Kaspersky Lab Launcher using a lot of CPU

[Pica]

There’s a certain development that started with the 2020 version and is still present in 21.3.10.391(f). I monitor my computer’s resource usage very carefully and notice if anything changes. The development mentioned is a slight elevation of CPU activity from either Kaspersky Lab Launcher service or avpui.exe, and sometimes Windows task manager itself whenever KIS produces a popup, such as a detection, or when I choose the “Scan” menu from the interface’s dashboard. I need not even start a scan to trigger it, but context menu scanning is still unaffected. The change is insignificant in my case, but with a slower system it might not be when a user is multitasking.

 

I wish Kaspersky would look into this.

 

I forgot the most important detail: the added CPU load persists until reboot/shutdown. If this is by design, then there’s something amiss with that design.

[Flood and Flood's wife]

Hello @Pica, 

Thank you for posting back!

Please follow instructions from @Anton Mefodys - if the issue persists, create a request to Tech Support. 

Please share the outcome with the Community? 

Thank you🙏

Flood🐳 +🐋

[CaptFlint]

Same problem with Kaspersky Lab Launcher. Is any solution?

[Flood and Flood's wife]

Hello @CaptFlint 

Please follow instructions from @Anton Mefodys - if the issue persists, create a request to Tech Support. 

Please share the outcome with the Community? 

Thank you🙏

Flood🐳 +🐋

[Pica]

The clean-boot tutorial instructs to disable all 3rd party services, including KIS. It would only prove if there’s something in the system that is dragging down performance independently of KIS. If we wanted to find out if something in the system is influencing KIS, then it should be left running. The challenge would then be to find out just what KIS is doing during the activity. If there’s also some disk writing/reading going on, it would provide a hint. Mike K’s cursor blinking implied that a video driver may have been involved.

 

It’s possible that the high load others in this thread have seen has to do with KIS’s system watcher or file antivirus functions. Whenever there’s high activity in the system KIS’s own CPU load starts to rise along with it, especially in the case of “demanding” operations such as Microsoft Office updates, and those seem to happen daily. I’ve witnessed Office updates paralyzing a very slow pre-Ryzen laptop, and on top of that there was KIS’s monitoring activity resulting in a 100% CPU load.

[rrobinson720]

 

Same problem - Kaspersky taking up constant 20 - 30% CPU.  Working through the Microsoft Support article referenced by Anton Mefodys did the trick, though it took me well over an hour.  In my case (on a Dell Inspiron 5000 series running Windows 10) the culprit turned out to be “True Color” which was enabled to run at Startup.  If you’ve got the same issue, check if you’ve got that running and try disabling it (Task Manager » Startup » right click on True Color, Disable » Restart); if that works, you’ve saved yourself some time, otherwise, it’s back to Anton’s MS article and work through it.
 

Since I also am using a Dell Inspiron I decided to try disabling True Color, and it fixed my high CPU problem too. Thanks for suggesting this!

 

[Teemu]

I had same issue. Kaspersky Lab Launcher was using CPU a lot and fan was running loudly. It is sure that this is leading to short life of laptop. This happened only when my laptop was running, but screen was off (10 min screen off) and when laptop was plugged in. I understood that this is some kind of background process. I have Kaspersky Total Security, open the main screen of Kaspersky, go to Scan->Background scan and turn off background scan. I'm not sure if this is wise solution for protection, but problem was solved.

[Richd]

I've begun having this high disk usage problem just this week, to a degree that it interferes with the normal operation of the computer.

This is marked as having a "solution", however --- the "solution" was to do a clean boot - with no additional details!. 

But as Pica pointed out, doing a clean boot, and thereby disabling Kaspersky, only proves that if Kaspersky stops running it won't cause the problem

This problem is clearly ongoing, as it's just started for me this week, and I see others here from May with the problem. And turning off the background scan is NOT a solution, as that's one of the purposes of the application in the first place.

Isn't it possible for your developers to devote some time to this issue and determine what's causing it?  With so many people experiencing this problem, surely it can't be that difficult to reproduce.

[Flood and Flood's wife]

1 hour ago, Richd said:

1. This problem is clearly ongoing, as it's just started for me this week, and I see others here from May with the problem.
2. Turning off the background scan is NOT a solution, as that's one of the purposes of the application in the first place.
3. Isn't it possible for your developers to devote some time to this issue and determine what's causing it? 
4. With so many people experiencing this problem, surely it can't be that difficult to reproduce.

