Sudden high cpu usage of ashserv..

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi all, well i got this problem since last automatic update that took place last night…
it all started when i was playing some video files and suddenly my video freezes and then back to play again after a short interval of 2-3 seconds…

then, i started task manager to monitor my cpu usage and i found that the video files i was playing freezes when the cpu usage of ashserv suddenly jump to 80-97%

so i closed the video player, and start using other apps such as the web browser i’m typing this topic now, and yes, the problem still persist… (the mouse cursor suddenly freezes) so, i’m sure that this problem is not related to my video player but to all application i’ve start.

i’m using avast 4.x home btw… and i see that ashserv set to high priority… is this normal ? anyway, hope to see some fixes soon, as this is getting really troublesome.
does anyone get the same problem as i did ?

2

Yeah, it is… scanning as fast as it can and release the computer for other things…

Which firewall do you use?
Any other security program that could monitor the system in background (resident)?

3

well, i only use the default windows firewall…
beside avast, i don’t use other security program… (well, there is SpywareBlaster that i installed and don’t have any resident scanner anyway…)

anyway, the point was the last automatic updates that i set to receive yesterday… before that, none of this has happen. any clue what went wrong ?

UPDATED : I try to manually download any available updates today and installed one definition update, and surprisingly the problem went away just like that… hmm… i’m going to monitor this odd behaviour again today… for the time being, i’m not sure if putting ashserv to high priority is a good thing to do, some online/network games will suffer i think… this is from a network administrator cum programmer(myself) point of view that is…

4

Ok. No problem.

Virus database or program update?

Well… this was discussed in the past… seems it will be let on high priority for a lot of reasons.
Update process has its priority downgraded to normal (instead of high).

5

hmm… can’t really remember about that… anyway, thanks for replying… the problem solved and i’m currently monitoring if the problem would raise again in the future.

6

We’ll be here if you need help 8)

7

I am having the exact same problem since the last program update.
ashServ.exe is set to High Priority and has CPU usage spikes up to 99% which cause the PC to freeze momentarily.
Running: Windows XP Pro SP2
Avast: Build 4.7.892 (Oct2006)
VPS: 01/11/2007 Ver 0702-1
PC: AMD64 3500+ | 1GB RAM |Using AMD Cool & Quiet (Speed Scaling)
Connection: Cable Internet, Networked wirelessly.
No other background scanners, etc are running at the same time.

Problem happens whenever there is network traffic from any source on the PC.
Turning off all resident protections temporarily fixes the problem. Also causes ashServ.exe to have it’s priority set to Normal.
After trying different combinations of resident protections being active or disabled, I have narrowed it down to the P2P Shield. Having it turned off causes no CPU usage spikes.

I will attempt to reinstall avast completely to see if the problem resolves itself. Will edit this post later with the results.

8

This is how it should be…

How long does it take this moment? What are you doing (or the computer is doing) when this freeze occur?

Which is your Standard Shield sensitivity level? High or Normal?
Do you use any firewall?

It’s ok…

Do you use any P2P program?

9

I’m having the same problem also, yes i’m using P2P program like utorrent… when I stop the P2P shield in Avast and it work. I think there’s a problem with the P2P Shield. I know turning this off is a risk. I’m using zone alarm as a firewall also

10

Well, the Standard Shield should protect you…
Can you answer the other questions I’ve made before?
Which is your avast version? Can you test the last beta?
Check http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=25697.msg209761#msg209761

11

Standard Shield is in normal level
I’m just using the Home edition.
Yes I would like to try the beta version, lower memory consumption is a great fixed.

12

I just discovered my roomate is experiencing the same problem. We deactivated his P2P Shield and the problem was temporarily fixed for now.

All of my below answers also apply to my roomate’s computer, as our setups and hardware are nearly identical.

After observing it for a while I can say that it will cause the spike whenever utorrent completes a block of data (somewhere around 64kb per block) It will spike for several seconds, then return to 0 usage. Repeats forever.

Sensitivity is set at Normal for all Shields.

Yes, I should have mentioned this earlier. Using utorrent.

So to sum it up:
When P2P Shield is active, set to Normal sensitivity, and utorrent is active and downloading spikes in CPU usage will occur in ashServ.exe which will cause a temporary lock of the system for 2-3 seconds. The spikes happen roughly when blocks of data have completed, approx every 10 seconds or sooner.

EDIT: This bug showed up once I updated both of our computers with the newest virus file (yeah kinda strange). I recall that during the update, the program itself was not updated.

EDIT 2: I upgraded to the beta and now the problem has gone away.