I updated my PC (Win7/64) this morning from latest 6 to 7.0.1426 and the computer started to run very very slow (to the point where mouse cursor only moved once every few seconds). I thought I’d better leave it, but after 2 hours the problem was still there, even after rebooting.
Went into Safe Mode, removed Avast (including using latest aswclear), rebooted and all was fine. So I tried installing again, and the computer was fine until I rebooted (it had said that autosandbox wouldn’t work until rebooted), and the computer ground to a halt again.
This time I hit the hibernate button on the PC itself, the computer hibernated normally and, bizarely, when I brought it out of hibernation everything was fine.
Since then I’ve had phone calls from several friends (with XP or Win7) to say that they’ve updated to the latest Avast and their computers have crashed or frozen. I’ve been able to get one running smoothly again over the phone, but will have to visit the others to sort things out over the weekend.
So there is something clearly VERY wrong with this version and I think that we’ll just strip Avast off and use something else.
It has certainly shattered my (our) faith in Avast
What anti-virus was on the “virgin” machine? And how was it removed?
Have you tried a “repair”? Did you use a registry cleaner on the leftovers. http://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/
As Pondus asked, what other security software are you using? ???
edit: Sorry Pondus didn’t mean to step on your toes.
I’ve had similar problems to what gotty describes here (Avast 7 free) on 2 different computers running 32bit Win7. In both cases general system responsiveness was severely affected: some normal windows services (Networking) would not start at all. Windows startup was so crippled that nothing could be done or accessed on the computer, not even the start menu. I also was not able to get into task manager as that service was apparently not running either, even after waiting for over an hour. A couple of BSODs were produced as well, crashdump information cites aswMonFlt.sys and fltmgr.sys. I first tried uninstalling and doing a clean install of v. 7, which didn’t help.
I tried uninstalling version 7 and reinstalling version 6, but the problem persisted. I then ran the aswclear utility (for v5, v6 and v7) and reinstalled v. 7 again. No luck.
-I have been temporarily using a trial version of another vendor’s AV (which will expire soon), hoping that the situation with Avast 7 would get fixed in the meantime…
right now I’m afraid to go back to Avast and really can’t spend time trying to locate and fix problems that shouldn’t be there in the first place.
I agree with gotty that something basic must be very wrong with v. 7 and hope the Avast team can fix this.
Except that v7 is in use on millions of machines without any issue at all.
avast! in numbers
203,333,854registered users of avast!
148,560,401active users of avast!
357,145infected websites discovered with help of avast! CommunityIQ in last 30 days
46,451,512users prevented from visiting infected sites in the last 30 days
Did you ask for help? Did you generate any dump files for avast to check?
Hmm, I spoke too soon.
No sooner had I written the above then all programs on 2k stopped responding.
And they did the same on another, xp, machine. On it, neither firefox nor its instal program work.
And turning off avast doesn’t correct it once it’s started, though it does if you do so before the trouble starts.
I absolutely, whole-heartedly agree with gotty. I just wasted over 6-hrs. of my time and my husband’s (he’s my office IT person) at the office trying to figure out what was wrong with the system! - on a day when we should have left to go out of town between 6 & 8 a.m.
Everything was fine last night. Some time in middle of night, my Avast updated to7.0.1426. When I got up, my computer was cludgy, with all of the mouse problems gotty described. After rebooting, the mouse problem resolved itself & so did the general cludginess to some extent; however, although it said I had an internet connection, I was obviously not getting out on net. When the basics didn’t work (going from wireless to ethernet, resetting router, switching to our portable Verizon router, etc.), I got hubby involved because I figured the problem was elsewhere in system (we run independent firewall, etc.) It never dawned on me that it might be Avast because I’ve used it for years & had never had any problems. When everything was exhausted, he told me to shut down my firewall & Avast. Quickly realized it was the Avast.
Then I started turning off the individual portions of it. The problem is the Mail Shield & Web Shield. From there, I’m still stumped. Regardless of which of the individual portions of the shield I activate or de-activate, I have no internet access so long as those shields are up. Only when they are totally de-activated can I get out. Running without the anti-virus shield, especially regarding my e-mail is unacceptable. Any ideas anyone.
I run Windows 7, Home, 6-bit; latest versions of Firefox & Earthlink. I also run Chrome at times (same problems there.)
Which is your firewall?
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I use Online Armor. It is up & running & there is no problem with. As I stated, nothing happened until the Avast was updated. Everything had been working perfectly in sync until then. So long as the two portions of Avast are disabled, everything is working again.
Updated Avast, then PC freezing on startup. Restart, freeze again. Tried a system restore (Windows XP Professional) , PC no longer froze but Avast icon had X on it stating that program was not running. Tried restarting Avast but no response. Knew it had to be the update so went hunting and found this forum. Posters suggested going back to previous version.
Download previous version. Restart PC. Go to remove/add programs and try to remove Avast so I could install previous version. No joy, refuses to uninstall with an error stating unable to continue.
Go to programs and manually delete Avast folder.
Try to restart. No luck. Endless loop of restarts. Restart in safe mode and that works but-- no restore (nothing happens when I click on system restore). No internet connection (non connection screen and empty network connection folder).
I’m flucked. Thanks guys. Looks like a windows reinstall and hours and hours and hours of work. Will use windows essentials from now on.
Download aswClear - go to safe mode and run it from there, uninstall all versions of Avast (4,5,6,7)
Reboot and then reinstall V7 http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility
but if you did…OK