Avast 5.0 Free Edition High CPU usage.

[Latelesley]

Hello,

Since upgrading to V5.0 of Avast! Free Edition, I have been having problems with my machine hanging, and using all the CPU. I was previously on V4.8, and all ran sweet, and I am wondering what has changed. Having played around a bit, I've tied it down to the AvastSvc.exe using all available CPU, one of my drives seems to lock on read mode for a few seconds (10+), and it also seems to generate a lot of page faults (PF Delta in Task manager is in the region of 2000+ while busy).

It seems to clear when the realtime protection is turned off. this issue appeared with V5.0.462, and still persisted with V5.0.507. 

1) Has anyone else experienced the same problem?

2) Is this a known problem, and is a fix on the way?

Kind Regards

Lesley 

[DavidR]

Try a clean reinstall:
- Download the latest version of avast, 5.0.507 http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download and save it to your HDD, somewhere you can find it again (if you didn't save your last download). Use that when you reinstall.

- Download the avast! Uninstall Utility, aswClear5.exe find it here and save it to your HDD (it has uninstall tools for both 4.8 and 5.0).

• 1. Now uninstall (using add remove programs, if you can't do that start from the next step), reboot.
• 2. run the avast! Uninstall Utility from safe mode, first for 4.8 if previously installed and then for 5.0, once complete reboot into normal mode.
• 3. install the latest version, reboot.

[Latelesley]

Thanks DavidR,

I'll give it a go, but I think the problem's in the software itsself. as I've had this issue on all machines i've installed V5.0 on. Its happened in both XP and Vista Home Premium, and 2 of the machines were clean installs, from a full format. This machine was an upgrade from 4.8 though - so i'll try the two removal tools, and clean install V5.0 and test.

Thanks again

Lesley

[Latelesley]

Right,

I ran the uninstaller aswclear5.exe twice, for both V4 and V5, rebooted, downloded V5.0.507, installed, rebooted, and the issue is still the same.



Kind regards

Lesley

[DavidR]

Well avastSvc.exe is the main avast service so would show increased CPU activity if any of the other resident shields were scanning.

Is the avast icon rotating whilst this increased CPU activity is going on as this indicates it is scanning ?
If so you could open the avastUI, Real-Time Shields and see if you can pin down which are showing activity in the chart or what is shown as Files Scanned and Last File scanned, etc.

Are you running any background process, like a P2P download, etc. ?
Other things to consider if you have any indexing process at work.

What other security software do you have installed ?

[Latelesley]

Hi DavidR,

The Avast icon does rotate while its busy, and the only shields showing activity are the File System, P2P, and Network shields. I do have P2P downloads on the go (Bittorrent), but this was never an issue with avast 4.8. I don't have any other security packages running actively, I just run them every so often to check my PC's clean (AdAware and Malwarebytes).

As for Indexing etc, its the first thing I turn off in an XP or Vista Install, i'm not a fan of Microsoft's "performance" enhancements. 

Ever since i've installed V5.0, my 'puter's been "sticky", you know, the mouse freezing on the screen etc, and it was never like that with V4.8. I've actually rolled back 2 machines to V4.8 till this is resolved. They are back to working fast and flawlessly on V4.8. Its one of the reasons I liked avast, small footprint, and does what it says on the tin. It seems to be changing with V5.0 

I'm hoping an Alwil Tech might pick up on this, and offer up some suggestions to try.

Thank you,

kind regards

Lesley

[DavidR]

Well torrents can increase CPU activity greatly as they break the download into lots of small files which are scanned. Why this appears to be different to 4.8 I can't say as I don't use P2P applications.

So I don't know what else to suggest as I can't test using a P2P being on dial-up life is too short and I doubt at dial-up speeds avast wouldn't have a great deal of work to do on p2p downloads.

You could try stopping the P2P Shield and see if that lowers the CPU activity and then you would at least know what the activity is about.

[FR8SKR]

Hello all, and I am greener than most.
I updated to V5 and I can not even get a full scan to work at all. It freezes up at about 3% of the scan. On
C:\System Volume Information\catalog.wci\CiFLfffc.000
The first time I read the results, it had 6 items that were Apple related(ie. iTunes,Quicktime, also Adobe),
that had 'Error;Exception in standard Virus code(14104). It would not let me delete, move to the chest, or anything.
Running the Quick scan, I got a 654 pages of 'File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)'
Here is page one of the report;

*
* avast! Scan Report
* This file is generated automatically
*
* Scan name: Full system scan
* Started on: Monday, April 19, 2010 11:42:34 PM
* VPS: 100419-1, 04/19/2010
*

