Windows XP issues due to Avast 2014 update - any progress?

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Been almost two weeks since lots of people with XP SP3 reported serious issues with the update, ranging from being stuck on rebooting to blue screens of death. Has Avast made some progress with regards to a fix? Here an Avast team member, “hectic-mmv” even asks for more infromation, but this too was over a week ago. (http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=137732.0)

Even a temporary fix would be appreciated. A few users here have suggested deleting certain files from the System folder, (as in above link), but that seems like the kind of thing that might have unforeseen ramifications, and I would rather hear it from an Avast-rep.

2

Have you updated to v9.0.2007 which was released today?

3

Damn, I missed that, thanks for the info! But first, can anyone with XP problems previously confirm that it worked? Would love not to have to go through the uninstall-rigamarole again.

4

This version has fixed a lot of bugs and hasn’t had any issues so I’d give it a shot.

5

I’m going to attempt a fresh install of the latest Avast on Windows XP SP3, and then I’ll report back the results.

6

I had a dickens of a time when updating from 8.0 to 9.0 on XP initially, but the update from 9.0.2006 to 9.0.2007 went fairly smoothly. It said avast needed to restart my computer to complete the installation, which didn’t happen, so I had to restart manually. Then it finished OK, apparently.

See my signature… I’m running a barebones avast on my XP machine. Just the file scanner is active. All other options and extras are disabled. Avast is also refused server rights via ZA.

7

+1
I had not to restart manually but windows make 3 minutes to restart .I was anxious to see what will be happen to my pc :-[ ouf , no trouble for this time.

@DaffyD82:I don’t know if 2007 fix issue because I have removed windows live safety parental and it already worked with 2006…
@Alikhan:… why do you want people try 2007 without any news about xp issues in the list of major fixes ? To let again new users with black or blue screen ?

To my mind , or they still work on it , or they ignore (old) xp users

8

Issues with XP were:

Long shut downs caused by ctfmon.exe. I had not have one in almost a week. It seems it was dealt with through streams or emergency update.

BSOD caused by fssfltr_tdi.sys ( Family Safety Filter Driver ) when installing AIS and rebooting. Solution to unintall Family Safety Filter. Still wating for confirmation if a fix has been published.

Sluggish IE opening due to Online Security plugings was also fixed resently through VPS.

9

I have just updated Avast Free to 2014.9.0.2007 and it works perfectly (or at least I haven’t encountered any problem) with Windows 8.1 Enterprise 64bit.

On my old computer at home, Pentium 4 with Windows XP SP3, “My Devices” or “Connect Account” doesn’t work. The first time I clicked on “My Devices”, it asked for the login details but after logging in, it displayed some error (as popup) regarding connectivity problem and needs to logout with only “Log Out” button on the popup. I logged out and when I tried the 2nd time, “My Devices” doesn’t work anymore. It’ stucked on “Loading” forever. No Hard Drive activity, no Web Shield activity. Just keeps on spinning the circle with “Loading” under My Devices. I tried to restart WinXP and tried it again with the same problem. It stucked on loading.

Other problems:

  • It takes at least 5 minutes before WinXP is usable. It took longer to load startup items including Avast itself.
  • It takes longer to shutdown WinXP, it takes around 3 minutes on “Logging Off” and approximately 1 minute on “Windows is shutting down”. It also displays “ctfmon.exe” error before it goes on “Logging Off”.
10

As I reported on another thread, I tried today’s update (build 2007). Was successful on two machines, but hung after reboot on a third machine. That machine also hung on the first install of 2014 (build 2006?) a few weeks back. At that time, I removed 2014 ver 9, went back to ver 8, then a week later tried 2014 again and it installed successfully! Until today’s (Nov 1, 2013) program update. Install successful sometimes and not other times.

11

Thanks for the input, everyone. Unfortunately, this latest version from yesterday produced the exact same effect as the one from a few weeks back: computer freezes after logging in. Got rid of Avast by starting in safe mode and running Avastclear, but am seriously contemplating switching allegiance to another AV program. Oh and I don’t have Windows Essentials, so can’t uninstall that Family Safety Filter Driver.

So I guess the answer to my question in the title of this post is: “No progress”

FinAnalyst, how did your update go?

12

just to confirm :
Haven’t you “Windows live” folder in Program files ?
I say you that because me too I haven’t windows live in start menu nor in add/remove program so I can’t remove family safety by this way.
But I can in the program files folder , just search “wlarp.exe” (windows live installer) in you HD.

Like said iroc9555 “ctfmon.exe” can cause issue too.

13

Thanks Chris05! I found and ran “wlarp.exe” as you suggested, but the only Windows Live product it shows me as having is “Messenger”, no Family Safety Filter Driver. Also, I searched for “ctfmon.exe” and don’t have it anywhere. Also emailed “hectic-mmv” to ask if they’re making progress, no reply yet.

14

I installed the latest Avast 9.0.2007 on Windows XP SP3. Here is what I did:

  1. Booted into Safe Mode and ran the Avast Cleaner uninstall tool.
  2. Installed CCleaner, ran the tool, and verified there were no Avast remnants left.
  3. Installed Avast 9.0.2007.
  4. Re-booted into normal mode.

Unfortunately, I still had the same problems I reported about the previous build here and here. There problems include:

  • The system tray icons not loading properly
  • Avast icon not appearing in the system tray
  • Delayed shutdown of Windows, around 10 times longer than normal
  • Windows freezing right after the splash screen, but before the Desktop is supposed to appear, after the 3rd reboot.

