Avast.setup process system hog

[DaneBrooke]

reply to DavidR (reply 5)

I'm not running Automatic Update.

I assume you mean the windows updates, even if they don't auto check and download but ask/notify, it can still hog things. Personally I have windows update disabled and I do all my updates manually.

Yeah, I do all my updates manually, too.  FWIW - This problem has disappeared. Possibly because the box died.  I am having a new problem on the replacement box (see new thread). Thanks for all the help with this!

[alanrf]

Doing your updates manually means that avast assumes you want avast to consume whatever resources are needed to get the update done. 

Read the thread ... the avast updates are CPU intensive.  The more out of date you are the more CPU is needed for the update to run.  By far the best option here is to run the automatic VPS updates for avast. The automatic updates are set (on up to date operating systems like XP and Vista) to not consume more than 30% CPU.

[epp]

cause Avast to update more quickly (rather than one hour) at startup

If that statement is true then something else is happening. 

My 11 year old laptop with Windows Me and only 96Mb of memory does not take anything like that long to update even when I only power it on every couple of months and there is a backlog of updates - yes it does take about 15-20 minutes sometimes but an hour??

I do not play games on the PC, nor do I have any installed.  It is only used for Internet and occasional letter writing (OpenOffice.org), otherwise, that's it. 

But I could not understand why it took an hour (in bits and pieces) just for an update.  It is as if the download server had an intermittent connection, yet it occurred all the time.

[alanrf]

The amount of data downloaded in avast VPS updates is really quite small. The downloads take very little time (even on dial up) the time consuming part is the work on your system to integrate the updates - that is the part that is CPU intensive and takes much more time typically than the download. avast reports, at the the end of the update, how long the update took, how much data was downloaded and how long the data download took.

[epp]

I just reinstalled Avast 4.8, but this time it was installed in Safe Mode.  Please look at this from the setup.log file.  Does it look right?  My apologies if it is too long, but I wanted to capture everything.

18.07.2008   18:33:46.000   1216420426   general   Started: 18.07.2008, 18:33:46
18.07.2008   18:33:46.000   1216420426   general   Running setup_av_pro-4b1 (1201)
18.07.2008   18:33:46.000   1216420426   system   Operating system: WindowsXP ver 5.1, build 2600, sp 2.0 [Service Pack 2]
18.07.2008   18:33:46.000   1216420426   system   Memory: 45% load. Phys:285736/523828K free, Page:1001392/1277796K free, Virt:2069400/2097024K free
18.07.2008   18:33:46.000   1216420426   system   Computer WinName: COMPUTER
18.07.2008   18:33:47.000   1216420427   system   Windows Net User: COMPUTER\Edward
18.07.2008   18:33:47.000   1216420427   general   Cmdline: /setproxy
18.07.2008   18:33:47.000   1216420427   general   Operation set to INST_OP_PROXYDLG
18.07.2008   18:33:47.000   1216420427   general   Old version: 4b1 (1201)
18.07.2008   18:33:47.000   1216420427   system   Using temp: C:\DOCUME~1\Edward\LOCALS~1\Temp\_av_proI.tm~a00584 (21577M free)
18.07.2008   18:33:47.000   1216420427   general   SGW32P::CheckIfInstalled set m_bAlreadyInstalled to 1
18.07.2008   18:33:47.000   1216420427   system   Installed in: C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4 (21577M free)
18.07.2008   18:33:47.000   1216420427   internet   SYNCER: Type: no proxy
18.07.2008   18:33:47.000   1216420427   internet   SYNCER: Auth: no authentication
18.07.2008   18:33:47.000   1216420427   package   Part prg_av_pro-4b1 is installed
18.07.2008   18:33:47.000   1216420427   package   Part vps-8071801 is installed
18.07.2008   18:33:47.000   1216420427   package   Part news-4b is installed
18.07.2008   18:33:47.000   1216420427   package   Part setup_av_pro-4b1 is installed
18.07.2008   18:33:47.000   1216420427   package   Part jrog-43 is installed
18.07.2008   18:33:47.000   1216420427   general   Old version: 4b1 (1201)
18.07.2008   18:33:53.000   1216420433   general   Connection test
18.07.2008   18:33:53.000   1216420433   internet   SYNCER: Agent=Syncer/4.80 (av_pro-1201;p)
18.07.2008   18:33:53.000   1216420433   internet   SYNCER: Type: no proxy
18.07.2008   18:33:53.000   1216420433   internet   SYNCER: Auth: no authentication
18.07.2008   18:34:04.000   1216420444   general   Server definition(s) loaded for 'main': 203 (maintenance:0)
18.07.2008   18:34:04.000   1216420444   general   SelectCurrent: selected server 'Download939 AVAST Server' from 'main'
18.07.2008   18:34:04.000   1216420444   internet   SYNCER: Type: no proxy
18.07.2008   18:34:04.000   1216420444   internet   SYNCER: Auth: no authentication
18.07.2008   18:34:04.000   1216420444   internet   HttpGetWinsock(http://download939.avast.com/iavs4x/servers.def.stamp)
18.07.2008   18:34:04.000   1216420444   internet   Used server:
18.07.2008   18:34:34.000   1216420474   package   Transferred: files 1, bytes 10, time 240 ms
18.07.2008   18:34:34.000   1216420474   package   Retries: total 0, files 0, servers 1
18.07.2008   18:34:34.000   1216420474   file   NeedReboot=false
18.07.2008   18:34:34.000   1216420474   general   Return code: 0x000004C7 [The operation was canceled by the user.]
18.07.2008   18:34:34.000   1216420474   general   Stopped: 18.07.2008, 18:34:34

After this, it appeared to have eventually updated, three windows appeared, one (with voice) that the database was updated and another two windows with:

Information about current update:
Total time: 3:11

- Program: Already up to date
  (current version 4.8.1201)
- Vps: Already up to date
  (current version 080718-1)

Server: download609.avast.com (75.125.223.98:80)
Downloaded files: 2 (0.02 KB)
Download time: 1 s

Information about current update:
Total time: 2:56

- Program: Already up to date
  (current version 4.8.1201)
- Vps: Already up to date
  (current version 080718-1)

Server: download902.avast.com (209.62.112.210:80)
Downloaded files: 2 (0.02 KB)
Download time: 1 s