I use Windows 7 64bit Home Premium. I updated to the new Avast yesterday via my then current Avast’s update procedure (I thought I already had Avast 7 but maybe it was 6 because I had not had a program update, only definitions, in many weeks if not longer before this one.)
I rebooted my computer after the update. I noticed that the avast taskbark icon took a split second or so longer to pop-up than the other taskbar icons and a little slower than it used to pop-up before this update (note it was not a long delay - just a split/less than a second but it was noticeable if you watched the taskbar icons come up.) Also going left to right it was the first taskbar icon and I never saw that before because some of my other taskbar icon programs take longer usually and Avast never had that first position before that I can recall.
After a few minutes of using my computer, I rebooted again to see if the Avast taskbar icon would come up like that again and it did - split second slower than others and the first again I then thought nothing of it and continued using my computer with no problems for the rest of the day and evening. My computer was on about 12 hours. Then I shut it off for the night (I fully shut-down my computer every day.)
This morning I turned my PC on and after Windows 7 loaded (the little whirly thing went round and round a few times), the screen was completely blank/black (not an image of the color black but my monitor showed nothing was coming from the PC after the whirling windows login sequence) and no sound - nothing. And nothing happened when I tried crtl-alt-del. I forced a shut down via a “kill” switch on outside of my PC and turned it back on and same thing happened. I forced a shut down again and went into safe mode. I ran some checks and nothing seemed wrong. I then tried again into regular session and same black/no screen.
I then went back into safemode (with networking this time so I could use the internet in it.) I then went to Start/All Programs to start Avast because I wanted to perform a virus scan with it, but first I ran its definition update (top update choice, not the bottom program one) to get the latest and it just sat there updating 1/2 for like 5 minutes with no progress. I then verified that my internet was working and it was. Then I remembered the clunky way Avast had started the day before after the major update and thought maybe Avast is causing all this. I canceled Avast, shutdown and then rebooted into safemode again to remove Avast. I did that using Control Panel/ Programs to remove Avast.
Avast removed fine. I then logged out of safemode and rebooted my computer into regular Windows 7. It came up perfectly fine as always. I shutdown and rebooted and fine again. Did it a third time, and everything was fine.
I then downloaded and installed Windows Security Essentials and got it up to date and then rebooted and everything still fine. And now I am doing a scan with it.
It seems the variable causing my problem was the new Avast. Now I want to see if my problem was an isolated case or if others are having it too.