Around the end of January or early February the Avast screen saver stopped working. If I select the “Scan for Viruses” box the screen saver never kicks in. To reproduce this I check the box then go to the screen saver and select “preview”. The screen save appears to start then immediately stops. If I deselect the “Scan for Viruses” box it operates correctly. I’m running Win2k and Avast Build Jan2007 (4.7.942).
Which is the screen saver set into avast module?
I mean, the ‘background’ screen saver while avast scanning is running?
Which is your Windows? 98, Me, XP?
Do you use any other antivirus in your computer?
Can you try to repair your installation?
Go to Control Panel > Add/Remove programs > avast! antivirus > Remove. Then choose Repair function in the popup window (Repair). You must be connected to the internet while repairing.
The screen saver was set to “Blank Screen”.
I have Windows 2k Pro SP 4.
So far when I go to Add/Remove programs and select Change/Remove for Avast nothing happens. The mouse icon changes for a few seconds from a pointer to a pointer with an hour glass and then nothing.
Did you try any other?
Hmmm… bad news… your avast installation is not good.
Do you have any other antivirus in this computer? Did you have in the past?
- Uninstall avast from Control Panel first.
- Boot.
- Failing 1 or not, use Avast Uninstall for complete uninstallation.
- Boot.
- Install again.
I rebooted and was then able to do the repair. After the repair I have the same issue.
I tried changing the screen save background but the 2 or 3 others that I tried behaved the same.
I currently have no other antivirus. In the past I had Norton. I had F-Secure for a while a little over a year ago. But that was the last time I had another antivirus running.
Most probably this is not related with a second present antivirus. Anyway, you could find in Symantec and F-Secure pages special tools to remove traces of these antivirus left behind.
Do all other features of avast are working?
What does happen exactly: the blue scanning message popups and then disappear?
I don’t think it’s related to any remnants of the old antivirus. These were completely removed. The screen saver was working as expected (it was scanning the disk) up until the end of January or early February. Everything else about the virus scanner appears to work as expected. What you said is correct: “the blue scanning message pops up and then disappears”. If I disable the scan (uncheck “Scan for Viruses” box) the blue scanning message pops up and stays up until I move the mouse. But if I enable the “Scan for Viruses” check box when the screen saver kicks in the blue scanning message pops up for a fraction of a second and then goes away. Something else could have changed but the time that this started occuring correlates well with the the release of 4.7.942.
Is there any way to see the name and path of the last scanned file?
How can I do that? Would it show in one of the logs?
I wish it does… but I’m not sure.
I hope Igor could give us a hand…
I’m afraid the last scanned file is stored in avast! database (\Data\Avast4.db) - i.e. not really in a readable form.
The behavior you are describing is really strange though. If the screensaver works when the virus scanning is disabled, it means that the “cooperation” between the real screensaver and avast! program is working correctly… (which is the part I’d be worried the most about).
Could you please upload your Avast4.db file to ftp://ftp.avast.com/incoming ?
Also, does it change anything if you check the “Loop scanning” option in avast! screensaver configuration? (you might want to backup the avast4.db file first - before trying that)
Just uploaded the Avast4.db file.
the same thing happens if loop scanning is disabled.
Well, I meant if it does the same when loop scanning is enabled (so I suppose you had that setting already enabled).
The last scanned path is
C:\Win2k Upgrade Installs\27_cygwin\ftp%3a%2f%2farchive.progeny.com%2fcygwin\release\tcltk\tcltk-20001125-1.tar.gz\tcltk-20001125-1.tar
- but I don’t know if it’s gonna help anyhow. I must say I don’t see any obvious problem in the code (and it’s working correctly here).
Are other avast! scanners (such as the Simple User Interface) working correctly for you?
I reinstalled 4.7.942 and it works now.
thanks for your help with this.
Strange… I hate mysteries… What did you do different this time? Did you use the default installation folder?
Everything was the same. I had originally uninstalled an older version and installed 4.7.892. I got to 4.7.942 via the Updating → Program Update option.
For the heck of it I uninstalled 4.7.942 and reinstalled 4.7.892. The screen saver worked. Then I uninstalled 4.7.892 and installed 4.7.942 and the screen saver worked as well. So it must not have liked the update install.
I’m not sure that downgrading avast versions would be the best way to have it working.
Something messed the avast installation.
Anyway, glad you’ve finally get avast working well.