Avast hogging CPU

Avast Antivirus Services starts on a fresh reboot already using 25% of the CPU, and in about an hour or two that rises to 70/80%.

Obviously this is unacceptable, and despite having spent money on the services, I am quite frankly considering turning of AVAST.

I have already ran a repair on the system, and everyone else with the same or similar problem {
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=211260.0 ,
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=221601.0
} gain no benefit from any of the standard suggested fixes.

The fact that there is multiple threads on your own forum about this and none of them with any fixes worries me.

  • Which Avast…? (Free/Pro/IS/Premium)
  • Which version…?
  • OS…? (32/64 Bit…? - which SP/Build…?)
  • Other security related software installed…?
  • Which AV(s) did you use before Avast…?

Which Avast: Avast Premium Security
Which Version: 19.8.2393 (build 19.8.4793.541)
OS: Windows 10, 64 bit
Other: None
Which AV(s) pre: None

  1. Download Avast Premium Security: https://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_premium_security_setup_offline.exe
  2. Follow instructions: https://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility (Run this tool for all prior installed Avast versions…!!)
  3. Reinstall Avast with the downloaded installer from point 1.
  4. Reboot.

I’m having a similar or the same problem.
For days Avast has constantly used 30-40% CPU.

Avast Premium, current build, Win 10 64

After deleting and reinstalling as advised Avast now uses 55% CPU.

P.s. Disabling Cleanup and rebooting brought it back down to 30%.
P.p.s. And it’s up at 54% again.

Programs running are Steam, Battle.net and Firefox, no downloads.

P.p.p.s. I have now put Avast into passive mode (which finally reduces CPU load back to near zero) because the fan was blowing harder than during peak summer but that is no long term solution obviously.

Hello,

this is something what need to be addressed asap. Could you please help us with analyzing the issue and try to collect some performance logs. If so, please

  1. download windows performance toolkit (https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/4847.install-the-windows-performance-toolkit-wpt.aspx) - just install performance tools xperf
  2. run cmd-line as admin and type and start logging via command: “c:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Windows Performance Toolkit\xperf.exe” -on DiagEasy+DISPATCHER+Profile -stackwalk profile+CSwitch+ReadyThread -start avast -f \avast.etl -on 1492D477-3272-5C0C-D91A-C156CC3CD206 -start inet -f \inet.etl -on Microsoft-Windows-WinINet
  3. wait couple of seconds during CPU peak (60s / 1 minute - should be enough)
  4. run stop command by: “c:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Windows Performance Toolkit\xperf.exe” -stop -stop avast -stop inet -d xperf-avast.etl
  5. rename created log file xperf-avast.etl to your-email-address-xperf.etl and upload it to avast ftp server and let us known the name of the file

Thank you.

Just to let you know, since last update with free version i can see CPU usage up to 85% with average rate to 50% of CPU usage … this is a non-sense from a antivirus tools!

Hi zehunter38, I definitely agree, this CPU usage is not normal. Could you please follow the steps with xperf tool (above) and help us to analyze the situation?