Avast 4.8 Home edition hangs on bootup

[imkey]

I just installed 4.8 since the prompts in 4.7 were telling me to update... 4.7 worked fine for several months... After installing 4.8, my system hangs at the WinXp loading screen with the status bar. This is unacceptable. You guys need to take 4.8 back for more testing and just make the download links go to 4.7 which worked perfectly good.

The only thing I thing that may be causing conflicts is daemon tools or sandboxie which I believe have startup drivers.

[Lisandro]

Maybe you can test if temporarily disabling the avast self defense module helps...

1. Right click the 'a' blue icon on system tray.
2. Programs settings > Troubleshooting (tab)
3. Disable self defense module

It's not a good idea to downgrade... Anyway, I suggest an installation from the scratch:

1. Uninstall avast from Control Panel first.
2. Boot.
3. Use Avast Uninstall for complete uninstallation.
4. Boot.
5. Stay off-line (not connected to Internet)
6. Install again the old version: http://filehippo.com/download_avast_antivirus/
7. Boot.
8. Register avast (insert the registration key).
9. Uncheck the programs updates (set to manual).
10. Only then connect to Internet (go on-line).
11. Check and post the results.

[igor]

It would be useful to get a memory dump at the moment the system is frozen. Would you be willing to generate one and send it to us? It might tell us where exactly the problem is.
A description on the dump generation is e.g. here.

[imkey]

I just tried these steps. Still no luck.

Maybe you can test if temporarily disabling the avast self defense module helps...

1. Right click the 'a' blue icon on system tray.
2. Programs settings > Troubleshooting (tab)
3. Disable self defense module

It's not a good idea to downgrade... Anyway, I suggest an installation from the scratch:

1. Uninstall avast from Control Panel first.
2. Boot.
3. Use Avast Uninstall for complete uninstallation.
4. Boot.
5. Stay off-line (not connected to Internet)
6. Install again the old version: http://filehippo.com/download_avast_antivirus/
7. Boot.
8. Register avast (insert the registration key).
9. Uncheck the programs updates (set to manual).
10. Only then connect to Internet (go on-line).
11. Check and post the results.

[imkey]

The thing is, I never am able to fully boot windows. It hangs (infinite loop, status bar keeps going and going) during the Windows loading process when it loads all the drivers and stuff. This is where the Windows XP splash screen is, with the status bar in the middle. I have to manually turn off power and restart with F5/F8 to get into safe mode. After I uninstall avast 4.8, the system is able to boot up normally again.

This is a fairly clean install of Windows xp sp2 on a dell latitude x300.

I tried the memory dump instruction at that page. Although I am able to get it to blue screen, the memory dumping process never starts.

I've spent 2-3 hours troubleshooting version 4.8 and I really can't waste anymore time on this. I'm going to go ahead and install the older version or try a different av package.

thanks for all the help.

It would be useful to get a memory dump at the moment the system is frozen. Would you be willing to generate one and send it to us? It might tell us where exactly the problem is.
A description on the dump generation is e.g. here.

[igor]

Dumping of the memory starts as soon as the bluescreen appears... are you sure it's not dumping? It might take a few minutes to finish, depending on the amount of RAM installed on the system, but if you invoked the bluescreen at the frozen state, it's basically what was desired.

[igor]

...Provided the dump is set to "complete" and the size of the pagefile is at least as big as the RAM.

[imkey]

Yes, I went to double check this in both safemode and regular mode dump setting through the advanced tab in system properties.
It is definitely set to complete dump. I have seen a memory dump blue screen a few years ago in win2k. This blue screen (the one invoked by hitting crtl+scroll lock at the WinXP startup logo) just doesn't look like the kind that dumps memory. There is usually an indication that it is dumping. The screen I got showed no indication of memory dumping. There was also no hard disk activity. When I searched the entire hd for a memory.dmp, I didn't find anything.

I would love to provide a dump if possible. But I just haven't been able to get it to memory dump. I just get the blue screen.

If no one else has avast 4.8 not booting up issue, it may just be a rare conflict with my system configuration. I don't know how much code changed from 4.7 to 4.8. If a dev is looking, what parts of Avast load when the windows xp logo is up? It seems like a part of the code is blocking further execution and Windows waits indefinitely for it to finish loading.

...Provided the dump is set to "complete" and the size of the pagefile is at least as big as the RAM.

[igor]

There's no "code blocking further execution" there, of course... (I mean, why should avast! do that deliberately?).
It could be some low-level conflict with other drivers... or some bug, of course. The build 4.8.1169 indeed has some issues, but I don't think this (freezing on system start) is one of the known ones, so it could be something very specific to your configuration. Unfortunatelly, it's really hard to say without the dump 

Last question about the dump, just to be sure - do you have the pagefile big enough? Maybe it has to be even slightly bigger than RAM size, for the full dump to work, I'm not sure...

[imkey]

Yes, the page size is set to 1716mb+, my ram is only 1.1gb. I am able to get the memory dumping(crtl+scrl lock) to work if Windows has been fully booted up. Unfortunately, I can't get to the fully booted state with 4.8 installed. Furthest I get with it installed is the xp loading screen (the black background screen with windows xp logo and green status bar). A blue screen produced there does not make the system do a memory dump.

If you have some time, can you try this. Does crtl+scroll lock during the windows xp loading screen produce a blue screen which dumps for you?

[Vlk]

Hi imkey,

could you please check out this MS KB article
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/130536/en-us

and make sure your system meets all the requirements for the dump creation? (page file on %SYSTEMROOT% partition, enough disk space etc.)

Does crtl+scroll lock during the windows xp loading screen produce a blue screen which dumps for you?

Yes it should.

Thanks
Vlk