Unfortunately I’m experiencing very serious problems when I use my parents PC since installing AIS 6.0 on it.
I’ve searched the forum for a solution but have not found it.
Sometimes when posting a message on a forum, FF will occasionally freez, text will ‘disappear’ randomly.
Hoovering the mouse over the screen will make text visible again but often i have to close and restart Firefox (and login on a forum and rewrite the entire text again…).
While this is annoying of itself, I also experience random reboots when I watch a video on Youtube with sandboxed Firefox.
There is no BSOD, just a black screen and a reboot as if someone unplugs the powercord.
I’ve won a license for AIS on WildersSecurity and have installed AIS on my parents PC.
After a hefty debate with my father, I managed to convince him to drop Norton IS and try Avast IS instead.
Because of the issues with sandboxed FF, I’m afraid to use this feature for Internet Explorer which is used by my parents.
While they are not very computer-literate, they do know that an erroneous reboot (as if the powercord is plugged out) can damage the HDD.
What the h*ll is wrong with the sandbox feature that it doesn’t just freez Firefox but causes reboots.
This is simply unacceptable.
I’d like to hear what can be done to remedy this issue before my father experiences the same and looses his temper with the PC. Or me.
(Yes, it’s that serious of a problem to me).
System; XP Home SP3 (fully updated), Firefox 3.6.14 (with AB+ & Noscript), Avast Internet Security 6.0, PrevX SOL.
Please, go to folder \windows\minidump and send the newest (recent) .mdmp files for analysis.
There is also C:\Windows\Memory.dmp file.
Better if you can compress (zip) them and add some information about the BSOD and the link for this thread.
Upload it to this anonymous ftp server: ftp://ftp.avast.com/incoming/
Disable Automatic Restart:
System Properties > Advanced > [Startup and Recovery]Settings
Remove the checkmark from “Automatically Restart” in the System Failure section.
I’ve zipped the most recent minidump and a text file with a description of the problems and the link to this thread and uploaded the zip file to the avast ftp server mentioned in your post.
(There is no ‘C:\Windows\Memory.dmp’ file, yet).
I eagerly await the response to this information.
In the mean time, do Avast employees recommend to not use the sandbox feature?
Right.
I just started Firefox non-sandboxed e.g. normal and opened 2 tabs; one was ‘IHT/International Herald Tribune’, the other Youtube to listen to some music.
The music on Youtube played fine but almost all text on the IHT page was garbled or simply gone, some 10-15 seconds after opening the webpage.
Hoovering the mouse over the text, made it reappear partially but I decided to close the browser.
Which it did seemingly because the Firefox window closed but the music from Youtube simply kept playing.
Clicking on the Desktop Firefox icon resulted in a standard XP ‘Application Error’ popup message.
Pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL resulted also in a standard XP ‘Application Error’ popup message.
I did manage to close Firefox entirely and reopen it, to post this message here.
To be honest, I’m really getting fed up with this.
I only want to read a newspaper online and listen to music simultaneously. Is that really too much to ask for?
First I thought it was due to running Firefox within the Avast sandbox (as described in post one) but the same misery also happens when running it non-sandboxed.
What steps do I need to take to prevent this mess?
Can Avast please testify that AIS cannot be run with Prevx SOL if that’s what they perceive as the culprit.
Do I need to ditch Firefox if I use AIS?
I’m eagerly waiting for a response,
Vic. Julius
(Still the same setup; XP Home SP3 fully updated, Firefox 3.6.14 (Noscript+AdBlockPlus) and Prevx SOL).
I’ve updated FF to 3.16.5 and uninstalled Noscript (to exclude a possible miscreant).
Unfortunately, when opening the same pages again; Tab1: IHT and Tab2: Youtube music vid, I have a 33% success rate.
First time; FF froze again, 2nd time; the Youtube Flash plugin crashed, the third time I struck gold…
So, updating FF has not really resolved it. Nor uninstalling Noscript.
On Youtube, I got an FF message that the ‘Adobe Flash plugin has crashed’ (reloading the page showed the same message again).
I’m using the latest Flash 10.2.152.26 10.2.152.32 plugin.
According to FF, all plugins are now up-to-date.
When everything seemed to be working for once, I closed FF, waited and then reopened FF sandboxed.
To my surprise I saw in the lower right an icon. The Noscript icon which I had uninstalled just 2 minutes ago.
I was surprised, said ‘WTF’ and (Avast has probably even more options than anyone knows because); POOF, BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH, pointing out that ‘ASWXSP.sys’ was the culprit. Sigh.
OT;
Guys, this is getting so bad that I’m about to uninstall AIS 6.0.
I’m certainly willing to upload any dump that might be deemed usefull in order to pinpoint those issues.
Perhaps it’s simply my own fault due to lingering stuff from previous installed software but I often use images to restore an OS to a clean state, I try to make sure that most, if not all software installed is actually up-to-date in order to avoid issues etc, I try to thoroughly remove remnants.
But as of now, I (have) experience(d) serious issues on XP (with AIS) and on Vista (free AV).
It really has been years since I’ve seen a BSOD on XP and I’m dissappointed to see 'm again.
I’ve already run NRT after uninstalling NIS. Twice , and rebooted in between.
Then I installed AIS 5.0 and XP ran fine.
I’ve run it though, as per your suggestion.
Also, uninstalled AIS,rebooted, ran the avast uninstaller but as of now XP has become completely sluggish.
I’ve reinstalled AIS 6.0 but XP remains sluggish.
No improvement whatsoever. I’ve tried repairing AIS from Config->Software->AIS but I get an ‘Error processing packages. Please use full update’ Avast popup.
From sandbox issues and multiple frozen FF sessions, I’ve gone to a seemingly borked XP system.
I’ll now try to restore to a previous ‘system restore point’ but as you’ll perhaps understand, AIS 6.0 proves to be a nightmare.
With all due respect, are you really suggesting me to install a beta version on my parents computer?
A beta?
That’s for people who like to test beta’s.
Either because it’s their job and get paid for it or because they like a product so much that they are willing to help out by running it on a (spare) system and file bug reports/upload dumps.
I really wonder why on this forum, a forum for a well known and established security software product line, beta software is advised as a solution.
Dear god, that’s not what you suggest your parents to use or what?
It isn’t a beta, don’t worry.
It’s a Pre-Release version, that fixes some bugs of the 6.0.1000 release.
You can read about it here: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=73110.0
Still, it’s up to you, if you try it or wait for the final release.
asyn
The change log does not mention the bugs that I’ve experienced and in the beta-thread it appears this new non-beta pre-release version has new bugs.
Like…totally freezing a system. Already seen it, been there, done that.
No need for it to happen again so, no thanks.
I will scour the web for an AIS 5.0 version if it’s not being made available to customers by Avast themselves.
I’ve already tried FileHippo as recommended by an Avast Evangelist in another thread, but they don’t list AIS, only the free AV.
Perhaps I’ll try AIS 6.0 if it’s finished.
The current ‘let’s use paying folks as beta non-final version testers’ direction isn’t my idea of having installed robust security software on a parents computer.
Nice for tweakers/enthusiasts/die-hard avast afficionados/etc but not for regular folks.
