5.0.377 - service crashes, shields down

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Since updating to Avast Free yesterday, it has crashed 3 times. The notification area icon has a red X on it. In the Status UI, the message is “Unsecured” and the shields are all down. Clicking the “repair” button gives an error message that the services can’t be restarted, but clicking OK on that dialog box returns to the Current Status page showing that the shields are started and the status is “Secured”.

I’m running XP SP3 and manually disabled the Mail Shield (I use Gmail, so there’s no incoming email to scan), the IM Shield, and the P2P Shield (I don’t use any IM or P2P software, either). The only shields I run are FileSystem, Web, Network, and Behavior.

There are no entries for Avast 5 in the Windows Antivirus Event viewer. Additionally, the Windows Security Center does NOT detect the fact that Avast 5 is not running.

Since I can’t find an Avast logfile, here’s what I have in the Windows System Event Viewer:

Event Type: Error Event Source: Service Control Manager Event Category: None Event ID: 7034 Date: 1/21/2010 Time: 8:32:55 AM User: N/A Computer: TOSHIBA Description: The avast! Antivirus service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 3 time(s).

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Event Type: Error Event Source: Service Control Manager Event Category: None Event ID: 7034 Date: 1/21/2010 Time: 8:32:55 AM User: N/A Computer: TOSHIBA Description: The avast! Web Scanner service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 3 time(s).

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

After that, two more events showing the Avast service and web scanner were successfully started.

Anyone else having this problem? If it continues, I may try to go back to Avast 4, or give (ugh!) Micro$oft’s AntiVirus a try.

RLW

2

I suppose you upgraded from avast 4. Better off uninstalling what you got completely and reinstall 377 from scratch. This should solve your issues.

ps: no need to give the MS links when the event is not more specific and doesn’t lead to a detailed and known MS description of the issue. In the present case MS never heard of your problem :wink:

3

Do you have any unpXXXXXXX files in
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ALWIL Software\Avast5\Log (WinXP)
or
C:\ProgramData\ALWIL Software\Avast5\Log (Vista+)
?

They could tell us more about what happened…

4

Not meaning to hijack the post, but how do you “uninstall” 4? I cannot do it via control panel, nor can I delete individual components. Disk full notice is given. I feel that unless I can completely delete 4, I’ll not get 5 installed. Open for suggestions.

5

I think you should start another thread for this…and there must be something wrong going on on your system if you don’t see the avast4 uninstall entry ???

6

“I suppose you upgraded from avast 4. Better off uninstalling what you got completely and reinstall 377 from scratch. This should solve your issues.”

Just going on what you said trying to get it done. Not sure a new post would solve it, but I’ll do it just the same. Explaining to the other poster how to uninstall it would possibly solve my problems, too.

7

The same thing here… win xp pro sp3 avast crashes shortly after resuming from hibernation. Once crashed it can be safely restarted though.
:-[

Just noticed that … it crashes regulary :frowning: in addition i’ve started to get a lot of ‘connection reset’ messages from ffox 3.5.7 not sure if it relates to avast web module or not. … almost ready to downgrade… :frowning:

8

the other poster doesn’t ask how to uninstall V4 :wink: … it’s quite another issue that he’s got.

9

Stand alone post is still unattended.

10

link?

11

@Logos – Yes, I did upgrade from Avast4. The reason I didn’t uninstall Avast4 before installing Avast5 was that the FAQ mentioned that Avast5 would automatically uninstall Avast4. This is similar to @larrychandler’s “hijack” of the thread, as Add/Remove Programs no longer shows Avast4 as being installed and the \Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4 folder is gone (so Avast5 must have uninstalled it). Perhaps the FAQ needs to be changed. Are you suggesting that I uninstall/reinstall Avast 5 at this point?

The other troubling thing I’m experiencing with Avast5 is that Windows Security Center is telling me that “avast! Antivirus reports that it is up to date and virus scanning is on.”, but I didn’t get an alert when Avast5 terminated. Also, Windows Security Center is still referring to it as “avast!”, not “Avast Free”. Seems like Windows Security still thinks I’m running Avast4.

