Starting yesterday, a day or so after an Avast program update, when I try to start my old Acrobat.exe or PhotoShop.exe, my computer crashes, and I get a blue screen of death (BSOD). This continues to happen despite reboots, and also after a “Repair” of Avast in Add/Remove Programs, and then a “Modification” of Avast to turn off a lot of its unneeded features.
The screen message in each BSOD is that the cause is aswsnx.sys, an Avast file. I also saw a special reference to that file in my mini-dumps (which are otherwise incomprehensible).
Acrobat and Photoshop open just fine (a) in Safe Mode and (b) in Normal Mode if I first Disable Avast for 10 minutes.
My PC is a good-condition Dell Optiplex 755 Desktop with Win XP SP3 32-bit, which I keep updated using the POS hack, and 4GB RAM. (Using it now.) My Acrobat and Photoshop Elements are from approx. 2001 - old but good programs that have been very useful for a very long time, including with my HP 8500 printer-scanner which is only a few years old. My Acrobat and Photoshop Elements have been running without problems for years with Avast. Yes, this model Optiplex and CPU have hardware virtualization, and Avast has been running with its own hardware virtualization on for a long time now.
The new Avast aswsnx.sys file is version 11.2.2738.0, last modified May 01, 2016, with a digital signature date of April 25, 2016. So it’s quite a new version of that file.
Avast - please fix this bad new aswsnx.sys, and let me know how to get a better version of aswsnx.sys. Thanks.
PS - I am now attaching a photo of the BSOD screen - see attached jpg.
Be Secure (and other readers) - Your first two questions are answered in my first post. Please re-read.
I don’t have any other active protection running except “Malwarebyte Anti-Exploit Free”, which only activates when a browser starts and has never been a problem. On the passive side, I occasionally run a MalwareBytes Free scan, and I use SpywareBlaster Free and Spyware S&D, both with manual updates only.
The point is that I’ve had no problem with my setup (including Avast) for a very long time. It’s only the new version of aswsnx.sys that causes BSODs with certain programs.
One thing is has to change is Spyware S&D.It can create lot of problems.
Or create dump file of the file and send it to avast! via avast! support and post ID number of that file so that avast! dev can find it.
I’ve already confirmed that the trouble is caused by Avast. As I wrote at the start, “Acrobat and Photoshop open just fine (a) in Safe Mode and (b) in Normal Mode if I first Disable Avast for 10 minutes.” This is the same as going through contortions with msconfig. Also, the BSOD itself blames aswsnx.sys. And, as I wrote, this is a new version of aswsnx.sys, so the source is obvious.
Spybot S&D has nothing to do with it. I haven’t actually run a Spybot scan in ages - I use only its Immunize function to add bad web sites to the Hosts list - same thing as SpywareBlaster. Been doing this since 2004 with no problem from Avast until yesterday.
Will anyone here reach out to the Avast engineers and have them provide an alternate version of aswsnx.sys that doesn’t crash my PC?
Don’t need evangelists - need a working aswsnx.sys.
There has just been a new program update release, 12.1.2272 https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=187663.0. It would be worthwhile updating to see if it has been resolved in this build.
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