I am having trouble when I boot up ever since I downloaded 4.8. The Avast Icon in the taskbar has a red square in it. (no providers are running) If I try to click on it, the computer hangs. I am having trouble isolating what the problem is. I’m using xp home, and have win patrol 12, and Online Armour. I suspect the problem may be with Online Armour (it uses hips). Also Win Patrol recently added monitoring for root kits to it’s hips program. I have gotten Avast to work by disabling the root kit scan on start up.
At one point during one of several restarts, Avast started after a long pause, and when I checked Online Armour it was disabled. Anyway 4.8 is playing havoc with my system. If I can help you isolate this problem please let me know.
jwa,
Herewith an edited version of my other posts
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=34209.0
about startup problems after upgrading from Avast! 4.7 to 4.8.
At boot time, in addition to Windows items, I have WinPatrol 12, Sandboxie 3.24 and Online Armor 2.1.0.119 and of course the Avast AshDisp.exe.
-
The first boot with Avast! 4.8 produced a blank desktop without any icons at all. After a forced shutdown, and a chkdsk on restart, the tray icons for Avast! and Sandboxie showed Error conditions but OA was OK.
Setting "Delay loading of Avast!.. " didn’t help
but “Disable Rootkit Scan …” did let all applications load properly
including using IE7 and OE sandboxed.
But: - event Viewer / AntiVirus reported
“Internal error has occurred in module aswar scan function failed!, function A000010E.” -
At the cold boot next morning (after a chkdsk),
WinPatrol, Sandboxie and Avast! all were hung - but Online Armor seemed OK. Event viewer reported the aswan error, although I had disabled the rootkit startup scan. -
Disabled Sandboxie at startup - after a forced shutdown, restart produced same problems.
Attempt to get to Avast! settings produced a window reporting RPC Error, and FAQ button started IE which was then hung. -
Managed to kill the hung WinPatrol in Program Manager,
meanwhile (5mins) somehow Sandboxie and Avast had come good. -
Cold restart - Avast Ok this time -
Tried “Delay loading Avast Services …” - reboot - Avast not started.
“The AAVM subsystem reported a RPC Error” -
Disabled “Raw disk access in Avast! boot-time scan”
Re-boot - (chkdsk) - WinPatrol, Avast! and OA all OK.
IE and OE OK in Sandboxie. -
Re-enabled “rootkit scan on system startup”
Re-boot - (no chkdsk) - hung with blank desktop until mouse moved then desktop filled - WinPatrol, Avast! and OA all OK.
IE and OE OK in Sandboxie.
In both cases,6 & 7, Sandboxie control was NOT set to start when Windows starts - (starts when needed by IE and OE which are forced processes)
- Reset Sandboxie to start when Windows starts.
With raw disk access in avast! boot-time scan disabled and rootkit scan enabled:
Reboot (no chkdsk) - winPatrol, Avast!, Online Armour and Sandboxie Control all have correct icons in Tray and seem OK.IE and OE ok in Sandbox.
Another cold restart - all OK
So, in my case at least, the problem lies with the Avast! raw disc access module, although Event viewer / Antivirus continues to report the aswar scan function failure.
For the while, I’ll keep Avast! 4.8 with rootkit scan and raw disk access disabled and await developments.
Hope this helps others who are experiencing erratic startup behaviour
Maurice
Yes, I tried to disable root kit scan, and raw disk access but still had problem with avast not starting. (red mark on Icon and no services running) I was able to verify that if I disabled Online Armour Avast would start shortly thereafter. I am now running Online Armour with hips disabled, and Avast with the root kit and raw disk access scan enabled, and everything boots up ok. So the problem in my case definitely seems to be connected with the hips in Online Armour. Hopefully Alwil can sort this out.
Greetings jwa,
My PC has been off for a couple of hours and on startup, none of the startup apps (WinPatrol, Sandboxie & Avast) were working. However Online Armor was OK.
Fortunately, Device manager was working, and it showed WinPatrol as “not responding”. I shut it down, and after a few minutes Sandboxie and Avast came alive by themselves.
I think you are on the right track when you mention that OA has HIPS and possibly WinPatrol also.
I rank my security defences as:-
- Sandboxie 2) Online Armor 3) Avast! 4) WinPatrol
My next plan is to see what happens when I disable WinPatrol at startup with all the others enabled. If it really is the villain, I’d be sorry to see it go - it has been very handy over the years for managing which apps get to go at startup.
I’ll report the result here in a wee while.
Regards
Maurice
Hello again jwa,
Latest test results:-
A) Avast! Rootkit scan and Raw disk access both disabled
- Disabled WinPatrol at startup - OA, Avast! & SB all OK
- Enabled WinPatrol with 2min delay at startup - All OK
B) Enabled Avast! Rootkit scan and Raw disk access - WinPatrol delayed - OA, Avast! & SB all OK at startup
So it looks as though, in my case, WinPatrol was the culprit.
Maybe, what we need is an application which manages startup apps
so they start in turn, each after the other.
I have one called StartRight which I haven’t tried yet
- it looks like now is the time.
Cheers
Maurice
Hello again jwa,
I spent all morning trying StartRight to no avail -
it seems that none of Online Armor, WinPatrol or Avast! will allow delayed stating.
This afternoon, I uninstalled Avast! 4.8 (an upgrade from 4.7) and cleaned up with Avast (AswClear), then manually with RegSeeker.
Reinstalled Avast! 4.8 from a downloaded setup.exe file and after a couple of restarts which produced non-working WP and/or OA and/or Sandboxie, Avast seems now to have settled down harmoniously.
The aswar scan function error continues, so I’ve disabled the boot rootkit scan.
Since this setup has now survived half-a-dozen restarts, I’ll keep it going.
Regards
Maurice