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Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: edlight1 on May 20, 2020, 12:45:57 PM

Title: Definition update required but won't do it
Post by: edlight1 on May 20, 2020, 12:45:57 PM
I have ask when available set for definition updates.
Updated to definitions  200519-8.
Now it wants me to update again, but when I try, it fails and says it's not up to date.

So I'm hoping an update will come along to fix it, that will complete, within a day or so.
Title: Re: Definition update required but won't do it
Post by: DavidR on May 20, 2020, 02:18:07 PM
That is the current VPS version at the time of posting, same as mine (note I haven't updated the program version yet).

What message are you getting, a screenshot would help ?

You should still be getting the streaming updates, so this shouldn't be an immediate issue.

If it is reporting it is out of date, yet you have the latest version, try an Avast Repair.
Avast Menu > Settings > General > Troubleshooting > Repair APP.
Title: Re: Definition update required but won't do it
Post by: edlight1 on May 21, 2020, 02:32:56 AM
Thanks for the help.

Whatever the problem was, it has resolved itself as this morning I could update as usual. I was actually expecting that.

FYI I don't have streaming updates on.

When I play a 1080p 60fps video on YouTube it's using the whole cpu and I don't want anything to interrupt.
Title: Re: Definition update required but won't do it
Post by: DavidR on May 21, 2020, 10:30:47 AM
You're welcome.

Streaming updates are important (and on by default) as they keep your definitions very up to date whilst awaiting the next VPS Update. 

I use YouTube, but probably not on the same 60fps (I don't see a setting for that, so just 1080p) and I don't really notice any impact, you can see my laptop specs below my posts.  If yours are comparable or higher, then there could be something else going on in the background whose activity avast is scanning.
Title: Re: Definition update required but won't do it
Post by: edlight1 on May 22, 2020, 01:59:23 AM
When a YouTube 1080p with 60fps (normal ones are 30 or less) comes along, if you click to choose a resolution, that's what you'll see as the 1080p choice. Since there are twice the frames, it really loads up the cpu. I watch forward views from railroad locomotives, and if they are moving slowly, I use the option to speed them up as fast as 2x. But my 4-core Athlon II often can't handle it if it's 60fps. It gets topped out. It depends on the individual video. So there are long pauses and it's unwatchable. I plan to put an 8-core FX in there that I got cheap. Then I may let Avast update itself.
Title: Re: Definition update required but won't do it
Post by: DavidR on May 22, 2020, 02:44:39 AM
I think you would probably have issues with most resident Antiviruses, but then again your 4-core Athlon II is quite long in the tooth.  But that may not be the issue, your graphics card should be taking the load, unless you don't have a dedicated graphics card installed.

My old XP Pro system has a Core2Duo E8300 which was no slouch and that might have issues at 60fps if using the on-board Graphics (see attached image).  But I also had a Graphics Card that should have bettered that fps.

So a dedicated graphics card might be a better upgrade path.
Title: Re: Definition update required but won't do it
Post by: edlight1 on May 22, 2020, 06:44:28 AM
Sure any antivirus is going to use the cpu for auto-updates.

In Win 7 and Firefox, using AMD System Monitor, I see that while playing YouTube videos sometimes my AMD R7 240 graphics card is pretty active, and other times it's not, during the same video (very strange!).  I know that the default format on YouTube is their vp9, I think it's called, video format, instead of the more universal mp4, as it saves bandwidth at the same quality. In Win 7, offloading vp9 to the graphics card, if it's recent enough to include it, isn't supported in browsers. And vp9 takes more cpu (or graphics card power) than mp4 because of the greater compression at a given video quality.

