Forced to uninstall AVAST

I have been using Avast for a few years now and very satisfied with it (free version on Windows XP Pro).
However, when I installed the latest update a week ago, it made my system crash, over and over. It took me while to work out it was AVAST causing the problem (it wasn’t instantaneous). When I managed to uninstall it, no more problems. I cleared some space on my PC to help matters, then reinstalled. Same problem - Avast slowed everything down, then the PC just kept shutting down. I uninstalled again, left for a few days… then reinstalled yesterday, thought it was ok, ran a couple of scans, but a few hours later, same problem.
I have now uninstalled AVAST again (and PC working fine once more), but would like to be able to use it. Any idea what’s going wrong here?

Many thanks for any help.

Please, go to folder \windows\minidump and send the newest (recent) .mdmp files for analysis.
There is also C:\Windows\Memory.dmp file.
Better if you can compress (zip), rename it with an unique name, them and add some information about the BSOD and the link for this thread. :wink:
Upload it to this anonymous ftp server: ftp://ftp.avast.com/incoming/

Disable Automatic Restart:
System Properties > Advanced > [Startup and Recovery]Settings
Remove the checkmark from “Automatically Restart” in the System Failure section.

Besides Google also you can use:
MS knowledgebase: http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1
Free memory tester (Run it overnight): http://www.memtest86.com/
XP error explanations: http://www.xptuneup.com/xptuneup_stopmessages.htm
BSODs: http://www.techmetica.com/howto/descriptions-and-fixes-of-blue-screen-of-death-bsod-crash-errors/

Manual dump: when the machine is in stalled state, hold down the rightmost CTRL key, and press the SCROLL LOCK key twice. This will cause a machine to ‘blue-screen’ and dump of memory will start.
More info: http://support.avast.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=71

To generate full dump instead of only kernel (or small dump), see http://www.msfn.org/board/creating-memory-dumps-t130005.html.

Werent there patches to fix certain issues for xp?

Although Tech’s post is technically correct, and it is also true that there are some patches available for some specific situations (only for the current version of Avast 6.0.1203), an alternative workaround is also possible.

You could keep using Avast previous stable version for a while (which used to work OK for you), instead of the current 6.0.1203, and wait until the next stable version comes out.

If you can, please indeed send those zipped memory minidumps (the ones you already have should be enough in most cases by now), and report here in this topic the unique name you used (something like username-date-1.zip, or Korrigan-2011AUG05-1.zip, or alike).

In the meantime, older stable versions of Avast can be found at http://www.filehippo.com (search for Avast Free and then look over the side panel).

In any case, please report back.

Yes.
They’re here: http://public.avast.com/~kurtin/patches