11.1.2241 and high CPU usage

system · 2015-11-19T18:17:57.000Z

Today I have upgraded two different Win 7 Sp1 systems and I am experiencing the same problems on both

The Scan for network threats stalls and never completes, as mentioned by some other users.
The process AvastSrv consumes a high proportion of the CPU (50% on the 2 core system, 25% on the 4 core system) This only happens after a few minutes, but never reduces even when the machine is otherwise idle.

Which Avast…? (Free/Pro/IS/Premier) Free
Which version…? 11.1.2241
OS…? (32/64 Bit…? - which SP/Build…?) Win7 64bit SP1
Other security related software installed…? None
Which AV(s) did you use before Avast…? Avast previous release, but did full uninstall with avastClear, then full reinstall

I’ve tried several ‘solutions’ found on the forum to no effect:

Add the two lines in your WebShield.ini
[General]
UseStreamFilter=0

Didn’t work, nor did Disabling Hardware Assisted Virtualisation nor turning off the clean up tools.

The CPU issue is a show-stopper for me - on a laptop the fan is running all the time and the battery discharges much faster.

If there is no fix for this, can anyone tell me what the last build before 11.1.2241 was and where I can download it, so that I can revert.

Thanks

Dennis

DavidR · 2015-11-19T19:20:59.000Z

The problem is many of the ‘old’ solutions are redundant as program updates have essentially made them redundant and why they don’t change anything.

That has been reported many times - if it is just one of two devices that it is scanning - I have this on my XP Pro system, but I rarely run this scan. Having run it once and found it to be secure I don’t run it, unless this topic is raised again.

By system couldn’t possibly be less under powered:

Acer Aspire One, Win7 Starter (32bit) 10.1", 1024X600 screen, 2GB DDR3 RAM, Intel Atom N255 (1.5GHz dual core) CPU and 250GB HDD. My only upgrade when purchased was to increase RAM to 2GB. But I don’t see this issue with avastSvc.exe and CPU use.

I have just run the Scan for network threats on this system and it took a while but not horrendous. This is the first time I’ve done it on this system and it has 4 network devices being scanned . Three completed OK one is Waiting… the problem here is I haven’t a clue what this so called device is. I suspect it is just the IP address of the system.

Once the scan is complete avastSvc.exe drops back down to 0% with occasional flickers of activity.

When you get this avastSvc.exe CPU activity, is the avast tray icon rotating ?

system · 2015-11-19T19:41:34.000Z

The avast icon is static while this is happening, also resource monitor doesn’t show any disc usage by AvastSrv. It just seems to being sitting there, doing nothing while occupying the resources of 1 core !

Any update on where the previous version can be downloaded ?

thanks

DavidR · 2015-11-19T21:09:25.000Z

Not on the avast site they only support current versions, there are various download resources that retain old versions like filehippo.com - http://filehippo.com/download_avast_antivirus/, on the right of the page there are earlier versions.

It is strange if there is no activity, but CPU usage and the tray icon isn’t rotating. Normally I would suggest an avast Repair, but you say you have done a clean reinstall. I would still give it a try first before going back to an older version.

system · 2015-11-21T19:01:12.000Z

Thanks, I’ve looked at filehippo but all the previous versions listed ACTUALLY download the latest 11.1.2241 despite indicating otherwise. I’ve tried both chrome and firefox.

I did find an earlier version, 10.2.2218, on this forum and I reverted to that. That has fixed the high CPU load but has added a different problem - every 10 minutes the Avast service stops and I get a “you are not protected” popup !

PLEASE AVAST can you make the version 10.4.2233 available for those of us that are experiencing problems with the latest build.

bob3160 · 2015-11-21T20:17:56.000Z

You can get older versions of Avast at:
http://www.oldapps.com/avast_antivirus.php#version-listing
Good luck.

system · 2015-11-22T01:28:05.000Z

I also have been hit with high CPU usage on XP SP3 with 2016.11.1.2241. I have an Asus A8V with AMD 4200 Processor which has always been pretty healthy. Now it is a dog.

Before this problem hit, about every 10 minutes the Avast service stopped and I got a “you are not protected” popup which forced me to update. Now I have this high CPU load which makes my machine useless. Even when there is no activity, there is high CPU usage and the tray icon isn’t rotating.

Please help. Thanks.

system · 2015-11-22T02:08:37.000Z

I have had the same issues. Both high CPU load and Network threat scan stalling.

You might have tried this, but it worked for me.
What I did was disabling Home Network Security in Settings under the Tools section, and reboot the pc.
Haven’t seen any CPU spikes at all since.
Though also disabled everything for smart scan, just in case.
Also I didn’t reenable Home Network Security, because it seems to be the cause of the CPU load.

