Avast 5 major issues on XP and Vista

[GideonD]

Sad but true. While these issues are not consistent for all they are widespread for many.

It seems to be optimized for Win7. Looks good and works well with some nice innovations. Win7 issues get fixed quickly. Vista and XP (especially XP) are not so fortunate.

Many people are reporting Blue Screen crashes frequently with Avast 5, mostly on XP systems. I'm one of them. After an upgrade install it immediately crashes when the desktop loads. Safe Mode>Uninstall>Reboot and it's fine. Run the Avast Cleanup tool and reinstall V5 fresh. Blue Screens when desktop loads. Avast is suspecting something to do with a PowerDVD files, but there are reports from people that have never had PowerDVD having the same issues.

I'm back to 4.8 which still works just fine. I'd recommend you download a copy of 4.8 and the Avast cleanup tool before attempting to upgrade to 5, or better yet, just don't upgrade to 5. Wait until a new build is out that hopefully fixes these issues. After the recent bad definition update that started deleting system files, this comes as very unwelcome news. I'm losing faith in Avast. Hopefully this will be resolved quickly. It's seems a bit silly to optimize it primarily for Win7 when Vista is bound to be around for a good while yet and even XP will be here for the long haul. XP is still the most widely used OS today.

These problems exist as of build 5.0.377. Wait until the next build is out and check their forums for success reports before trying it.

[RejZoR]

Works just fine on WinXP SP3 running it on netbook. Works fine on Vista too and i have no problems on Win7 64bit either. WinXP is fully supported and there should be no reason for any problems regardless of the OS age.

[twl845]

I am running XPsp3 and after purging my system of a different AV, I installed Avast! 5. The installation went smooth except that it hung on the last page of the installation. I did a hard startup and Avast loaded all done. I made a few adjustments to the settings, and it has been running like a well oiled machine. For those who may have BSOD's etc. I doubt your choice of OS has much to do with problems. Everybody's system is configured a little different and there will always be folks who will have apps that don't play well in their computer. There's usually a simple solution if you can find it.

[Page42]

Originally Posted by GideonD

Many people are reporting Blue Screen crashes frequently with Avast 5, mostly on XP systems. I'm one of them. After an upgrade install it immediately crashes when the desktop loads. Safe Mode>Uninstall>Reboot and it's fine. Run the Avast Cleanup tool and reinstall V5 fresh. Blue Screens when desktop loads. Avast is suspecting something to do with a PowerDVD files, but there are reports from people that have never had PowerDVD having the same issues.

I'm back to 4.8 which still works just fine. I'd recommend you download a copy of 4.8 and the Avast cleanup tool before attempting to upgrade to 5, or better yet, just don't upgrade to 5. Wait until a new build is out that hopefully fixes these issues.

As far as I'm concerned, this is the topic that should be discussed... avast! 5 and Win XP and Vista. Thanks to the OP for providing the heads up on the assorted issues. I run XP, and I have been putting off upgrading to 5.0, and I think I will wait a bit longer.

[LowWaterMark]

The discussion about running Windows XP versus upgrading to a newer version of Windows has been moved to its own thread in Software & Services:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=263721

[IceCube1010]

Strange. I have Avast 5.0 running on a XP Home, Pro, Vista Home and Win7 64 without any problems whatsoever. The program updates and runs nicely in the background. I have it running along OA premium on the XP pro and Vista pc. Running with SBIE on the XP Home pc and all by itself on the Win7 64.

Ice

[rdsu]

Works very well here on XP and Se7en...

[sded]

I have been running Free AV on two Vista computers, one with Vista Ultimate and one with Vista Home Premium, since the beginning of the beta testing and have never had a BSOD on either machine. Are there still ongoing threads at the Avast! forum trying to track down the causes for those who have them in either XP or Vista, where the postings might do some good? Seems difficult for Avast! to repeat from the discussion here. Useful inputs I did have were responded to pretty quickly even though I don't have Windows 7. Sounds like some contentions nobody understands yet, not general Vista or XP issues.

