The start.me start-page has had problems with both Opera and Chrome for several days since start.me changed a site domain name they were using to load the page from “twizzle.com” to “startme.com”. Whether this is related to the problem I have no idea.
What I find is that if I turn off the Web Shield then the page will typically load okay and will continue to load okay when I enable the Web Shield again for a while but eventually the problem returns and can only be temporarily resolved by disabling the Web Shield again but then eventually if I enable the Web Shield again the same thing happens again.
I have attached a screen-shot of what I get which is a “Failed load message” unless I disable the Web Shield and can enable it and it will work for a while but eventually then the same problem returns again.
This issue only occurs with Opera and Chrome which both have the commonality of using the “Blink” engine (in case this has anything to do with it). Other browsers i.e. that use the Gecko engine such as Firefox etc do not have this issue.
I have tried clearing Browser History for both browsers i.e. clearing “Browsing History”, “Download History”, “Browser Cached Images and Files” and “Cookies and other site data”. I have tried flushing my DNS. I have tested in Incognito mode with all add-ons disabled. My Hosts file appears to be find as well.
I have also tried disabling “Hardened Mode” in Avast.
Nothing helps except to turn off the Web Shield in Avast.
Of course I would not want to do this permanently — This the first time this has occurred as I have used Avast in combination with start.me for many years prior to this.