Troubleshoot High disk usage (Windows 8.1) Microsoft blames Avast, & I'm up to 3rd level support

[LucyN]

I've noticed that my disk usage spikes frequently on Windows 8.1. Often up to 99% or 100%. It clears up for a while and then starts up again. I have Task manager running and it's mostly system files at the top of the Disk list.

I've talked to Microsoft and they can't think of anything else, so they are blaming it on Avast. They/we have not found any viruses. And they've run scans, checked system files, deleted/uninstalled things, started & stopped services, etc.

I'm working with a 3rd level support tech and he's calling back tomorrow. It took 6 calls to Microsoft and an email to wehelp@microsoft.com (courtesy of GetHuman.com) to get their attention. Long sad story with many broken promises to call back, from 1st and 2nd level support. Which I politely documented in my email.

I have my doubts, because it also happens when I do simple things that would have nothing to do with Avast, like a file search or typing a Word document. This seems to be a common problem with Windows 8.1.

What have you done to reduce high disk usage? How much has it helped?

 

[Deleted member 178]

first, what is your system? cpu? ram? etc...
then what happen if you turn off Windows Defender? (does Avast turned it off already?)
what happen if you turn off avast?

 

[LucyN]

The 3rd level tech said I had enough memory & storage. But who knows what he will say tomorrow, when he realizes that things aren't any better.

Disk usage is very high but all the cpu, memory and network numbers are low. I also checked with Process Monitor and Process Explorer (SysInternals) and nothing stands out.

It's a laptop that came with Windows 8 pre-installed and updated to Windows 8.1

Windows 8.1 (x64) (build 9600)

Processor
1.90 gigahertz AMD A8-4500M APU with Radeon HD Graphics
192 kilobyte primary memory cache
4096 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (4 total)
Not hyper-threaded
Drives
476.95 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
260.51 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

Main Circuit Board
Board: Acer VA50_CM Base Board Version
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz

Memory Modules
3532 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

 

[Deleted member 178]

the system is good, what about removing ALL your security softs?

 

[Moose]

Interesting! Keep us updated! Thanks!

 

[LucyN]

I had some malware scanners and antivirus programs that I keep around but don't use much so I got rid of them. Avast! is the one I keep running so I decided to uninstall Avast! and enable Windows Defender, at least that’s what I tried.

I checked the Control Panel to make sure I could find Windows Defender, then I used the standalone Avastclear.exe uninstaller from the Avast website (because it gets rid of more than going through the Control Panel Add/Remove) and did it in Safe Mode and rebooted.
Avast is gone.

When I went to enable Windows Defender, it was no longer in the Control Panel. I tried to start the Windows Defender service but it wouldn’t start. QQ

My husband uses Vipre Internet Security 2014 on his Win-7 desktop and likes it, so I tried that and it installed just fine. I looked in the Control Panel and Windows Defender came back.I don't why it hid when I uninstalled Avast. I still can't start the service though.


Disk usage is still very High, so I’m trying to disable some of the options in Vipre. It’s a very thorough program and was active every time I opened or even looked at a file. It did catch some things that Avast missed, but they are tools that I use. I am working on turning off some options to see if that will help.

I found out the firewall blocks some websites like cnet.com and it's a real pain because the firewall isn't very flexible. I could go back and forth between the regular mode and learning mode to get to blocked websites. It blocks ad images but doesn't tell you.

It also scans files every time they're either read or copied (as a default). I have that turned off already. It doesn't say anywhere if it scans files when they're downloaded.

I don’t really like it very much, but if it works I will keep it. I might just have to get used to it. The website is http://www.vipreantivirus.com. I am using “Vipre Internet Security” since it has a firewall and an antivirus, not just the antivirus alone. It isn't free, but my husband has an extra registration key.

So...I'm still getting High Disk usage but things seem a bit better, so I'm going to give it a few days to see how it goes.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[LucyN]

VIPRE was driving me crazy so I uninstalled it and am using Windows Defender. I think it helps.
I heard that switching from the Balanced Performance Plan to the High Performance Plan should help. I'm not sure why it would, but I tried it while running a system scan and it did seem to use less of the disk.

I think that switching to Windows Defender and using the High Performance plan will take care of my problem.

FYI
Piyush is in Microsoft third tier support. He explained that when programs are started up they are each given a certain amount of space. This can not be changed.

The Disk Usage column in Task Manager is looking at this space, not RAM or hard drive space. When a program is being used heavily (like a browser with a lot of tabs open and downloading a bunch of files at the same time) it uses up the space allotted to it and the disk usage number goes up. It's like having a room so full of furniture that you can't walk around without moving things constantly.

