memory leak problem

[dale5351]

Lately, I have been getting a severe memory leak problem every time that a new Avast program update is installed.  I believe that the problem arises because each fresh install is turning on the option to monitor removable media.  When I turn that off, the memory leak goes away.  I suspect the reason that I might be having this problem and others are not is because my WiFi receiver is external and plugged into a USB port.

I would appreciate it if someone could give me a way to not have new installations change my settings.  Of course, I would also hope that the Avast crew would figure out why there is a memory leak when monitoring removable media and then fix that problem.

[Asyn]

Hi, if you're willing to help, see: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=237567.0

[igor]

How exactly does this memory leak manifest? What process seems to be leaking the memory, how much does it consume, how fast does it grow?

[dale5351]

The leak starts whenever Avast decides to turn on testing of "all removeable media".
Menu -> settings -> protection -> virus scans -> all removeable media.
I keep removing the check mark to do that testing, but whenever it gets turned back on, my unpaged memory quickly (as in a few hours) rise up to the point where the system is completely clogged up.
If I run an exe called poolmonx.exe, it gives me amounts of memory allocated -- both paged and non paged.  At the current moment, the non-paged memory is 11.7 Gbyte (I have a total of 16 Gbyte installed).  It normally runs at about 500 Mbyte.   My only option is to go into settings and uncheck that option and restart.  Then it remains stable until the next time that Avast decides to check that box.

Poolmonx.exe shows the top users of non-paged memory to have tags of: ansW, ansB, klbP, Py28.  I am reasonably certain that the first two are associated with Avast.

[dale5351]

More info -- now the memory leak is occasionally rearing its ugly head even with the scan removable media option turned off.  I am getting the same tags, and they point to the driver aswNetHub.sys.

It is painful to have to restart the computer whenever this happens.   Can anyone shed light on why and/or how to stop it?