Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: RedRaleigh on March 15, 2011, 10:50:10 PM
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My computer has been running perfectly for years (really, years). Tried to install Avast 6 Free. Just before finishing install I got a BSOD. Rebooted. System took 5 minutes to load fully to my desktop. (XP SP2). Avast did not load on restart but installed folder in Start..Programs..there was no uninstall. Was finally able to go online and dl the uninstall utility. Booted into safe mode and ran it (although I think I ran it with the default for Avast 4). Rebooted. Took longer than usual to reboot, my system is now slower than it's ever been, I get momentary lockups and need to know how to completely remove this program or at least get my system back to where it was (running perfectly). Should I try a system restore?
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No system restore!
Try http://www.appremover.com/
I hope you will try Avast 6 free again.
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My computer has been running perfectly for years (really, years). Tried to install Avast 6 Free. Just before finishing install I got a BSOD. Rebooted. System took 5 minutes to load fully to my desktop. (XP SP2). Avast did not load on restart but installed folder in Start..Programs..there was no uninstall. Was finally able to go online and dl the uninstall utility. Booted into safe mode and ran it (although I think I ran it with the default for Avast 4). Rebooted. Took longer than usual to reboot, my system is now slower than it's ever been, I get momentary lockups and need to know how to completely remove this program or at least get my system back to where it was (running perfectly). Should I try a system restore?
Hi and welcome to the forums: :)
I would suspect you do need to run again and chose v.6 to Clear(Run in SAFEMODE). Also I have found it takes a couple of reboots to get everything settled in. :-\
Why SP2 and not SP3??
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No system restore!
Try http://www.appremover.com/
I hope you will try Avast 6 free again.
Strange... It was downloaded 0 times ::)
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Did you use any other antivirus before avast? Which one? How did you uninstall it?
Any other security program that could interfere?
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Hi and welcome to the forums: :)
I would suspect you do need to run again and chose v.6 to Clear(Run in SAFEMODE). Also I have found it takes a couple of reboots to get everything settled in. :-\
Why SP2 and not SP3??
OK. Will try. Thanks
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Did you use any other antivirus before avast? Which one? How did you uninstall it?
Any other security program that could interfere?
Yes.
Vipre 4.0
Used their uninstall.
No.
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RedRaleigh, I can't see other reason for avast to crash besides a conflict with another antivirus or security program or remains of an old installation (not very well uninstalled).
Please, go to folder \windows\minidump and send the newest (recent) .mdmp files for analysis.
There is also C:\Windows\Memory.dmp file.
Better if you can compress (zip), rename it with an unique name, them and add some information about the BSOD and the link for this thread. ;)
Upload it to this anonymous ftp server: ftp://ftp.avast.com/incoming/ (ftp://ftp.avast.com/incoming/)
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Obligatory "Dude, where's your backup?" question.
I do not mean to sound cheeky, but, changing anything that installs drivers (yes AVs do install drivers) has the potential to mess up one's system. An external drive is not expensive. Get a nice 500GB one and provided you do not keep all your eggs in one basket, your C: drive should be 80GB max. A drive like that would go for many many many backups since apart from the first one the rest should be incremental.
No, you do not have to buy a disk imaging util, there are free ones out there. Macrium Reflect Free is one such product with lots of praises. (tho, the free version does not do incremental backups). Image your C: drive before a potential dangerous "move" and there, you're good to go. Why in this day and age people keep going "commando" with their systems, boggles my mind. Want fast backup for your daily office docs and whatnot? Dropbox gives you 2GB storage for free. Files get synced whenever they are modified and I think they have file version feature too.
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Obligatory "Dude, where's your backup?" question.
I do not mean to sound cheeky, but, changing anything that installs drivers (yes AVs do install drivers) has the potential to mess up one's system. An external drive is not expensive. Get a nice 500GB one and provided you do not keep all your eggs in one basket, your C: drive should be 80GB max. A drive like that would go for many many many backups since apart from the first one the rest should be incremental.
No, you do not have to buy a disk imaging util, there are free ones out there. Macrium Reflect Free is one such product with lots of praises. (tho, the free version does not do incremental backups). Image your C: drive before a potential dangerous "move" and there, you're good to go. Why in this day and age people keep going "commando" with their systems, boggles my mind. Want fast backup for your daily office docs and whatnot? Dropbox gives you 2GB storage for free. Files get synced whenever they are modified and I think they have file version feature too.
Thanks. I have two 2TB external backup drives (one is a backup of the backup!) and I make daily differential backups and weekly full backups plus a complete sector-by-sector backup routinely.
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RedRaleigh, I can't see other reason for avast to crash besides a conflict with another antivirus or security program or remains of an old installation (not very well uninstalled).
Please, go to folder \windows\minidump and send the newest (recent) .mdmp files for analysis.