It shouldn't affect the what the user is doing. I think he means that if a bunch of programs are working really hard, it looks like it's the systems fault that thing are slow.

If a virus corrupts a file or adds programs, it can force them to work at full capacity because the corrupted process can be used by other programs that are fine. One corrupted process can affect many programs at the same time. If many programs are working at up to 100%, you get degraded performance overall.

Piyush is very good at explaining things. I already knew what he told me about viruses, but hearing it combined with the Disk Usage explanation, still gave me an "Aha" moment.

He is calling me back in early July to see how thing are going. Please let me know if I am incorrect in my understanding, so I can ask him some more questions.

 

[Deleted member 178]

The Disk Usage column in Task Manager is looking at this space, not RAM or hard drive space. When a program is being used heavily (like a browser with a lot of tabs open and downloading a bunch of files at the same time) it uses up the space allotted to it and the disk usage number goes up. It's like having a room so full of furniture that you can't walk around without moving things constantly.

true , when your amount of RAM is fully used, the program will find the hard drive part allocated to that task (called Swap) for caching datas , it is what we call the "swap usage" , you can monitor it with system monitors or desktop resources tools like Rainmeter.

If a virus corrupts a file or adds programs, it can force them to work at full capacity because the corrupted process can be used by other programs that are fine. One corrupted process can affect many programs at the same time. If many programs are working at up to 100%, you get degraded performance overall.

also true, malwares symptoms are mostly high cpu usage so system slowdowns.

what i suggest you to do , if you don't find the cause and you have time and patience, is to reinstall your system to a clean state and see if you still have this high disk usage. if yes , it may means you have some hardware issues.

 

[Littlebits]

On Windows 8/8.1 about 90% of the system performance issues are related directly to third-party security products.

So if anyone has these problems it is best to uninstall all third-party security products and just use Windows default security features.

Windows 8/8.1 is extremely fast using default security but if you start adding third-party security products your system will eventually continue to get slower.

Like I have said many times third-party security products are still not 100% compatible with Windows 8/8.1.
Of coarse they will run but also will eat up resources and make system response time much longer.

Enjoy!!

 

[avast! Protection]

Hmm, you mentioned it's a laptop.. Could you remember if you have installed any software related to keyboard hotkeys? I also see that you're using ATI Graphic Card. Could you please confirm if you see "ATI HotKey Poller" service present and eventually running?

You can check the services by pressing Windows+R keys to open the "Run" dialog. After that, type services.msc and press Enter (You can find the Windows key between the left Ctrl and Alt keys).

 

[Deleted member 178]

Hmm, you mentioned it's a laptop.. Could you remember if you have installed any software related to keyboard hotkeys? I also see that you're using ATI Graphic Card. Could you please confirm if you see "ATI HotKey Poller" service present and eventually running?

can you explain why ?

 

[avast! Protection]

Sure.

I've had a similar issue where the keyboard driver and a similar hotkey software weren't getting along well and this was causing lag and delays upon typing.

 

[Deleted member 178]

thanks, i should check too ^^

 

[LucyN]

I checked the services and "ATI HotKey Poller" is not running, I don't even have it listed. I looked at the Device Manager and it's using a Microsoft version of the driver, so I'm assuming it must be a stripped down version.

It's good to know about the keyboard lag issue, just in case I start having that problem.

The issue seems to be fixed since I switched to Windows Defender. I've switched back to the Balance power plan, from High Performance and it still seems ok. I'm keeping an eye on the Task Manager and it seems to be much better and programs aren't crashing or freezing anymore.

 

[jim lin]

i know this will not help the op but

i just restored a hp pavilion 20 b014 all in one desktop pc that had high disk usage

it was slow as heck and had some malware and toolbars but nothing to bad

it had some Xfinity by Comcast security suite with Norton and Zemana anti keylogger
built in to it that was making Windows Updates to fail

the update log from Windows showed that around the sametime Xfinity by Comcast security suite
was installed over 6 months ago Windows updates had a very hard time installing updates some
over and over it would try to install them

but even after i got all Windows 8.1 updates on it and the pc cleaned up it still would
use 90 to 99% of the disk all the time and i could not find what was using it

i just restored the pc back to out of the box and updated it back to Win 8.1 update 1
and all is good

no more high Disk usage

but i think Xfinity by Comcast security suite is what messed up this pc

that and viruses lol



James