I know how to shut-down Avast's shields (the options range from disable for 10 minutes to disable permanently). However, just a few minutes ago, the process AvastSvc*32.exe
started consistently hogging 97% of my CPU power. I couldn't kill the process and neither did disabling the shields help in reducing the CPU load.
Though my laptop was connected to a wall outlet, it killed my entire battery (which is quite old). Had I been in a meeting, it would have been the end of the session. I am not sure what triggered the process to go berzerk; all I did a few moments before was to open a Nature link. Restarting the computer has fixed it temporarily.
I would like to be able to quickly kill the process if I need to in an emergency. Google provided the following two links but I am not sure that I have a solution:
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=165309.0
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/190086/avastsvc-exe-and-system-interrupts-sucking-down-cpu-cycles
(the second link recommends turning off Webshield.ini
).