Avast Update Causing BSOD?

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi,

Upon turning on my computer this morning and updating Avast I discovered that I could not use Firefox without running quickly into a BSOD/physical memory dump. Internet Explorer worked most of the time, but also triggered a BSOD, depending on what I was doing. Error messages included page_fault_in_non_paged_area, bad_pool_header, and system_service_exception. I did a system restore and noticed the problem was fixed… Until I reactivated Avast and downloaded the latest version of the program. So, my conclusion is that Avast is somehow triggering the BSOD. Has anyone else run into this problem? I’m currently running the free 5.0.677 version (100910-1 virus definitions) on Windows 7 Professional x64. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

2

Hi blackorpheus16 and welcome to the forum. :slight_smile:

I’m also running Avast Free, but version 5.0.594 with the same definitions update on XP SP3 with FF and having no problems.

I haven’t heard in the forum of people having BSOD as you described, but an occasional user have have had a shield turned off.

Are all your Shields up and running?

Does Avast say “Your system is secured.”

Now that Avast is working again, can you run an Avast Full scan to make sure you are clean and report back? Thank you.

3

I had problems (BSODs) while using avast sandbox (which is not present in the free version).
Can you upload the dump file?
Please, zip (use yourusername.zip for naming it) and upload the C:\Windows\Memory.dmp file to this anonymous ftp server: ftp://ftp.asw.cz/incoming

4

SafeSurf, all of my real-time shields are on and Avast says my system is secure (plus the scans are clean). Tech, I just uploaded the files in my Windows\Minidump folder (there is no Memory.dmp file on my computer). Is that what you needed?

5

I have no problems with avast! Free V5.0.677 on my Windows 7 system.

@ SafeSurf

Why are you still using V5.0.594 as V5.0.677 works quite well on my XP Pro system. ???

6

First, disable Automatic Restart:
System Properties > Advanced > [Startup and Recovery]Settings
Remove the checkmark from “Automatically Restart” in the System Failure section.
You need to check for memory dump generation.

  1. Right-click on My Computer
  2. Select Properties
  3. Select Advanced
  4. In the Start up and Recovery section, select Settings; this displays the Startup and Recovery dialog box
  5. In the Write debugging information section, select kernel memory dump
7

After doing the above and after more eventual BSOD(s) download http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html and check through the minidumps and you should find the conflicting program.

8

avast 5.0.677 build fixed many things…it is recommended to upgrade

9

Because I’m beta testing another program and I can’t make too many changes at once or I won’t know what is causing it. So for now I have to keep the older Avast program until I’m done with the beta testing.

10

Tech, “kernel memory dump” is already selected, but what is the point of deselecting “automatically restart?” Do you have to have 25gb of free space in order to create the memory.dmp file? I think that was the issue (the file was created after I freed up some space). Anyway, I have the file now and I just tried to upload it to the ftp, but I received an error message with the following details:

200 Switching to Binary mode.
227 Entering Passive Mode
553 Could not create file.

Is the zipped file too large to upload, at 85mb?

mhf, I downloaded BlueScreenView, but it doesn’t give me any information when I try to look at memory.dmp. It only gives info about the minidumps (I moved memory.dmp to the minidump folder so it would show up in the program, and when I click on the file no information is provided).

11

If you can do the upload, zip and do it.
Warn here for they to monitor the ftp server.

12

OK, I just uploaded memory.dmp, and the uploaded file is named blackorpheus16(2).zip. (I couldn’t upload before because the file I was trying to upload had the same name as the original upload.) Please let me know if there is anything else you need.

13

Yes, you’re write blackorpheus it only reads minidumps - but it is possible that you will find what you’re looking for in a minidump !

14

BlueScreenView points to ntoskrnl.exe as the problem, which can’t be good. I don’t think that Avast is the problem anymore, it’s just strange that rolling back my system fixed all of my issues until I re-activated Avast.

15

How did you roll back your system?
System Restore is notorious for bringing the system to an inconsistent state, specially (but not only) with avast installations.

16

I simply did a System Restore to a date right before I started having problems.

17

Then I suggest a repair of avast installation.
Go to Control Panel > Add/Remove programs > avast! antivirus > Remove. Then choose Repair function in the popup window (Repair).