I tried a browser extension which is supposed to force YouTube to use mp4, but it didn't make any difference. I really don't know which is playing when, if ever. :-)

I think a more recent video card, like a geforce 1030 that has vp9 hardware processing, which I actually tried but with no improvement,  and Windows 10 (for browser compatibility with vp9) would result in offloading most of the vp9 processing to the card, but since I will be putting in the 8-core FX cpu, they won't be needed. That cpu should take it on quite well (since it has 8 cores, each of which is 25% faster than each of the Athlon II's 4), leaving plenty of cpu to give to Avast auto-updates and whatever else, ie rendering a video in Shotcut with Priority set on low in task manager.

Pretty complicated topic.
Title: Re: Definition update required but won't do it
Post by: edlight1 on May 22, 2020, 06:46:56 AM
BTW what browser are you using in XP?
Title: Re: Definition update required but won't do it
Post by: edlight1 on May 22, 2020, 06:48:34 AM
Got it - Firefox ESR
Title: Re: Definition update required but won't do it
Post by: DavidR on May 22, 2020, 10:57:16 AM
BTW what browser are you using in XP?

Firefox ESR

Got it - Firefox ESR

Yes, but it gets to a point that you can't use the latest Firefox ESR version (compatibility).

I had a problem with my XP System, no display some time ago.  I didn't have the time to pin down the cause and I wasn't going to get a new Monitor, cable or Video card to find the culprit.  So it may well get retired unless I have some slack time, but I will probably get a new desktop system as I do like to have a backup system and prefer desktops to laptops at home.
Title: Re: Definition update required but won't do it
Post by: edlight1 on May 22, 2020, 11:41:59 PM
Does the XP system beep one "ok" beep on boot?

You might pull out all cards and memory sticks and put them back in, to refresh the connections. Same for all cable ends.

I was dual-booting XP for a while, to run some old programs. Internet Explorer was getting pretty bad with newer web sites.
Title: Re: Definition update required but won't do it
Post by: DavidR on May 23, 2020, 01:46:23 AM
Does the XP system beep one "ok" beep on boot?

It did, but having just fired it it doesn't now :)

You might pull out all cards and memory sticks and put them back in, to refresh the connections. Same for all cable ends.

I did and pull all connections and clean them, but as I said time and inclination was a factor in not chasing it down as I had my win10 laptop and an Android tablet I could use.  So if I was to assign some time to this, it would most probably be to pull the two hard drives and abandon the rest.

Plus much of my data was stored off-line as were my backups, so no major loss involved.

I was dual-booting XP for a while, to run some old programs. Internet Explorer was getting pretty bad with newer web sites.

The reason I persevered with XP for so long was for old programs that wouldn't be compatible with later OSes.  Cost replacing these would have far outweighed OS upgrade, which would probably had to include the old System replacement/rebuild for further compatibility.

I really never user Internet Explorer much at all using Firefox for the greatest amount of time, so never experienced site issues.
Title: Re: Definition update required but won't do it
Post by: edlight1 on May 25, 2020, 05:59:03 AM
My last tip for XP would be to reset the bios on the board with a jumper, but I see that you're through with it!

I'm contemplating putting together an XP machine as I have come up against Win 7 in audio creation not being compatible with my X-Fi sound card's MIDI, such that if you try to use the reverb/hall recreation, it goes silent and the software freezes. Just when I'm getting back into MIDI with a keyboard controller and the card's "sound fonts."

My AM3+ board won't take an XP restored from an image, actually giving a BIOS message about it being incompatible when trying to boot and gracefully dropping out, so I'll use my older AM3 board if I do it, as the image was taken from one of those.

I should mention that I'm using a Win 7 that was originally installed on AM3, and came over to AM3+ just fine.

I can't even record from "wave," that is the basic sound of an online player, for instance. I have to record from "what you hear," meaning including tone controls, 3D, etc. -- so you have to turn it all off 1st.

But I can record cleanly from "line in," which would be my regular keyboard, or a preamped microphone -- I use an old cassette machine as a preamp.

Sound Blaster stopped putting the MIDI engine in their current cards. I have lots of neat software sounds, which live in the card's hardware, but some of them are pretty dry without the reverb.