Avast 5 with RDP totally locks up computer

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Using Avast 5.0.545 with XP Pro (fully patched) and connecting to XP via RDP from Vista.

RDP completely locks up XP machine. I see a totally black screen on both the remote desktop and the XP machine. The only way I have found to recover is the power off switch.

When I switch off the File Shield on XP then I can connect. The other shields can be left running. This is completely repeatable.

This is not a satisfactory state of affairs. I have been using and strongly recommending Avast for years. Do I have to look for an alternative?

2

Wait for confirmation. They can fix lots of bugs via regular daily updates in avast! 5. Maybe this one falls there and they can fix it fast.

3

Cannot reproduce here w/ 5.0.545 and XP Pro SP3

4

We use RDP quite a lot… so it’s certainly not a common problem.
Would you be able to create & upload a full memory dump at the moment the machine is frozen?
(provided there’s a PS/2 keyboard on that machine, i.e. not USB, the description is here.)

5

Thanks for the response. Following the request to send a sytem dump I have been unable to recreate the fault. RDP has started working correctly again.

Since I raised the problem the following changes have occured.

  • I changed the registry setting, as requested, to prepare to force a Blue Screen

  • The AV signatures on the XP machine (the target of the RDP) and the Vista machine (where I was running the RDP connection from) were both updated through a normal update.

  • The Vista machine was rebooted (which should have had no effect). The XP machine had been rebooted many times while I tried the various experimnents needed to report the earlier problem.

I don’t know what to conlude from this but at least my RDP is working again. Could it have been some form of false positive in the signature file?