Its over 80,000 kb in memory use, well i think it shouldnt take up
that much, because firefox takes a bit more and that is more needy.
So if someone know what the problem may be, please answer as soon
as possible.
/Att3ro, thank you
can I shut it down??
Lets not forget that RAM is there to be used.
Also a lot depends on what memory figures you are using as there are a number of different ones, some very misleading and the task manager one doesn’t really give that accurate a figure.
Personally for me security applications, trump browsers when it comes to being more needy, that is what protects you when your browser fails to do so. The more open tabs you have the greater the figure for the web shield will be as it is scanning your web traffic. If you restricted memory use then I would guess that browsing would actually seem slower as there could be a bottleneck of data to be scanned.
Windows also has a finger in the RAM use pie as it is that which up to a point controls the hand back of memory. I’m told by those better qualified than I that the VM Size, is a better indication of what is actually private to that process.
If you are crazy you could shut it down, it is possibly the most important shield in avast.
You could try pausing the shield and start it again.
I do that when the memory usage goes up too high
Several times recently I’ve had about 6 instances of ashwebsv.exe shown to be running in memory (displayed by task manager) … and very actively using memory and doing read/writes or whatever … using 80% of page-file usage and dramatically slowing everything else down to a crawl for 5 to 10 minutes.
Today that occurred when I took the computer out of sleep mode and restarted the avast processes, prior to connecting to web (optical fiber, up to 10 MB/sec).
Windows XP fully updated. 2.7 GHz, 512 MB DDR SDRAM; always using spybot teatimer.exe and MS Windows Defender in memory along with Avast.
PRIMARY QUESTIONS:
Why does that sometimes happen?
How to prevent it from happening?
How to stop it when it does happen?
SECONDARY QUESTION:
Is it beneficial to have Spybot’s teatimer.exe and Microsoft’s WindowsDefender (MSASCui.exe) resident in memory at all times along with Avast? Or are the duplicating oneanother’s functions?
Thanks for any help!
Williammmmmm
That most certainly isn’t correct there should only be one occurrence of ashWebSv.exe. You give a fair amount of information but don’t mention what browser you are using ?
For instance, Chrome has multiple occurrences of the browser executable (one for each tab open) so I don’t know if that would also generate multiple occurrences of ashWebSv.exe (though I doubt it).
Primary questions I don’t really know, but it sounds more like a corrupt installation.
Try a repair of avast. Add Remove programs, select ‘avast! Anti-Virus,’ click the Change/Remove button and scroll down to Repair, click next and follow.
If that doesn’t work try a clean reinstall:
Download the latest version of avast http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html and save it to your HDD, somewhere you can find it again. Use that when you reinstall. Ensure that you scroll down and select the avast direct download link for the English version and not Cnet as that is for an on-line installation (not what you want to do). - Direct download for avast Home, English version, http://files.avast.com/iavs4pro/setupeng.exe.
Download the avast! Uninstall Utility, find it here and save it to your HDD.
-
- Now uninstall (using add remove programs, if you can’t do that start from the next step), reboot.- 2. run the avast! Uninstall Utility, reboot. If step 1 failed it may be necessary to run this from safe mode, once complete reboot into normal mode.- 3. install the latest version, reboot.
Secondary question:
I don’t particularly rate either of the programs, there are better I feel (see my signature below, though the free versions aren’t resident), but S&D and WD’s resident functions shouldn’t conflict.
@ GoldAndPurple
I found that Spybot TeaTimer.exe brought my old XP Home 2.4GHZ P4 512MB RAM system to its knees.
It worked well with Windows Defender and WinPatrol though.
The Browser I use is Windows IE 7.
I currently have 2 instances resident, but they quiet and static, as compared to about 6 instances at restart of Avast (not reboot, just reactivate) when they were all going hyper with memory size changes and activity.
The problem happens just occassionally, like maybe 3 or 4 times in past several months. Whereas the compter is used daily and often. So I will keep as is, and see if I can get more of an idea of what triggers it. The system returned to normal within 1 to 3 minutes after connecting to the web, and all but one of the multiple instances disappeared, one by one … but at this time, I don’t know if that was causally related to connecting to the web or just a non-causal coinsidence.
(Note on browser: Last summer, I installed Windows IE 8 but unistalled and returned to IE 7 upon finding IE 8 deletes all temporary internet explorer files and many important cookie files without any permission or control on my part. Plus it resets all sorts of options so sytem will use MicroSoft tools and services by default. And my impression is that IE 8 is really just a gimmick MicroSoft used to get its search tools and other browser add-ons on to people’s systems by replacing google and other add-ons with its own stuff.)
Thanks much YoKenny and DavidR for replies!
Best Holiday wishes to you! 
No problem.
I would at least do the avast repair and if that doesn’t resolve it (which I don’t hold out much hope) a clean install is advised.
IE8 deletes all temporary internet explorer files and many important cookie files if it is set in Tools then Internet options
IE8 is much safer and faster:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/get-the-facts/default.aspx
Windows Internet Explorer 8: Get the facts
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/get-the-facts/mythbusting.aspx
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