Author Topic: Latest avast update causes XP booting problems  (Read 13611 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

inspectorman

  • Guest
Re: Latest avast update causes XP booting problems
« Reply #15 on: December 03, 2011, 04:14:57 PM »
Hake makes a very good point; it's easy to assign blame to the last remembered event before the system dies. In my case I've come to the conclusion that I have a dying hard disc; none of the recovery strategies (reinstall avast from clean, reinstall disk image, use windows restore point (spit)) wanted to work so after a fresh install of XP we have a system (runs faster now!) which is a little flaky on boot. A few tiny (and at the time unimportant) pauses over the last couple of months may be part of the issue. So fifteen quid and some disk cloning are the answer and not Avast's software update here.

hake

  • Guest
Re: Latest avast update causes XP booting problems
« Reply #16 on: December 03, 2011, 08:51:11 PM »
That's very kind of you to say so inspectorman.

Offline Lars-Erik

  • Avast Evangelist
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 394
    • Lars-Erik Østerud
Re: Latest avast update causes XP booting problems
« Reply #17 on: December 04, 2011, 05:28:37 PM »

Drop ZA.
[/quote]
That is not a option.
Avast! free is not a firwall.
It should work with ZA!
www.osterud.name - ICQ: 7297605 - AIM/Yahoo/Facebook/Skype/Astra: LarsErikOsterud

Offline Lars-Erik

  • Avast Evangelist
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 394
    • Lars-Erik Østerud
Re: Latest avast update causes XP booting problems
« Reply #18 on: December 04, 2011, 05:30:43 PM »
Yep - another dead XP machine here after upgrading the program. Fully patched XP with Outpost Pro Firewall. In safe mode, current version, release date and number of definitions all unknown. Thanks guys....
I saved both my systemes by booting into safe mode and Disable the avast! service.
BUt as soon as I start it (tried manual and started it after all other programs),
my XP systems hangs as soon as I start an .exe file (works OK until that :-)
www.osterud.name - ICQ: 7297605 - AIM/Yahoo/Facebook/Skype/Astra: LarsErikOsterud

Offline Lars-Erik

  • Avast Evangelist
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 394
    • Lars-Erik Østerud
Re: Latest avast update causes XP booting problems
« Reply #19 on: December 04, 2011, 05:33:26 PM »
I was able to solve my problem by booting into safe mode and uninstalling avast using 'add/remove programs'. My computer then started up normally, and then I re-installed avast, and so far no problems at all. May have just been a corrupted update.

I have has to do that for the last 3 or 4 program updates.

1) Update avast
2) System hangs
3) Safe mode
4) Unistall avast
5) Manual registry clean up
6) Reinstall avast
7) Setup everything again

Kind of annoying after the 4th time :-(
Why isn't updating working on XP?

The next time I get a message about an update I'll try saying NO and downloding the full new avast! version in stead, and try to install that over the old on, and see if that works better
www.osterud.name - ICQ: 7297605 - AIM/Yahoo/Facebook/Skype/Astra: LarsErikOsterud

true indian

  • Guest
Re: Latest avast update causes XP booting problems
« Reply #20 on: December 04, 2011, 05:41:26 PM »
zone alarm is garbage it takes a lot of RAM...i am running 3GB ram...

get comodo it is the best!  8)

Offline Lars-Erik

  • Avast Evangelist
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 394
    • Lars-Erik Østerud
Re: Latest avast update causes XP booting problems
« Reply #21 on: December 04, 2011, 05:46:53 PM »
zone alarm is garbage it takes a lot of RAM...i am running 3GB ram...
get comodo it is the best!  8)
True for the new versions of ZA.
4.5 is the best :-)
Tried comodo, didn't like it.

Tried disabling ZA btw, didn't help.
So avast is messing up somewere else :-(

And why does it work after uninstalling, cleaning and reinstalling?
That can only point to something not done right in the upgrade process.
www.osterud.name - ICQ: 7297605 - AIM/Yahoo/Facebook/Skype/Astra: LarsErikOsterud

Offline DavidR

  • Avast Überevangelist
  • Certainly Bot
  • *****
  • Posts: 88895
  • No support PMs thanks
Re: Latest avast update causes XP booting problems
« Reply #22 on: December 04, 2011, 06:17:28 PM »
Disabling won't actually make a great deal of difference as the low level drivers will still be running, some considerable time ago didn't ZA block all internet access when disabled ???

The likelihood that a clean install of avast resolves issues in the ZA Program control, that was a major issue with ZA getting digital amnesia, e.g. even though a program had permission to connect it was blocked. Deleting the avast entries in ZA program control is the first action I would try if a program/process was blocked. This forces ZA to either Ask or Allow the new entry, depending on your settings.
Windows 10 Home 64bit/ Acer Aspire F15/ Intel Core i5 7200U 2.5GHz, 8GB DDR4 memory, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD/ avast! free 24.2.6105 (build 24.2.8918.824) UI 1.0.799/ Firefox, uBlock Origin, uMatrix/ MailWasher Pro/ Avast! Mobile Security

ady4um

  • Guest
Re: Latest avast update causes XP booting problems
« Reply #23 on: December 04, 2011, 06:33:47 PM »
5) Manual registry clean up

Why manual clean up? Isn't the specific removal utility for Avast enough for registry?

