Lately, I’ve been experiencing freezes in the games GTA Online and State of Decay 2 while playing. My only lead for the root cause of the issue has been checking the system logs, in which the only thing I have found is a notification that AVGtools updates the power schema every 2 or 3 minutes, and I have found that changing the power schema resets some variables that force the game to stop functioning.
Since I am using the free version, I do not have access to the interface that disables this feature.
Is there a way to disable this feature other than uninstalling AVG to confirm if this is the root cause of the games freezing?
Hi AVG Team & Community,
I’d like to report a repeatable performance issue that I traced back to AVG’s Do Not Disturb Mode, specifically how it handles Windows Power Schemes when switching between fullscreen games and other apps (like browsers).
Environment & Scenario
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OS: Windows 10 / 11 (Desktop)
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GPU / CPU: Mid–high performance gaming PC
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Security: AVG Antivirus (with Do Not Disturb enabled by default)
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Typical behavior: Play GTA V in fullscreen → Alt+Tab to Firefox (YouTube) → Alt+Tab back to game, repeatedly.
Problem
During gameplay, especially in GTA V, I experienced sudden FPS drops, GPU clock downshifts to 300 MHz, and temporary freezes whenever I switched between the game and the browser.
After deep investigation (telemetry overlay + Event Viewer), I discovered that avgToolsSvc.exe repeatedly switches the active Windows Power Plan between “High Performance” and “Balanced” every time the focus changes between fullscreen apps.
This happens because Do Not Disturb Mode:
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Automatically adds fullscreen apps (e.g., GTA5.exe) to its list
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Forces “High Performance” while the game is focused
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Reverts to “Balanced” when the game loses focus (Alt+Tab)
This constant toggling caused the GPU to rapidly change power states, leading to visible stalls and FPS dips — even without any overheating, driver errors, or resource bottlenecks.
Verification
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Disabled Do Not Disturb Mode → Power scheme stabilized → No more GPU clock drops → Freezes gone.
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Played over an hour with telemetry running — only minimal, normal frametime spikes.
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Event logs confirmed avgToolsSvc.exe stopped power scheme manipulation after uninstalling Do Not Disturb.
Workaround
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Go to Apps > AVG > Modify and uninstall Do Not Disturb Mode.
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Alternatively, disable the “Automatically add new apps” toggle and manually clear the DND list (e.g., from games.json).
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Lock your Windows power plan to High Performance manually.
Request to AVG
Please review how Do Not Disturb Mode handles power scheme switching.
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Many gamers frequently Alt+Tab between games and browsers/music players — the current implementation causes real-world performance degradation.
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Ideally, there should be:
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A toggle to disable power scheme changes entirely,
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Or smarter behavior that doesn’t flip plans on every focus change.
Closing
This took quite a bit of deep troubleshooting to find — I’m posting it here to help anyone else who might be facing unexplained freezes while gaming. Hopefully, it also helps AVG devs refine this otherwise useful feature.
Thanks for your time!
Video game freezing is commonly caused by outdated graphics drivers, overheating components, insufficient system resources, or corrupted game files. Immediate fixes include Dk11, updating GPU drivers, reducing in-game graphics settings, clearing background applications, and ensuring adequate PC cooling.