Hey
I’m running avast! free 5.0.396 on Windows 7 Professional
Roughly one in five times avast! tries to update the virus definitions my laptop just powers off, not even shutting down properly.
I was wondering if anyone knows why this is happening and how to prevent it or if anyone is experiancing the same problem.
thank you
Welcome to the Club 
Yep first time I’ve been here and used avast for 5+ years recommended to around 50+ people over the years.
This product version is unstable and I won’t be recommending v5 to anyone for a while yet.
Home machine XP always up to date with updates not one single crash in 4 years and it’s left on permanently. Uninstalled v4.8 and since v5 every update the machine reboots and then recovers from a ‘serious error’ chkdisk each time found corruptions on the disk avast.setup etc etc so far 6 crashes in about a week. Finally saw a crash and nice reboot just as the message saying updates have been completed.
I have since run the removal tool in safe mode (so sorry couldn’t get to the feedback website to fill in the form). I’ll just leave it without AV for the time being and continue to use v4.8 on my laptop.
Please fix your broken product this should not be occurring and yes I was using .396 I’d still like to recommend your product but have to explain that at the moment they need to use the v4.8 not v5 as that will most likely cause them problems.
Thanks
I’ve been getting cashes after updates also. And now when I click on update I get an error message “The package is broken”.
Glad to see I’m not the only one having this problem. I didn’t know it was updates causing the crash. I never turn my pc off, but twice now I’ve gone to use the PC and it had “recovered from a serious crash”. When I get it back up, Avast won’t run. There is a red X over the systray icon and they program says it isn’t running and clicking on “Fix” does nothing.
My desktop freezes after updates too. I have no direct evidence that is the cause but I believe it to be so… 
Having the same problem…went back to version 4.8
Same problem here…crashes after update…Package Broken…started right after loading Avast 5 on a new Windows 7 64 bit machine. 5 has to be re-installed each time to get it to work again. Sent them the mini dump files and they said it was a hw problem. Odd because it only happens when thier program is installed and when it goes to update…Peter I wish I could get 4.8…cant find anywhere to get it........does anyone know where you can find 4.8. If not I guess Im going to use another program. Shame…been using Avast for years and thought it was the best…
Thanks waking…it was right under my nose…
Anyone having a system crash issue. Please send me the corresponding minidump files (the most recent files from the \windows\minidump folder).
In order to send them to me, click the envelope icon below my picture.
Thanks
Vlk
having the same issue but there is no OS crash or error report. every time after update my system freezes and i’ve to restart.
My Win7 Ultimate machine also caused a Blue Screen crash after the virus db update at 2/4/2010 5:30:16 AM.
After rebooting, got the message that the virus update did not install.
Tried to manually update both and I get “The package is broken”. I am currently on 5.0.396.
Sending the minidump file, but exported contents are
Ok.....no BSOD in a while. I unchecked in settings ...use special graphic effects......also in ...engine & virus definitions...I changed to ...Ask when a update is available. Now no BSOD when it goes to up date. I wait a while after bootup and manually up definitions. Anyone else with BSOD at definitions update try this and see if it works for you. Not a fix...but would be interesting if it works for anyone else. I`m running Win 7 64 bit........Peter
List me as another with Avast5 occasionally crashing Win7 immediately after updating. It doesn’t do this every time, maybe once every 4-5 updates. I’ve emailed my minidump file to Vlk… hope it helps.
Try going to manual updates and see if it works for you…for now it at least seems to be working…Peter
no luck… back to 4.8
The problem should be pretty much solved with yesterday’s virus definition update. It is recommended to reboot the computer though as some of the changes may not become effective until that.
A more systematic fix will be included in the next program update, released for the first half of next week.
Thanks
Vlk