C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-2365545147-1999384947-2466353664-500\desktop.ini [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-2834487344-3211021030-3328726577-1000\desktop.ini [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
C:\2689db749218161e7a2b0e535837c5\%temp%dd_msxml_retMSI.txt [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
C:\39df717e2d14d87023c9\baseline.dat [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
C:\39df717e2d14d87023c9\deffactory.dat [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
C:\39df717e2d14d87023c9\locdata.1025.ini [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
C:\39df717e2d14d87023c9\locdata.1028.ini [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
C:\39df717e2d14d87023c9\locdata.1029.ini [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
C:\39df717e2d14d87023c9\locdata.1030.ini [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
C:\39df717e2d14d87023c9\locdata.1031.ini [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
C:\39df717e2d14d87023c9\locdata.1032.ini [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
C:\39df717e2d14d87023c9\locdata.1035.ini [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
C:\39df717e2d14d87023c9\locdata.1036.ini [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
C:\39df717e2d14d87023c9\locdata.1037.ini [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
C:\39df717e2d14d87023c9\locdata.1038.ini [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
C:\39df717e2d14d87023c9\locdata.1040.ini [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
C:\39df717e2d14d87023c9\locdata.1041.ini [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
C:\39df717e2d14d87023c9\locdata.1042.ini [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)

[JohnSAvast]

Although it sounds like Avast5 is the main issue, have you tried turning off all running applications to see if there is any change?  The firewall in particular is often a source of conflict with other security software.

[Latelesley]

Hi JohnSAvast,

I just use the standard windows firewall, as my router firewalls me from the net (using NAT) and all my PC's have a private IP address (IE 192.168.0.1). I severely doubt that Avast would have an issue with the standard XP Windows Firewall.

@ FR8SKR-JESSE

Just as a suggestion, I would run a Check Disk in your drive first, to make sure your file system is intact. (My Computer, Right click the drive, Properties,  Click the Tools tab at the top, then click Check Now... under Error checking. Then try setting up a boot time scan of your system. The skipped files are nothing to worry about, as they aren't executable files.

@DavidR

You may be on to something here - I turned off the P2P Shield, and WOW, CPU usage drops back to normal. Maybe it is something to do with the P2P module, I'm gonna have a tinker with the settings in there to see if I can get it to work without eating my CPU.  As for not using P2P on Dial-up, I hear ya! I'm surprised you can even put up with surfing the net! I'd be lost without BB nowadays. I'll let you know how I get on with the P2P Sheild.



Kind Regards

Lesley

[Asyn]

...that had 'Error;Exception in standard Virus code(14104).

That issue was fixed in vps update 100420-1 yesterday.
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=58762.0
asyn

[FR8SKR]

Now 2day it will run the full scan in 14mins(joke), the report still 654pages of skipped scanning. And the results say no virus, ha.
I did not have this kind of trouble with the free version at all.
I was reading an article about how malubytes, I know I misspelled it. How they work on blocking you from your anti-virus protection.

[Latelesley]

Well, i've played around with the settings, and no matter what I do, with the P2P sheild on and a P2P program running, it eats my CPU. I'm having to run without the P2P sheild on. Only problem with this is, the exclamaition in the yellow triangle is always there, and it keeps nagging me that i'm not fully protected. At least my system is usable now though.

So if anyone has P2P running, and the system's "sticky", slow, or has high CPU usage, try turning off the P2P sheild. the File system sheild should still keep you protected.

Hopefully they'll find a way to address this in later updates.

Lesley x

[Asyn]

Only problem with this is, the exclamaition in the yellow triangle is always there, and it keeps nagging me that i'm not fully protected.

Uncheck P2P in preferences - status bar
asyn

[DavidR]

<snip>
@DavidR
You may be on to something here - I turned off the P2P Shield, and WOW, CPU usage drops back to normal. Maybe it is something to do with the P2P module, I'm gonna have a tinker with the settings in there to see if I can get it to work without eating my CPU.  As for not using P2P on Dial-up, I hear ya! I'm surprised you can even put up with surfing the net! I'd be lost without BB nowadays. I'll let you know how I get on with the P2P Sheild.
Kind Regards

Well it is more down to how the P2P application works, when it splits the download in to hundreds or thousands of little files it forces avast's p2p shield to do what it is supposed to do scan those downloads. uTorrent seems to be one such application and it is usually disabled by default because it has such a performance hit if your system isn't particularly fast. Though avast 5.0 p2p is different to the 4.8 version, see ~~~ below.

So the same appears to be happening with your system, though you have a dual core CPU, perhaps it is a little under powered.

~~~
Since I don't use P2P applications I don't have the P2P Shield installed, so I can't test if these settings are present in the avast 5.0 free version. But the 5.0 p2p shield appears to be more configurable than 4.8 notably in the sensitivity (avastUI, Real-Time Shields, P2P, Expert Settings, in particular 'est whole files.' See image extract of the avast help file.