Hey there Avast Forum Wizards!
I posted this in the Grimefighter board last night:
My PC has been slowing down and kinda bugging out on me over the past six months or so. Nothing that I would think to attribute to malware, just a bunch of junk i dont know how to clean i'm sure.
I’ve been an advocate of Avast for at least seven years, maybe longer, so when my graphics driver crashed while I was playing Dark Souls last night I thought of the cartoon cop informing me of 20 things slowing down my pc which could be solved… for a price. I hadn’t paid much attention to the new things Avast has been trying to sell me but having had some… unfortunate… attempts at registry optimizing in the past with third party free software (years ago. different system) i thought “Avast is reputable, Grimefighter might actually clean up my system and not be a scam”.
I paid the $20 for a year of Grimefighter. After I figured out how to activate my license I run the program, and get the message to reboot. I do so, and get a black screen with a solitary blinking " _ " which eventually becomes a string of characters followed by the message “terminated by signal 9 (killed)”
This became a black screen with a growing bar that says “Loading Jumpshot” (as a side note, im glad i read that Grimefighter used to be known as Jumpshot. I might have freaked out a little otherwise lol)
But before the bar finishes, it is replaced by three or four new messages with signal 9 things. Then it just stops. I turn my pc off, boot up as normal, try a second time, and get the same result.
Ugh…
So i dialed the Avast hotline. What. The. Hell.
So now I’m here. Only $20 spent so far. Can someone help get my machine back to gaming nirvana? Unwinding after work just isn’t the same… Ive got pics of the signal 9 message if that helps
[Edit: Seeing as Im not seeing that much positive feedback on Grimefighter, getting a refund and using a different software isn’t off the table as far as I’m concerned. I just would like to know how to help my machine run smoother)
I remember that a few months back friend had been talking to me about getting wireshark set up on my PC, but I couldn’t get it to work and he got a new job before I could get his advice. There seems to be a running theme of programs almost working but not… Maybe the avast phone rep was right in that my windows is corrupted? I’ve run the reccomended scans and will attach the logs. What do you guys think?
Didn’t quite get them all :-). We’re only humans though!
However, Avast’s Phone Reps are about as reliable as the Micro$oft scammers themselves. Don’t buy anything they sell from that line.
No offense to Avast. But Grimefighter is REALLY overrated, way to complicated and complete and total BS. You’re better off with CCleaner, MBAM and adwcleaner then you are with GF.
I have notified a specialist to come here. Just sit tight. It may be a few hours before he can get on though.
As long as it’s fairly understandable, heheh. Thanks for the help. I’m pretty good with using computers, but once we start talking about the registry and other system voodoo I’ve got no idea where to even start.
I ran CCleaner at Eddie’s recommendation and did a scan with the windows scr tool, which didn’t turn up anything unusual. My graphics driver seems to be up to date as well. My monitor occasionally flickers though.
Unfortunately I dont remember any details of BSOD. I’ve been avoiding lanching Dark Souls or any other graphics card intensive programs until instructed, but I could see if it causes another crash and take a pic of the screen. Here’s the FRST fixlog
Loaded up Dark Souls 2 and Far Cry 4, both of which didn’t trigger a BSOD. GTA V is unlocked tomorrow, which will probably be the most intensive thing i’ve tried to run. If anything’s gonna BSOD, it would be that. The reboot after FRST seemed to take longer than usual, but performance seems good so far. Anything else I should look for? I’ll load up Dark Souls again in the meantime and will report back if it crashes.
As a side note, I just noticed the “Solve PC Issues” Flag in the bottom of my screen. It says “Solve a problem with AMD - Display Adapter - ATI Radeon Graphics Cards”
When I click on it, the Action Center window says "This solution could not be downloaded. Most likely casues: Your computer was unable to download the solution at this time. Check to make sure your computer is connected to the Internet, and then try to download the solution again later.
I’m pretty sure I’m connected to the internet, considering the posting to the internet and whatnot. The notice wont go away though.
Every time I click “Show me the solution” it takes me to a new window, where it attempts to load the solution, then gives me the message it cant find it, either from non-existence or a lack of internet. I know I’m connected. Maybe something’s preventing action center from reaching whatever it needs to?
Dark Souls just crashed. I had to end task. Two graphical glitches have occurred. The text in the tabs on my end task menu are gone, and the ctrl+alt+del menu has this glitch if i hover over buttons.
Im gonna reload Dark Souls. It’ll probably BSOD. Will report back. Also, the text in my right click menu disappears when i hover over it. Wtf…
Can you confirm you have a file @ (C:\ATI\atikmpag.sy_)? If so, report back. I might have an idea. Need to run through it with Essex before he gives you instructions.
Hmmm… my ATI folders are under C:\ProgramFiles\ATI and also C:\ProgramFiles\ATI Technologies
Neither has atimpag. ATI contains the folder CIM, which contains Reports, which contains a bunch of XML reports. ATI Technologies contains ATI.ACE, which contains Fuel, which contains Profiles, which contains a folder named 8C4AF348173117D3DC7B3AC5934F27EF, which is empty…
I’m off to work. I can answer questions from my phone but won’t be able to do anything at the desktop for roughly 11 hours.
