules using mDNS Port 5353.

Now it seems that the non-paged memory leak is much better.  Last night over the span of four hours it increased from 283 Mbyte to 302 Mbyte, compared to previous increases of several Gbyte in that same time span before.

For others who might still be struggling with this problem, I mention my previous solution to keep the computer from freezing up.  I put a rule into the task scheduler to have the computer restart twice per day, which for me was soon enough.

[dale5351]

Although the leak is much better, it is not cured.  As of now after about 8 hours running the memory has increased to 450 Mbyte.  Below is a listing of the highest 8 users of non-paged memory:
tag   *.sys
ismc  iaStorA.sys & iaStorAvc.sys
Nr22  ?  findstr does not return any entries
ArL2  aswArPot.sys
ConT  ?
Eo16  ?
fwLP  aswNetHub.sys (this used to be a top offender)
hE20  ?
fwRN  aswNetHub.sys

Hope this helps eradicate the problem completely.  If I can be of further assistance, let me know.

[justinlasky]

this problem is why i'm uninstalling Avast.  But I can't get that to work right either.

[MartinK]

Dale5351, Thank you for help. We will release the fix ASAP

[eddiefalhaus]

I just want to chime into say that Avast is also rendering my computer non-functional by sucking up all my CPU for the last few days. Though mine is a desktop, not a laptop. It's happened once before maybe a year ago and back then repair app worked okay. This time repair app seems to do nothing except maybe give a little breathing room before sucking up all the CPU again. (Also memory is unacceptably high- first noticeably hovering in the 800,000K when nothing much is running, but now it averages at 1,500,000 k)
I really hope this is fixed soon.

edit.
Next day. So downloaded the update. Took awhile as Avast worked against itself hogging resources, but looks like it worked. Dropped from 100% CPU and over 2 million K Memory to 0% CPU and around 70,000 K Memory.

[MartinK]

Hi All, fix of extreme non-paged memory consumption related to the network was just released via automatic update. Please, check version of your Avast in the Menu->About. Build number of fixed version should be 20.8.5684.602 or higher. If it is lower, please try to manually update Avast.

[dale5351]

I upgraded to 20.8.5684.602 manually (the upgrade in Avast said that I was up to date on a slightly lower version number).
After about 10 hours, my non-paged memory has grown slightly from 228 Mbyte to 292Mbyte.  That is a big improvement.  Tomorrow, I will stop restarting every day and see if that is stable or if it continues to grow, albeit slowly.
Looking at the process monitor I find the following tags, listed in two groups, each in order of assigned non-page memory.  First I list the tags that have some driver associated with them.
tag   driver
ismc  iaStorA and iastoravc  (this was top of the list)
etw2  aswbidsdriver, aswbidsh, and iswbidlv
fwLP  aswNetHub

and then the tags for which findstr did not find a driver.
Nr22
Ar12
ConT
Eo16
He20
EtwB
Ne40

Hope this info helps.
My conclusion is that things are much better, but I'm not sure that it is solved.  It may also be that things other than AVAST are contributing to the memory loss.  The multiple day test will help clarify this.

[MartinK]

Thank you dale5351 for your last post. Please, could you show us screenshot with the kernel pool monitor similarly as in one of your previous posts?

Paulino Sato, what about you? Did you try last version (build 20.8.5684.602)?

[Paulino Sato]

Hi,
I found the the source of the problem, is the wpad.dat file used to auto define the proxy (or no proxy).

Sorry for delay.
Version 20.8.5684.602  not solved my situation.  Same behavior, soon I connect network cable Avsta start eating all memory.
It happens on some networks, not on others.  Or start after some time.
My network are the culprit? Why special have on these networks?

My test procedure is this:
Disable swap/paging on window, avoid system to use paging, a avast just eat all ram and killed by the kernel (I think). 
Start computer with network cable disconnected (no wifi).
Open taskmanager, and Avast GUI.
Connect network cable and watch rise of memory usage by Avast.

