I’m having an issue after updating to Avast 5 that occurs each time I boot. I have Windows 7 64 and only use the Windows Firewall. To the best of my knowledge Avast has full internet access, yet, when I boot up I can’t open Avast and I can’t get to the internet. I’ve found that svchost is running at 25% and if I kill this process Avast will open and web pages will start opening. I have to repeat this process a dozen times or so and then I can use the internet normally. I’ve used Avast for a very long time and been very happy, but right now I would like to go back to 4.8 until the bugs are out of 5.
If I completely disable ALL the shields the problem is alleviated, however, each time I boot I have to get Avast to open before I get complete control of the computer. Once I get it open I can stop the svchost one last time and then I can get to the internet, but not before. I must go through this process each time I boot up, even if I disable the scanners. Once some period of time passes I can then re-enable the scanners and the computer runs as normal.
If I can’t find a legitimate answer at least please tell me how to revert back to 4.8.
Uninstall avast from Control Panel (if possible). If, for any reason, you can’t run it, try booting in Safe Mode and doing it from there. Anyway, boot after that.
Run the avast! Uninstall Utility saved on 1. If, for any reason, you can’t run it, try booting in Safe Mode and doing it from there. Anyway, boot after you’ve run it.
Install avast! using the setup saved on 2. Boot.
Register your free copy or add the license key for Pro.
Check and post the results.
For testing if your computer is clean, I suggest:
Clean your temporary files.
Schedule a boot time scanning with avast with archive scanning turned on. If avast does not detect it, you can try DrWeb CureIT! instead.
Use MBAM (or SUPERantispyware or even Spyware Terminator) to scan for spywares and trojans. If any infection is detected, it is better and safer to send the infected file(s) to quarantine (Chest), rather than simply deleting them.
I currently use hostman, however, for testing I disabled it…no change. The only thing that changed was Avast and the only thing that fixes the problem is to disable Avast. I will try the clean install and post results here, however, it will take a bit of time as I’ve got things I’m doing. Currently the computer is running perfectly with all Avast pieces functional, it’s only after a re-boot or fresh start that I have the issue.
OK…here’s what I found. It was not Avast, however, the timing was perfect and it looked for all the world like it was caused by the upgrade.
What happened:
I uninstalled Avast…and it wouldn’t come completely out, I had to use the removal tool. I thought, “Aha! I’ve busted the culprit!” However, upon rebooting the problem was back just as before. I got to thinking more about the extra large hosts file due to Hostsman and my custom additions. When you run a hosts file this large the DNS service must be disabled, somehow, it was re-enabled and was causing the svchost (network) to run at 25% (I have ridiculous amounts of resources) and blocked my access to the internet. I cleared the DNS cache and then disabled the DNS service. Everything started functioning as normal and I wasn’t seeing all 4 processors taking turns spiking usage. I rebooted a few times and had full internet within seconds of Windows loading so I re-installed Avast. A couple of reboots later and everything is running as expected.
Again, this was not caused by Avast (unless for some reason it turned on my DNS service) but the timing of the occurrence was dead-on perfect and made it look like Avast.
Great to hear that you resolved your own problem…good detective work!
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Thanks for the feedback on the true cause of the problem and no avast doesn’t require the DNS service, so would have no need to enable it (even if it had that functionality). Mine is set to manual start if required by some process, but is currently stopped, so avast isn’t using it nor does it require it or the option to manually start it would have kicked in, see image.
