The subject is self explanatory. When I boot on a XP SP3 machine the Avast taskbar icon shows up and has an exclamation point over it for a few seconds and then goes away. I assume it does this when all of the shields are not fully running yet?
Also on one machine when I did a in place upgrade, I then went to the scan sections and everything was blank, rebooted and it was o.k. everything showed up, quick scan, full scan, etc…
As to the exclamation point over the Avast taskbar icon for a few seconds anybody have the same situation?
The tray icon is orange and spins during activity (option setting) if all is
secure and normal/Protected. If you have certain settings or conditions which
will cause the Summary to go yellow/Attention (such as having Updates set to
Notify rather than Automatic or a Shield disabled), there will be a yellow triangle
with an exclamation mark in it over the orange ball. In this state, the ball does
NOT spin during activity.
If you have a serious condition which will cause the Summary to go red/Unsecured
(such as having all shields turned off), there will be a red square with a white
‘x’ in it over the orange ball.
During startup the icon may reflect the fact that one or more of the Shields is
not yet up and running.
P.S. - The description of the tray icon’s appearance in the 5.0.377 help (Basic
Settings) is for the 4.8 icon, and has not been updated to accurately describe the
appearance of the icon in v5. While it has the color of the ball right (orange),
it says:
“… if it is greyed out, or has a line through it, one or more of the shields may
not be active.”
That’s what I was thinking so i’m not going to bother with it, as long as the shields are running. Just weird though, my other slower machine with Avast 5 doesn’t have the same situation with the exclamation point over the Avast icon on boot. You would think the slower machine would have this issue and not the faster machine.
Hi Street_Lethal,
I am also experiencing the same problem.
Not sure if the new Avast Free 5.0.377 is defective?
Hopefully there will be an official response from the Alwil team?
Avastfan1
Hey Ho ;D THis is also the case with both my Computers running WindowsXP SP3. I assumed this was simply due to all sevices getting the get go. I’m not quite sure here… is this a problem or is this normal boot up operating ???
Anyone… 8)
I have the same problem, keep getting the red x followed by the yellow exclamation on every reboot, but after a while the avast ball goes orange again.
AFAIK, it isn’t a “problem”. Different systems have different hardware,
different software, different startup programs and services, etc. Avast!
itself consists of different components and services which have to be
started individually and separately. The timing and synchronization will
vary from system to system.
Would you be more comfortable if the avast! icon didn’t appear at all until
it is fully loaded and fully operational? Or would you be more comfortable if
it showed a “Starting…” icon or splash screen during startup?
i’ll take your word for it that it’s not a problem then but it would have helped if that sort of explanation about the different icons was in the help section.
Yep…I would have to agree 8)
I uninstalled and reinstalled Avast 5 the other day on the system I was talking about with this issue just to see if my installation was borked and it’s doing the same thing. On reboots the exclamation point goes away faster, about a second, on cold boots i’ll get the red x quickly and the exclamation point will hang there for about three seconds. We’ll see if an update changes anything, until then i’m not going to mess with it again. But, Waking could be correct, what he says makes sense and is what I was thinking.
By the way the system with this issue has practically nothing loading on start besides the standard MS services. I have Sygate 5.6 starting with Avast, that’s it. XP SP3, e6420 overclocked to 2.66 Ghz, 2 gigs of ram. The slower system(laptop) without this issue also has nothing loading besides the standard MS services and Sygate 5.6. AMD Turion 2 Ghz single core processor(not a X2), 1 gig of ram. It’s running Media Center 2005 SP3. Same exact guts as XP but with the Media Center crap which I never use. The fast system blazes to the desktop( I told ya I run it lean) which is why I might be seeing the exclamation point, the laptop sits at the “welcome” screen for a bit which is maybe why when I get to the desktop on the laptop I don’t see the same thing going on.
I’ve also noticed that the yellow triangle with an exclamation point appears for several seconds each time I boot up my laptop, before switching to the normal/rotating orange ball. I have speculated that this is due to the time it’s taking for my wireless card to be engaged, and start accessing my router for an internet connection — it seems that the triangle disappears concurrently with my firewall showing internet activity.
In particular I have noticed that avastUI.exe — which I believe controls the system tray icon — accesses the internet (I had to allow it permission in my firewall). I believe this tends to corroborate my speculative explanation. Perhaps someone at avast can definitively confirm this?
Could be, could explain why it does it for a longer time on cold boots for me, I turn my modem and router on and then my computer. My computer has to get a IP from the router. If the router and modem are left on and I do a reboot I get the exclamation point for a half second. No biggie as long as it works and doesn’t hang there forever.
Essentially the boot-up behavior is more or less the same as it was in 4.8 … if you moused-over the avast 4.8 (and of course older ones too) icon during bootup, you’d typically see that some of the providers weren’t yet running (in my case, the Web shield and Email shield were usually the last two to “kick in”.
That’s one of the features in v5 I’m delighted to see – if, for example, you’ve paused (or even stopped) one or more providers and forgotten to reactivate it/them, you now have a visual reminder/warning about it without having to do a mouseover check.
Same thing happening here the taskbar icon shows a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark? this lasts for approx 3 secs it also causes the desktop/taskbar icons to refresh when it eventually loads and changes to the normal avast icon ??? can someone from avast please confirm will this issue be addressed/resolved with the next program update :-\ my current version is 5.0.377
cheers
r2d2
While I don’t speak for avast!, it should be clear from the prior comments
that there isn’t anything that needs to be addressed or “resolved”.
Consider it a useful indicator that you need to wait for all shields to be
installed and activated before commencing to use your computer.
I have the same problem, keep getting the red x followed by the yellow icon on every reboot, but after a while the avast ball goes orange again. then LAN connection appaired taskbar,my current version is 5.0.377.but one thing i want to know that i heard that melwere were effected in boot time??? is it true??
english is bad
sorry…
It’s not a problem! As with all services/startup programs, it takes time to run them all, even if you have the latest and greatest core i7! As your system boots, it will load all of the drivers/startups/services as quickly (but sequentially) as it can. Your pc will not dive off to the internet to find the latest piece of malware just because Avast! hasn’t finished loading!
Just how quickly do you need to get on the internet? If it’s that quickly, then leave the PC on and don’t shut it down.
If not, just wait until it finishes and then go on.
I would only worry if it doesn’t clear after booting, then you need to find out why. Has something on Avast! failed, or is there a problem with malware or a virus?
regards, Gizbar.
Just wondering if you guys might have noticed any difference since the virus update def 100127-0 - I’m pleased to report my system now starts up without displaying the warning triangle/exclamation mark so I’m just wondering if avast have included a fix for this issue in the latest update 
would appreciate your thoughts 
Thanks
r2d2
That yellow exclamation point use to appear and then disappears once the shields are up and running. At least in my slower PC I did notice that. With my faster one though, well… Didn’t notice. Perhaps it could be the update also that fixed it. Haven’t seen it since yesterday.