When Windows starts a red circle stays for 1 minute..

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
21

Well, you can do several things like scanning your PC with Avast, look to see how many other programs are loading on start up, and so forth. Also, it would help us to know how much random access memory you have installed, your processor type, if DMA is enabled on your hard drive, and examine your boot log. For a benchmark you can unintall Avast and time you entire boot process. For all we know your entire boot process has been 90 seconds or more and the Avast icon is your first indication of such. My first inclination is that you have too much stuff loading on boot and now you have added Avast into the line up. In other words, the red circle in Avast isn’t you main problem.

22

Ricardo,

during the one minute when avast is not active, can you check the Task Manager, Processes tab, if there’s a process called ashServ.exe? (you can sort the process name column by clicking the header).

Thanks
Vlk

23

Well, I’ve run that test and ashserv.exe is present. I’ve determined that the red icon is related to the system boot up. In particular, the cable modem and router coming online. Starting IE during boot up shows a blank browser screen until right after the red circle disappears on the Avast icon at which point IE starts downloading the home page. So, I’m assuming that Avast is going to show that red circle until it has an internet connection. Let me know if this is incorrect.

24

Well,
I have a Pentium 4 HT 2.8 GHz; 1,5GB RAM; 40 GB HD SATA.

I took a Print Screen while the processes were loading…

And also one when the processes were loaded (ALL Process).

I see video card driver, avast, DVD Launcher, VMWare, MS Defender etc.
But the ones that use more memory are
Explorer.EXE;
ashServ.exe;
SVCHOST.EXE;
MsMpEng.exe.

Does it give an idea if there is a problem or it is normal?

25

Are you automatically (startup item) loading a virtual machine or just the services?
VMWare is a intense memory user…

26

OK, please dump the ashServ.exe for analysis of where it’s stuck.

To do this, download the program http://public.avast.com/~vlk/hangrep.exe , run it, select ashServ.exe in the list of processes, click Save As and save the dump file (please note that this needs to be done WHEN THE PROBLEM IS PRESENT, ie. before the avast tray icon red circle disappears).

When you have the dump, ZIP it and upload it to ftp://ftp.avast.com/incoming (note that you won’t have READ access to the ftp site, just write)

Thanks
Vlk

27

Tech,

It is just the VMWare service that is loaded. No virtual machine is started.

28

uploaded as CULPEPER*.*

29

Ok… no trouble.
But, if you disable automatic logon, and wait 1 minute after booting and before logon, will this happen?

30

Culperer, thanks for that, unfortunately, the file on the ftp site seems to have zero length. Could you please try to upload it once more?

Many thanks
Vlk

31

I keep getting a hangrep failure code 13 and it saves the file with zero length.

32

Hmm, if hangrep doesn’t work, try using the command-line version http://public.avast.com/~vlk/userdump.exe . The syntax is

userdump.exe ashServ.exe c:\ashServ.dmp

(producing dump file in the root of C:\ drive) but I guess you have to be quick! :wink: ;D

33

Okay, I uploaded it again in .zip format. Let me know if I didn’t get to it quick enough. I’ll create a batch file or something to run userdump if I need to.

34

Thanks for the dump - no it seems to be working (readable).

However, it seems to me that the dump was taken after ashServ fully initialized - ie. it seems to be done with the initialization phase, and ready to scan…

Maybe you really weren’t fast enough… :wink:

Thanks
Vlk

35

I was afraid of that. The command line was stalled for a few seconds before it completed the task. Next, I’ll try a simple batch file at start up. I only have like less than 15 seconds to grab that dump file for you. I’ll give it another try tonight. This morning’s attempt was as I was rusing out the door. :o

36

GDay All,

Culpeper, this may be a boot priority issue, where windows will start other services before/after the avast service, which in essence, stops avast from starting until other services have finished starting.

I have seen the behaviour you describe and I have usually corrected it by running Microsoft BootVis.

If all else fails, give it a try and let us know if it helps or not.

P.S. I have just now encountered the same problem under Vista RC1. This time though, I can’t use BootVis to correct it. :frowning:

Should I try to obtain a dump also and ftp it to you VLK ??

37

vlk:

I know I got it this time before the red circle disappeared using a batch file to confirm the dump. Let me know. It’s uploaded.

Trumpy:

I think in Vista you can create a dump file through the Task Manager by right clicking on the process and selecting create dump file. I’ve read that somewhere.

38

I never used this dump thing, but I run it using the command:
userdump.exe ashServ.exe c:\ashServ.dmp
while the red circle was there.

And it generated a 70MB file. Zipped, it goes to 27MB.

How do I analyse it?

39

No problem. First, add RicardoB to the Zip file name so Vlk will see it is your file. In Explorer right click the Zip file and select copy. Open a new browser window and go to ftp://ftp.avast.com/incoming . Then select Edit, Paste and it should upload it to the ftp for Vlk to examine.

40

Thank you Culpeper for the explanation.

Vlk, I uploaded the file “RicardoB_ashServ.zip”, it was generated with userdump.exe during start process.

Can you analyse it for me, please?