"You're not imagining it your PC is getting slower."

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Yeah Avast I know my PC is running slower…any chance you could make it so it’s not your antivirus that’s making run slow?

So yeah since Avast updated on the 26th of December for some reason whenever I open anything Avast’s CPU usage skyrockets to 80%+ for around 30 seconds and drops back to nothing and I have no idea why and I do mean anything even just opening new tabs in Firefox and bringing my PC out of standby causes it to spike.

Anyone have any ideas on what I can do? The Avast version is 22.12.6044 - Build 22.12.7758.769

Oh and it’s not the Windows diagnostics thing from a few months back already dealt with that.

2

Hi Chris,

I posted this very same question the other day on this forum. The same thing has been happening to my lapotop and avast premium security, on going on repeat for the last 3 months. It’s happened 3 times now. It has been making my laptop run at stupid high CPU constantly. I woulod boot the laptop up then it would kick in and would not stop so I opened a ticket with the customer support team. I know it was a problem with the security program as the task manager clearly showed this to be the case. The solution I got was to first go through uninstall then instead of uninstall when the options showed, tick repair mode, that didnt work so I fully uninstalled, they gavce me an activation key code which is reusable time and again. This is what cures it everytime. Its a bit of a pain to go through that but it cures the issue. There is nothing wrong with my laptop so I can only presume its something like incoming Avast updates that cause it and maybe there’s a glitch or bug in the program.

If you havent got your activation code from when you signed up to Avast security then send in a ticket to the customer support team stating you have this problem, they should send you an activation code for you to then fully uninstall then reinstall. It may not stop it happening again but doing this will stop it until next time then just repeat. Hope this helps.

3

Bit of an annoying hoop to jump through but hey uninstall and reinstall worked and avast is no longer using all of my PC’s CPU and memory so thanks a lot for the help mate.

4

Your welcome, yep it’s hoops to jump but I’ve had to do this 3 times in the last three months and it isnt my laptop. As the reinstall works as the cure, so be it. It will bugger the fans etc if left to run high CPU for lengthy periods.

5

@ Chris89

When you did the Repair, did you follow that up with a system Restart ?
Not just the quick Windows restart but a Shutdown and then restart.

6

@ DavidR

No but if it happens again guess I’ll try that first then.

7

It is certainly worth a shot and if it works a lot less hassle.

8

David. I think you mean the other way round.
Shutdown then startup only does a soft boot.
Restart does a full clean re-boot. That is what we tell people to do after software updates etc.

9

Not on my win10 laptop it doesn’t.

Highlighting is changed in my quoted text: but it should be clear that as Shutdown is required.
Also see attached image.

10

@DavidR Windows 10 with FastStartup.
Shutdown/Restart uses FastStartup bit like exit from hibernation.
Restart does clean start.
See this: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/what-is-the-difference-between-restart-and-shut/d512fa31-3bce-49bc-bada-11eda28e3b7f

I assume a clean start is what you were actually suggesting, which involves hitting “Restart” from that menu.

11

That isn’t what my screen is saying, it has Sleep, which is essentially hibernation.

Generally I use the Shutdown (given its Power button icon, that is what I expect. That takes me out and I have to, use the Power up button to restart and log back on.

12

If you want to make sure that all updates are applied, use the Restart option.

13

Not really. There are differences.

In my experience the following happens:

With Sleep the hard drive powers down, etc. and the monitor
goes into power save mode. The contents of memory are
retained in RAM, and will be lost if there is a power
outage. It can be woken quickly by mouse movement or
keyboard activity (possibly dependent on Power settings).

With Hibernate the contents of RAM are written to disk
and the system is powered down. Upon power up the saved
contents are restored to RAM from disk. So memory contents
are preserved even if there is a power failure.

On both Sleep and Hibernate all open processes are preserved
between shut down and start up, but with Sleep those contents
could be lost in the interim.

Hibernate can be added to the menu via the Win 10 settings.

Image is from Win 10 21H2 desktop.

[i]"To set your PC so it hibernates:

Select Search on the taskbar, type control panel, and select it from
the results.
Select System and Security.
In the Power Options section, select Change what the power buttons do.
Select Change settings that are currently unavailable.
In the Shutdown settings section, select Hibernate."
[/i]

Shut down, sleep, or hibernate your PC

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/shut-down-sleep-or-hibernate-your-pc-2941d165-7d0a-a5e8-c5ad-8c972e8e6eff

I gather that Shut Down with FastRestart enabled is essentially
Hibeernate. So if one turns off FastRestart then Shut Down will
result in the loss of memory contents. Adding Hibernate to the
menu choices gives you the option to still retain RAM contents
during a shut down if desired.

The way I see it from the view here anyway.

Standard disclaimer applies: “Your Mileage May Vary”

14

I think the major differences are between a desktop and a laptop as mine is and also Win10, but version 22H2.

15

There are even different levels of sleep. S1 versus S3 is a big one. One is connected even though the machine is ‘off’. Many a laptop owner will find their machine in the morning burning hot and with an empty battery because it ran updates. It’s a problem.

16

Lets put it this way, clicking the windows key brings up usual windows app screen with a power button (attached screenshot). Clicking that brings up the previous screenshot.

I then use the Shutdown option, which does what it says on the tin, shuts down. Completely shutdown, no power, no screen, nada, I then power on manually. I completely ensure that my system is shutdown.

17

I do too. And then I unplug from the wall. Off really means off because there is no power. But with a laptop it isn’t always that clear-cut.

18

By default, Windows 10 & 11 have fast-startup enabled which doesn’t shut down the system completely when you click shutdown. It’s almost similar to hibernate, but the difference is that hibernate saves the whole system state in the hibernate file while fast-startup closes all the running programs, but running services may be saved on the disk so that they don’t have to run all over again. That’s why when programs like an AV requires you to restart the system won’t work if you expect it to work when you do a shutdown and turn on the PC again.
Fast startup makes sense for HDD but makes basically no difference in a SSD system, specially m2.nvme SSDs. So, fast startup is one of the first thing I turn off after installing Windows. My PC always shuts down completely. Avast actually makes the shutdown process much slower compared to other products which I have reported to Avast in the past. But it’s a minor annoyance, so not a big deal in general.
Fast startup causes many issues too, but it’s better to keep it enabled on laptops.

19

“Fast startup causes many issues too, but it’s better to keep it enabled on laptops”
Laptops also have SSD’s and fast boot isn’t any more important on a laptop than on a desktop for the sane reasons. :slight_smile:

20

Guess I should have explained myself. Laptops runs on batteries unless it’s connected to power. So if someone is using a laptop and the laptop’s battery dies, then with fast startup enabled, he’ll be able to resume his work when he charges or plugged in the device gain.
Without fast startup, everything will be lost. Laptop will shut down completely without power.
That’s why for people with such need, it’s better to keep fast startup enabled whether it has SSD/HDD.