I have a worrying issue with the new Free A V — I am currently on issue 7.0.1466
My A V asked for me to update program – I did as it asked and it ----- firstly locked me out from the desk top – after a couple of tries I got to desk top and lost all my icons – then the next re boot it got to the blue screen of Death ( AGGG __ LOL )
I tried a clean install of the new program – namely I did a restore first then — uninstalled old Avast – installed new one a And next reboot it froze on me
Each time I had an issue === I did a restore via safe mode to get back to a working point and tried again
I have had Avast free since 2005 and never had so many problems I am currently running Avast on old program and it works fine – all AV updated ok its just the program giving issues
Im on win 7 pro – zone firewall – intel I3 C P U – 4 gig ram – 32 bit opp system
I really don’t want to ditch Avast – as I think it’s the best one out there and wondered if anyone can help me sort this out – before I go elsewhere
Hi Asyn – thanks for your reply – sorry I didnt give full information – Im a Newbe on this foram ---- as to your Questions — Im on Windows 7 Professional – 32 Bit ---- S P 1 – and 4 GB of Ram ---- No other Security software installed – and I forgot to Mention windows Defender and firewall are both off as I personally feel that Avast Free AV and Zone Alarm Free firewall are better and give me full coverage – do you think you can help or have an Idea of what may be wrong ???
Same situation here… update to avast free 1473 appeared to go fine. I was asked to restart and when it did I got Windows welcome screen and then a black screen with white cursor that just sat there. I forced power off and tried to start again with same result. I forced power off for second time and brought Windows up in Safe Mode and uninstalled avast. Restarted system and it came up normally with no avast. I did a download & reinstall of avast and it seemed to go fine but when I did a restart I was back at the black screen with white cursor again.
Windows 7 Home Premium SP 1 32-bit
Intel Core 2 Duo E7500
4.0 GB RAM
Zonealarm Free
(I updated my second system running Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit also running Zonealarm Free and all is well with it.)
Same problem here. Update to new avast version seemingly worked fine till next reboot when system hang after displaying half the toolbar icons. Attempt to launch any program after that results in complete system freeze requiring power-off. Tried this several times. Rebooting in safe mode and uninstalling avast with cleanup utility fixed the problem. Fresh re-install of avast worked until next reboot when problem reappeared exactly as before.
What makes you think that disabling the shield fixes the problem? FYI it doesn’t. Also, angry faces don’t have any place in such a discussion. “Just waiting” as you suggest certainly isn’t a solution or an option. Having an unprotected system till avast release a fix for a problem which, afaik, they haven’t even acknowledged yet may sound reasonable to you but it certainly doesn’t to me nor I suspect to the majority of security conscious users.
If you have something more constructive to suggest to resolve the problem, I would be happy to try it.
At least with MARIO 58 and Denny M, I spot what could be a common link between two different OS’s and systems.
When I install or upgrade an important security program such as Avast!, I make it a point to turn off (disable) any other security programs that provide real-time protection before attempting to install, and only re-enable this sort of program when all appears to be clear and well.
Reason is, programs that actively scan your system will allow the install, but during the rebooting process, Avast! files are replaced with new, and if certain features in these other programs are enabled, they then do not know what to make of these changes, block them, and that action will sometimes lock up a system.
I think ZoneAlarm, and possibly SUPERAntispyware Professional, might fit the bill here. Maybe, maybe not, as I am not in front of your systems. Just a thought.
Thats the solution avast team has asked to try until a fix…disabling the behaviour shield wouldnt even affect anything as it isnt the signature scanner…if you dont want to try that…try a repair:
control panel>>add/remove programs>>select avast>>click uninstall>>select repair>>allow it to complete>>reboot.
It isn’t a solution, but a workaround and one only in certain situations (relates to winXP Pro 64bit as far as I can recollect), which is why people are reporting it doesn’t work. So please don’t give advice if you don’t know what it is likely to do.
No it isn’t a solution, but a suggestion/workaround avast has asked to try, there were distinct conditions to be met before this should be tried as I said they related to XP Pro 64bit not being able to run 32bit applications.
I installed Avast Version 7.0.1473.755 and it locked up my computer. Windows XP Pro SP3 Version 2002, Intel Pentium 4 2.60 GHz, 2 GB Ram. On reboot Windows Opened, Desktop with Icons, Booting stopped at Avast. Start Menu does not work, none of my programs will Open. Avast said they are working on the problem. Mouse icon shows it is trying to Open. Had to hard shut down my computer.
