ashWebSv.exe Takeover?

[Chim]

Normally, my Windows XP computer takes right around 7 minutes to Boot Up.
Periodically, though, it can out of the blue take 10 ... 12 ... 15 or 20 minutes! 
In some cases, the Hard Drive will still be churning away bordering on 30 minutes if I let it go that far.

When I eventually manage to get the Task Manager up in these cases, I'll notice that there are a whole mess of instances of ashWebSv.exe or something like that going on.  Just yesterday in my computer's power up for the day, there were AT LEAST 16 instances of ashWebSv.exe running and the Hard Drive just endlessly churning away.  I had to freakin' literally pull the plug on my computer.

What is this ashWebSv.exe?  Why are so many instances of it running at Boot Up?  Are that many instances running at once ever normal?  Why just out of the blue on SOME Boot Ups?

Is my avast damaged / corrupt?  I'm running avast 4.8.1368.  And I always have the up to date Virus Database Definitions.

How can I keep these Hard Drive Churning Fests presumably courtesy of ashWebSv.exe from happening?

[Asyn]

Normally, my Windows XP computer takes right around 7 minutes to Boot Up.

Normally my XP boots up in about 30 secs...
So there is something very wrong on your system..!!
You can try to update to avast 5.0.594...
Run this in safe mode first..! http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility
asyn

[DavidR]

Why if you have XP now are you still running avast 4.8, I would have thought the 6 months after avast5 was released it would have sufficient maturity for you to have switched.

There is certainly something wrong with your installation and a repair would be the first option I would try, followed by a reinstall if that didn't resolve it. Personally I would use this as the trigger to move to avast5.

@ Asyn.
I don't think there is anything wrong with his system, look at his signature with a celeron and 256MB it is a bit old and under powered.

[YoKenny]

Well Chim is only using a Celeron Processor / 256 Meg RAM / Windows XP Home SP3 / avast! 4.8.1368 Home Free 

I don't think there is anything wrong with his system, look at his signature with a celeron and 256MB it is a bit old and under powered.

+1

I guess Chim needs to have mature guidence to have him switch to avast V5. 

[Asyn]

@ Asyn.
I don't think there is anything wrong with his system, look at his signature with a celeron and 256MB it is a bit old and under powered.

Yes Dave, I read his sig before, still 7 minutes is way too long...!
I have an old Win95 system (P1 133Mhz 96MB) with 4.8 that boots up in about 1:30 minutes.
I think cleaning up the system and defrag would be a good idea, too...
asyn

[Chim]

Okay, I did the avast Repair a while ago.
I'm not convinced it actually did anything.
I did see some Hard Drive activity as it claimed it was installing whatever.
But, I never saw any Progress Bars in the avast Window actually indicating any Repair Files were being downloaded and installed.  Was that normal?  Did it likely actually repair anything even if no Progress Bars displayed in the avast Repair Window?

Anyway, I'll see IF ........... and that's a BIG IF ... IF this afternoon my neighbor let's me use her High Speed Internet.  If so, I'll download avast 5.0 onto my Flash Drive and with extreme trepidation  install it.

Aside of using the avast Uninstall Utility in Safe Mode, is there anything else that I'll need to do?
Is this avast 5.0 now Bug Free enough and Stable enough to where I don't have to jump through any hoops, perform any circus stunts, do any McGyvering ... use any Coconuts, Wire Hangers, Duct Tape or whatever? 

In other words, is this installation likely to go as smooth as installing 4.8?
You know ... just install and BAMM!  It's operational and good to go.

Or am I going to have to be deactivating modules or whatever ... waiting for something to happen ... and then reactivating modules?

Is my already slow computer going to be even SLOWER for several minutes after the initial install?
Didn't I read here that upon the initial install, avast 5.0 is doing something ... be it Whitelisting or something, which causes systems to run slow at first?  Or can I actually expect my system to run normal speed immediately after the installation?

Did I read correctly?  Does avast 5.0 actually have a smaller footprint than avast 4.8?
Or did I dream that up?

