Avira Antivir 9 Scanner.

I remember reading some time ago of somebody complaining about Avira's scanner getting stuck during the scan, I didn't really think much at the time as I very rarely scan my system nowadays.

When I first installed the upgrade to version 9 I ran a scan as a test and everything seemed fine. Today I thought to run another full system scan (this would be the second with the new version), and that's when things didn't go as they should: the scanner would get stuck at around 17% keeping my CPU at maximum.

After a few more test scans (so time consuming to troubleshoot anything, that sometimes I really think it would be easier and faster to get infected and re image the system) by trial and error my conclusion is that Avira's scanner will scan my system completely only when you set the configuration to default values. For some reasons, when I change things like enabling Scan/All files, Archives/All Archives types, the scanner gets stuck at around 17%.

I don't mind running Avira with default configuration, but I just wonder, this wasn't happening with the previous version. If anybody can help it will be much appreciated. I will eventually post in the Avira forum too.

 

I don't modify settings to perform a scan. Most AVs have default settings that are meant to cause the least problems in a system. I've always had this tight settings with previous versions of Avira with no consequences during scans.

This is new, and I know from experience that programs either work as advertised or something is definitely wrong. I do appreciate your feedback, thanks.

 

I tried scanning with
Scan all files......................: All files
Scan archives.......................: on
Recursion depth.....................: 20
Smart extensions....................: on
Macro heuristic.....................: on
File heuristic......................: high
it took about 12 mins to scan my whole computer

 

this behaviour is correct. the system scan has it's own configuration settings.
if wou want to use yours you should choose a diffrent scan profil

 

A couple of years ago I had the same problem.
At that time I was told to uncheck the box-Scan for rootkits before scan.
Do the regular scan first then if I wanted, run the rootkit scan separate.
This solved the problem of the scan stopping and I have been scanning this way ever since.

Hope this helps.
Maybe it is still an issue today.

 

Let me try to understand what you are saying: If I start a full system scan, I MUST set all values to default? If that is the case, why version 8 was scanning with whatever setting i would choose?

 

I had a problem with 9 getting stuck on a full scan under Vista.

Try this - right click your system drive and scan it with Avira. Does thie scan complete? It did for me when a system scan from within Avira wouldnt.

You need to disable Windows Defender - both realtime and also select not to use it at all. Doing this will probably allow you to run a normal Avira system scan.

Let me know if this works.

 

I haven't tried that yet, yesterday I spent 3 hours testing possibilities, and I still think that if this way works for you, you should not have to do it in the first place. What is the point to have a scanner configuration GUI with options that can't be applied?

As Leo2005 raised the issue about profiles, I will try it, and see if it fixes the problem. As I mentioned, I scan my system every 3 months out of curiosity, and find regularly nothing at all. My sole interest in the matter is that if the program fails in some of its functions it means that even the guard could be affected, which would have serious consequences.With version 8 for example I never had such a problem. Thanks for the tip.

 

I tried to change the scan configuration from default values, and chose "Local Protection\Scanner\Manual Selection\ and "Start scan with selected profile as Administrator" it works no matter what the configuration settings are.

Leo2005, you were right, thank you. However with version 8 this wasn't necessary.

@ Retadpuss
Thank you for sharing. I've always had Windows Defender completely disabled (I even stopped the service in 'services.msc')