HELP! Instant extreme slowdown

[AuroraYYoda]

Im running on a
AMD64 3200+
Asus K8N-E
1G RAM
Iv never had any type of slowdown or major problem with this comp up to this point, but 2 days ago the entire machine became incredibly slow.
On examining the CPU usage i discovered that it was at a constant 100% usage for about 80seconds and then down to 2-20% for 10seconds in a repeating pattern.Of course during this 100% usage the computer is fully useless, for example 80seconds of video will play but you can only see about 3 frames and hear scattered music,even typing this now is laggy,that little barfing smile to the right takes about 30seconds to throw up and over that time i see some frames lasts over 6seconds!
I have fully defragmented .scanned for viruses and even cleaned the inside for dust with zero effect.
This is a gigantic problem for me right now and any help would be much appreciated

 

[altheman]

try posting a hijak this log file

 

[AuroraYYoda]

Sorry..huh! a thread?
To add a lil info to this i was just checking processes and during the slowed period a process called "ashServ.exe" as part of system is using 95-98% of the cpu and 15.708k Memory but stops as soon as it returns to normal speed at which point most of the usage goes back to system idle process

 

[Peddant]

This tells you what to do before posting an HJT,and how to post an HJT.- https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic30213.html

 

[altheman]

ashserv.exe is part of Avast Anti-virus Suite, the main executable for it. link.
it could be that the av software could have been corrupted. try doing a complete uninstall, removing all traces of avast, and reinstalling it. btw its normal for system idle process to use a lot of the cpu. something to do with the timing link

 

[AuroraYYoda]

Excellent all speed returned to normal, the smile is barfing like mad puke:
THANK YOU so much you magic computer docters!
I really feel like pating your heads playfully!

 

[altheman]

good to hear, what fixed the problem??

 

[AuroraYYoda]

Exactly as you said, as soon is Avast was uninstalled al problems vanished Thank you very much fr your time

 

[altheman]

no problem, though you should ALWAYS have an av software, especially when using the net. i recommend kaspersky. i use it on my laptop and hardly notice its there. or you could try avast again and see if the problems are fixed with a reinstall.

 

[lithiumdeuterid]

When fixing the computers of various people I know, I often find so many anti-virus/spyware/popup programs all running simultaneously that they cause a greater slowdown than actual spyware! Resist the temptation, people! More is not always better. I would say find at most ONE program to monitor your computer in real-time (and not Norton Antivirus, for chrissakes), and stick with it. Other things may be run manually, like Ad-Aware, of course, but more than one real-time monitor is asking for trouble.