[Iangh]

I had problems until I checked Load Avast.... under Troubleshooting. Avast still loads pretty quick as far as I can see.

Other alternative that worked was to turn-off Behaviour module and not checking Load Avast....

If it isn't checked I get BSOD upon logon. Screen shows Restoring network connections.... then blue-screens. I'm using wireless.

Ian (XP SP3)

[fblais]

Originally Posted by twl845

I am running XPsp3 and after purging my system of a different AV, I installed Avast! 5. The installation went smooth except that it hung on the last page of the installation. I did a hard startup and Avast loaded all done.

Same OS here.
Old PC: P3-1000 with 512MB RAM.
Other security software: MBAM with real-time protection ON.
The install went the same way you described.
Upon hard reboot, Avast loaded but the PC quickly went is some kind of frozen state.
Well, not completely frozen; the mouse was working, but the GUI was not correctly refreshing, and it was completely unresponsive.
I let it that way all day, and it was still in the same state when I went back from work. Nothing happened. (I thought it could be the cache building I read about, but I can't confirm as nothing is displayed about this)

Uninstalled it in safe mode.

Am I alone with that behaviour?
Can't use 5 at all if this is not fixed.

Regards,
François

[Vladimyr]

Originally Posted by fblais

Same OS here.
Old PC: P3-1000 with 512MB RAM.
Other security software: MBAM with real-time protection ON.

Am I alone with that behaviour?
Can't use 5 at all if this is not fixed.

Regards,
François

Hi François
Have you tried with MBAM uninstalled? Two resident scanners is not a good idea.

I'm generally cautious with new products but I've had 3 x Xp Pro SP3 PCs with avast! 5 IS since release (I couldn't resist the 50% discount for upgrade from 4.8 Pro), each smooth as silk. I know of 11 other XP Home/Pro SP3 users with avast! 5 Free. No reported issues yet from them although I haven't spoken to every one.

[BoerenkoolMetWorst]

Originally Posted by fblais

Same OS here.
Old PC: P3-1000 with 512MB RAM.
Other security software: MBAM with real-time protection ON.
The install went the same way you described.
Upon hard reboot, Avast loaded but the PC quickly went is some kind of frozen state.
Well, not completely frozen; the mouse was working, but the GUI was not correctly refreshing, and it was completely unresponsive.
I let it that way all day, and it was still in the same state when I went back from work. Nothing happened. (I thought it could be the cache building I read about, but I can't confirm as nothing is displayed about this)

Uninstalled it in safe mode.

Am I alone with that behaviour?
Can't use 5 at all if this is not fixed.

Regards,
François

I installed Avast 5 free on the home pc here(XP SP3 32 bit) after AIS trial expired. I uninstalled AIS from remove programs -> reboot -> installed Avast free, then the installation screen couldn't get past the finishing installation screen -> did a soft reboot -> program was installed and everything works fine. The cache building shouldn't act like that. If you want to know wheter that slows the computer down, do a standard full system scan, every file scanned is then added to the cache, so when the scan is completed Avast shouldn't be cache building anymore, and if it still acts weird it should be something else.

[Get]

Had issues with not installing (xpsp2), but also issues with not installing IE8 (and 7 for that matter), but installing both in safe mode "fixed" that. Seems machine-related. Working great now .

[fblais]

Originally Posted by Vladimyr

Hi François
Have you tried with MBAM uninstalled? Two resident scanners is not a good idea.

MBAM is anti-malware, not an anti-virus.
I've used Avira, AVG and NOD32 along with MBAM, and no problem.

[fblais]

Originally Posted by BoerenkoolMetWorst

If you want to know wheter that slows the computer down, do a standard full system scan, every file scanned is then added to the cache, so when the scan is completed Avast shouldn't be cache building anymore, and if it still acts weird it should be something else.

I can't scan, the PC becomes totally unresponsive.
Only the mouse cursor works...