If have some thing on my network causing the Avast memory issue, what can be?
My firewall is a linux machine, very simple, just for NAT, no complex packet filtering, multi internet access and Squid proxy (all most disabled).
I drop all forwarding from offending host. No change.
Dropped all input to firewall. NOW, avast no eating memory.
I opened port 80, and Avast start eating memory again.  What Avast accessing? Check the webserver log.
Avast getting the wpad file for proxy definition on this network. Renamed wpad.dat file, and try again.
Whitout wpad, no problem, avast try to get file, get a 404 and nothing happens.

Code: [Select]

The log on webserver (lighttpd 1.4.19):
10.0.103.91 wpad - [09/Oct/2020:09:36:43 -0300] "GET /wpad.dat HTTP/1.1" 200 94 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/72.3.3626.1895 Safari/537.36 Avastium (20.8.2432)"

wpad.dat content:

function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
         return "DIRECT";
}

I hope this information helps to solve the problem.

Tanks, Paulino.

[dale5351]

Thank you dale5351 for your last post. Please, could you show us screenshot with the kernel pool monitor similarly as in one of your previous posts?

Here you go.  This is after about 15 hours running.  Slight leak.

[dale5351]

Here is a recent screen shot, taken today Oct 11 at 12:45 pm.   Machine has been running for about 60 hours.  In the past three hours, there was a big jump in Non-paged memory from 461Mbyte to 4.1Gbyte.

[darkwaechter]

Hi,
I found the the source of the problem, is the wpad.dat file used to auto define the proxy (or no proxy).

Sorry for delay.
Version 20.8.5684.602  not solved my situation.  Same behavior, soon I connect network cable Avsta start eating all memory.
It happens on some networks, not on others.  Or start after some time.
My network are the culprit? Why special have on these networks?

My test procedure is this:
Disable swap/paging on window, avoid system to use paging, a avast just eat all ram and killed by the kernel (I think). 
Start computer with network cable disconnected (no wifi).
Open taskmanager, and Avast GUI.
Connect network cable and watch rise of memory usage by Avast.

If have some thing on my network causing the Avast memory issue, what can be?
My firewall is a linux machine, very simple, just for NAT, no complex packet filtering, multi internet access and Squid proxy (all most disabled).
I drop all forwarding from offending host. No change.
Dropped all input to firewall. NOW, avast no eating memory.
I opened port 80, and Avast start eating memory again.  What Avast accessing? Check the webserver log.
Avast getting the wpad file for proxy definition on this network. Renamed wpad.dat file, and try again.
Whitout wpad, no problem, avast try to get file, get a 404 and nothing happens.

Code: [Select]

The log on webserver (lighttpd 1.4.19):
10.0.103.91 wpad - [09/Oct/2020:09:36:43 -0300] "GET /wpad.dat HTTP/1.1" 200 94 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/72.3.3626.1895 Safari/537.36 Avastium (20.8.2432)"

wpad.dat content:

function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
         return "DIRECT";
}

I hope this information helps to solve the problem.

Tanks, Paulino.

I confirm, it comes from the proxy !

Disabling the option "Automatically detect settings" of proxy under Windows, will no more cause the memory leak.
Activating it again, and Avast eats again all memory ...

[MartinK]

Paulino, thank you for perfect analysis and darkwaechter thank you for confirmation. Guys, please could you try to post here screenshot with the Kernel Pool Monitor?
This tool is possible to download from Internet. Unfortunately, we are still not able to reproduce issue, so this picture should tell us what exactly is leaking on your systems.

dale5351, please could you try to turn off automatic proxy detection similarly as darkwaechter? You can find it in the Start Menu->Settings->Network & Internet->Proxy.

[dale5351]

I turned proxy off.  Will restart, and monitor.  Given that it is a slow leak now, will take a few days to be sure.

Thanks all.