I want to report a problem that I found today for avast free.
A little background:
I had past experience where after I left my windows locked (using ctrl+alt+del) and then when I signed-in back, I found out internet connection was down but only for that PC where I checked through other device, the internet connection is ok. I can ping address like google.com and get the result, but I can’t open any connection through browser or application. This problem is already happened twice if I can recall, when first problem occured the solution is simply restarting the pc, but for second case, I determined to find out the cause. So I checked inside my windows and then I find out avast’s icon showed all shields are stopped, so I opened “Services” panel and I saw avast service had stopped, then I started again the service and the internet connection on my pc is back. Not sure if avast has to do with the internet connection problem, maybe it’s just a coincidence. But ocasionally I saw avast secure line vpn pop-up, not sure if it’s related. But now I decide to turn off the secureline vpn.
Current problem:
It’s almost same, I left my pc for awhile and when signed back I found out my internet connection is down, but this time it’s really down. I checked the “Services” panel, I saw avast service was running fine, but from past experience, I’m thinking maybe restarting avast service can restore the internet connection. However what happened was avast service can’t start anymore, there was pop-up message showed up but I forget what’s written on it. The avast service’s status is “Stopping” and I can’t do anything about it (see the attachment screenshot). This obviously also made all avast shields down. I can’t start the shields from avast icon and UI too. Ultimately, when the internet connection was back, the avast’s service was still in “stopping” state.
I checked Event Viewer, I only found this log about avast:
The description for Event ID 0 from source AvastVBoxSvc cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.
The following information was included with the event:
Service started/resumed
The log level is “Information” though.
Finally, I restarted my pc to solve the problem. Then for curiousity, I tried to restart again avast service to check if the problem could happen again, and it’s not. So I’m thinking if the problem is related to inactivity/sleep state from Windows OS.
I’m using windows 7 64 bit and hibernate is disabled, my avast version is also have been the latest version (2015).
I hope the avast’s service robustness can be improved, it’s really terrible if the service/shield can be taken down without user’s intervention, and this is not the first time I met this problem.