When my computer screen freezes, it occurs when I have MSN Messenger 7, Adobe Acrobat 7, and Firefox already up and running and am loading Outlook 2003 (or am in the middle of (repeatedly) checking my mail in Outlook 2003). Please note that it doesn’t always freeze, but only “sometimes” under these conditions.
I am unable to reproduce the crash, but only able to tell that the above programs are running when my screen decides to freeze. After that, I would need to hard power off the computer. When I disable Avast Resident Protection, computer screen has not frozen once.
Avast logs contain no errors. Event Viewer logs contain no errors either.
There are no disabled plug-ins in Outlook 2003.
Toshiba Satellite, Avast Home 4.6.665 (all protection settings “high/customized”), XP Home (latest updates), Outlook 2003 (latest updates), Adobe Acrobat 7 (latest updates), Firefox 1.0.4, MSN Messenger 7.0.0813
As it happens fairly “random” (about 4 times a week) and is quite annoying, it would be great if anybody knows a solution or explanation to this. Thanks in advance!
It’s very difficult to guess…
When I have to troubleshoot freezes, I’ve used to have Process Explorer (http://www.sysinternals.com/) opened and look what is taking the CPU, try to see if any dump file is generated, what is being scanned, etc.
It froze again while I had process explorer open. However, since the screen froze, there was no way for me to figure out what process occupied CPU time (no log option either). I did noticed something though:
The freeze seemed to occur during checking of email in Outlook (while connected/connecting to servers) and when a message comes in through MSN Messenger simultaneously.
Special settings:
MSN Messenger is set to scan received files using avast! quickscan.
Outlook 2003 has password protection on .pst during startup. avast! resident scanner is set to customized with all scanning options checked.
I believe we would need the full memory dump from the moment the freeze occurs (to be able to say more).
If it’s not a problem for you (the dump will be rather big - as big as your physical memory, so you would have to be able to upload it to our server), please follow the instructions given here. (The thread is about a completely different problem, but it contains the necessary instructions - what to set and what to create in registry).
Thanks!
No need for that. You can use the avast IM provider.
What do you mean?
It will be better do not change the Behavior Blocker settings, for instance.
It will be better let avast! with the default options until we can know what’s going on.
Igor:
I will follow the instructions, but probably need some time. Hopefully I will be able to get the memory dump soon (512MB, so should be OK). Thanks for your help.
Tech:
My IM provider is set to “High”. However, inside the MSN program, I also have set “ashQuick.exe” for scanning my files after a receive. I did this as a habit from before avast! had an IM provider.
Side Note: Can I assume the avast IM provider will scan MSN Messenger files automatically now?
As for avast! resident scanner (I was referring to Outloook/Exchange Provider), I don’t remember what I have managed to check or uncheck under “Custom”.
I remember having Outlook subject header checked under heuristics which I believe was off by default
Anyway, hopefully reverting to Default won’t make the problem disappear. Thanks again for your input.
The good or bad:
After setting all avast! resident scanning providers back to default high (so, no customized selections), my computer hasn’t crashed yet. Even though I am attempting very hard to “make it crash”.
The maybe bad (to Igor):
I discovered that I do not have a “Scroll Lock” button, but a Toshiba Fn+Key type of option. Hopefully I can still invoke the Memory Dump when it crashes using Ctrl-Scroll+Scroll
To Tech:
I never used any other Antivirus software on my own computer (avast! for life as long as it’s free or I am rich) and I won’t forget to zip the memory dump, no worries. Thanks again for your fast response.
Hmm, the keyboard might be a problem. I’m not sure if any modified combinations will work. Well, you can try to invoke the bluescreen even without the freeze, just to make sure that the shortcut works (of course, check that you don’t have any work in progress before you try - downloads, opened documents, etc - you would lose the changes).
On normal keyboard, it is important to use the right Ctrl key, not the left one.
Igor, I have followed your suggestion, only to find out that I could not invoke the bluescreen.
I don’t have the Scroll Lock button, but the Combo FnKey and on top of that…
I don’t have a right Ctrl Key. I only have one Ctrl key on the entire keyboard, which is located on the left side.
So, this path is dead, any other ideas to capture a memory dump? ( I don’t have access to an external USB keyboard either if that was the next suggestion.)
So far, however, I have not been able to get another screen freeze.
Hmm, I’m afraid I don’t have any other suggestions (unless you can connect an external PS/2 keyboard… I’m actually not sure if USB would work, even if you had one). You can hardly invoke the bluescreen any other way because the system is, as you say, frozen at the moment you want to do it.
The keyboard handler is quite low level, so it’s normally able to “respond” even if the rest of the system is frozen, but I really don’t know any other way.
As I said before, with my luck I am not too surprised that things don’t go smoothly. Not even when I am trying to debug.
PS/2 Keyboards I have (plenty of), but no PS/2 connectors on my “top of the line” : (USB only) Toshiba laptop. Hey, but what can you do!
So far, I haven’t had any screen freezes. Hopefully, it can stay like this. I’d like to thank both of you who responded (Igor and Tech). I guess we can consider this one closed for now… Thanks!
and I won’t forget to zip the memory dump, no worries. Thanks again for your fast response.
I only have 
(unless you can connect an external PS/2 keyboard… I’m actually not sure if USB would work, even if you had one). You can hardly invoke the bluescreen any other way because the system is, as you say, frozen at the moment you want to do it.
(USB only) Toshiba laptop. Hey, but what can you do!