I am having problems with my Ad Aware and Spybot running

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hello, i am not sure if Avast is the root of my problem…since downloading and using Avast I have noticed that my Ad Aware and Spybot freeze up while running. Could you tell me if the Avast Software program is causing this? If so how to I enable them to work together?

Thank you for your time.

2

Well there are many other forum members using AdAware Or Spybot S&D with avast and no flood of posts relating to them freezing.

You don’t mention anything about your system, CPU, RAM, OS, etc. ?
You don’t say what the sensitivity of the Standard Shield is, Normal is the default ?

Both of those tools if they are primarily on-demand scanners, is this what you are doing (running a scan) when this freeze occurs ?

If so my personal opinion (not everyone agrees ;D) is that you should pause the standard shield provider when running scans with other security applications. The reasons:

  1. as they open files to scan avast will scan those files also duplicating scanning.
  2. if malware is detected and avast plus the other scanner both recognise the same malware signature one will be trying to gain control which can lead to conflict between the two scanners.

By pausing the standard shield you avoid both possibilities and your scan should complete sooner.

3

If you follow David’s advices (disabling avast while running the other scanners), will it work?
I use bot ad-aware and Spybot, on-demand, and don’t get a freeze while avast is running in background (active).

4

Welcome to the forums, angelamauney. :slight_smile:

As David suggested, I suspect this has something to do with your CPU & RAM … but also possibly the virtual memory setting of your computer if your RAM is less than 512mb.

Please give us the info asked for by David & Tech.

5

I am sorry i didn’t realize this was information you needed, I apologize…here is what I know

Microsoft Windows XP, Home Edition Version 2002 Svc. Pk 2
Intel Pent(R) 4 CPU 2.20 GHz 2.19 GHz , 640MB of RAM

The Shield is on Normal

Does this help? Thank you again for your time!!!

6

With the information you’ve gave us, we cannot even guess what is freezing your computer. Maybe a list of running processes, maybe a HijackThis log…

7

Ok well then i will try to pause the shield and run them…i will let you know.

Thank you for all of your help! I really appreciate your time!

angie

8

From the information you gave your system shouldn’t be suffering any resource issues that might freeze AdAware or Spybot.

However you didn’t answer this question, I assume it is.

Both of those tools if they are primarily on-demand scanners, is this what you are doing (running a scan) when this freeze occurs ?

Hopefully what I suggested pausing the standard shield provider whilst you run the on-demand scan for adaware or spybot will have the desired effect.

Have (or did) you another AV installed in this system, if so what was it and how did you get rid of it ?

9

I paused the icon and both ran perfectly! So is this safe to pause while the Ad Aware and Spybot run? I guess it will have to be…

I previously had Norton AV and McAfee before that. The Norton removed fine; however i still am having problems removing on last file from McAfee…it simply will not go away and I have tried everything that the tech people there have told me to do???

Again, thank you for all of your time i really do appreciate it!

Angie

10

Do it off-line, unconnected to Internet, and do not run other programs in background (like installations, etc.).

  1. Remove NAV with Norton Removal Tool for Windows 2000/XP/Vista 2008.0.0.21.

  2. Remove McAfee by this article that provides the steps to remove SecurityCenter from your computer. http://ts.mcafeehelp.com/faq3.asp?docid=71525

Sometimes, McAfee won’t be completely removed if, before, you do not uninstall Avast, including the use of its “Uninstall Application” if necessary (www.avast.com/eng/faq-install-uninstall-avast.html).