Hello all
I am using Avast free version 8.0.1483, last update 19/04/2013 09:34:01.
Windows XP SP3, Comodo firewall, SuperAntiSpyware, Pentium 4 Dual core 3Ghz, 2Gb RAM.
I have suddenly started getting system slowdown, sometimes to a crawl.
Investigating, I discovered that I have AvastEmUpdate.exe running all of the time. If I open Task Manager, Processes and just sit
and watch the display, without doing anything, then the value under CPU for AvastEmUpdate.exe keeps changing between 17 and 45, memory
usage constant at 2,688K.
It would therefore appear that the system slowdown could be related to this, since no other process uses this much CPU, and AvastEmUpdate
uses this much CPU when no programs are running.
I gather from this forum that this AvastEmUpdate cannot be disabled, but I have read that it can be blocked in the firewall. If I did this, though,
would this stop the process running ? I have also seen that it can be stopped by renaming the exe to old in safe mode, but it would appear that
this may cause problems (?)
Can anyone offer any advice ?
TIA
It shouldn’t be running all of the time, it checks for the presence of an emergency update and if present it will install it and close, if no update is present it will close.
Any slow down may also be due to the avast.setup which is looking for regular avast Auto Update virus definitions. Do you also see this avast.setup process ?
Does your firewall allow it access as that could be blocking and subsequently it isn’t able to check and close.
Thanks for the reply.
There is no avast.setup running.
The only Avast processes running are
AvastEmUpdate.exe
AvastSvc.exe
AvastUI.exe
All of these are listed as trusted files in my firewall.
Whilst they may be listed as trusted, there are some firewalls that on occasion seem to suffer digital amnesia, so you may try setting your firewall into learning mode (if it has one), delete the entry for AvastEmUpdate.exe and reboot.
Thanks for the reply.
I have just uninstalled Avast and replaced it with the version downloaded from the Avast website.
So far, no avast.setup or AvastEmUpdate running. PC performance greatly improved.
I will see how it goes.
You’re welcome, a clean reinstall can have quite an effect.
I have what looks like the same issue.
AvastEmUpdate and Avast.setup are both running continuously, each using 20% of my CPU, for several days now.
The processes are unkillable.
What the hell is Avast doing, using half my CPU all the time? If it’s having a problem, why doesn’t it have an alert?
The main screen just says “Everything is up to date. All shields active.”
I installed Avast on a new PC less than a month ago.
I’m running WinXP SP3.
The Avast version I have is 8.01489.
This is the same version as offered on the Avast site, so I don’t know if there is any point to reinstalling.
All Avast processes are set to “Enable All” in my firewall, “Windows7FirewallControl”
Even with the firewall disabled, the Avast processes are still running the same.
However, I have blocked “Google Installer”, I don’t know if that is part of Avast, as they sneak that in to many products now and try to force you to install their software. Is Avast waiting for the Google installer? If so, why does waiting need 40% of my CPU? Check once a second, not every single CPU cycle.
Well, I gave up and did the usual voodoo.
Uninstall and reinstall.
After several hours Avast is keeping a low profile without its update processes jamming it up.
But I’m disturbed that no one seems to care about this runaway condition.
Just the usual “IT Crowd” solution of turn it off and turn it on again.
I’ve been testing a bunch of security software and had to remove several because they were taking over my PC, either sucking up most of the processing power to no obvious purpose, or blocking every single thing I tried to do. Comodo managed to do both so I terminated that with extreme prejudice. I’m hoping that Avast can just do its job without fanfare.