Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: nhoeller on November 11, 2013, 03:16:46 PM
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For a number of years, I configured IE to use an automatic configuration script (Internet Options -> Connections -> LAN Settings / Use automatic configuration script). Since upgrading to avast! Pro 2014, IE crashes consistently on startup. Disabling avast! shields or turning off the IE avast! plug-in does not resolve the problem. Pointing to a non-existent configuration script or switching to static proxy configuration 'solves' the problem. Turning off the automatic configuration script through Control Panel -> Internet Options allows IE to start but enabling the automatic configuration script from within IE causes IE to fail even before exiting from Internet Options.
I thought IE10 might have become corrupted and installed the IE11 Preview without changing the symptoms. I doubt the problem is related to the proxy.pac file itself - even a minimal file such as the following fails:
function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
{
return "DIRECT";
}
Removing avast! solves the problem. It re-occurs with both the free and Pro versions of avast! 2014. If IE is running with the automatic configuration script enabled while avast! is installed, IE continues to work fine, although I have not used it in this state for an extended period of time. Closing and opening IE results in a crash.
I reverted to avast! 8.0.1489 last night and the problem is gone. If anyone else is seeing this problem, please let me know to help demonstrate that this is not due to something unique on my laptop (Win7 Pro, 64-bit, latest maintenance, Windows Defender disabled, no other antivirus/malware/spyware software).
Thanks, Norbert
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It is not just you.
I've been having the exact same problem (with a huge waste of my weekend) and no help from the Avast technical support phone line.
No issues with IE until the Avast 2014.9.0.2008 update. Previous to the update I had 8.0.something. Uninstalled Avast - access to IE10 restored. Installed Free Avast as per Avast tech support directions - IE10 block and unavailable. Happened with Free Avast and Internet Security Avast.
Tried turning off the Avast plug in for IE and that did not work.
Did a system restore, got back my version 8 Avast and everything worked fine. Tried the update to v9 again, same issues. Went through all of this back and forth a few times. Last system restore did not give me back Avast 8 in a functioning setup so now I'm hooped. I need help, because I'm not replacing my hardware as implied by the first tech rep I talked to. There is a clearly an issue with IE 10 and Avast 9.
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Ditto. Same problem. Updated to avast 2014 on 2 x win7 64 laptops. one worked ok, other kept crashing internet explorer. The laptop that was crashing had auto config script enabled. Other laptop didn't have it enabled. Disabled auto config script on laptop that problem and now internet explorer is running ok.
Great job Norbert for isolating the problem.
Rod
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@sages, thanks for the confirmation! I am going to open a ticket with avast! and update this post as I get updates.
@Deezie, do you enable 'Use automatic configuration script' in Internet Options? If you go to Control Panel -> Internet Options and disable this setting, will IE10 start? I was able to limp along for a while by switching to the static Proxy server settings but that may require figuring out what the proxy.pac script is doing. http://www.oldapps.com/avast_antivirus.php?old_avast=12219 (http://www.oldapps.com/avast_antivirus.php?old_avast=12219) lets you download avast! Free 8.0.1489 (the site also has 8.0.1497 but that one is actually 9.0.2007). I had trouble getting the registration to work (incorrectly pre-filled information, possibly from testing with avast! 2014 Free) but a reboot solved that problem. Since then, IE10 has been working fine with the automatic configuration script.
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I created Ticket #UTF-948-33392 - let's see what happens.
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Yep - same here. Had tried:
- restarting with all non-MS services disabled
- downgrading IE11 to 10 to 8
- disabling IE pluigins
Kept crashing
After this post (thanks), went to Proxy settings via Start menu, disabled the config script, and now IE works fine.
D
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Hi all,
I had the same issue after Avast rolled out the version 9.
Issue logged with Win7 x64 while IE10 crashed:
Name der fehlerhaften Anwendung: iexplore.exe, Version: 11.0.9600.16428, Zeitstempel: 0x525b66f7
Name des fehlerhaften Moduls: unknown, Version: 0.0.0.0, Zeitstempel: 0x00000000
Ausnahmecode: 0xc0000005
Fehleroffset: 0x0000000004810000
it only crashes if a IE proxy-script is used AND if the script is reachable,
and additionally to disable the IE plugin of Avast does not solve the issue.
Issue reproduced with IE10 and 11.
I use Avast since over 5 years on my workstations, but for me its required to use a proxy-script so my only choice was to uninstall Avast.
Will check/wait for furter updates.
Best regards
Tom
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@emOne, thanks for the report!
The original avast! ticket on this issue seems to have disappeared. I created ticket #RRX-363-99643 on December 1st and am updating it as more people report issues via this forum.
