Can anyone help me with this? I updated Avast from 6.0.1125 to the new version 6.0.1203, and have lived to regret it! Now my computer takes 5 full minutes to boot (I’ve timed it), and once booted, it is impossibly slow (for example, clicking on Control Panel takes 2 minutes for the screen to populate, and connecting to my wireless router takes forever now).
In addition, the new version 6.0.1203 causes my hard drive to write to itself almost constantly. When I’m working at the computer the constant drive writing noise is a real nuisance!
I use Windows XP and would like to go back to Avast version 6.0.1125, which worked great for me. I can’t find any way to do this. I’ve tried System Restore: after restoring to a previous time Avast then shows up as 6.0.1125, but it is non-functioning and can’t be started.
My wife’s computer still has 6.0.1125 on it, but I don’t know if it’s possible to get the needed files from her computer onto mine so they’ll work.
I’ve searched the Internet and can’t find any available download for 6.0.1125 (and if I did, I wouldn’t have Avast’s “key” – and I doubt Avast would give one to me for an old version – or is this not a problem?).
Now my computer takes 5 full minutes to boot (I've timed it), and once booted, it is impossibly slow (for example, clicking on Control Panel takes 2 minutes for the screen to populate, and connecting to my wireless router takes forever now).
Is it the first boot? or still happen after the 2 or 3 times booting the OS?
Try booting it twice. If the problem still exist try repairing Avast installation from Control Panel Add/remove program.
I've searched the Internet and can't find any available download for 6.0.1125 (and if I did, I wouldn't have Avast's "key" -- and I doubt Avast would give one to me for an old version -- or is this not a problem?).
If you use the free version, you can simply register your Avast from it’s UI. For Pro or IS version you can simply re-insert your previous license key.
DarkMasters and Spiralvoice - Many thanks for replying! I seem already to have grown more gray hair thanks to the new version and greatly appreciate your help.
DarkMasters, no it isn’t my first boot: maybe the 25th by now. All boots now take forever. And before posting I tried the repair function in Control Panel’s Add/Remove, which didn’t help.
Spiralvoice, thank you for the link to the patches. Do you know if they work (and don’t create problems of their own)? – I’m still a novice at these things, so the patchwork would likely take me a while!
Thank you both for the link to filehippo! It’s great to know that the older version can still be downloaded. To install the older version, am I right that I need to uninstall Avast 6.0.1203 first?
Spiralvoice, Thank you for your quick reply! [:>) I think it might be easier for me to revert to 1125 than work with the patch, so I’ll try uninstalling 1203 and reinstallilng 1125. And thanks for the suggestion to use aswclear. Much appreciated!!!
I want to THANK YOU for the really helpful suggestions. Sometimes contributing help on these forums goes unappreciated. I want you to know how much this has helped. My computer, running Windows XP, was virtually disabled by the new Avast version 6.0.1203. I gave some examples in earlier postings; another example to give some idea how terrible 6.0.1203 has been: If I want to open Windows Explorer, it took 2-3 minutes just to see the folders on my hard drive!
I’ve followed your directions, downloaded the previous Avast version 6.0.1125 from filehippo.com, downloaded the Avast uninstall utility, and together these have solved all the problems. I used Control Panel’s Add/Remove progrms, uninstalled Avast, then restarted my computer in Safe Mode and ran the Avast uninstall utility (which removed a lot of files that the Add/Remove program hadn’t taken care of), and then installed 6.0.1125.
Immediately my computer was back to running fine.
I’ve been grateful to Avast for their free anti-virus software, but for now I feel put out by the hours of time it has taken me to get back to their version 6.0.1125 which works well. They definitely need to put more care before releasing a new version that causes machines like mine to become virtually unusable. I’m happy to revert to 6.0.1125, and it’s going to take a lot of persuasion to do any Avast program upgrades in the future!
Thanks again Spiralvoice and DarkMasters for your helpful and for me indispensable suggestions.
I am seeing the same problem on one of my Win XP SP3 machines as well, the
machine is virtually frozen…, the other machine with Avast 6.0.1203 is fine,
however. I am not able to tell the difference between the two machines software-
wise. Running 6.0.1125 with the virus signatures from May 2011 works fine,
using current virus signatures causes that machine to freeze with 1125 as well…
See my post (in German) here for details.
I’m another one with the same issue…since the update to 1203, and continuing with removing Free and installing AIS, boot times have become ridiculous, and some services are slow to start, or just break – Norton Ghost’s service, for instance. I’ve found that what works is to let the machine boot all the way, then log off and log back on. That corrects the services issue, and speeds some things up (though the extreme delay on right-clicking desktop items for the first time remains.)
So the solution would be to clean-sweep removed AIS and reinstall Free 1125?
The machine slowed down by Avast uses a SCSI HDD while the other one uses SATA.
On the machine with SATA HDD I replaced that HDD with a SCSI HDD for testing and,
guess what, Avast was also slow on that machine. So I believe the problem occurs
when Windows is installed on a SCSI HDD. My support ticket with this information
was not answered for two weeks…
glad that we can help you.