Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: oldcodger on August 29, 2012, 03:39:10 PM
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I guess that I have two questions: 1) Will I hurt anything if I power off the computer in the middle of an Avast boot-time scan? 2) What could cause the computer to freeze during an Avast boot-time scan?
I’m running XP sp3 with Avast 7. I started a boot-time scan about 3 hours ago and verified that it was running all right before leaving it. Two hours later I found the computer frozen. The hard drive indicator light is on solid (no flickering at all). The monitor indicator light shows that it is not receiving a signal from the computer and the monitor is blank. The mouse and keyboard are unresponsive. I did not get to the options screen where the boot-time scanner asks how I want to dispose of any found problems (vault, delete, etc…).
Any thoughts would be welcome.
Mike
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Just start by pressing the Esc (Escape) key, that stops the scan and should boot into normal windows mode.
Sounds like something is blocking it as you should get a screen showing it is running and the options screen if any detection, see images (click to expand) are you seeing any of these screens ?
What other security software do you have installed (e.g. anti-spyware, firewall, etc.) ?
How much data is on your system as a boot-time scan is pretty thorough ?
Why was it that you ran a boot-time scan ?
The boot-time scan also scans archive (zip) files that would be inert/dormant and scans for PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs).
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Thanks for the thoughts.
In all fairness I realize that my Subject should have been Computer freezes during Boot-Time Scan.
The keyboard is unresponsive. Pressing ESC does nothing.
Initially, I did get the screen showing that the Boot-Time Scan was running. (I made sure that Avast was scanning through the files before I left.) However, when I returned a few hours later the monitor was blank. I can not say whether the option screen came up and then it froze or whether it froze before the option screen appeared.
I have no other anti-malware programs running during the boot up.
I do have a considerable amount of data on my 300 gig drive. However, normally, when I run Avast, the HDD indicator light flickers. The indicator is now on solid. It has now been over six hours since the scan began.
I was getting some kind of updater PUP (I forget the name) that kept coming back after two other Boot-Time Scans (the first log had three instances and the second log had one instance) so I decided to run it again and see if the log came back clean.
My two questions remain: 1) Will I hurt anything if I power off the computer in the middle of an Avast boot-time scan before the options screen appears? 2) What could cause Avast boot-time scan to freeze?
Thanks,
Mike
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Normally when avast finishes it would boot into windows normal mode, so if it locked up I would expect it still to be on the scan screen. So it may be that it completed but for some reason failed to boot into windows (if you have a black screen).
If the scan is running and you have the screen up, using the Esc key is the best/recommended option, I have never used the power button to try and back out of a scan, so I can't say if it could be harmful or not. But I guess it could have the same potential for file corruption of you use the power button to shutdown in windows as windows is partially running (required) when the boot-time scan begins.
That is why I asked the questions about what other security software you had as it is possible something else might be running that conflicts.
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I decided to go ahead and power off the computer. It appears to have rebooted successfully. Since I did not authorize it to deal with any discovered threats (on the options screen) I am hopeful that Avast didn’t make any changes to my hard drive. I’ll probably run a thorough chkdsk to look for fragments or damage.
Thanks,
Mike
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You're welcome.
My thoughts weren't so much what avast might do (but the potential windows problems) as you say it shouldn't have done anything without input on a decision.
Though it is possible to set an action in the boot-time scan settings (see image), which I don't think are advisable I always prefer to be in control over any decision made. So as long as you have it on Ask you make the decision on any action to be taken.