There is also C:\Windows\Memory.dmp file.
Better if you can compress (zip), rename it with an unique name, them and add some information about the BSOD and the link for this thread. ;)
Upload it to this anonymous ftp server: ftp://ftp.avast.com/incoming/ (ftp://ftp.avast.com/incoming/)
The \windows\minidump folder is empty and there is no memory.dmp file in my Windows folder. I re-ran the uninstaller utility (this time selecting avast 6 free) and it appears to have fully removed it. I ran a registry cleaner, rebooted a few times and (fingers-crossed) I seem to have my system back to pre-avast status. I won't try it again.
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If you feel like troubleshooting this further there is a Vipre removal tool at:
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/ihs/cs&vclean.exe (http://www.sunbelt-software.com/ihs/cs&vclean.exe)
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Staying with XP SP2 will not help you with any other anti virus application!
Stay here if you want help.
How to invoke memory dump creation?
http://support.avast.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=71
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Staying with XP SP2 will not help you with any other anti virus application!
Stay here if you want help.
How to invoke memory dump creation?
http://support.avast.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=71
Thanks. Before avast I evaluated, at various times: Norton 2011, AVG, Microsoft Security Essentials, F-Secure, ESET, G Data, BitDefender and a few others I can't recall at the moment. Not one of them crashed my system. I always used revo uninstall to make sure every bit was uninstalled, checked the registry myself and also ran any uninstall utility provided from the vendor before trying a new program. So, I'm not sure why you think SP2 is the problem..? As I said in my first post, my system runs beautifully.
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RedRaleigh, why didn't you upgrade to SP3?
Any failure in removing old antivirus could have an impact on avast (or any other antivirus installation).
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RedRaleigh, why didn't you upgrade to SP3?
Any failure in removing old antivirus could have an impact on avast (or any other antivirus installation).
+1 And you should installed SP3
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RedRaleigh, why didn't you upgrade to SP3?
Any failure in removing old antivirus could have an impact on avast (or any other antivirus installation).
Because I've always kept up with MS hotfixes and there weren't a lot of new features in SP3 that my non-networked box needed. Are you saying, for example, the SP3 SSPI would fix problems with my avast install? Other than avast, I have not experienced any other install problems. I'd rather not take a chance installing SP3 just for the sake of installing avast.
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Are you saying, for example, the SP3 SSPI would fix problems with my avast install?
avast 6 requires XP SP2 as minimum. But I'm quite sure SP3 won't hurt. I, technically, can't understand why people avoid having SP3. It's an OS improvement. It's not just an accessory thing.
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I, technically, can't understand why people avoid having SP3. It's an OS improvement. It's not just an accessory thing.
+1 ;)
asyn
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avast 6 requires XP SP2 as minimum. But I'm quite sure SP3 won't hurt. I, technically, can't understand why people avoid having SP3. It's an OS improvement. It's not just an accessory thing.
See:
Support for Windows XP Service Pack 2 ends on July 13, 2010
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifean31
SP3 provides many Critical system updates and several performance improvements. 8)
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RedRaleigh, why didn't you upgrade to SP3?
Yes, my question exactly ??? :-\
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Are you saying, for example, the SP3 SSPI would fix problems with my avast install?
avast 6 requires XP SP2 as minimum. But I'm quite sure SP3 won't hurt. I, technically, can't understand why people avoid having SP3. It's an OS improvement. It's not just an accessory thing.
OK, so we can eliminate *not* having SP3 as the problem.
Re: SP3 not hurting: As I recall, lots of people had problems installing SP3 when it was released and subsequently. google it. I'd rather not take a chance right now and then have to spend time recovering from a potential bad install.
I have to say, though, that installing SP3 seems like a side issue. I've experienced no problems installing and uninstalling practically every other antivirus software out there on my SP2 box. I might try avast on my Win7 Pro laptop at some later time.
Rather that continue to go around in circles, the moderator might want to consider this thread closed.
Thanks to everyone for their input.
RR
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If you feel like troubleshooting this further there is a Vipre removal tool at:
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/ihs/cs&vclean.exe (http://www.sunbelt-software.com/ihs/cs&vclean.exe)
The link above leads to Malware which AIS promptly blocked before allowing download
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The link above leads to Malware which AIS promptly blocked before allowing download
http://www.virustotal.com/url-scan/report.html?id=7d710634231ac383f64538500255ce07-1300286406 (http://www.virustotal.com/url-scan/report.html?id=7d710634231ac383f64538500255ce07-1300286406)
http://www.virustotal.com/file-scan/report.html?id=8f8650e92e10740750b1949bb0c0d46329a44900bb5797af5f86ed59cebf4c72-1300290010 (http://www.virustotal.com/file-scan/report.html?id=8f8650e92e10740750b1949bb0c0d46329a44900bb5797af5f86ed59cebf4c72-1300290010)
File name:
cs%26vclean.exe
Submission date:
2011-03-16 15:40:10 (UTC)
Current status:
queued queued analysing finished
Result:
5/ 43 (11.6%)
Three of the five can be counted as one. G-Data, Avast 4 and Avast 5 all use roughly the same virus signatures. This likely is a false positive.