[Chim]

Just to get y'all up to speed ...
I perform Defrags & Disk Clean Up regularly, so the 7-minute Boot Ups are NOT due to my Hard Drive being fragmented or there being a Mt. Everest of Cookies and Temp Internet Files.

Some months back, one of the guys over at Geeks to Go even had me run some checks, like Autoruns and stuff.  Yeah, we deleted a couple things, but really nothing changed with the 7-minute Boot Ups or my computer's operation in general.  The guy didn't really find anything seriously wrong other than my computer is just plain ole seriously underpowered ... and RAM-challenged.  AOL probably contributes a lot to those 7-minute Boot Ups.

Probably the fact that a lot of the Files are compressed contributes to the 7-minute Boot Ups also.
My latest avast Manual Scan indicated that it scanned 13 Gig of Files.
My Hard Drive is only a 10 Gig Hard Drive. 

[DavidR]

avast counts the total size of the files it scans and if you elect to have archive files scanned then avast will unpack those files and scan the contents, so your scanned files will differ from the explorer reported size.

[Chim]

When I click on the Download Buttons at the avast website, it directs me to C/Net Download.
I've never liked C/Net Download.  It has just about never worked for me.
True, now I wouldn't be using either of my 2 computers for the download ... but, rather my neighbor's ... IF she's game in an hour or so.
Nevertheless, is it OK if I download avast 5.0 from FileHippo?
That's where I download most of my Apps from.

[DavidR]

Filehippo is fine, though you can get it directly from avast - http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/setup_av_free.exe - Avast! Free antivirus Quick Start Guide http://files.avast.com/files/documentation/quick-start-guide-free-en-ww.pdf.

[Tarq57]

Chim, what percentage of your hard drive is occupied?

[Chim]

Tarq, 6.12 Gig of my Hard Drive is used. 
3.40 Gig is unused at this instant.

[Chim]

Ahhh, THAT's what I wanted, David.  I much preferred to download it straight from avast, but I couldn't find an avast link.  Thanks for that and the Quick Start Guide pdf.   

I'll have time to read the Quick Start Guide first.
I didn't get around to downloading avast 5.0 this afternoon.  I didn't get the green light from my neighbor. Crap!    I called her, but she said I could go later.  I told her to call me when I could go over.  I already didn't have a good feeling.  My feeling was warranted.  She never called.  FINE!  I can take a hint.

I'll have to make it another time.  I'll have to wait until I can go to my friend's house, but she lives further away.  So, avast 5.0 is NOT likely to happen this week for me.

[DavidR]

You're welcome, a pain being on dial-up.

Perhaps you could do what I do just give my neighbour the USB and the link for the download and let them do it when it is convenient

I do them lots of favours taking in their mail/packages when they are out, so I don't feel I'm imposing. You could also try your local library as they are likely to have fast internet access.

[Chim]

Oh, she's NOT computer savvy at all.  She doesn't use the computer at all.  It is her husband who uses it and he's NOT computer savvy at all either.  He basically just knows how to power up the computer and the High Speed Modem ... and how to access and navigate in the only 3 or so sites that he checks out. Beyond that, neither is capable of anything on the computer.

Oh trust me.  I've done favors for her.  I've made some fancy, intricate MS Word Tables for her job.
The last time their computer really acted up, I was the one who figured out what the problem was.
She had called her son to look into.  But, he's never thrilled with having to go out of his way.  So, without looking at it, he was already going, "Oh, it's just basically old.  They just need a new computer."  (They couldn't connect to the Net.)  I went and looked at it.  After running some diagnostics, I zeroed in that somehow Norton was preventing the connection.  The Cable / Internet company was providing the Norton.  So, from there I told the son for HIM to take care of calling the Cable company and inform them of my findings.  It turned out the Cable company had switched from Norton to McAfee.  So, the Norton Firewall was blocking the connection.

Oh, and I've burned CDs for her.

Anyway, yeah, I do help them out.  So no, I don't feel like I'm sponging off of their Net.
I think I've used their computer like 3 ... maybe 4 times.
But, if I'm NOT given the green light, I can't exactly crawl in through the window.