ashServ.exe "application error"

[pacific]

When I shut down my computer, very frequently (not always though) I would receive the error message  "ashServ.exe ...  application error  .... click ok to end program".   I either click ok, or if I leave it alone, the shutdown would continue without any problem.

Nothing seems to be affected, except that it doesn't seems right to receive the error message on a regular basis.

I believe this topic was raised sometime back, but I couldn't find the solution in the past posts.  Oh yes, I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling, but the outcome is the same.

Appreciate advice on solution.

[pacific]

I just read the moderator's post regarding the beta version released recently.  One of the fixes includes this problem of ashServ.exe.

Downloaded the beta - hopefully the problem is fixed...

[hpoehrli]

This problem with ASHSERV.EXE is a complaint of many users.
The effect is troubling, as some experience a crash at shutdown, but most of us just near the end of shutdown geht a wraning message from windows like "instruction 0x77889cb8 points to memory 0xc0000118. Read could be executed in memory" (free translation from German).

Most seem to experience this effect only sporadic, in my case about every fifth time, I believe it happens when the user accessed Avast to look at data or manipulate some settings.

The message is visible for about 30 seconds, during which the shutdown is halted. It can be confirmed by the user, then the shutdown finishes normal in a few seconds. Without intervention after about 30 seconds the message disappears and the shutdown finishes. NO crashdump is written (as there is no crash), also no mention in the event recorder.

Info to this problem is available in various threads: (start-date and title)
Dec 08  ashServ.exe - application error
Dec 12  AshServ.exe
Jan 30  Avast! crashes on shutdown
Jan 31  AshServ.exe problem (in Beta-forum!)

I have installed newest Beta yesterday (4.6.585), with no success...
Compaq Armada 1700 Laptop 300MHz 290MByte W2K Kerio 4.1.2

[pacific]

After installing the beta download, problem still persists .... no change.

What else can we do ?

[DavidR]

Some program is still writing to files or accessing files and ashserv is doing its job by scanning them. Try to identify what is accessing the files (I think this has been covered before), some programs update their log files, etc. on shut-down. Is it possible to have a slight delay on shut-down to allow this to conclude?

[hpoehrli]

DavidR, your hint is appreciated, but look: Most of us who experience that problem see two facts: There are already at least 4 threads running on that problem, two of them just died away. The more recent ones started anew, and there seems to be no help until now. We are users and are troubled by that warning, which is clearly tied to the program AshServ.exe. The shutdown process is hardly manipulable by a user. So what can we do to analise the problem, how could we delay the process of shutdown?

As far as I could gather, most warnings appear after some user-manipulation has been performed, as calling ABOUT, or updating manually, or just opening the Avast screen. Without doing anything such, I have the impression that the shutdown runs normally, but this is not a clear fact, just a feeling. The warning occurs also, if the PC was idle before shutdown for some lengths, like 5 minutes.

I guess as a user we need some help, how to go about analyzing that warning.

At least this nuisance seems not to influence the proper operation of Avast or the whole PC. but something has to be done about this...

[xyzzy]

I also confirm this error, happens every few shutdowns (4.5 Home on XP Pro).
I haven't observed any dependency on other applications.
X.

[DavidR]

I would start by doing a google search, like I just did, it returned over 1000 hits for delay "windows shutdown" http://www.google.co.uk/search?num=20&hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=%2Bdelay+%2B%22windows+shutdown%22&btnG=Search&meta=

Try this one for XP, 2ooo, there is even a link for a freeware shutdown program in the article - http://aumha.org/win5/a/shutcut.php and this one for win95, 98, ME - http://aumha.org/win4/a/shutcut.php

Posting any error messages or google them could help, check the event logs in XP if you are using that.

Win98 was/is notorious for shutdown problems.

Google is your friend learn to use it, it is well worth the effort.

[Notar]

...............edited

I guess as a user we need some help, how to go about analyzing that warning.

At least this nuisance seems not to influence the proper operation of Avast or the whole PC. but something has to be done about this...

This has been addressed, I believe.....http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=10806.msg92155#msg92155

Quote......

Solved the ashServ.exe crashes on shutdown......Unquote

[pacific]

"Solved the ashServ.exe crashes on shutdown"

I read that too ... but even after downloading the beta download, the same problem occurs.  Apparently, the problem has not been solved.

[hpoehrli]

In fact: The last Beta has not solved the problem of the shutdown-warning message. And Google is seemingly of little help here, this problem seems not  have been discussed yet. The hints of DavidR have only led to helper-progs that somehow shutdown windows.
BUT: The Avast prog AshServ.exe produces a malfunction, it's silly to jump over it with a forced shutdown. We still hope, that someone has a good idea how the problem could be analyzed. I'm running W2K, but the problem is reported on 98 and XP too.

[igor]

Well, it seams that the problem really hasn't been fixed yet - it's a real mystery.
On the other hand, the problem is not that serious in the sense that it doesn't affect avast!'s functionality. It's certainly annoying since it confuses the users.
There's nothing wrong about "jumping it over" during shutdown - because it's the shutdown that causes it. It has probably something to do with incorrect (order of) stopping of some threads, or something like that.

I really don't think the problem affects Windows 9x as well. If some Win9x encounter problems during shutdown, I'm quite sure it's a completely different problem (maybe caused by MS Jet drivers?)

[CosTe]

Bad news, Igor!    How can we help avast! developers to solve this problem? Maybe we should give you more info about installed and used software, like firewalls etc.?

[igor]

Honestly, I don't know. It seems to affect quite a lot machines - so I sort of doubt it is connected with a specific software. Unfortunatelly, it does not affect our machines - we are not able to reproduct the problem. We'll keep on trying...