When I resume Windows from hibernation then avast tries to update the virus database. When I start Outlook before the notification window appears it may happen that the system freezes. The only way is to switch power off and boot the machine. When I start Outlook again the a message box is display, that there has occurred a fatal error in Outlook opening ashoutxt.dll. Then I’m asked to suspend the plugin. Confirming the question, reactivating the plugin and restaring Outlook all works fine again.
I assume that there is a conflict when Avast does an update while Outlook is started at the same time. When Outlook has not been terminated before hibernation then there is no problem.
Delete “extend.dat” file: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=155.msg651#msg651
The extend.dat file is in a hidden folder, so if you’re Explorer to do the search, you need to explicitly enable searching of hidden/system files…
Thanks for your answer, but I think that I hit a different problem. Just some minutes ago I tried to start outlook and the system freezes again. Only shift-tab (to switch from task to task) worked, but no task visited showed any reaction. I even couldn’t start taskmanger no matter which keys I tried to use. So I turned off power and booted again. After being sure that avast has updated all files I started outlook again and got the message box stating that there was a problem recently when opening file “…/ashoutxt.dll”. I have been asked if I want to deactivate the plugin, responded with NO and Outlook started again without any problem.
So there is no need to delete extend.dat. I’m pretty sure that there is some kind of “deadlock” between avast updating files and outlook starting the application. But I’ve no idea so far how to track it down.
I hit the problem again. The system got stuck so that I nearly couldn’t move to another application. I noticed within Process Explorer that ashDisp.exe started a subprocess avast.ovr. I was not even able to shutdown my box properly. I had to turn off power supply and to reboot. As soon as I started Outlook I got the message that there has been some problem with ashoutxt.dll. I denied to disable the plugin and outlook worked as usual.
Because my system gets stuck, but I’m pretty sure that it’s due to some access conflict between avast updating or checking the system and outlook loading the plugin. ???
No, the update will not bring any trouble to the Outlook plugin and vice-versa.
Which is your firewall?
I’m using Comodo CIS and Avast is granted all access (Firewall and Defense+).
But it’s strange that whenever my system hangs I can confirm an update of Avast and Outlook mentions some problems with ashoutxt.dll.
I never have any problem when outlook is being started without a virus update in parallel.
You have to uninstall the AV element of CIS if you haven’t already done so, as it is liable to conflict with avast.
I installed the Firewall part only without AntiVirus.
Hopefully someone can check this out who uses Outlook.
Presumably this happens just after boot ?
The comodo firewall does block outbound connections until it is fully running, that would block avast.setup, though I don’t see where the Outlook extension would come into this.
This usually happens if I resume my notebook from hibernation and I’m starting Outlook before Avast completes the update (the window that pops up and informs about the updates). It never happend if Outlook has not been closed before going to hibernation (which means that it’s still running) and it never happened if Outlook is opened after the update windows has appeared.
I someone has an idea how to trace it I’d be very happy. I even tried to use Process Monitor, but because the system got stuck there were no trace files available.
[font=Verdana]Today I faced the problem again. I started Process Monitor before Outlook again and a trace file has been written. I had to turn off power again and hence the file is reported to be corrupt. So I started again Process Monitor and Outlook again. I received again the message box that there has been some problem when loading the ashoutxt plugin. Analyzing this trace I saw some interesting details which might give some clues: ashoutxt locks avast.ini and this might cause the problem resulting possibly in a deadlock situation.
Here some ProcMon details:
15670 20:56:16,1992188 OUTLOOK.EXE 2504 ReadFile C:\Programme\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashOutXt.dll SUCCESS Offset: 69.632, Length: 16.384, I/O Flags: Non-cached, Paging I/O, Synchronous Paging I/O
15671 20:56:16,2138780 OUTLOOK.EXE 2504 CreateFile C:\Programme\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\avast4.ini SUCCESS Desired Access: Generic Read, Disposition: Open, Options: Synchronous IO Non-Alert, Non-Directory File, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a, OpenResult: Opened
15672 20:56:16,2141314 OUTLOOK.EXE 2504 LockFile C:\Programme\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\avast4.ini SUCCESS Exclusive: False, Offset: 0, Length: 4.294.967.295, Fail Immediately: False
15673 20:56:16,2141522 OUTLOOK.EXE 2504 QueryStandardInformationFile C:\Programme\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\avast4.ini SUCCESS AllocationSize: 12.288, EndOfFile: 10.047, NumberOfLinks: 1, DeletePending: False, Directory: False
15674 20:56:16,2142218 OUTLOOK.EXE 2504 ReadFile C:\Programme\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\avast4.ini SUCCESS Offset: 0, Length: 10.047
15675 20:56:16,2143669 OUTLOOK.EXE 2504 UnlockFileSingle C:\Programme\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\avast4.ini RANGE NOT LOCKED Offset: 0, Length: 4.294.967.295
15676 20:56:16,2144052 OUTLOOK.EXE 2504 CloseFile C:\Programme\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\avast4.ini SUCCESS
Try removing Comodo.
Have a read:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=46737.0
I succeeded to get a boot log using process monitor. What I’ve found out so far is that, whenever outlook hangs (doesn’t respond any more) the file “…\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\400.vps” is completely read and then outlook stopps. When I check Outlook’s process with Process Explorer then there a several threads, 3 among them from ashoutxt. The only thread with cpu activity is a ashoutxt thread with State: Wait:WrUserRequest, all other threads are in state Wait:UserRequest without cpu acitivity. This seems to happen if outlook has been started before the 400.vps.bak file is written and renamed to 400.vps.
When I start outlook before/after avast runs it’s update, then there is no problem with outlook. The 400.vps file is just opened (QueryOpen) and never read.
So I can’t see why the reason should be Comodo. There is no single indicator in the procmon capture file.
I deinstalled CIS but when I analyzed my capture file I noticed the avast has already updated the 400.vps file when I started outlook. It’s very hard and cumbersome to test this scenario especially due to the fact that avast’s actions are not repeatable. At least I’ve to await the next update and have good luck to hit the excat starting point to reproduce the problem.
I’m sure but I think that I might run in the very same problem without CIS (due to the oberservations I described above).