avast! Service 11-14% CPU after Avast update today.

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Avast Free
Program version: 12.3.2280 (build 12.3.3154.2)
Virus definitions version: 160902-0

Windows 10 Pro

Have been running Avast until today with no problems. I’ve made no changes to my PC, but received a major update to Avast requiring a restart.

I heard the fan running quietly- normally not. Task manager shows avast! Service 11-14% CPU, 0-1% disk Now over 8 hours since the restart.

Suggestions welcome… Thanks.

2

When does this avast activity start ?
It could be avast doing update checks (thought that really should be the instup.exe process) or running the anti-rootkit scan 8 minutes after boot.

Are there any other programs consuming CPU % ?
These may well be creating activity that avast will scan as the avastSvc.exe is the main avast process and it is responsible for all scanning by the shields.

Have you done a restart as required after a program update ?

Do you have the avast CleanUp function installed ?
If so try disabling that > avastUI > Settings > Components.

3

Hi, thanks, as I said, I restarted after the update.
There’s nothing else really running- no significant CPU use otherwise. No change in configuration, and as I noted, negligible disk activity.

Task Man Details view shows Avastsvc.exe at 5% or so CPU, 20Mb, whereas the Process view shows 12-13% CPU usage.

The service is stuck around 13% all the time. Until this update, CPU use was very low unless I specifically ran sthg.

I’ll try what you suggest about cleanup, but I’m thinking I’ll simply uninstall Avast and try reinstalling it.

  • no change disabling cleanup, and no change after uninstalling, reinstalling.
4

Not sure why there would be a disparity when using the Process view, I don’t use win10 so if this is another monitor or something from sysinternals, etc.

When this activity is present, is there any rotation of the avast tray icon ?
To see that the avast tray icon would need to be set to animate - avastUI > Settings > General - Animate the icon when scanning.

Have you made any changes to the avast settings ?
If so you could try resetting to factory defaults.

Whilst preparing this post my avastSvc.exe CPU activity is at 00%, so I haven’t got anything running in the background. I’m at a loss as to what else to suggest.

5

Hi, I tried repairing Avast- no change. I uninstalled Avast, reinstalled it; no change. I uninstalled it, and tried Bitdefender (free). Oddly, a service related to Prey (which has been installed from the beginning) started to use significant CPU time - never seen before. I uninstalled Prey and Bitdefender, reinstalled Avast, and so far all is ok. Hmm.

Thanks for your help.

6

You’re welcome, glad that you have got to the cause.

Thanks for your investigation and reporting back to the topic.

7

I received a notice today that Prey isn’t able to find my device. Wonder what the relationship is if any ???
I’m reporting this to Avast hopefully they can shed some light on this.

8

I have win 10 64 had the same cpu spike after this update. I had Zemana Antilogger 2 installed and the two programs had worked together just fine. [/size]Also, I had both programs excluded each other. I uninstalled Zemana and the cpu spikes from Avast went away.

9

If you’re using Prey, see if this takes care of your problem:
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=190528.msg1336834#msg1336834