First of all have to thank the people behind Avast making it possible to have a free Internet access security program for Windows PC’s.
With an impressive amount of active users and many positive critics it must be a good system.
However in the first encounter with Avast tried to make a default installation w/o success on a PC setup with a fresh Windows XP Professional installation with all the updates passed Service pack 3 except IE7,IE8 and the GWA.
These Microsoft services are by default disabled in my installs: Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing and Security Center. Automatic Windows Update is always off on the updated systems not to mention a few other unnecessary such as remote access services cq security holes. This is to ensure full internet access and the highest possible speed experience with the first install as “the reference”.
After Avast was installed the PC rebooted straight into a BSOD.
My first conclusion was that it must be Avast.
The system could be restarted into Safe mode and Avast safely uninstalled. Windows XP was acting normally again.
Wonder if other users had similar experience? Windows XP is still lightweight compared to newer Windows versions and still supported a few years by Microsoft.
Maybe I should start with the Beta version of Avast next time?
Hi, you can send me a couple of the latest minidump files (\Windows\minidump folder) to kurtin@avast.com and I’ll find out if BSODs were caused by avast. Thanks.
No minidump files were created but it was definitely BSOD.
Actually there were 2 crashes as I remember 1 after installation with 1st forced reboot followed by 2nd crash.
Unfortunately no much further recorded info to base conclusions on except the event viewer which recorded only something before 1st crash that the Avast Antivirus entered the running state and after reboot several rundll32.exe - Application Error : The application failed to initialize properly (0x80000003)…which was stopped with forced 2nd shutdown and successful reboot into Safe-mode.
Did the install over again and this time also registered it for updates until 2012.
Ignored that in previous install. Also performed a complete update check of engine and definitions and the program.
Further non-defaults of an express Install: Unchecked “Improve Avast” and “Include Google Chrome” check-boxes , same as in previous install.
This time no crash after reboot Could it have been due to ignoring registration?
Yes, it’s possible – but only because we asked you to generate a manual dump (e.g. your OS hanged, had a memleak or we’d like to see your OS memory contents: the list of the loaded drivers, etc). If a user gets a random BSOD then it’s not needed to generate a manual dump (we wouldn’t read any interesting information from this dump at all).
Could it have been due to ignoring registration?