Hello @Richd, 

Welcome!

?What changed, *just this week*??

• Reading carefully thru the topic we don't see anywhere that Kaspersky is recommending turning OFF Background scan?
• We also see various people have reported various root causes & solutions.... 
• We also see various people have advised they've logged the issue with Support, but no-one seems to have reported back?
• Even tho the issue may have some commonalities, there are in fact many possibilities & changing variables, please do the following, noting, we're unable to provide specific links as you've not advised which Kaspersky software is installed:

1. Uninstall Kaspersky software, saving License information *ONLY*
2. Download & clean install Kaspersky software -> follow the recommended guidelines.
3. Monitor the issue, if it persists, please log a case with  Kaspersky Support, Support may need logs, traces & other data, they will guide you; on the support page select either Chat or Email, then select Application malfunction, Other template; include the screen images & or text Reports from Windows & (your) Kaspersky application and a detailed history. 

• If you do log the issue with Support, please share the outcome with the Community, when it's available? 

Thank you?

Flood?+?

Edited June 17, 2022 by Flood and Flood's wife

[Richd]

• 1) Reading carefully thru the topic we don't see anywhere that Kaspersky is recommending turning OFF Background scan

Please see Pica's post, which I referred to. Here's the relevant excerpt:

The clean-boot tutorial instructs to disable all 3rd party services, including KIS. It would only prove if there’s something in the system that is dragging down performance independently of KIS. If we wanted to find out if something in the system is influencing KIS, then it should be left running.

2) Presumably, the developers test the software against a large number of configurations.  There aren't an infinite number, or even an unduly large number, of causes of this problem.  There is likely a very small handful of causes that would cover more than 95% of the cases.  

3) The "reinstall" approach is the old standby "solution" that more often than not don't solve the problem, judging from people's experience with this.  

4) This problem clearly needs to be investigated by the developers as an effort that's independent of any particular user's experience, rather than the tortuous "one-off" approach that's being taken now.  If I were using the free version, I would simply live with this.  But as a paying customer, I don't find this approach acceptable, and I'd bet many other paying customers don't either.

But perhaps you're right, this is probably not the right place to get this issue resolved.  I'll try the route of opening a support ticket based on my current, properly installed software, and see how it goes from there.

Edited June 17, 2022 by Richd

[Richd]

So I tried two additional things in the interest of being thorough:

 

1) I opened a ticket with Kaspersky technical support, describing the high disk usage problem in a fairly long paragraph.

Unfortunately, this is the response I got:

This is an automated reply generated by our text analysis feature. It's designed to propose solutions after automatically analyzing contents of customers' inquiries.

If you reply to this email, it will go straight to one of our support representatives, but we would like to ask you to give this feature a chance to resolve your issue.

Application fails to start

Well okay. Nobody bothered to read what I wrote. They did an automated "text analysis" on it, and came up with "Application fails to start" as my problem!

Ironically, it's almost the exact opposite of my problem, which is that the "Application fails to STOP (using the disk, that is)"

So now I have to respond to the email, and tell them their automatic text analysis didn't work, then "wait for the technical support team to contact" me.  Okay, I'll try that next.

 

2) I uninstalled the program.  The disk usage has stayed very very low since I did so, and the machine has stopped freezing with the disk usage at 100%. 

So there's no question at all that it's the Kaspersky application that's the cause of the issue.  

But before I re-install it, I'll see what technical support has to say.

 

 

 

 

[Richd]

Update:  no response yet from technical support.  Does anybody know what the typical response time is?

In the meantime, since I uninstalled Kaspersky pending technical support recommendations, I've installed the free version of another security suite  to see if it has similar disk usage issues.

[Berny]

@Richd  Once you have an INC number Kaspersky Technical Support will respond quite quickly.

[Richd]

@Berny   I had an INC number in their first email response.  The second email response, a minute later, was the "automated analysis" email I was talking about above.

This was at 12:01pm and 12:02 pm yesterday, according to the email times. (don't know what time zone that is, I believe it's EDT but not sure).

How long do you mean when you say "quite quickly"?

 

Edited June 18, 2022 by Richd

[Richd]

Update: 

I received a response from tech support at 5:30pm on Friday.

On Saturday, I tried going through the steps they suggested.  I first removed Bitdefender, then re-installed Kaspersky.

After re-installation, I experienced the high disk usage. When I paused protection, the disk usage returned to normal.

I then re-started the computer, as they suggested.  After restarting, the high disk usage returned. 

