:oWhenever I run a full scan on my PC it gets about three Quarters of the way through and freezes my computer. It has been doing this since I got avast4 and the file that it freezes on is different every time. The last time it froze it had gotten all the way to my system drive before getting stuck. Is this a virus, trojan, what? I have SpyKiller and it detects nothing on its end. Why can’t I scan? ???
Hi Anton,
Welcome to the forum. 
Can I ask what you mean by freeze, do you have to re-boot the PC or can you get out of Avast (shut Avast down)?
W.
because avast freezes try a online scanner
http://housecall.trendmicro.com
Anton,
Lets do the easy things first shall we.
Shut down all other spyware, and adblocker software.
You CAN’T have any other resident antivirus on your system with Avast. If you do, you will need to shut down that resident scanner.
Rerun Avast full scan. If it completes, then one of the anti-?? programs is interferring and you can flip them back on one at a time to see which one.
If it does not complete the scan, then let me know if you are familiar with using MSCONFIG utility.
Also let me know:
What OS do you have?
Which Avast (Home or Pro), and version?
Which build of Avast is now installed?
Have you ever had NORTON installed? (very important!)
A solution to your problem should not be too hard to find.
techie
Edited: Read your last post. Our posts crossed. Since your entire system freezes, we may have to look into available system resources as well. This is remote, but we will check it later on anyway.
What is your Ram available?.
Thanks
The entire system freezes. I have to restart.
I will try what you suggest. thank you and no I have never had norton. I use w98 and I have avast4.1home, so far just the trial but I’m testing different products. So far yours has the most frequent updates ;D No I do not know what msconfig is.
Are you doing the tests with archive scanning enabled or disabled? And the sensitivity set to thorough/normal or quick?
If you have archives enabled, try disabling them if it helps…
Thanks
Vlk
Anton,
NO problem. Try the first part of what I suggested, and then I can walk you through the MSconfig.
and yes, you will find that Avast is fast with both database and program updates!
Windows 98 works just fine with Avast.
Vlk,
I doubt if Anton has changed any of the default settings, especially if he is using Home. It is probably still set to Standard and no archive, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.
techie
I do have it set to check archives. That does not seem to be the problem. I turned everything else off and it scaned through fine, that is without having to restart my computer; however I am curious as to why it could not find the specifies path to: c:\windows\options\cabs\win98_58.cab\classes.zip\java\util\stringtokenizer.class or: C:windows\java\packages\snh7577x.zip\com\ms\wfc\ax\ivbformat.class Oh, thanks for the help.
I turned everything else off and it scaned through fine, that is without having to restart my computer;Great! This sometimes happens when another program that Avast is trying to scan is "active". As long as Avast completes the scan, you are fine. You can now flip the programs back on one at a time to isolate which one Avast hangs on. Although it is not of concern, we can try to fix it.
however I am curious as to why it could not find the specifiec path to: c:\windows\options\cabs\win98_58.cab\classes.zip\java\util\stringtokenizer.class or: C:windows\java\packages\snh7577x.zip\com\ms\wfc\ax\ivbformat.class Oh, thanks for the help.Ummmmm. I cannot remember if Avast will scan inside a zip file, but will check on that and get back to you.
At least we got your through the scan. Did Avast pick up anything of concern?
techie
Msconfig.help could be find here for download.
I can send MSConfig.exe by email to you (it’s just 74Kb of a zip file containing both of the files (help and exe). Could you send me an IM with your email address.
MSConfig is a startup controler, you can see more similar applications at section 40. Startup Control Tools of this link page
It found nothing harmfull, thanks now about this msconfig… what exactly will that do? sounds like something to prioritize my software.
Anton,
The MSconfig utility is incorporated into Windows to allow monitoring and configuration changes in the Windows and Startup files.
It is not something you want to play with until you understand it. What I was referring to earlier in the post is the Startup file which you can access by runing MsConfig. When you open the startup file, you will see all processes (applications) which are running when your system boots up. This is a great tool when troubleshooting the system because you can “uncheck” anything listed and have the system startup without it to see if it is a problem. Another use, would be to stop all non-essential programs from loading on startup. This reduces startup time.
There are other uses of the MsConfig, but be careful using it!
techie
I found msconfig, I guess I already had it from an update. I opened it up and yes it is confusing, but I did turn off some of the start up stuff. Thanks again 101 Vlk & Technical. You guys are groovy. Hey and have a great Christmas.
Anton,
Your welcome.
Any further questions, come on back.
Happy Holiday to you also.
techie
If you need help just let techie and I help you ;D
Merry Christmas too 8)
I’m having an intermittent problem with the Avast scanner freezing up during scans. This does not occur every time though. This occurs with archive on as well as with standard and thorough Avast scans.
I checked my HD for errors and there isn’t a fragmentation problem because the HD is defragmented weekly.
After each occurrence of the Avast scanner freezing I needed to do a hard restart of the machine. The entire OS stops responding.
Also, after each occurrence, upon reboot, I ran online scanner for Housecall. This online scanner ran with no problem on my machine. It has gotten to where I run the online internet scanner and if it find something I run an Avast scan just on those selected folders so I can send the infected file to the Avast virus chest so I can email them to Alwil.
Win98, 392mb memory.
What is the deal with this problem?
Talking about manual scan, right? (no on-access…)
Does it always stop on a specific place? Or is it more or less random?
How long does it take to do a full scan if it does not occur?
Yes, manual scans and they seem to be random. Tends to occur when doing a complete scan of the entire hard drive. It doesn’t stop on a particular folder or file. If it does occur the scan really slows down to a crawl and eventually stops responding. I can’t figure out if there is another program running that can be causing this to conflict but I don’t seem to have the problem with the various online scanners like TrendMicro or BitDefender (archive files selected). I’ve been experimenting a little trying to narrow down a cause but because the large manual scans take a while to complete it and because the problem is intermittent, it is hard to pinpoint to anything in particular. I’m currently under the assumption that it is my machine and not a bug but wanted to report it anyway. I have seen at least one other thread with the same problem description. Programs running the background are Adsgone, Sygate firewall, SpamPal, Remind-Me calendar, Fast Defrag (problem was occurring before installing Fast Defrag), VCool, Systray, and Taskmonitor.
When the manual scan does stall out and stops responding Adsgone, Remind Me, and Fast Defrag also stop responding. The OS stops responding and if I’m lucky I can restart the computer successfully, otherwise I need to do a hard restart. I have my Win98 Fast Shutdown turned off.