TLDR
Chrome tabs crashes to aw snap STATUS_STACK_BUFFER_OVERRUN or STATUS_BREAKPOINT because of Avast hooks.
If hardware acceleration in chrome disabled - crashes stop.
If you leave hardware acceleration on, but rename program name from “chrome.exe” to “chrome1.exe” avast uses minimal hooks instead of extensive ones - this prevents tabs from crashing too.
Investigation
I compared loaded dlls and handles when chrome lauches as “chrome.exe” and “chrome1.exe”. In case of original name Avast recognises app as high-value target and loads more hookups, renamed program gets minimal hookups.
Started to be repeatable today (2016-May-16).
Prior to today - happened, but very rarely.
Today even simple reload, opening link in new tab or just simply opening link can cause these tab chashes.
My current repeatable test
- Open youtube channel with huge amount of shorts.
- Open first short and start to list quickly though them using directional Down key.
In case of Hardware acceleration on + original “chrome.exe” name - crashes repeatable after 3-5 shorts.
Test conditions
Chrome tested with flushed caches, 0 extensions, no themes. Additionally tested in Incognito mode.
No recent Chrome, Avast program updates. Virus definitions updated today.
System information
- AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- MSI GTX 1060 6GB
- Windows 10 Pro
- Chrome Version 148.0.7778.168 (Official Build) (64-bit)
- Avast Free Antivirus May 4, 2026 (build 26.4.10932.983)
- Avast virus definitions May 16, 2026 (ver. 260515-6)
Conclusion
I used Avast Free Antivirus for ages and it’s my preferable and most often reccomendated av. Never had issues, minimal affect on performance. But this issue is stagger me constantly.
I need HW acceleration sometimes in Chrome but have to have it switched off now. I can use chrome in less protected way by renaming it to “chrome1.exe” and using it with minimal Avast hooks, but I like protection that Avast uses when it uses proper hooks.
I’m in a pickle.
Have no idea how to report this issue to Avast.
Hi @mikhail-aaa and thank you for reporting this issue.
Can you please send us logs from your device? The steps are described here: https://support.avast.com/en-ww/article/33/
For ticket number, you can enter 914156. Once the logs are uploaded, please reply here with the File ID.
Meanwhile, we’ve released an update earlier today (virus definitions version 250517-16) that should address this issue.
Could you please check if you’re still able to reproduce the problem? If yes, we’d still appreciate it if you could send us the logs as mentioned in my previous post.
Hi @prokopes and thank you for help first of all.
I’ll do extensive more extensive tests later, but seems that issue is not replicating right now. Support File ID: T6LMN.
Out of technical curiosity, could anyone share what specific change in the virus definitions addressed this issue? I understand detailed signature information may not be publicly available, but even a general explanation of what was adjusted would be very interesting.
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Hi just an FYI that there is a thread on reddit where hundreds of users are experiencing this and the CHromium developers have indeed traced it to an Avast/AVG issue. The thread is here: (sorry the forum wont let me link to it but its called “keep getting aw snap error after windows update“ ) please Avast fix as soon as you can. I dont know if mine has updated yet so dont know if its fixed on our 3 PCs yet
Hi. Yes, I saw those posts. But after trying to do sometihng myself and finding no solution I’ve tried to reach myself with this post.
I still have similar AwSnap crashes, but they are rare and not replicatable for me to trace the specific issue.
But this VD update fixed this specific issue for me and I am since unable to make this crash happen again.
Add: I’m on Win10 and my updates are locked because I have programs that are crucial and they tend to crash after updates and don’t work at all on Win11. For me personally as I explained in original post it started to happen specifically after VD update. There was no recent Chrome/Windows/Avast core or any updates tracked on my PC.
Hi just to let you know the problem is not fixed yet, we have updated the antivirus and the virus definitions and it is still happening to all 3 of our machines, though not as much. Please see the very long reddit thread that details why it is happening to help you fix it. Please update us thanks
@prokopes
The only replicatable issue I found is opening any of twitter’s post in a window/tab/new window and click of post author’s profile or X logo to get to homepage.
By itself it happens time to time, but if you update page quickly and then do any of these actions quickly - I’m getting STATUS_BREAKPOINT or STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION.
My Current VD 260519-6.
Switching Chromes to use ANGLE specifically as D3D11 helps to some degree.
It does not solve the issue completely for me personally, but makes it occurs much more less often.
The switching to D3D11 works for me but only until reboot. Somebody on redit said that its not the actual choosing D3D11 that fixes it, its the forced restart of chrome that hapens after you do it as this reloads chrome with less things (hooks?) running from avg/avast and thats then why it works because the thing (hook?) that causes the crash is no longer running on that restarted chrome.
FYI for us it happens mostly when you watch a youtube video right to the very end and after it stops, try to click on the channel button to go to the channel and we get “Aw Snap”. If we click BEFORE the video gets to the end it usually doesnt happen.
Looking at the redit post, I dont think this has been flagged up well to avg/avast as most users getting it are assuming its a chrome update or windows update causing it but the chromium developers said no its avast/avg and then washed their hands of it. So I dont think avast/avg are aware of its severity.
I am still doing some tests.
YT Video sequence did not triggered aw snap for me yet - tried several times.
Switching ANGLE to D3D11 and back to Default seems to help, but interesting thing:
- Avast Hooks are still present fully and seems to be working.
- After restart - opposite to what was expected I was not able to replicate any errors now.
I’m comparing everything and logging.
The only difference I found out so far that after restart I have these two dlls present:
- edputil.dll - Part of Windows Enterprise Data Protection (EDP) / Windows Information Protection (WIP).
- windowscodecs.dll - Part of Windows Imaging Component (WIC).
Will do report if I will find any way to replicate error and eliviate problen and will do full scan to look up for diffrerences.
The redit thread has within it a link to the chromium dev page where they were investigating the problem. Within that somewhere is the evidence and conclusions that they came to that identifies this as an avg/avast problem, while I dont follow the technical aspects of it myself I assume this would be the information to identify why the problem is happening?? Do we have any more info from @prokopes as to if avg/avast are still addressing this problem as the last post they put above implied they thought it was fixed in the update but it isnt, would be great to hear further info please.