Hi, just wanna say this for all that may have the same problem.
I had Avast Free 5 upgraded to 6 on updated XP SP3. All of a sudden Windows started to hang on “Windows is shutting down”, doing nothing, and I had to turn it off holding the button. I killed Avast with removal utility, installed fresh Avast 6 and now it does hang few seconds more than it should on shutting down but it shuts! I lost several hours and many nerves!!! That’s all! >:(
edit:
NOPE! ONE normal restart and again same Scheiße! I thought it had something to do with PROGRAM UPDATE coz I think I saw it on some I don’t know which forum but NO, I tried all 3 options and, guess what - “Windows is shutting down” (this is for Google). Avast REMOVED till fix available. (I know it’s free, don’t care)
So that we can help you better, please answer the following questions and see the suggestion below:
What other security software do you currently have or did you have in the past on this machine including:
Antivirus (AV)
Firewall (FW)
Trial versions of AV, FW and other security programs
Other security software (both on-demand and resident)
If they were in the past, how did you remove them (the vendor’s uninstaller’s tool or another way)?
Are your MS/Windows Updates current?
Are you still having a problem with Avast not in your machine?
Suggestion:
A. Check your computer for malware with Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware (MBAM).
· Download freehttp://www.malwarebytes.org/ (the blue button) for an on-demand scanner.
· Double Click mbam-setup.exe to install the application.
· After install, click update so you have latest database before scanning.
· Under Settings:
o General: Automatically Save File After Scan Completes is checked off
o Scanner Settings: Check all boxes
o Updater: Download and install update if available is checked off
· Once the program has loaded, select “Perform FULL Scan”, then click Scan.
· The scan may take some time to finish, so please be patient.
· When the disinfection scan is complete, a log will appear in Notepad and you may be prompted to Restart. (See Extra Note).
· Click the “remove selected” button to quarantine anything found. You will find the infection details under the Quarantine tab.
· The log is automatically saved by MBAM and can be viewed by clicking the Logs tab in MBAM.
· Copy & Paste the entire report in your next reply.
It is possible that you have conflicting remnants of security software causing an issue, or you have possible malware, or a hardware problem, just to mention a few things. So we’ll start with the easy stuff and work from there to help fix your problem. Let me know if you have any questions. Thank you.
Only free Avast, Zone Alarm and MBAM were ever installed on that comp.
As I said in first post XP is updated and without Avast shuts down normally, it’s not enough to just disable it I had to remove it. Also, HD is defragged and has no errors.
I don’t have access right now to do full scan but I did already quick scan which showed nothing.
Did or have you tried adding the exclusions to avast for zone alarm in the file system shield / expert settings / exclusions, and allow all instances of avast in zone alarm ?
One other possibility … if it happens that avast is auto-checking for updates at the time you shut down, it could take a while. If this is by any chance part of the problem, normally avast will give you a red popup notification next time you start up, worded something along the lines of “error on last update attempt”.
I did full MBAM scan and forgot to save the log but it was clean anyway.
Avast is of course allowed by ZA and I also added ZA to Avast exclusions but that shouldn’t be standard procedure, and that didn’t make any difference, I also disabled both program & defs updates and still nothing. I never had any conflicts, errors or anything, neither I do now it’s just that stupid thing won’t shut down forever…
Finally, I installed version 5 and everything is OK now, shutting down screen stays for some 10-15 secs and then shuts down. So, there is something in version 6…
It is standard is most cases to add exclusions for security software for each other, especially if they use HIPS or behavioral-based software. There were many problems with ZA in the past however many of these have been fixed with v.6.0+. The current Avast 6.0.1125 is much stronger in many ways than previous versions, so you should upgrade or do a clean install and add ZA as an exclusion and add Avast as an exclusion to ZA.
@ Nesivos, Many users around the world still use XP and will continue to use it for a variety of reasons. This has already been discussed in a previous thread. Shame on you for mentioning it again as this does not help the OP with his/her problem.
They have the same problem except that I have NTFS, I disabled Avast, I killed everything but Avast, including ZA (both client and vsmon.exe), I can log off…but can’t shutdown! I’ll try to stop some shields these days, I use it on-demand mostly anyway, and if it won’t shutdown again I’ll definitely revert to version 5, it won’t kill me…
I suggest an uninstall of ZA to see if that fixes your problem. If not, then do an uninstall of Avast then a clean install of Avast using the Avast Uninstaller tool (without ZA) and see if that works. If it does, try adding ZA and see how things go. If things work out, great…if it doesn’t then uninstall ZA and install a different firewall.
Disabling shields is not the answer to your problem and neither is going back to Avast v.5.0. I can have you submit a mini-dump file, but the steps above should be tried before doing this. Thank you.
I’d like to add my experience to this thread.
Avast 6.0.1125 free was installed on my Win XPPro SP2 system. Same days ago it started to crash few minutes after boot (it didn’t missed one) and the popup alerted me with a rootkit problem with system32/drivers files. Not the same files every time, more frequently nklnk*.sys.
An Avast complete scan revealed nothing. McAfee Rootkit Detective, nothing again. Rootkit Revealer was not able to access registry hive.
A couple of weeks ago I had problems with Skype (last updated version) as well, it started to crash just after launching. I was forced to disinstall it.
I made a clean disinstallation of Avast 6.01, reinstalled from scratch, problem again. Disinstalled again and scaled back to Avast 5.1.889 and everything works fine now, Skype (reinstalled) works fine again, Rootkit Revealer is working properly now (though nothing suspected has been found).
You should start your own thread as to not confuse this thread. In the meantime, you need to update your OS to SP3 as this is most likely the problem using Avast 6.0.1125. Go to MS and update first and see if you still have a problem. If you do, then start a new thread and also let us know if you still have any malware. Thank you.
removed both, installed last Avast, installed last ZA, 10 restarts already, everything O-ket! ;D
only added Avast to ZA as I always did, and just to add that I keep most of file system shield options turned off
and also, it would be good if summary of settings could be exported to txt file
