Skype and games blocked

[adrienne50]

 

The new version of free Avast is incredibly top heavy - uses more than 20% of CPU for the first 5-7 minutes of startup and whenever it decides to phone home for an update - no matter what else I might be doing.  And sandbox is a disaster.  Avast destroys Skype sound quality as well as completely blocking a game I like to play with friends overseas, even if set to "gaming mode". It asked if I would like to open the game in sandbox and I said no, open like normal.  I have had trouble opening this program in the past, so I didn't immediately connect the failure with Avast.  Now I wonder if Avast was the problem all along.  I spent precious gaming time (with people who I don't see for months at a time - this is our way of connecting) trying to figure out what in the world happened, reinstalling programs and the like.  Finally I just turned Avast off, and poof, everything worked perfectly.  GRRRR all my settings had to be redone.

Avast is completely useless if I use either that program or Skype, which is several times a week.  If I forget to turn it off before using them, I have to force a restart. 

Is there a fix or am I forced to dump Avast?  This is not an acceptable way to live.

[Hermite15]

 :'( merci pour ton témoignage

[bob3160]

Welcome to the forum.
I may not be a gamer but do use Skype.
Even conversations half way around the world aren't a problem.
Can you tell us what other security software you have installed and maybe a little more information
about the type of system your running might also be helpful in diagnosing your problem.
Thanks.

 

[adrienne50]

I run AdAware and Zone Alarm free versions.  I am running XP pro on Intel Core 2 QX8650 3GHz 12MB, FXF GeoForce 8800GT Extreme 512MB PCIe w Dual DVIs, 2G memory.

I turn off Zone Alarm in order to serve the game (otherwise the other players can't see me) and switch to Microsoft's firewall. Before Avast's latest changes, I could do this without turning Avast off. 

I only notice that the quality of voice in Skype is affected when I have Avast running and a game going - in which case the sound quality can be greatly reduced to burbling or cut-outs.

[adrienne50]

Also, we have two other computers running Vista 64 bit and Windows 7, both of which have had Avast removed.  After Avast's upgrade (free version), Skype looked like it was running, but when my husband and his friend called each other there was no sound, and then they discovered that there was NO sound at all for the games or programs on either computer.  They uninstalled Avast and installed a Microsoft product, and the problems stopped.

I am not eager to get rid of Avast because it has served me well.  But, it seems like Avast may be over-producing its product like Symantec did not too long ago.  Too many extraneous fancy features, not enough control to turn them off.  Its foot print on the CPU was gargantuan.  I hope this will not be the case with Alwil.

[doktornotor]

I run AdAware and Zone Alarm free versions.  I am running XP...

For XP and ZA, you need to use the prerelease version to get a reasonable chance of trouble-free experience. ZA is notorious for troubles with other software.

[adrienne50]

Where can I download the pre-release version?  

We'd all like to go back to the good old Avast we had before.  Sandbox is a cool idea, but we just want the virus protection we had.  

[CraigB]

Free version prerelease http://files.avast.com/files/beta/6.0.1044/setup_av_free.exe probably best to download and save then uninstall your current version, reboot and run ccleaner then install the new version, this version fixes conflict's with zonealarm, make sure you also have the latest version of ZA.