PS: Sorry for including the Event Log entries – the Micro$oft URLs were part of the copy/paste. I’m fully aware that they are usually useless. I included them since I didn’t know/couldn’t find the logfiles. :slight_smile:

@Igor – No, there are no “unpXXXXXX” files in the …\Avast5\log folder. None of the *.log files in the folder look to have any useful information about the crashes. Here’s a DOS directory list of the folder:


01/19/2010  06:31 PM    <DIR>          .
01/19/2010  06:31 PM    <DIR>          ..
01/19/2010  06:24 PM                 0 AshWebSv.ws
01/21/2010  08:55 AM            88,714 aswAr.log
01/21/2010  08:47 AM               136 Chest.log
01/19/2010  06:33 PM               288 Logging.log
01/19/2010  06:25 PM             1,664 Mail.log
01/19/2010  06:23 PM                 0 nshield.log
01/19/2010  06:23 PM                 0 selfdef.log
01/21/2010  08:54 AM           577,954 Setup.log
01/21/2010  11:57 AM         1,278,522 usntr.log
               9 File(s)      1,947,278 bytes

RLW

12

yes, don’t waste more time wondering why this and why that :wink: uninstall everything and reinstall V5 from scratch. You can use the uninstall utility found on avast site for this:
http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility

13

@Logos/SalvadorDali – Thank you for the suggestions. There’s no need for YOU to tell me what to “waste time” wondering about this and that. I’ve been an Avast user for many years now, and have quite a few clients (businesses, nonprofits, and home users) who use it as their primary antivirus solution. Those clients represent hundreds of Avast installations (both “free” and paying). I am concerned when an update doesn’t seem to happen correctly, as I don’t want to receive hundreds of telephone calls if/when that update fails.

I read (either in the FAQ, or on a blog) that Alwil will soon be rolling out the Avast5 update to Avast4 users. I don’t want my customers to experience the problems I’ve experienced. For that reason, I posted here to get a sense of the problems others may be having similar to mine, and to find out the root cause of the problem.

I’ve uninstalled/reinstalled Avast5 via Add/Remove Programs, not using the utility (since I don’t want my clients to go through Safe Mode to uninstall). I will report back here if my reinstall has similar issues to the original upgrade.

Again, thanks for your response.

RLW

14
There's no need for YOU to tell me what to "waste time" wondering about this and that.

that was kindly advised ;D … to YOU, and your customers, unless you and them prefer to lose a few hours instead of having the new software up and running in 2 minutes of time ::slight_smile:

15

I understand you meant no malice. Neither do I.

The object here is to have ME lose the two hours to avoid having hundreds of my customers lose two hours. The pertinent question is: Will these kinds of problems appear when Alwil rolls out the automatic upgrade from Avast4 to Avast5 (both free and Pro versions)?

I hope not.

RLW

16
Will these kinds of problems appear when Alwil rolls out the automatic upgrade from Avast4 to Avast5 (both free and Pro versions)?

I have no idea, I didn’t even know that it wasn’t done already. I’ve been on the beta of V5 for months before the final came out. Anyway I would never have done an upgrade between two versions of a program that are so different, this is just not the same software at all anymore, even if many components hold the same names, everything has been completely revised.
The only way out for a successful upgrade means automatically uninstall V4 first, and completely, reboot and have the V5 setup starting…You can do this manually :wink:

17

I’m aware of the correct way to do an upgrade, except for upgrades that are advertised as needing no user intervention. I refer you to the avast! 5.0 FAQ on the website (http://support.avast.com/index.php?languageid=1&group=eng&_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=455):

[b]Is it required to uninstall avast! 4.x before installing avast! 5.0?[/b] Yes, but there isn't necessary any user interaction to uninstall avast! 4.x, because installer of avast! 5.0 is able to detect previous instance of avast! 4.x and uninstall it automatically.

I read the FAQ before I installed Avast5. As I recall, the upgrade from 3.x to 4.x was transparent and painless. I made the mistake of assuming the 4.x->5.x upgrade would be as well.

BTW, it hasn’t crashed since uninstalling/reinstalling v5 earlier today. Thanks again for your help.

RLW

18

I’m sure you’re aware ;D anyway:

I refer you to the avast! 5.0 FAQ on the website
I couldn't care less, for all the reasons I explained above I just wouldn't do it that way. Microsoft also advises to upgrade from XP to Vista or Seven :D ...this is suicidal but good to promote a product. Noobs like to hear that.
19

Well, Avast5 Free ran for a couple of hours before crashing again. The indication is a red X on the icon, and the message “Unsecured” in the GUI. Clicking the “FIX NOW” button has the following effect: A dialog box that states: “The following components could not be started: Mail Shield, IM Shield, P2P Shield, File System Shield, Web Shield, Behavior Shield, Network Shield”. Before I had a chance to click “OK”, the GUI (behind the dialog box) displayed SECURED.

I’m not getting a good feeling about this upgrade…

RLW

20

this has happened to me once or twice with older builds (beta) and never again after that…well, just reboot. I don’t want to insist on that but I do believe from many posts I read that Avast 5 is optimized for Windows 7. The worse issues, experienced repetitively, were found on XP and Vista systems…while stuff got always fixed very quickly in Win7. I can’t elaborate about any detail, that’s just observations of V5 behavior, as reported by people here.

ps: you can also, instead of rebooting, go to Avast service in “computer management” stop and restart avast services… or just start them manually if they were stopped, like it seems to be the case in your situation.