Avast has said they have a software design problem. Avast is the only program that runs all the time on my computer. I have Malaware but that only runs when I run the program. I also have ZoneAlarm Free which does run all the time and that works fine with the old version.
Same situation here with this system:
Windows XP SP3 32-bit
Pentium 4, 3.00 GHz
4 GB RAM
Updated Avast Free. Asked to restart and when it did I got Windows welcome screen and then messed up desktop with a frozen cursor. I forced power off and tried to start again with same result. Attempt to launch any program after that results in complete system freeze requiring forced power-off. Tried this several times. Brought Windows up in Safe Mode and uninstalled Avast. Restarted system: system and all software works normally without Avast. No hanging, no freezing, no problems. Then downloaded full install of Avast, reinstalled and it seemed to go fine but when I did a restart I was back to frozen cursor. Start Menu did not work. No applications would open, nothing would launch - not even Control Panel.
Rebooting in Safe Mode and uninstalling Avast temporarily fixes the problem. As I said, a fresh re-install of Avast only worked until next reboot and then the same problems reappeared exactly as before.
I installed a different antivirus program until Avast gets this one straightened out.
Thurs night (10.25.12) Updated from within Avast Free to 7.0.1473 and lost all icons on desktop plus could not shutdown or restart. Only Cursor still active. Could launch Task Manager. Safe Boot was not working reliably…but once I could access network and copy some files for safety…but don’t rely on it.
Solution:
Launch Task Manager (cntrl>alt>delete)
Under Process Tab locate explorer.exe and click End Process (ignore the warning message…hit Yes to continue)
While still in Task Manager, go to File> New Task and type: explorer.exe…click OK
This will get your desktop icons back…but 32bit apps will not launch…also no shutdown or restart. I could not delete or uninstall Avast…would just freeze. (at this point I realized Avast was the culprit).
Next, I disabled all Avast Scans and got 32 bit apps working again.
My Workaround (as poster suggested earlier) was:
Uninstalled then reinstall Avast Free.
Disable Behavior Shield Scans (or if prefer, uncheck the 3 Expert Settings 1 at a time until 32bit apps work) I think I unchecked “…unauthorized modifications” and “…malware-like behavior” and then got system back to normal. But better to disable all.
Hope this helps others!
Final Note; LogMeIn was first clue as it threw an error message about system problem and wanting to send auto message to LogMeIn database. For awhile I thought that app was to blame. (I was not remoted…LMI runs in background…)
This was a huge loss of time on my workstation where I make a living. Surprised at this release going out with such a major bug. Looking for a patch real soon. My next update will require an in-depth search for others to comment on status…Avast should have officially notified users ASAP. This has been going on for a couple days now or longer…
Professional XP 64bit SP2 2003
hp xw8400
Intel[R] Xeon[R]
2.33GHz
12GB RAM
Avast-Free (no other antivirus)
ok so i had the same problem, the automatic program update made my comp freeze on startup.
After some trial and error including look for conflict problems, disabling superantispware, disabling functions (none of those ideas worked) i found the answer, at least for me.
uninstall and reinstall avast dont include the firewall. When it asks u to restart, go ahead. When ur computer is reloaded again make sure firewall is turned off, if firewall is turned on then when u shutdown and then turn on comp the problem will return.
I know u dont wanna turn off the avast firewall but for now that works, the only other thing i can think of is turn of MAlwareBytes, maybe thats causing the conflict
But at least for now my computer is running fine and ill use the windows firewall. If someone is willing, try to disable malwarebytes and tell me if that does it.
If u try the firewall technique or try anything else that works please post here, i hope i helped
also ive just found out if stop malwarebytes from loading avast works fine that way too, theres a conflict btwn avast and malwarebytes, but id rather keep malwarebytes and disable avast firewill
I’ve also encountered the same problem. I upgraded to the new version of Avast through the application and rebooted the PC. When the PC restarted I only got 2 of the toolbar icons appearing - avast was not one of them. The system froze when I pressed the Start button so I had to hard reboot. This time on Windows startup no desktop icons appeared. Tried this several times with the same result. Safe Mode brings up the desktop icons.
I eventually gave up and restored to a backup before the upgrade and am now running version 7.0.1466. Am I right to assume that until a fix has been issued that its safe to keep at the older version?