Avast 5 major issues on XP and Vista

[twl845]

Originally Posted by twl845

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.

UPDATE: After running the above setup for a while all was good. Then yesterday I booted up and the freeze occurred again. I explained in another thread that I purchased MBAM Pro on December 24th and immediately started having freezes, but didn't install Avast!5 on my system that never had Avast! on it until January 20th. So Avast isn't the cause. I have reverted MBAM to its previous on demand status, and re- established SAS as my real time Anti-spyware. No hangs to date and the system is running snappier. We'll see in time how this setup works.

[JimIT]

Originally Posted by 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.

Right, and I've installed on XPsp3 with nothing but drivers, as well, and had no issues. Sounds like maybe a driver related conflict? Have you tried rebooting in Safe Mode to see if it persists? Might be able to nail it down further.

Good luck.

[zfactor]

running fine for me on a xp sp3 system. though i am using the whole suite

[acuariano]

no problem at all on my xp-sp3

[GideonD]

Originally Posted by JimIT

Right, and I've installed on XPsp3 with nothing but drivers, as well, and had no issues. Sounds like maybe a driver related conflict? Have you tried rebooting in Safe Mode to see if it persists? Might be able to nail it down further.

Good luck.

Yep as a matter of fact I have done this. Avast doesn't load automatically in safe mode but when trying to manually start it, BSOD. I unloaded it an put 4.8 on that machine as well, and again, no problems. Alwil is examining a slew of minidumps from what I understand. The problems are multiplying over at the Avast forum. Everything from update issues to email issues.

I'll set back and wait a build or two. I might even have to finally invest in NOD32 or Kaspersky if this isn't resolved in short order.

[GideonD]

Test Build 5.0.393 is now available. Seems to fix the BSOD issues for some, but for others they still prevail. Other issues are still present as well. I haven't had time to try it on any of my problematic systems yet.

[GideonD]

After reading some more in the Avast forums is looks like the Behavior Shield is probably what is causing most of the issues. It doesn't work correctly on Windows 7 anyway, which seems to be why Windows 7 suffers less problems with Avast 5 than any other OS at this point. Looks like Alwil tried their best to add greater security and functionality to Avast but I don't think they got it right on this one. Hopefully in the near future it'll be fixed. There are several reports of solving the BSOD issue by turning off Behavior Shield. Unfortunately that isn't always possible to do when you can get into the program setting before it Blue Screens.

[pjb024]

Originally Posted by GideonD

There are several reports of solving the BSOD issue by turning off Behavior Shield. Unfortunately that isn't always possible to do when you can get into the program setting before it Blue Screens.

Do a custom install and you can deselect the behavior shield from being installed.

[GideonD]

If a normal install doesn't do it this time that's what I'll have to do. I may wait until the final release of 393 though before trying anything as other issues remain unresolved in the Test Build.

[JimIT]

Gideon, if it's one thing I've observed about the guys at Alwil, it's that they get stuff working when it's broken. Hang in there, and they'll hopefully get a fix for you soon. Good luck.

[HAN]

Build 5.0.394 is out in beta and it solved my installation freezes. My guess is that Alwil is close to making it the next release version...

[GideonD]

Originally Posted by HAN

Build 5.0.394 is out in beta and it solved my installation freezes. My guess is that Alwil is close to making it the next release version...

Yep sounds that way. 5.0.394 seems to have fixed several issues. Some people are still having explorer freezes, but the BSOD topics seem to have settled down. I'm waiting for the next full maintenance release instead of the beta test builds before I try updating from 4.8 again. It seems like they'll have it out within the next couple of days.

[Patrician]

Originally Posted by 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.

Working fine on Win XP Pro SP3. No BSODs and no issues.

[zapjb]

No problem on my folks ancient Pentium 3 1GHZ 512MB Ram running XP home SP3. In fact it's lighter & scans 40% faster than 4.8. Heads up though I always do a custom install leaving out 4 of the 7 modules. No IM, P2P, eMail & Behavior Shield. Just don't need them. Way to go Avast5 the computer is snappier than ever.

[GideonD]

Looks like problem reports with 5.0.394 are starting to filter in. BSOD issues seem minimal now, but there are several people having full system freezes. The update process seems to trigger these for many. Some have had luck with using utilities to delay Avast's startup until after all other startup process have finished. It seems like Avast is trying to take control of certain files before they finish loading.

[Malcontent]

Originally Posted by GideonD

Some have had luck with using utilities to delay Avast's startup until after all other startup process have finished. It seems like Avast is trying to take control of certain files before they finish loading.

FYI,

You can do this within Avast. There is an option in "Settings", under "Troubleshooting", to load the Avast services only after other system services have loaded.

[majoMo]

Originally Posted by Malcontent

FYI,

You can do this within Avast. There is an option in "Settings", under "Troubleshooting", to load the Avast services only after other system services have loaded.

I tried to do that in v. 4.8 without sucess. It seems Avast startup item (ashDisp.exe) is protected and can't be disable.

[HAN]

I am basically getting along with 5.0.394 ok. I had a freeze after my initial boot this morning but after a reboot, it has been fine since. At this point, I am guessing that the definition update was the source of my freeze. I never received any update notice but after the reboot, I was fully up to date...

[zfactor]

no issues for me here at all this looks to be my next av i like it a lot

[GideonD]

Final Build 5.0.396 is now available. This is not a beta or test build. It seems to fix the majority of the issues. I'll be trying it this weekend. There are still some reports about minor issues and a few freezes but the BSOD problem seems to be gone from what I'm reading. It still has some issues playing nice with Malwarebytes active shields.

[JimIT]

Good to hear the Alwil guys are on the ball. Installed the new build this morning. Hope it fixes the issues, GideonD.

[HAN]

I was on 394 when I first booted up this morning and I still had the freeze (I still think it has something to do with the first update of the day.) I have now moved to 396 so we'll see on Monday how things go.

I too really appreciate the impressive new version. An incredible achivement for Alwil.

[iwod]

Originally Posted by 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.

I have the same problem as well with Avast where it has BSOD on my Windows XP after log in. This issues still happens after updating to new build.

Works fine on my XP machine

[Siro]

I got a Compaq Mini 110C netbook and I have Panda Cloud Antivirus installed, do you people recommend updating to Avast Antivirus 5.0? And is it light on resources? The OS is Windows Xp Home Edition and 1GB of ram! Please recommend because I have never used Avast before.