Avast v10.2.2218 and Windows XP Pro

system · 2015-06-09T22:06:46.000Z

Martin,

In mid April of this year all my Win XP Pro 32 bit PCs and Laptops started slowing down and took 3-4 attempts to boot up completely. Once finally in it took forever to bring up programs and move around. I noticed the drive light wouldn’t even flicker when I executed any programs. I didn’t think it was a hardware problem because all the XP devices were doing the same thing. I tried every utility I could find as well as chkdsk and boot scans. Nothing helped. I remembered that v10.2.2218 was released about the time these problems started. So I uninstalled Avast Free and installed AVG Free and everything is back to normal on all my devices. Any ideas?

DavidR · 2015-06-09T22:25:22.000Z

I have no problem with it on this XP PRO SP3 system.

What are your system resources, CPU and RAM ?

If you just did an update from the avast user interface, I would have first suggested an avast repair, but having uninstalled it that option has gone.

So a clean reinstall would be the way to go, though having installed AVG you have complicated that somewhat.

Clean Reinstall Instructions - Download the latest version of avast, 2015.10.2.2218 http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_free_antivirus_setup.exe and save it to your HDD, somewhere you can find it again (if you didn’t save your last download). Use that when you reinstall.

Download the avast! Uninstall Utility, avast_clear.exe http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_clear.exe and save it to your HDD. Ensure that your system is off line whilst doing this first step.
1. Now uninstall AVG - using add remove programs/Programs & Features and, reboot.- 2. run the avast! Uninstall Utility, it will request it be run from safe mode (and will handle the boot into safe mode), once complete reboot into normal mode.- 3. install the latest avast version, reboot.

Note: save the copy of avast_clear.exe so it can be reused as some users are reporting that after running it, it is self-deleting.

NOTE: when installing avast do a custom install, so that you can select or deselect what elements you actually need. The Tools section has a lot of elements that could impact on your system depending on your system resources.

See attached image of a previous installation I did (click to expand) - look at the tools section and you will see what I have left checked, basically only one additional element, software updater. Give it a try with only that checked in the Tools section.

General: Uninstalling a third-party antivirus software - See avast FAQ article, [ur]http://www.avast.com/faq.php?article=AVKB11#artTitle[/url]. This should also give an uninstall tool for AVG, which you should run after uninstalling it normally.

system · 2015-06-10T13:01:14.000Z

David,

I have everything from a quad core 8Gb memory PC down to several bare bones laptops. I’ve run
Avast and Malwarebytes Antimalware and Spybot S&D together on all these devices for many years
with never a problem. I’ve done both the Avast Repair and Uninstall and Reinstall. I’ve done Change,
primarily to remove Grime Fighter and left the others as default. My belief is some malicious bug got
into these devices causing all the problems that Avast doesn’t recognize but AVG does recognize
and removed.

DavidR · 2015-06-10T13:28:05.000Z

Some lessor powered systems may well be better of resource wise without many of these tools, more so GrimeFighter.

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