Hi.
I love avast, but i hate it then i have to restart computer. After every restart i can see very big avast activity what impacts PC HDD to be in use by 100%. Its slows down all other process start and sometimes PC is unusable up to 5min regarding high usage if HDD.
I5 up to 3.2Ghz 8GB of RAM . Boot up is fast without AVAST. Seems to be AVAST performs quick scan with every restart how can i stop it?
What OS/SP ?
What exact version of avast ?
Any other security (related) software installed ? (or was there)
What applications are loading at boottime ?
WIN 8.1 min services to speed up boot some of them are set up on delay start . I see heavy avast activity then i open task manager!!! Avast version is the newest as i always keep it updated!!! And i had this extra security layer with older version of AVAST 
Hello,
I have the same problem (also 8.1 on i5 procesor and 8Gb ram last update and last avast 2015)
to day 158 update KBxxxx are installed by windows update
and after each restart there are 158 avastsvc processes each one reading in c:\windows\system32\catroot one file wich
text “package 1 for KBxxxxxx…” inside name
these ones start 3 minutes of disk trashing whith very slow transfer rate , io queing over 50 and response time as ridicoulous as 5200 ms
i suppose that this activity is related with windows update checking updates
Best regards
I believe I may have this problem as well. Computer just hangs with HDD lite flashing with the keyboard and mouse no longer responding. Powering down seems to be the only way to bring the computer back. If it happens again I will leave it and see if it comes back on its own. This has started after updating to Avast free 10.3.2223. While viewing the task manager, Avast seems to be using about 3k more ram than the prvoius version 10.3.22218 while the computer is basically idle. That is about a 30% increase in ram usage. Is it possible that this increase in ram usage is causing the OS to need to use more of the HDD as ram and thus causing so much HDD activity that the system is locking up? Lock ups during normal web browsing also seem to correlate to when pop up ads from Avast advertising Avast firewall and safe zone would occur had the lock up not occurred.
Vista 32bit 2 core intel 925 2GB of ram.
Used avast cleaner (run in safe mode) to reinstall because even thou I waited for the computer to come back after lock up, it came back but it was so slow I couldn’t take it. Had to try something so I went for the clean install approach. It took two reboots before I could even download the new Avast and the Avast cleaner.
After all that hassle, It took two more strangely slow reboots for the reinstall of the new copy of Avast to take with so much HDD activity that the computer seemed to be running in thick mud. During all this I never got an error message so no clue to what was the real cause. Because the crashes have been occurring while browsing, I also reinstalled the browser.
So far the computer seems more stable and I have not been able to reproduce the crash/lock up. I will post back if things change for the worse again. I’m still not sure this is a fix because during the first update to Avast through its GUI there also were 18 updates to Vista. It is possible that the Microsoft updates were some how connected to this problem but I can’t tell.
ok i will add a picture to see what is happening then i restart a machine. And how heavy is activity of avast antivirus.https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1609451945994104&set=a.1387827344823233.1073741828.100007879421501&type=1&theater
I hope this is a fix because I just had another lock up of my PC. After this lockup I found that there was an update on the Avast program. I have installed it and will see if the problems goes away. I believe that this lockup problem is related to a problem others are having where check disk won’t run. I guess they are doing something but this is the second time in the last year Avast has caused my computer to crash. This is getting old.
Crash still happening. At this point the computer just stops responding while browsing, no HDD activity, the keyboard and mouse no longer responding, whatever is on the display remains, and clock stops indicating time advancing. Have given computer up to 30 minutes and it never came back without power boot. I’m now looking for ways to reduce Avast to its minimum components.
I have this exact same problem…it impacts on my computer’s performance and makes it unusable for about 5 - 10 minutes after each start up. I have to shut down my browser and wait for the scanning activity to finish / the hard drive activity light to drop. I’m happy with Avast in all other ways, but this is really irritating me. Using Avast Free Antivirus 10.3.2223 / XP SP3…no other security (related) software installed. >>>
The new version 10.3.2225 is out and avast did a fix for this. Sadly to say it did not fix my problem. You can just update your program and it should download and install. See link for more info.
