Need help in Russian sub-forum

[George Yves]

Today we got a message in Russian sub-forum (here's the short translation):

Dear Sirs, what has happened to avast!?
A month ago I installed its trial version from your site and everything worked well till January 12, 2011. At that day two my systems hanged simultaneously. I understand that there could be errors in updates but I correctly (using removing tool) removed version 864, installed then version 889. Everything was in vain! The second reboot hangs the computer.

I asked the user to give more details and that is his answer:

First I installed AIS-5.1.667 that was updated to 864. Then I removed it and installed version 889.
My two systems are: Windows XP-SP3 (downloaded from SamLab, with Vista graphics) and Windows XP-SP3 (license from 2002).

Previously I had KIS-2010 that I removed using KAV-remover. One of the systems was completely re-installed. The hardware: motherboard Gigabyte M52L, CPU Athlon-6000, Dual-Core, RAM 2 Gb.

I don't know what to advise. The user has already done complete re-installation with no positive result.

PS: The stars that I have as an Evangelist once again make Russian-speaking users believe that I am an Avast employee.

[Lisandro]

Yves, a lot of people judge by starts

The guidelines for solving of the problem of using too much CPU has always been the same:

1. Check if the avast tray icon is spinning (while CPU usage is high)
2. If it is, click it (wait for the dialog box to open), and check which file is being scanned (spinning icon means a scan is in progress)
3. Find out which of the providers is scanning the file for each of the Shields.

If you can't do that, try to disable the self defense module of avast and generate an application dump (http://public.avast.com/~vlk/hangrep.exe).

Or generate a full dump.
Manual dump: when the machine is in stalled state, hold down the rightmost CTRL key, and press the SCROLL LOCK key twice. This will cause a machine to 'blue-screen' and dump of memory will start.
In notebooks without the right most CTRL key, see http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=51847.msg440718#msg440718

To generate full dump instead of only kernel (or small dump), see http://www.msfn.org/board/creating-memory-dumps-t130005.html or http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=52652.msg446063#msg446063

[George Yves]

Tech
Thank you for your advice. I asked the user either to make the application or full memory dump.

But I want to say that two of the links you have posted are dead: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=51847.msg440718#msg440718 and http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=52652.msg446063#msg446063

[George Yves]

The dump files are ready but they are too big to be attached (up to 20 Mb each). What shall we do next?

[DavidR]

Use something like 7zip to zip the files to compress if you haven't already done that.

You can use the ftp server to upload big files. Upload them to ftp://ftp.avast.com/incoming - Using Internet Explorer, Connect to the link and drag the file into the Right pane and drop it, that starts the upload, you don't have read access to this folder.

Give the zip file you are uploading a unique name, so they can identify it. It might not be a bad idea to create a text file (readme.txt) with any relevant information, avast topic, user name, etc. etc. in the zip file.

[George Yves]

DavidR
Thanks. And how can we get the results? Will they be published in this topic?

[DavidR]

I don't know, generally when one of the avast team asks for the logs they would be expecting them and know the associated topic/subject.

In this case they are being posted speculatively, that is why there needs to be more information sent with the hang reps/dump files, etc. so that whomever sees them can associate who and where they are from.

[Lisandro]

But I want to say that two of the links you have posted are dead: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=51847.msg440718#msg440718 and http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=52652.msg446063#msg446063

Strange. I did that posts myself. I was talking with pk about manual dump in a notebook.
I can't understand why they're dead... Was the topic moved? Was the thread deleted?

[Lisandro]

Tried to search a lot... can't find the posts...
Hope someone from avast team to take a look.
Maybe it is in a locked beta section of the forum? Can't it be reach by searching?

[DavidR]

I couldn't find it either looking just for the topic and not message reference.