Avast has been installed on the family computer for 3 years without problems. This evening, I find that the computer locks soon after I start using Internet. Actually, it’s not a complete lock, but an drastic slowdown.
The task manager “Performance” tab shows that the CPU does a solid 100% (single core Athlon, so little hope to do anything else).
The task manager “Processes” tab shows that service.exe is getting all the CPU.
Since I didn’t remember installing or updating anything lately, it dawns on me that Avast is something which gets updated regularly so it could make a potential culprit. So I disable the resident protection, and everything is fine again (except I’ve not got any virus protection now). This sort of confirms the suspicion.
The Avast logs do not show anything suspicious, except that the Virus Recovery Database has been rebuilt this afternoon. Since the logs do not show it rebuilt since last August could this mean that something got installed behind my back (my son is a bit mouse-happy)?
Currently Running:
Avast 4.7.1098 with Database 080202-0 (AFAIK these are the latest versions).
Have you changed anything recently, firewall, more security software, etc. ?
Don’t disable protection to resolve an internet issue, terminate the web shield, leaving the standard shield enabled as a fall back.
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, uninstall, reboot, install, reboot.
It would probably be best to first 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.
Recently I found my computer’s Hard Drive running for no apparent reason. No programs were opened and I checked it out. It was the Help and Support service of Microsoft and it took up to 100% of the CPU. There was even a Microsoft KB bulletin about it. So in Services I turned Help and Support from “Automatic” to Manual. If you disable this service you won’t get any help services when you are looking at resolving a Microsoft or Windows glitch.