Thank you for your help ‘busp 1’…I did see that there is a new version, but was unsure as to whether I need to install it, as the only fixes I can see listed for it are:
Fixes in AVAST 2015 R3 SP1 (2015.10.3.2225) (pinned at top of this forum board):
- Fixed problems with HTTPS browsing on Windows XP SP2
- Fixed problems with email clients on Windows XP SP2
- Fixed issues with firewall during program update and during update on Windows 10
I am using XP SP3. Didn’t know this issue had been fixed also?
I shall install it and see.
My system is 32bit Vista duo core 2g ram and ever since I updated to Avast 10.3.2223 I have had system lockups when browsing. After updating to 10.3.2225 my system still had lockups when browsing. I uninstalled the virtual machine service and still had lockups when browsing. I did a clean install using avast cleaner in safe mode and still had lockups when browsing.
I went back to avast program version 10.2.2215 downloaded from link below. Did a clean install using avast cleaner in safe mode and also uninstalled the virtual machine service. So far it has been 48 hours of operation with no lockups while browsing.
http://www.oldapps.com/avast_antivirus.php
It’s not a fix but at least until Avast gets fixed it is a work around.
Thank you very much for the information ‘busp1’. Glad you’ve found a work around.
I installed 2015.10.3.2225 - no change, still heavy scanning activity at every start up, which leaves me unable to use my computer for around 10 minutes. Never experienced this in the past with Avast Free Antivirus.
The problem with this thread is that there are “too” many users with the same issue.
It is much easier and less confusing if each user with an issue starts their own thread.
Each system is uniquely different than any other. This thread is so confusing I don’t know
who has what going on. Please start your own thread/topic for better assistance.
Thanks for your comment and advice ‘Para-Noid’.
I did previously raise this issue as a separate thread and was advised it was normal scanning activity…but it’s impacting too much on my system and it’s not the type of intense and prolonged scanning activity I’ve experienced in the past with Avast or any other antivirus (that has not been pre-set).
I just copied the thread beginner’s quote below originally and said that I was experiencing the same:
Quote from: a.k-ittechnician on July 24, 2015, 02:28:12 PM
"After every restart i can see very big avast activity what impacts PC HDD to be in use by 100%. Its slows down all other process start and sometimes PC is unusable up to 5min regarding high usage of HDD.
Seems to be AVAST performs quick scan with every restart how can i stop it?"
It is probably the “NG” setting up virtual protection.
It happens to me but seems to stop fairly quickly.
avast does run a rootkit scan at around eight minutes after system startup.
I hope to not muddy up this thread but I thought it might be helpful to let you all know that I ran the Windows upgrade from 8.1 to windows 10 64bit after encountering this problem on my HP 17-f023cl laptop.
Here is my hardware detail;
HD: Hitache Travelstar 5K1000|HGST Link to HD detail: https://www.hgst.com/products/hard-drives/travelstar-5k1000
RAM: 8 GIG
CPU AMD A10-5745M APU with Radeon HD Graphics 2.10 Ghz
I have found that if I immediately go into my services as Windows is starting and disable Avast, wait for the HD activity to drop to less than 5% (takes about 1 minute after disabling Avast service) and then I restart the Avast service, the performance issue goes away.
This work around worked for me in Windows 8.1 (patched current) and it works for me in Windows 10 (patched current).
I’ve been upgraded to Windows 10 for a little over a week now.
I also run this same version of Avast on my Windows 7 laptop that is about 5 years old and I do not get any of these performance related issues.
I would be happy to share any additional information with the group and/or support to resolve this issue as I would really hate to switch scanners after loving Avast for many, many years now. 8)
Ok time went ahead from the last time i wrote here, so now my machine is on windows 10 pro, i used to stop using avast for about half year and installed it back yesterday. So new OS newest version of Avast Internet Security and you know what the same problem still exist. After reload high activity of avast installer and avast antivirus for about 3-5min while every service is trying to start avast starts its activity on pc and HDD gets at max activity 100% what makes pc unusable until avast stops its scans on boot. Its pi…ing of sooooo much what i believe that after few more restarts ill go back to something else to protect my pc. I use free version of avast business and have two pc’s on this suit with no problems at all but its a different story
I’m using a low-end netbook, so I had to turn off Run rootkit scan on startup under Troubleshooting in Settings. I noticed a difference.
You should keep that option checked, though, if your computer can handle it. On my other computer, this feature stays on because that computer can handle more.