high memory usage triggered by certain websites

[gsupeene]

It seems that certain websites sometimes cause Avast to engage in high levels of memory usage and disk I/O.  It's not entirely consistent, but it appears to get worse with uptime as Avast's commit charge grows apparently without bound.

After about 11 days of uptime on my Windows 7 laptop, this evening I opened the following web page in Brave: https://wolfenstein.fandom.com/wiki/SNES_port_of_Wolfenstein_3D

This is not the only website this has happened with; it's just the most recent.  The moment it began loading, Avast took over my hard drive, rendering my computer essentially useless for the better part of an hour.  Closing the website didn't help.  Closing the browser didn't help.  At no point did any warnings about malware appear; the only reason I know it was Avast causing the problem is that I had Task Manager open.  And it still took me twenty minutes just to start Resource Monitor.

The attached screenshot shows what was pretty close to the peak RAM usage during this.  Keep in mind this is an older Windows 7 laptop with 2 GB of physical memory.

I've also noticed that if I forcibly power-cycle my computer during one of these episodes, Avast boots in a high-memory-use state, and I have to avastclear and reinstall to restore nominal behaviour.  In other words, when this happens I basically have to wait it out.

Is this a known bug?  It seems to be getting worse over time, as though Avast updates are increasing the memory usage.

[Asyn]

- Which Avast..? (Free/Premium/One)
- Which version/build of Avast..?
- OS..? (32/64 Bit..? - which SP/Build..?)
- Other security related software installed..?
- Which AV(s) did you use before Avast..?

[gsupeene]

- Which Avast..? (Free/Premium/One)
- Which version/build of Avast..?

Currently it says Avast Free Antivirus 22.1.2504 (build 21.11.6809.528).  Virus definitions 220218-6.

It also says I need to restart my computer, so I can't guarantee that was the version running when the incident happened.

- OS..? (32/64 Bit..? - which SP/Build..?)

Windows 7 Pro, SP1.  64-bit, of course.

- Other security related software installed..?

Windows Firewall is on, apparently.  And Brave 1.25.72 is the browser in which this happened.  Other than that, not that I'm aware of.

- Which AV(s) did you use before Avast..?

None.  Fresh install with Avast.

Well, to be more precise, I've had to avastclear and reinstall from scratch a few times.  But I haven't used any other antivirus since the last time I installed Windows.

That was a long time ago.  I've had Windows Update off for many years.

[Asyn]

Repair Avast:
1. Avast GUI -> Settings -> Troubleshooting
2. Click on 'REPAIR APP'.
3. Follow instructions.
4. Reboot.

[gsupeene]

Why do you believe your recommendation will help, when a clean reinstall doesn't?  This behaviour persists through avastclear.

Also, I should make it clear that it is a temporary problem when it occurs.  Once Avast finishes with whatever it's doing during one of these high-memory events, it releases the memory and calms down.  It's working fine now, and the commit charge goes back down when I reboot.

[Asyn]

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

[gsupeene]

Thanks, I might try that.  It could be a weird interaction with my old computer and un-updated OS, but if it's a bug in Avast I guess more data can't hurt.

[Asyn]

You're welcome.

[gsupeene]

Okay, slight update.  Rebooted, commit charge went down from over 800 MB to around 450, with >400 MB of RAM used.  REPAIR APP did nothing.  Rebooted again, down to ~300 MB of RAM used, commit charge still ~450 MB.  Started Brave (no page loaded, just the browser) - Avast panics, hogs hard drive and both cores of CPU for perhaps 30 seconds, RAM usage up to ~500 MB temporarily.  This is straight off a fresh reboot.

I guess it's time for another avastclear.  What happened to taking less than 30 MB of RAM, with less than 100 MB of commit charge?

Once I've fixed this, I'll give it a bit of uptime and see if I can reproduce the catastrophic high-memory event I got last night.

[bob3160]

Okay, slight update.  Rebooted, commit charge went down from over 800 MB to around 450, with >400 MB of RAM used.  REPAIR APP did nothing.  Rebooted again, down to ~300 MB of RAM used, commit charge still ~450 MB.  Started Brave (no page loaded, just the browser) - Avast panics, hogs hard drive and both cores of CPU for perhaps 30 seconds, RAM usage up to ~500 MB temporarily.  This is straight off a fresh reboot.

I guess it's time for another avastclear.  What happened to taking less than 30 MB of RAM, with less than 100 MB of commit charge?

Once I've fixed this, I'll give it a bit of uptime and see if I can reproduce the catastrophic high-memory event I got last night.

Does the browser open with many websites or just a single website (homepage) ?
Does the same thing happen when you use a different browser?