Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: gr3gw on January 20, 2009, 10:59:24 AM
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For some reason ashDisp.exe does not always close at shutdown. I have to click on the End Now button to complete the shutdown process. Why would this be happening? I don't know what ashDisp.exe does, perhaps knowing its function would help.
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I have no intention to discount this as an issue but I have never heard of this problem from any of the users I support on XP or Vista and I cannot recall it being reported before.
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Are you saying that the process hang the computer shutdown and wait for the user interaction? ???
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ashDisp.exe is responsible for all the interaction between the user and avast! resident protection.
What operating system do you use?
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I think I'm on to it now. Thanks for responding Igor and Tech. Now that I know it's not a common problem I can focus on my own environment. Also, knowing ashDISP.exe is responsible for the systemtray function I've got a good idea of the source of the problem. I use a program called PS TrayFactory to manage my system tray. I suspect if ashDisp.exe is busy doing a VRDB generation then the shutdown message might not be getting through PS TrayFactory to ashDISP. I've started closing PS TrayFactory before shutting down and so far ashDisp has not failed to shutdown. It didn't happen everytime and so I need to continue the trial for a while to establish PS TrayFactory/VRDB generation as the issue.
I'll re-evaluate my VRDB settings as a well as ensuring PS TrayFactory is closed before shutdown as a solution to my irritating problem.
Just establishing that it is not a common problem has been a great help.
While writing this a funny thought occurred to me. If ashDisp is responsible for the system tray function why didn't the developers call the program ashTray? ;-)
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What I can't imagine is what is the relationship between ashdisp.exe and the VRDB generation...
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Tech, I have to confess I was deducing a relationship between ashDisp and VRDB generation from the fact that VRDB indicates a generation is being undertaken by rotating the system tray icon. I have the Avast and VRDB icons combined in my system tray.
I'll continue observing the status of the system tray icon when shutting down to see if there are any other clues.
Thanks for pointing out the factual error.
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VRDB indicates a generation is being undertaken by rotating the system tray icon
The avast system tray icon rotating is an indication that avast is performing scanning activity. Even with the avast tray icon and the VRDB icon combined the VRDB generation is shown by a separate animated VRDB icon during the generation.
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VRDB indicates a generation is being undertaken by rotating the system tray icon.
Not the 'a' icon. VRDB is the 'i' icon. Even merged, it appears while VRDB is being generated.
Edited: Alanrf has answered the same before. Only now I've realized.
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While writing this a funny thought occurred to me. If ashDisp is responsible for the system tray function why didn't the developers call the program ashTray? ;-)
As I wrote, it's responsible for all the user-interface interration with the resident protection. So, it's not only the tray icon - but also virus warning dialogs when anything is detected, notification pop-ups (e.g. when update is available), etc.
I suspect if ashDisp.exe is busy doing a VRDB generation then the shutdown message might not be getting through PS TrayFactory to ashDISP.
Actually, ashDisp.exe is not doing the VRDB generation - it's done in ashServ.exe; however, ashDisp.exe is rotating the icon accordingly, so that's probably consistent with what you meant.
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I think I'm on to it now. Thanks for responding Igor and Tech. Now that I know it's not a common problem I can focus on my own environment. Also, knowing ashDISP.exe is responsible for the systemtray function I've got a good idea of the source of the problem. I use a program called PS TrayFactory to manage my system tray. I suspect if ashDisp.exe is busy doing a VRDB generation then the shutdown message might not be getting through PS TrayFactory to ashDISP. I've started closing PS TrayFactory before shutting down and so far ashDisp has not failed to shutdown. It didn't happen everytime and so I need to continue the trial for a while to establish PS TrayFactory/VRDB generation as the issue.
I'll re-evaluate my VRDB settings as a well as ensuring PS TrayFactory is closed before shutdown as a solution to my irritating problem.
Just establishing that it is not a common problem has been a great help.
While writing this a funny thought occurred to me. If ashDisp is responsible for the system tray function why didn't the developers call the program ashTray? ;-)
Quality lol ;D I must be the only person on here to get the "joke"
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I'm glad you liked it Patrice58. I see you are in the UK. I live in Australia but I was born and grew up in the UK. We think we must share British humour.
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Oh yes! ;D
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An update on my experience of ashDisp.exe hanging when I shutdown.