[icr]

I had issues with the .366 version but I cleanly removed it and freshly installed the .377 version and now it is working good no issues still encountered.

[twl845]

Originally Posted by fblais

Same OS here.
Old PC: P3-1000 with 512MB RAM.
Other security software: MBAM with real-time protection ON.
The install went the same way you described.
Upon hard reboot, Avast loaded but the PC quickly went is some kind of frozen state.
Well, not completely frozen; the mouse was working, but the GUI was not correctly refreshing, and it was completely unresponsive.
I let it that way all day, and it was still in the same state when I went back from work. Nothing happened. (I thought it could be the cache building I read about, but I can't confirm as nothing is displayed about this)

Uninstalled it in safe mode.

Am I alone with that behaviour?
Can't use 5 at all if this is not fixed.

Regards,
François

I think your problem stems from the real time MBAM loading at the same time as Avast during boot up. When I upgraded to MBAM paid, I had the same problem as you. On advice of an MBAM techie, I installed http://www.r2.com.au/ which is called Startup Delayer. It's easy to set up. Just read the Help folder. You can set up MBAM to load 2 minutes (or what ever is good on your computer) after everything else. Then you won't get the freeze ups. It works great for me and it's Free. The only thing you have to remember is to reset it each time after you upgrade MBAM.

[fblais]

Thanks, I'll try that tonight and report back.
I may even completely uninstall MBAM to see if they are incompatible in some way.

Best regards,
François

[majoMo]

@ twl845, BTW I'm trying to delay (with Startup Delayer) "ashDisp.exe" (service GUI component, Avast v. 4.8 ) and I can't do that - Avast don't allow that by default. Do you know some way to do that? Thanks.

[twl845]

Originally Posted by majoMo

@ twl845, BTW I'm trying to delay (with Startup Delayer) "ashDisp.exe" (service GUI component, Avast v. 4.8 ) and I can't do that - Avast don't allow that by default. Do you know some way to do that? Thanks.

Maybe you'll have to delay Avast as a whole program if Avast won't allow just one .exe to delay.

[majoMo]

Maybe... It seems that that startup item is protected by Avast real time. So I can't do that. There is this Avast'startup item only from avast processes.

Thanks again though.

[GideonD]

The issues seem oddly unrelated to specific problems. A lot of posts refer to a PowerDVD file, others have never had PowerDVD and have the same issues. The really odd part is a lot of people claim to have never had these problems while it was in beta, only after the full release. There are more and more active topics on the Avast forums about this each day I check them. I've already heard rumor of a 5.1 release being in the works. Regardless of what the conflicts are I think it's up to Avast to fix them. 4.8 didn't have these conflicts. 5 has changed something that's causing them.

You can browse Avast forums for other issues people are finding with it. I'll try to compile a list of the more common ones when I have a chance.

[JimIT]

There will be a lot of "issues" posted during the first couple of months of a new software rollout. FWIW, I have installed 5.0 on 2K (256MB), XP Home (512MB), Pro, and Windows 7 with no issues whatsoever.

There is almost certainly something that is conflicting with avast! installed on the PC, and it may take a little while to get that sorted out for you, but it (IMO) doesn't appear to be a bug in avast!.

[GideonD]

I just reformatted my old test rig. Windows XP fresh install updated to XP3 with nothing but hardware drivers installed. No other software installed. XP is from a full retail disc with no vendor added junk on it. Installed Avast 5. Reboot, BSOD.

4.8 never conflicted with any of my current software. 5 introduces a lot of new features and 5 causes a lot of problems for a large amount of users. To me that is an Avast issue. Now that I've tried it on a completely clean install with the same result, I'm even more convinced it's an Avast issue. I know they are working to fix it. I'm sure they will fix it in time. I think they just released a product that was not ready to be released. AVG seems to have done the same thing according to some other complaints I've seen floating around. It happens. It just needs to be fixed in a timely manner.

[Davidpr]

No problems with XP here.