I know that some folders may be left behind, but I don't know about registry entries leftovers after http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility when it is under Windows Safe Mode.

Deleting the relevant firewall rules after an avast update is many times all what you need (but not always).

Offline Lars-Erik

  • Avast Evangelist
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 394
    • Lars-Erik Østerud
Re: Latest avast update causes XP booting problems
« Reply #24 on: December 04, 2011, 06:53:29 PM »
Check my testing/solution in this thread to save time and frustration:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=89835.msg715368#msg715368
www.osterud.name - ICQ: 7297605 - AIM/Yahoo/Facebook/Skype/Astra: LarsErikOsterud

norel

  • Guest
Re: Latest avast update causes XP booting problems
« Reply #25 on: December 04, 2011, 07:12:57 PM »
I do think there's a bug in the Avast update/setup process that's effecting some XP systems. My mom's E-Machines with XP SP3 works perfectly but my Dell Dimension 2400 has had nothing but problems. I finally did get Avast to work pretty good, but still every couple of days when I update definitions it looks like it's working normally, then when it's about to finish it shows an error message saying setup was unable to finish. In the Maintenance window it shows the correct definition version but in the Summary window it says it's out-of-date and displays red. When I reboot the Avast service won't start, manually or otherwise. I have to do a repair then reboot and it works. I have System Restore and Windows Firewall disabled and no other security software whatsoever. This is a secondary computer and luckily it doesn't do it every time so it's more of an inconvenience than anything.

Polincor

  • Guest
Re: Latest avast update causes XP booting problems
« Reply #26 on: December 05, 2011, 09:34:03 AM »
I have not yet had even ONE successful program upgrade of AVAST Pro on any of almost a dozen XP pro machines after AVAST was initially installed - this includes the current version as well as the previous three versions of AVAST. The program upgrade has crapped out the systems in each and every machine in a variety of ways - usually resulting in the inability to fully boot into Windows. Fortunately, each machine that I support had an image made of the active drive BEFORE trying the upgrade and a successful restoration was done in under ten minutes on each machine. Yes - Zone Alarm Pro is installed on each machine but that is NOT the cause of the upgrade failure as I had the same bad results with AVAST on a newly installed XP Pro machine that I am setting up today. Zone Alarm had NOT even been installed yet as I decided to  install AVAST first resulting in the same problems of Windows locking right after logging on. This XP Pro installation today had all of the Microsoft upgrades done BEFORE installing AVAST on this new installation. I restored the image and am now looking for an anti-virus alternative - other than Norton or McAfee, much to my chagrin. I liked the OLD AVAST as I NEVER had a problem with it.

Also, the ONLY way I can get AVAST installed anymore is to install it IMMEDIATELY after the Windows new or clean installation is completed - BEFORE updating Windows and before installing any other software.
« Last Edit: December 05, 2011, 04:41:12 PM by Polincor »

Offline atulk

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 5
Re: Latest avast update causes XP booting problems
« Reply #27 on: December 05, 2011, 10:11:51 AM »
Bad stuff, indeed!!!

Windows XP-SP3 hangs after latest Avast Update.  Have to disable Avast before System can start.

Currently, Avast Free is disabled on all my PCs.

Never ever had I ever faced any problem with Avast Free, before.  This is pretty bad!  I have Avast Free installed on on all of my Family/Aged Relatives' PCs.  They are all going to be down now.

Avast: Please HELP URGENTLY!!!


Taalen

  • Guest
Re: Latest avast update causes XP booting problems
« Reply #28 on: December 05, 2011, 12:10:14 PM »
In my case the latest Avast update broke internet connectivity. After the update, I could still connect to IRC and use various instant messengers, and https addresses would work, but regular http would not. Disabling Avast finally made the problems go away.

Win 7 Pro 64-bit, also running ZoneAlarm 10.1.065.000 - and removing ZA is not an option. If there's an unresolved conflict, Avast is the one getting the boot.

Offline CraigB

  • Avast Überevangelist
  • Serious Graphoman
  • *****
  • Posts: 11239
  • No support PM's thanks
Re: Latest avast update causes XP booting problems
« Reply #29 on: December 05, 2011, 12:31:08 PM »
In my case the latest Avast update broke internet connectivity. After the update, I could still connect to IRC and use various instant messengers, and https addresses would work, but regular http would not. Disabling Avast finally made the problems go away.

Win 7 Pro 64-bit, also running ZoneAlarm 10.1.065.000 - and removing ZA is not an option. If there's an unresolved conflict, Avast is the one getting the boot.
I would regard my av as being more important than the Zone Alarm firewall myself, especially when there are far better firewalls out there ( Outpost, comodo, online armor, privatefirewall ) and also the addon programs for the windows firewall.
Zone Alarm has had repeated conflict's not only with avast but numerus av's for a long time, there are people that do seem to be able to get the two to play together nicely but they are few and far between imo.