It hasn't happened for a while. AFter the discussion here and the useful information I gleaned, I checked my VRDB setting, which was 'Generate VRDB only when screen-saver is running'. Hmmmm! I don't have a screen saver. I set VRDB to 'Generate VRDB when computer is idle' and then, a short time later, I saw the spinning 'I' which hadn't been apparent before. Since that time, no more ashDISP on shutdown. I haven't gone back and checked if I can get the hangs again if I return to the prvious VRDB setting but I will shortly when I am pretty sure the problem has gone away.
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I have opened a new forum where everybody can discuss on pc security and antivirus related issues. Register and start posting.
www.pc-security.forummotion.com
I really don't want to be rude, but seriously, why does this have anything to do with the OP's question?
Put your website in your sig or something bro.
I have a website that no one goes to either, but this isn't the way to advertise it in my opinion.
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An update on my experience of ashDisp.exe hanging when I shutdown.
It hasn't happened for a while. After the discussion here and the useful information I gleaned, I checked my VRDB setting, which was 'Generate VRDB only when screen-saver is running'. Hmmmm! I don't have a screen saver. I set VRDB to 'Generate VRDB when computer is idle' and then, a short time later, I saw the spinning 'I' which hadn't been apparent before. Since that time, no more ashDISP on shutdown. I haven't gone back and checked if I can get the hangs again if I return to the prvious VRDB setting but I will shortly when I am pretty sure the problem has gone away.
I have exactly the same problem on my XP SP3 system. I tried the generate on idle, but I still cannot shutdown without doing a "End Now" for the hung ashdisp.exe program. Although the shutdown problem was random an occasional, it has now become fairly consistent and always. Did you ever set your VRDB setting back to screen-saver mode and see if you could reproduce the error? As far as spinning icons, the "a" icon in the tray spins for about a second when the shutdown is issued. The "i" icon in the tray does not spin during shutdown -- neither in screen-saver mode, nor in idle-mode.
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I believe I found the problem. :) It has to do with the deletion of a file previously put into Avast's exclusion list. When I installed Avast and did its first scan, it signaled that I had a trojan in three HOTKEY script files I created using AUTOHOTKEY's package to create hotkeys. To verify the findings I wanted to send the files to www.virustotal.com which required me to put the files in a separate file other than the Avast quarantine file so I could upload them. Thus I created a file SUSPECT and put it in Avast's Exclusion list so it wouldn't scan it again. Later I deleted the file completely, but did not remove the file from Avast's exclusion list and thus in its AVAST.INI file. After removing the file name from the Exclusion list (I did this by editing the AVAST.INI file and deleting it there), I no longer have seen the shutdown problem to-date. Have restarted the PC over 10 times to test it. Hopefully this resolves my problem forever and can help others.
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Hi tpanc13,
Thanks for your input. I've resorted to using TaskMgr to kill Avast just before I shutdown. At this moment I'm traveling in the UK with a new laptop running Vista. No trouble on this one. When I get home I'll look through my avast.ini file. I do recall an event where suddenly Avast was finding a lot suspect files and wanted to quarantine or delete them.
I really appreciate reading your findings. Will let you know what I find when I get back in August.
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I have opened a new forum where everybody can discuss on pc security and antivirus related issues. Register and start posting.
www.pc-security.forummotion.com
I really don't want to be rude, but seriously, why does this have anything to do with the OP's question?
Put your website in your sig or something bro.
I have a website that no one goes to either, but this isn't the way to advertise it in my opinion.
I went there and registered i think lmao
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gr3gw,
>:( Here we go again. I am back to ground zero. Removing the Exclude file temporarily removed the problem. What did I do during this short period of time? Wow, not much. Of course the Avast database updated automatically. Besides that, I checked a few individual files with Avast. Nothing else with Avast itself. However, I did get hit with XP hanging on boot after all system tray items appeared and before any desktop ICONs appeared. I had to power off (hence temp files or corrupted files usually). Booted in SAFE MODE (tried to boot) and got a Trap 00000006 error (don't bother trying to figure this one out). I tried a regular boot and it worked, but I thought I'd try to correct one cause of a trap 00000006 error -- corrupt files. So, I brought up Recovery Console and did a chkdsk /r to recover from any corrupt files. It did find some and fix them. No problem with boots after that, but, of course, Avast back in its error state on shutdown. Will keep you posted. Enjoy England.
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:D I believe it is resolved now. Simply turn off automatic updating. I use the ask first option now and replay to the tray popup when new data base available. No hangups for over 2 weeks so far.