Hope this helps.

system · 2015-11-22T02:24:15.000Z

Did you have to reboot to get it to get rid of the high CPU? I did not reboot and it did not stop the high CPU after disabling the Home Network Security.

system · 2015-11-22T02:26:30.000Z

Yes, I did reboot.
Also forgot to mention that I didn’t reenable Home Network Security, because it seems to be the cause of the CPU load.

system · 2015-11-22T02:56:32.000Z

I have to go to the main menu, not the cute clicky places on the screen. There I find the Home Network item and turn it off. Avast then tells me to reboot. It takes over 30 minutes to reboot. This machine is so doggy, I think it will bite me. After it reboots, I see that the Home Network is turned back on! I give up. I have been fighting this thing most of the day and I think my wife thinks I have a thing going. I will let it run all night but my cpu is still at 100% and i am not going to sit here all night to boot it twice.

system · 2015-11-22T03:11:31.000Z

I realised that my first post wasn’t as obvious as I thought hence mulitble edits.

But… I have thought of some ideas.

For my installation I only chose 3 tools: Software Updater, Browser Cleanup and Home Network Security.

I found it that when I tried to manually run Home Network Security(which stalled and was unable to stop) caused AvastSvc.exe to use the same % of CPU(mostly 100% of 1 core out of 4 cores) as the random occurring load did.
I believe that the tool might have started running automatically in the background some time after every startup. No settings for it so couldn’t/can’t check.
But after turning it off there has been no fully loaded cores under regular use. Not even normal scannings use nearly that much.

But this is just my case. Maybe there are problems with other tools?
You could try turning off all tools and reboot the pc. And if they turn on again you can try removing them from the installation.

The 30 min reboot sounds like a pain. So you can try logging off and back in instead of rebooting. Not sure if it works but just an idea.

That’s my suggestions. I’m no specialist, but I really hope atleast some of it works for you.

system · 2015-11-22T20:58:09.000Z

I did not do an install, it came to me in an update and I was unaware of the new features until I could no longer use my machine. This also left me at a loss as to what happened to make it so dead. I tried shutting off the three filters to no avail. There ( I thought ) used to be a way to shut it off entirely, but that feature is no longer available.

When you told me to go to “tools” I did not see the Home Network Security, but I found it in the settings/menu icon which opens to yet another menu which does include it. There is no way that I found to turn off all of the tools.

My current system is a fairly hot XP system and I have two other Win 7 4 core systems (much lower power usage and nothing that I have uses more than 1 core) and a Win 10 4 core system all with 8Gb and room for 8 more. They all ran Avast, as does my wife’s system, soon to be a Win 10 4 core 8Gb. In order to use this system, I had to download another antivirus (Avira), uninstall Avast, and install the other antivirus. The new software has more adjustments, uses much less system resources, and my machine is now usable.

I fear that Avast has gone to be too user friendly and thus made it unusable. I have been using Avast for many years and have recommended it to many people. I cannot figure out what happened to them.

Thanks for helping me find a way to get this machine running. It is my old clunker, which has nearly everything that I need on it. It has RAID and an Ultrium tape backup system. New things can go bump in the night, but this one is considered “life support” equipment to me. LOL

ovadya.reyna · 2015-11-23T22:12:45.000Z

11.1.2241 updated and lost my computer… i7 4 core and cpu is %100… I am old avast user and now only solution is DELETE AVAST…

system · 2015-11-23T22:32:54.000Z

Try turning off ‘Home Network security’ (settings > tools > home network security (bottom of list) > off) and then reboot

This has fixed it for me & several others.

system · 2015-11-24T01:06:38.000Z

I did that per the instructions of Nop and when the system rebooted, the Home Network Security was turned back on. I did this several times and each time the Home Network Security was turned back on. I will wait for them to patch it. LOL

DavidR · 2015-11-24T14:46:43.000Z

bob115 post:16:

I did that per the instructions of Nop and when the system rebooted, the Home Network Security was turned back on. I did this several times and each time the Home Network Security was turned back on. I will wait for them to patch it. LOL

In all honesty I can’t see why the Home Network Security would result in increased in CPU activity unless you have it scanning, otherwise as far as I’m aware it should be dormant (but I could be wrong). It is an on-demand function or as part of the Smart Scan.

You can try uninstalling that module/function - Control Panel > Programs & Features > Avast > Change - from the new windows uncheck the Home Network Security option. I would suggest you do a reboot after that and I don’t believe it will be revived.

That way you can confirm that any CPU activity is related/unrelated to the Home Network Security module.

system · 2015-11-26T00:08:37.000Z

Yep, I can confirm. Turning off the “Home Network Security” has fixed the high CPU usage for me.

MartinZ · 2015-11-26T15:30:18.000Z

Yes there is a bug in HNS, we are working on fix.

bob3160 · 2015-11-26T15:52:54.000Z

MartinZ post:19:

Yes there is a bug in HNS, we are working on fix.

Thanks for the reply Martin.

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