Then I began turning off the various components of Kaspersky as they suggested.  I couldn't determine any direct relationship between turning off a component and the disk usage returning to normal. This step is complicated by the fact that the high disk usage is intermittent, not continuous, as I use the computer through the day.

However - I ended up pausing protection so I could use the computer without interference from the slowdown caused by the high disk usage. At some point later, I resumed protection to see what would happen.  At that point, the high disk usage did not return!   But I don't have any idea why.

Also - tech support collecting a "GSI system information report", but the link provided caused a "too many redirects" errror, so I was unable to. I didn't have time yesterday to google it, but I'll try that today.

EDIT: okay, finding out how to run GSI report was trivial. But - I noticed that even the link returned from duck.com causes a "too many redirect" error at first, yet using that link, the page eventually loaded.

Edited June 20, 2022 by Richd

[khtmhai5]

I am facing same issue. Is there any official response from Kaspersky … maybe i missed it.

[Richd]

I have no official response because I'm still in the middle of their procedures, as I had the problem with the "GSI report" link.   

But that said, I'm currently not actually having the problem.  The sequence of events that led to this are:

- Uninstalled Kaspersky (to stop computer from freezing throughout the day)

- Installed free version of Bitdefender for two days (needed an AV)

- Uninstalled Bitdefender

- Reinstalled Kaspersky, high disk usage returned; began following tech support's procedures

- Paused protection; disk usage returned to normal

- Restarted protection, tried turning off each component of Kaspersky in turn, per their recommendation. Couldn't see any significant change in disk usage problem. As I told tech support, this step is complicated by the fact that the high disk usage comes and goes periodically.

- Paused protection to get some work done computer

- Some time later (two hours?), restarted protection to see what would happen

- And, for whatever reason, at that point the high disk usage did NOT return. That was two days ago, and it hasn't returned since. 

I've since been able to produce the GSI report, now I have to send it to tech support and see what they say.

 

[anastik]

Hey everyone!
I think I have found out why this is happening to many of you.
I also personally have this problem with the app using up to 60% of my cpu.
This is happening because a scan is being performed, it can take many hours to complete and it uses lots of resources while scanning.
If you did not start a scan, it could have been set up to scan automatically every now and then, and could be performing the scan without you being aware of it.
you can always check if a scan is going on and let me know if this fixed your problem!

Edited June 24, 2022 by anastik
more info added

[harlan4096]

I guess You mean old "RootKits Scan", now called Background Scan task:

 

 

 

[anastik]

If i'm being correct, its a full scan being performed

[harlan4096]

It's not a full scan:

https://support.kaspersky.com/help/Kaspersky/Win21.7/en-US/199678.htm

[Joefram80]

this program needs to always be on in order for kaspersky total to work right?  What percentage cpu should it use on average? 

[harlan4096]

No, You can disable if You want. The % may vary in every system, but usually should not use high CPU.

[SystemInfo]

On 6/24/2022 at 8:27 AM, anastik said:

Hey everyone!
I think I have found out why this is happening to many of you.
I also personally have this problem with the app using up to 60% of my cpu.
This is happening because a scan is being performed, it can take many hours to complete and it uses lots of resources while scanning.
If you did not start a scan, it could have been set up to scan automatically every now and then, and could be performing the scan without you being aware of it.
you can always check if a scan is going on and let me know if this fixed your problem!

That's why I liked the Kaspersky animated icon. I don't know why it was removed. but it was a good sign that your Antivirus was running in the background.

Edited July 19, 2022 by SystemInfo

[Richd]

Follow-up / conclusion to my June 22nd post.

I sent the GSI report to Support; received back another set of procedures to run through on my machine, but I simply didn't have the time to read through it, understand it, and do it all, so I shelved the entire effort, uninstalled the program, and lived with it for a little while.  

In the meantime, I noticed the disk usage problem appearing even without Kaspersky running on the machine. I started to suspect the hard drive itself. Using whatever native Windows had to show the SMART data, no problems were found.  But the disk usage problem persisted, and I became aware of the "CrystalDiskInfo" program. When I ran that, it showed that the disk had several thousand reallocated sectors!   

I swapped out the bad hard drive for a new SSD, re-installed Windows, and the problems went away. 

So it's pretty certain that what appeared to be high disk usage by Kaspersky was in fact the Windows Task Manager attributing what were disk hardware issues to the program.

I've re-installed Kaspersky and it's running fine.