Black screen WinXP for long time during boot after avast upgrade

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi.

I’ve just yesterday upgraded to latest avast home edition version after was prompted by avast!
The upgrade finished, shut down computer and reboot it.
During the boot initial Windows XP logo appeared on the screen as normal and then screen black out for about 2 minutes with no message. During this time the only visible activity on the computer was access to my USB external disk drive.
After about 2 minutes, the main disk has been accessed and boot continued as normal prompting for user name and password.
Computer is functioning properly besides that delay in the startup.

I’m positive that with the previous versions of Avast! which I was running for couple of years, I never had this delay with black screen. The USB drive connected to the system long time before yesterday’s Avast! upgrade.

Did anyone experienced same problem after upgrade? IS the way to block avast from loading during the startup to confirm that delay is caused by avast?

TIA.

Michael.

2

You’re not alone, many others experiencing identical problem. There are about 5 other threads on this subject, one down the page if you look. Few solutions though, unfortunately.

3

Thanks,

I did search archives before posting and found several threads, but looks like they described a bit different behavior during the boot.