I have been using Avast Home Edition for some time, and generally speaking I am very happy with that software.
However yesterday version 4.1.389 has been made available and when I run that version (tried live update, but also full install from downloaded installation file), my system starts to be unstable and freeze/crash/fail to start some programs with no reason.
Reverting to previous Avast release seems to solve the problem.
Has anybody experienced such unstability problem since the update?
Configuration: WinME, Atlhon XP 1800+ on a K7S5A (SiS735), 256MB of RAM (DDR266).
Note: I know at least one other system wich experiences the same kind of stability issue since updating to avast 4.1.389, running Win98 (1st edition), Duron 1600, ASUS A7V8X-X, 256MB PC3200
No trouble with 4.1.389 and Windows XP SP1+
I think Win Me is not quite a stable system… Perhaps if you disable System Restore, boot and enable it again… But I’m not sure as I used Me very little in the past :
Well no error message. Some programs will not successfully start or will start and eventually and hang (even small progs such as CpuZ etc.) and remain in the task list without actually working.
At some point, the system becomes really unresponsive and cannot event reboot gracefully (task bar hangs etc.).
As I said this happens on two different systems, one with Win98 and mine with WinME. Both were stable before April 21st Avast prog update.
I restored my system with a stable disk image using savepart, tested it for more than one hour : no problem.
Then I did a clean install of Avast 4.1.389 (FR version this time), rebooted when prompted and tested it again: the system started to be unstable again after some minutes of up time & tests.
By the way, I checked it for all kind of malwares (avast, f-prot DOS, spybot, ad-aware6 => all running latest updates) and it is clean.
I can try this evening to disable Standard Shield to see if unstability goes away…
So, is this problem “random”, or do specific programs have the same problem every time you start them? If it’s reproducible, could you tell use what particular programs are affected (such as CpuZ), maybe also where some of the programs can be downloaded?
I’m just from asking the person running the Win98 system with latest Avast Home Ed, and he confirms that after disabeling the the shields (right click on Avast logo & Disable), the problem seems to go away.
Also here are two pages that causes almost “instant freeze”:
Settings must be the defaults one, set by Avast installer.
In fact the http://www.free.fr/ page was the default page for IE6sp1 (+latest updates) and no problem before April 21st.
Then after the AV update, IE6 was hanging on opening the default page. I instructed the user to change the default page to “blank page” from the control panel/internet settings and that worked => no hang on the blank page.
Then browsing the internet, hangs will be seen again (including mouse freeze) if user goes back to the free.fr page or to the boursorama.com page!
On my side (WinME), my default page is google.fr, I had no problem there. I did not try these links yet (I run avast & WinME at home, have to wait this evening for more tests).
As far as my home system is concerned, Standard Shield is set to “high” + heuristic (I think)
OK. I have created 2 files… could you please try if using any of these files make any difference?
The files can be downloaded from here. The zip file contains 2 versions of aswMon9x.dll. This file is located in the avast installation directory and when the avast! resident protection is running, it will be locked. So, to replace it, it is necessary to boot to DOS (or boot from a diskette or something like that).
Note that avast! setup will overwrite the file back to the “official” one very soon (on the next reboot), so you should always check what file is actually there.
Experienced the same problems with WIN98, sec. ed., 4.10.2222A, IBM 300GL model/type 6275/M20, Pentium II, 400 MHz and Zonelab firewall. Connected to the internet by cable, Motorola Eurodocsis modem and Realtek NIC.
After automatic updating of Avast my system froze,
Ctrl+Alt+Delete gave:AshServ (not responding).
Uninstalled Avast with AvClear4 and re-installed Avast4.
After restart the same situation and no email with Outlook Express possible, an error occurred but cannot send the bug report.
I am using Win98se and have had some strange problems too but I do not know if it is because of new recently installed Kerio Firewall.
My pc just shut down when I was using it as if the power was shut off.
I have had a few times on start up that the icons appear on the desktop and the hour glass just sit there and keeps running but it sits there forever. The ctrl-alt delete does not work at this time and I have to manually power down. I have also had some applications that you click on the desktop icon but nothing starts up.
Here are my test results: If “ver_1” doesn’t help, “ver_2” (size 26112 bytes, April 23rd 5:00:20pm) seems to work just fine on my WinME system. Tomorrow I will try it on the Win98 system as well, just in case.
Well done Hope to see the official version fixed soon , it is painful to manually replace the “bad” file on each reboot!
The ver_2 file also fixed my problem: which was hanging at the "Checking for latest version of Windows Update software" on the Windows Update web site.
Only one system had this problem: an AMD K6-300 running WinME. No other systems running WinME or WinXP had this problem with the latest AVAST update.
I too have had problems since the last program update. First my kerio firewall v2.15, found a new version of Avast on every boot, fixed that by delting Avast rule & allowing a new rule to be written when prompted by Kerio. Second, my program HP Photo Print will not start, says it is “not responding”. Only way I could get it to work was to disable the Standard Shield, and that only worked sporatically. I run Win ME, 700 mhz celeron, 384 mb pc 100 RAM. P.S. why doesn’t avast have a MD5 signature, every time I scan for authentic MD5 sigs, it says that Avast doesn’t exist.
The ver_2 file also fixed my problem: which was hanging at the “Checking for latest version of Windows Update software” on the Windows Update web site.
Only one system had this problem: an AMD K6-300 running WinME. No other systems running WinME or WinXP had this problem with the latest AVAST update.<<
update:
Found a second system with the EXACT same problem: an AMD K6-2 500 running WinME. The ver_2 file also fixes the problem on this system; but AVAST automatically re-runs setup to replace this file with the original bad version upon reboot. Funny, on the AMD K6 300 system, AVAST does not seem to notice the ver_2 file and does not re-run setup to try to replace it. Wonder why?
I would really like to know what is the difference between the systems having the problems and the systems that work OK…
According to the number of post, it seems not to be connected to hardware configuration. Maybe a specific software or driver installed? ???
Oh, what exactly do you mean, sporadically? If you stop the Standard Shield and confirm to persist the changes, it really should help. If it doesn’t, then the problem is somewhere else…
What kind of MD5 sig?
Funny, on the AMD K6 300 system, AVAST does not seem to notice the ver_2 file and does not re-run setup to try to replace it. Wonder why?
Maybe a different setting of updating / connections? I believe setup performs the “fixing” when it tries to detect available new updates (I can be wrong, though).
Upon further testing, disabling the standard shield will always allow the ‘Hp Photosmart Printing’ program to run. An MD5 signature is a program’s fingerprint that Kerio Firewall identifies as a legitimate program. When you scan the MD5’s, kerio will let you know if their’s an unidentified program, or change to a legitimate program. I’ve loved Avast since I put it on & feel secure that they will fix this bug.
a) WinME + IE6sp1 + OutLookExpress 6sp1
b) Avant Browser 9.02
c) ZoneAlarm Free version 4.5.594.000
The Win98 system I mentionned earlier with same issues has more or less the same software installed, but does not have Avant Browser (only IE6Sp1).
Note: Avast tries to remove the new awlmon9x.dll (ver_2) with original one each time I connect to Internet. It will place a .TMP file in Avast4 directory and use it to replace ver_2. So if I replace the .TMP with the ver_2 build, ver_2 will be reused on next boot!
I have instructed my friends running W9x not to accept Avast program update until this issue is resolved. Virus DB update is ok though.
I have the same problem with W98SE.
IE and Netscape freeze with new avast vers. Disabling KERIO doesn’t improve the situation. The only way to access internet is to disable avast !