I was hoping to reproduce this problem on a new Win8.1 64-bit laptop but was unsuccessful. However, the fundamental problem appears to be that IE is not loading proxy.pac at all. I initially thought the pre-installed McAfee Security Suite may be the problem but uninstalling McAfee still did not get IE to load the proxy.pac. One step forward, one step back.
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I got the IE11 automatic configuration script working on my Win8.1 64-bit system (dumb user error). At least with avast! 2014 Free, I am not seeing any issues. So the problem may be unique to Win7.
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@nh: ok, maybe Avast can code around/fix the issue or they should contact Microsoft for further assistance. I really would uninstall Win7 but this is not a option as well. The problem is easy reproducable so the Avast or Microsoft coders should be able to isolate the root cause. Please keep us up 2 date with the ticket you raised -> thanks for this.
Cheers all
as info: if you are an affected user and if you can, use another browser: on googles chrome i didnt see the issue.
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Hi,
It is true, the problem with IE 10 (and may be the others) is the use of the automatic configuration script.
Go to "Control Panel"->"Internet Option"
Click on the tab "Connection" then "LAN Settings"
Uncheck "Use automatic configuration scrip"
If you need the proxy configuration please add it manually in the field just below in the same window.
If your IE uses a ".pac" file you can download it and open with a normal editor. There you will find the URL for your proxy and the port.
I tried it on W7 and IE 10 and works.
PS: it works with the add-ons enabled as well
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@McOcis, unfortunately, my proxy.pac contains fairly complex logic that I cannot easily turn into static proxy definitions.
Everyone, I got an update on ticket #RRX-363-99643 that indicated avast! is aware of the problem and pointed the finger at the avast! Online Security add-ins for IE. I was provided instructions to not only disable the add-ins but also to remove them. Unfortunately, they will not go quietly - I had to use a boot CD to rename aswWebRepIE.dll and aswWebRepIE64.dll. Sad to say, that did not solve the problem - as soon as I enabled the automatic configuration script, IE crashed.
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An update on avast! 2014 Pro and Win8.1 - after over five days of IE working perfectly, it started to crash in combase.dll. Initially I blamed the Google Search add-in and Google Toolbar. However, once again disabling the auto configuration script 'solved' the problem. The strange thing is that although the problem was 100% repeatable yesterday (I could not even create a new tab), I cannot recreate it today with Google Toolbar installed and all the avast! add-ons enabled.
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In terms of ticket #RRX-363-99643, I was asked to install the beta version of 9.0.2009 which did nothing (9.0.2010 was no better). Support wanted me to install 9.0.2011 but based on the reports of issues, I declined. I have asked if (a) avast! support has been able to reproduce the problem and (b) they have verified that 9.0.2011 solves the issue.
Best Wishes for the Holidays!
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The latest word on #RRX-363-99643 from avast! is that they were able to reproduce the issue and that version 2014.9.0.2011 fixed the problem. Unfortunately, it did not resolve my problem, but your mileage may vary. I did not experience any issues installed or running the latest version other than having to download the installer via the links in the first post of http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=142936.0 (http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=142936.0). Given the number of posts to this forum thread, I did a full backup first.
I will update if avast! support comes back suggesting that the problem is unique to my system.
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Same problem here - IE11 with Automatic Configuration Script enabled and running avast! 2014 (9.0.2011). Using wpad.dat script to Squid 2.7 Proxy server. Only fix is to use manual proxy settings which limits advanced options for my proxy configuration.
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I provided more information avast! Support. The latest update is that "This issue will be fixed in the next program update." I will wait with great anticipation, but test carefully.
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I dutifully installed 9.0.2012 - no improvement. I even upgraded to 9.0.2013 - still no change.
Since then, I have not received any response from avast! support even after multiple requests for updates. At this point, I am not sure what I can do to help get this problem resolved. Maybe others who are experiencing the IE crash with Automatic configuration scripts enabled should open tickets as well in the hopes that this will get the problem additional priority.
If anyone has ideas about what additional information could be gathered to narrow down the problem, I am willing to do further problem determination. No dump appears to be triggered by the failure. The event log information is not particularly useful. I ran a process trace but could not find the failure, possibly due to incorrect filters.
Thanks, Norbert
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Hello
I have the same issue, fortunately I use Firefox but sometimes IE is necessary for some websites that don't show correctly on FF.
Any news about this issue ? I have the latest Avast version (2014.9.0.2013).
Thanks
Fabrice
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@fplatel, I sent a letter to avast! USA on February 17th complaining about the lack of communication on this issue and pointing out the growing number of reports. To date, I have not had any response, but then it was 'snail mail'. I will call them next week to escalate.
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I was informed yesterday that 2014.9.0.2016 has been released and fixes the problem. I upgraded this morning through the avast! user interface. So far, testing has been SUCCESSFUL! I still want to go through a system reboot and won't be doing cartwheels until at least a week has gone by but things are looking promising.