Total Computer Freeze When Avast Detects Virus

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I’ve recently switched to Avast after years of being a Symantec and Zone Alarm follower. I like your program very much, except I’ve got an issue/problem.

During this past week, Avast has detected two virus/trojan emails. This is the great part.

The bad part is that the little bar pops up at the bottom of my Outlook (not express, just regular outlook) account informing me of the find. Then all he** breaks lose - well actually nothing breaks lose… Avast totally freezes my computer. I can’t do a thing including trying to open the Windows task manager.

If I wait long enough, the pirate voice booms out that Avast has isolated an infected email. But still the system remains jammed completely.

My only recourse is to use the POWER button on the computer box to turn everything off.

I’ve got Avast set to just delete anything suspicious automatically. I’m not even trying to save it to some folder or the chest or anything. Still it freezes my entire system.

What can I do to fix this problem? Is there a patch or something I’m missing. I have the 4.7 Home edition.

Here’s hoping you have a solution :slight_smile:

2

Is it possible that some traces of Symantec were left on your computer? (i.e. that it wasn’t fully uninstalled) It could be the reason… I believe Symantec offers some tools to remove the program completely.

If you have a PS/2 keyboard (i.e. not USB), you may try to generate a memory dump at the moment the computer is frozen. The description is here.
The dump (if you’ll manage to upload it to our server) might tell us where the system is stuck.

3
  1. Remove NAV through Add/Remove programs from Control Panel. Boot.
  2. Use Symantec removal tool following the three steps defined in the SymNRT tool info or here.
  3. Boot.
  4. Install avast! Boot.
  5. See what you get.
4

Good Morning!

Thank you for both replies :slight_smile:

Could you please tell me how I create a “dump at time of” using my keyword (which is not usb) and in regard to the 2nd post, unfortunately I’d already used Norton’s own uninstall - you’re right it most likely left a ton of stuff behind :frowning:

I will see what I uncover in regard to Symantec…

All the best,
Theresa

5

There is a description of how to do it in the link Igor gave, click the text here in his post. This would lead you to this post:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=22636.msg187340#msg187340

5. When the problem is simulated (i.e. the machine is "dead"), do the following: while holding down the _right_ CTRL key, press the SCROLL-LOCK key twice. This should cause the machine to "blue-screen", and start generating the dump

Refer to the link for full details.

6

Thanks David!

I did go out to Symantec and locating their removal tool. I ran it, and hope that it pulled all the trash from the registry… it said it did but you know them…

So I’ll hang onto the dump instructions just in case :slight_smile:

Theresa

7

No problem, welcome to the forums.

8

You can use the SymNRT tool any time, even after uninstalling NAV for a long time.

Why, is it avast still freezing while scanning or it does not anymore?