I am trying out Avast after finding very few anti-virus will work on my XP Home without some major problems - desktop freezing and the like (that happened with PC-cillin) and avast seemed to work ok, then I discovered that neither my scanner nor my printer would work until avast was switched OFF. Anyway round this ? Thanks
Oh yes. One other thing. I was under the impression that Avast was free for home use, yet when I switched it back on after I had been printing something, it asked for a serial for registering, then said I had 50-odd days left.
I am not aware of any problem caused by AVAST with printers or scanners. Your’s is unique to me. I am puzzled at the moment. There is a remote possiblity that AVAST may SHARE some of the dll’s (Dynamic Link Library) that your printer and scanner use. In that case, if AVAST gets to them first, it may not release them for the printer and scanner to use. This question I will need to pass on to the AVAST Team research.
WHOCARES provided some general remedies which might improve system performance but I doubt that they will cure the underlying problem
What is your scanner/printer manufacturer? We may need to contact them to ascertain if there are any SOFTWARE CONFLICTS with anti-virus programs.
WHOCARES also brought up a very good point indeed…if you have been trying various anti-virus software, you may have an accumulation of “leftover” files. (NAV AND MCAFEE are not that easy to remove in their entirety)
You my try reinstalling the drivers for the scanner and printer.
Right now we will try what we can until we have a more direct path to follow.
I am having the same problem. My printer is a Canon BJC240L. I had to try a progressive trouble shoot with msconfig turning off various startup programs to find what was causing the problem. It was the avast programming.
There must be a way to fix this…please!
Could you please try to get some more information about the problem?
would the problem go away if you disable the avast resident protection completely? If yes, could you try to disable only the particular resident providers to find the one causing the problem? If you find this provider (could be the Standard Shield) - can you try to disable some of its options (in case of the Standard Shield, e.g. “scanning files on open”, scanning OLE documents, …) and check if the problem persists?
if the problem occurs whenever avast is installed, is it still present when you kill avast process, stop avast service (NT/2k/XP), maybe even remove it from the “Startup” chain and reboot?
does the problem disappear after avast is uninstalled?
what are the exact problems with the printer - the printer doesn’t print anything, or some kind of garbage, or seems not to be installed at all… ? Is it possible to enter the Printer configuration? Is there any useful information there (error message when printing a test page, …)?
I am running Windows 98.
After many troubleshooting ideas, including disabling avast resident protection, and working with Canon eCare, I ran msconfig to access and change my start-up programs. I unchecked Awil and Avast, restarted and the printer worked fine.
Before this the printer would be interrupted during a job, stop printing, shoot out blank pages, and print partial pages.
Does this help?
Although, your trouble seems to be related to the printer drivers…
What is the extension for the files at spool (try to print something and see the printer spool, generally at, C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool). Is avast! set to scan this particulary kind of file? Are you scanning all files?
Thanks for the next step in troubleshooting! I have already tried pausing Avast! while printing and this didn’t help.
How do I disable avast! from scanning files sent to printer? I believe I can do this by changing what’s being blocked in the Resident Task Settings dialogue box, but am unsure what to check…
Do you say that even disabling the whole avast! resident protection (or the Standard Shield) didn’t help? If it is the case, then there is no point in excluding particular files from being scanned - since it obviously wouldn’t help either.
Besides “pausing” the provider - did you try to “terminate” it?
Yes, I tried both pausing and terminating (by unchecking Awil and Avast! in start-up programs in msconfig and restarting). Without av running at all, I can print normally from Word, but still have problems printing from Web. I am working on the web problem.
However, what can I do to allow av to run and print normally from Word? I am not sure what the blocker commands mean in the dialogue box for Resident Task Settings. Sure appreciate your help!
Thanks for all this, people. I have’nt had time to get back here, and will act on some of the ideas, the printer and scanner work perfectly OK if Avast is switched off, but I havent needed to use either since, so I dunno if it was just a blip. I am having problems with some e-mail addresses I have (I use 7, and 3 or 4 are now giving me problem more than that, they are not downloading or sending - whereas before, I had no problem) So, I’m up for any FURTHER advice in that department !!! : ;D ;D ;D
Well, it just keeps popping up the usual error message when you have done slight error filling in, like password etc, only it worked quite OK prior to avast making the chages required to keep an eye on the mail. I have even had to go into the options and change them back manually in order to get my e-mail. I’d like it to be screened, but not if it’s hitty/missy with deliveries.
Where do I find the help file for Resident Protection blocker? Couldn’t find it on the web site or a button on the user interface. yeh, I know, I’m a newbie…
Not too sure what you mean about ‘usual’ error message or the ‘slight error filing in’. What e-mail client are you using and have you tried running the ‘wizard’ again?
I'd like it to be screened, but not if it's hitty/missy with deliveries.
Avast shouldn’t be hitty/missy once it’s configured. The folks here will help get it right.
;D ;D ;D