I tweaked the Service start-up settings for Avast (services.msc), and finally managed to reach the Windows desktop in normal mode. However, I noticed the system tray icons were not loading properly, and even the Avast icon did not appear in the system tray.

I clicked on some other programs on my desktop, and they were malfunctioning. In one program I clicked, the Avast “DeepScreen” words appeared. I looked into the Avast settings, and noticed “DeepScreen” was enabled.

To diagnose the start-up problems, I re-booted the system and accessed the boot manager (F8), and selected “Enable Boot Logging”, which then booted into Windows normal mode. More info how to do this can be found here:

http://www.watchingthenet.com/how-to-enable-boot-logging-for-fixing-startup-problems-in-windows.html

The Windows system tray icons were still not loading, and my programs were still malfunctioning. I explored and opened the “ntbootlog.txt” file in “C:\Windows”.

In this log file, I noticed a whole bunch of drivers were not loading, with the phrase “Did not load driver” appearing many times after the Avast drivers loaded.

Possible Windows XP Conflict with DeepScreen

My suspicion was that Avast “DeepScreen” might be preventing the drivers from loading properly upon boot-up, which may also explain why the system tray icons where not loading either, and why some of the programs were not executing properly.

To test this, I went into Avast → Settings → Antivirus and unchecked “Enabled DeepScreen” to deactivate this option.

I re-booted into the boot manager (F8), and selected “Enable Boot Logging”.

The Windows XP started up properly into the desktop, and the system tray icons loaded properly as it should, with Avast also appearing normally in the system tray.

Then I checked the “ntbootlog.txt” file. I noticed that a whole bunch of drivers were now loading properly, which previously did not load, when I compared it to previous log file.

From then on, I left Avast “DeepScreen” disabled, and Windows XP and Avast functioned properly after each reboot thereafter.

Request Confirmation from other Windows XP Users

If you have Windows XP, I request you do the following to diagnose if Avast “DeepScreen” might be an issue:

  1. Enable Avast “DeepScreen” in Avast → Settings → Antivirus (with the option check marked).

  2. Explore into “C:\Windows\ntboolog.txt” and re-name the file, or move it into another directory, if it exists. Note: This particular file version is not necessary for this procedure and can be ignored. This file is sometimes called “ntbtlog.txt”.

  3. Re-boot into the boot manager with F8, and select “Enable Boot Logging”, and then select Windows XP.

  4. Explore into “C:\Windows\ntboolog.txt” and check if the drivers are loading properly. Re-name the file. This 1st log file will be with “DeepScreen” enabled.

  5. Note also any performance issues with Windows XP, any programs, icons, or Avast itself.

  6. Disable Avast “DeepScreen” in Avast → Settings → Antivirus (with the option unchecked).

  7. Re-boot into the boot manager with F8, and select “Enable Boot Logging”, and then select Windows XP.

  8. Explore into “C:\Windows\ntboolog.txt” and check if the drivers are loading properly. This 2nd log file is with “DeepScreen” disabled.

  9. Compare this 2nd log file against the 1st log file, and note any differences.

  10. Note also any performance issues with Windows XP, any programs, icons, or Avast itself, with “DeepScreen” disabled, compared to when “DeepScreen” was enabled.

15

Bump.

16

The latest Avast build 9.0.2008 is functioning properly on my Windows XP SP3, for now. This includes with DeepScreen enabled, and Avast loading at start-up.

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=139606.0

17

The Avast icon has stopped appearing in the System Tray, after Windows boot, whereas before it did. Not sure why, or what exactly has changed.

However, AvastSvc.exe is appearing in the Task Manager, but the memory usage is sporadic or minimal than normal.

I have to manually click the Avast icon on the desktop, so that the icon will appear in the System Tray, and the memory usage returns back to normal.

I’m open to any suggestions. This is for the build 9.0.2008.

18

It seems to me that most of the problems (such as missing tray icon, the system freezing or taking several minutes to shut down) only appear after opening the GUI and changing the AV settings.

Also, after changing the settings (e.g. exclusions), Avast seems unable to release some registry keys when the system shuts down, causing a very long delay.

Just my two cents. Honestly, I’m tired of those problems and I’ve spent too much time trying to figure out what is happening with v9 without any “official” feedbacks.

19

Hello all, first post! 2014 is still a problem for XP. It reboots the computer all the time. After upgrade today, the more times it rebooted, the less distance into loading Windows it got. Uninstalled in safe mode and now OK.

20

Hi

I updated to the latest avast on two Windows XP (SP3) computers, one 8 days ago and one yesterday (17-01-2014).

Both failed after the restart with a BSOD.

0x00000050 (0xA9837000 0x00000001 0x8058265F 0x00000000)
and
0x00000050 (0xB23DD000 0x00000001 0x8058265F 0x00000000)

The computer was unusable, repeated BSOD. The computer repair man removed Avast in safe mode which enabled the computer to be used again and said “do not install Avast again”.

I am a computer user not an engineer or programmer, if it don’t work I cannot fix it. I rely on the program makers
My confidence in avast is now at a low ebb, my only option is to find an alternative program.

Question: If I stayed with the previous version (which had no problems) how long would it be supported with virus updates.

ttfn Bob