Hi, Although a customers of Avast for years, Im new here to this forum and hoping for some help., since Avast seems to be unable to help without charging for Tech support,I have avast internet security. and recently added malwarebytes trial vers. OS = Windows xp, sev pac 3, and HD both about 1 year old. Avast cpu usage will jump to 50 -60% and I have found disabling the firewall for several seconds and re-enabling solves the problem temporarily. I am a long time user of Avast, but often have to completely remove avast and re-install after program updates, ( control panel remove programs, then avast uninstall tool) for it to function properly. Any advice would be appreciated.
Update: After spending more time I have found that the cpu usage remains normal until Outlook downloads mail. Then it will jump to Avast using 50-60% cpu and stay there until I disable firewall shield. Having outlook open does not cause any problem until it downloads mail. This has been repeated many times over last two days , so it is not a one time coincidence.
Update2: After many hours, and a couple phone calls to the Avast Tech Support Sales Line ( often referred to customer service) where I both reps gave opposite advice except , both agreed paying for Tech support was only way. I have figured out how to solved this problem and computer is working fine.
Remove Avast - install competitor product.
Computer working great again