Question:
why is ashserv.exe hitting my hard drive constantly???
its open/closes avast4.ini and avast4.mdb NONSTOP. My hard drive light never goes out… can you offer any assistance on this? I’d like to keep this software running but for now its uninstalled until this bug can be sorted out.
thanks,
Jeff.
AMD64 3800+, Abit fatality MB, SATA hard drives, 1gig memory…
This file access should be handled by Windows file cache - i.e. not touch the real drive at all.
Bug, isn’t the normal working of the residents? scanning?
Which processes or applications are opened and running?
Too much monitoring software running in same time is not recommended. It slows you computer down very much.
Sorry my ignorance, where are you seeing that he uses too many monitoring applications?
I’m using FileMon to try & investigate why my hard drive light never turns off & I can hear my hard disk “marching along” with constant blips…
that is how i am able to determine that it is ashserv & the like…
I’m a software engineer myself - and I can’t imagine why an application would have to open & close a file several times a second!
I’m posting it here because I can’t imagine this software is making everyone’s hard disk go crazy like mine - there must be something wrong with my installation… I’ve tried uninstalling & reinstalling but to no avail…
You can add these to files to the exclusions lists (resident shield and on-demand scanning).
You may try to open the \data\avast4.ini file and in the [Common] section, change the item Database=ODBC to Database=XML. This could prevent the Microsoft Jet drivers from accessing the database… does it have any (positive) effect?
nope.
switched to xml db & still same thing.
why on earth does this program have to CONSTANTLY open the .ini file and seemingly do the same thing over & over & over & over & over &… 
& over again???
My program says version 4.6 Home Edition…is this still beta software? Is this considered “normal” behavior? Is anyone else having these issues??
here’s a small snippet of my filemon ouptut… it goes on & on but I’m limited to 1000 characters…notice the time stamp on that activity = HAMMER!
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 OPEN C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\Avast4.ini SUCCESS Options: Open Access: All
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 LOCK C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\Avast4.ini SUCCESS Excl: No Offset: 0 Length: -1
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\Avast4.ini SUCCESS Length: 7707
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 READ C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\Avast4.ini SUCCESS Offset: 0 Length: 7707
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 UNLOCK C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\Avast4.ini RANGE NOT LOCKED Offset: 0 Length: -1
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 CLOSE C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\Avast4.ini SUCCESS
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 OPEN C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\Avast4.ini SUCCESS Options: Open Access: All
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 LOCK C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\Avast4.ini SUCCESS Excl: No Offset: 0 Length: -1
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\Avast4.ini SUCCESS Length: 7707
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 READ C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\Avast4.ini SUCCESS Offset: 0 Length: 7707
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 UNLOCK C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\Avast4.ini RANGE NOT LOCKED Offset: 0 Length: -1
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 CLOSE C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\Avast4.ini SUCCESS
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 OPEN C:\ SUCCESS Options: Open Directory Access: All
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 QUERY INFORMATION C:\ SUCCESS FileNameInformation
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 QUERY INFORMATION C:\ SUCCESS FileFsVolumeInformation
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 QUERY INFORMATION C:\ SUCCESS FileFsAttributeInformation
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 CLOSE C:\ SUCCESS
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 OPEN C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\setup\setup.ini SUCCESS Options: Open Access: All
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 LOCK C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\setup\setup.ini SUCCESS Excl: No Offset: 0 Length: -1
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\setup\setup.ini SUCCESS Length: 1103
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 READ C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\setup\setup.ini SUCCESS Offset: 0 Length: 1103
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 UNLOCK C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\setup\setup.ini RANGE NOT LOCKED Offset: 0 Length: -1
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 CLOSE C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\setup\setup.ini SUCCESS
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 OPEN C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\setup\setup.ini SUCCESS Options: Open Access: All
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 LOCK C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\setup\setup.ini SUCCESS Excl: No Offset: 0 Length: -1
10:41:57 PM ashDisp.exe:788 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\setup\setup.ini SUCCESS Length: 1103
Did you boot?
It should not…
No this is not normal… something is wrong in your avast installation…
Can you uninstall / boot / install / boot again?
Which other security program do you use?
i have msft “giant antispyware”. that’s it - oh yeah spybot search & destroy is running too…
Yeah I’ve uninstalled/resinstalled a number of times…
I had my nvidea network firewall battling with avast for the hard disk but i’ve since uninstalled that software.
another nit - how come when I “stop on-access protection” and avast appears to shut itself down - I still have an “avast antivirus” service still running??? I have to manually stop that service to get the entire thing to stop - don’t think your average user is going to know that… btw - I’m assuming I’m speaking with a techie from avast?
thanks for your input - seems like a lot of hassle for a free program! I just don’t have a very good warm & fuzzy for it right now…
I just built my brand new system & the last thing I want to do i wear down my brand new 200 & 250 gig sata drives! 
I’ve thinking immediatly after changing from odbc to xml… Did you boot after that?
This is normal. Stopping antivirus scanning is not the same as killing the services. Igor posted this a lot of times here.
Check either: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=17064.msg145132#msg145132
I’m an user like you… a little older here 8)
Just want to step in here to say that I think we may have to put forward Tech for sainthood.
His patience in dealing with everyone asking for help is a lesson to those of us with shorter fuses.
Any real software engineer would have done their research and not be asking puerile questions like “is this beta software?”, or the comments about the hassle of “free software”. Similarly they would not need to ask silly questions about the disk access problems. Clearly this would not be one of the most highly rated AV solutions if that were the case.
Yes, yes, we now know you have a high end shiny new system and you do not want your new super disks “ground down” … sigh. You are perfectly free to go off and pay full price for some other AV software … don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
If you really want help from this user community … which does by the way, unlike many others, contain much input from the developers then perhaps you could begin by treating us as your equals rather than those here to serve you. You could drop all the silly comments and showing off and engage with us in a conversation that just might solve your problem and help others coming along the path too.
If you have not gone off in a huff yet then my first question would be:
Have you installed any other AV software on your system before trying Avast?
;D
I wish I could be this way all the time…
I had to stay four days off this forum to get calm and friendly again… some users really upset me (like any other person…).
Oh, jrockwel, I’m not talking about us as we met each other just yesterday 8)
Well,
I’m glad I can be a source of amusement for some on this board - but the bottom line of trying to figure out why avast is using excessive disk resources (opening the ini file over & over again) remains unanswered… (I do believe this board is for discussing AVAST software)…
What OS are you using? Is it fully up to date?
What other security (related) software do you have installed?
Already checked for malware?
Is the problem still there with version 4.6.718?
What are your settings on the Update (Connection) page (in avast! program settings, I mean)?
I’m unable to reproduce this behavior.
The access to avast4.mdb is caused by MS Jet drivers - it should disappear when switching to XML storage. The access to avast4.ini, however, should not happen (that often). Because you have even setup.ini access present in your log, I suppose an update (attempt) was simply in progress at the particular moment.
And why don’t the user just kill avast.setup process at Task Manager to test?