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The link above leads to Malware which AIS promptly blocked before allowing download
Looks like as yet another FP... >:( The site is definitely legit.
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If you feel like troubleshooting this further there is a Vipre removal tool at:
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/ihs/cs&vclean.exe (http://www.sunbelt-software.com/ihs/cs&vclean.exe)
The link above leads to Malware which AIS promptly blocked before allowing download
False positive.
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Jotti isn't as good as virustotal as it is Linux based versions of AVs. VirusTotal has more AVs and is using the windows based versions of avast and other AVs.
Not to mention your image shows a scan from 2010-06-29, a lifetime ago in terms of AVs. So you should have had it scan the file again.
I rather suspect that that avast is detecting unencrypted signatures in the Viper routine.
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I rather suspect that that avast is detecting unencrypted signatures in the Viper routine.
Virus signatures in removal tool? ???
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They have to know what they are looking for.
Plus since they are also going to be deleting something that too would be considered suspect.
The big problem we have and leads to speculation is no one has said what the malware name is ?
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AIS blocked it. Good enough for me :)
I never ever override what could to be a false positive. There are always multiple products that will perform a computer task that you need done or want to do that are not identified by AIS as Malware. I would rather find a program that will do what I need or want that doesn't generate a false positive.
No harm comes to my computer from not putting the blocked program in the exclusions list.
On the other hand I will only use other programs to find possible problems that AIS misses. Of course if another program identifies some software as Malware, Trojan etc that AIS missed I will also remove the program.
Bottom line is that I don't hold by the concept of false positive override. This may prevent me from using certain programs but will not hurt the computer. Better safe than sorry when it comes to security. It is a lot safer that way and has never preventing me from doing anything I wanted or needed to do on my computer. :)
Just the way I do things :)
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The big problem we have and leads to speculation is no one has said what the malware name is ?
BV:Shutdown-J(Tr)
It's a legit removal tool, nothing infected there. I can't submit it as false positive since nothing gets moved to chest, the connection is just blocked.
There are always multiple products that will perform a computer task that you need done or want to do that are not identified by AIS as Malware. I would rather find a program that will do what I need or want that doesn't generate a false positive.
Not when it comes to removal tools for security applications. I'd definitely not recommend any third-party tool over the one provided by the vendor.
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The big problem we have and leads to speculation is no one has said what the malware name is ?
BV:Shutdown-J(Tr)
It's a legit removal tool, nothing infected there. I can't submit it as false positive since nothing gets moved to chest, the connection is just blocked.
There are always multiple products that will perform a computer task that you need done or want to do that are not identified by AIS as Malware. I would rather find a program that will do what I need or want that doesn't generate a false positive.
Not when it comes to removal tools for security applications. I'd definitely not recommend any third-party tool over the one provided by the vendor.
Your comment above that I highlighted in red reads like you didn't understand what I wrote.
When I wrote I would rather find a program that didn't generate a false positive I was referring to the program that Avast identified as a false positive, not Avast or in my case AIS.
To elaborate. If AIS identifies a program as Malware I accept what AIS says and don't install the program that AIS identified as Malware or or if previously installed, uninstall it. Then I go look for a program that will do the same things as the product that AIS identified as Malware and install it. If AIS says good to go and I like the program I use it. If AIS says not good to go I get rid of that program.
I was not talking about replacing AIS because it finds a false positive.
That idea would be totally inconsistent with the idea put forth in the post of mine above from which you quoted.
I don't believe in false positive override. If your security software, in my case AIS, says its bad then I accept that and do not override it with an exclusion entry. I replace it with another program that I like and AIS likes :)
Hope this was clearer. :)
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I don't believe in false positive override. If your security software, in my case AIS, says its bad then I accept that and do not override it with an exclusion entry. I replace it with another program that I like and AIS likes :)
Still missing each other's point I guess. There is NO good replacement for uninstall tools such as this one.
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@Nesivos Dude, you're bad.
I've seen people that are technologically challenged but have not expected and Avast Evangelist to be so out of the loop. Now, be nice, put on the "Dunce" hat and stop hijacking this thread :(
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If you feel like troubleshooting this further there is a Vipre removal tool at:
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/ihs/cs&vclean.exe (http://www.sunbelt-software.com/ihs/cs&vclean.exe)
The link above leads to Malware which AIS promptly blocked before allowing download
Status update from Avast:
Hello,
It is a false positive and it will be fixed in next VPS.
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I'd check what it was on the BSOD and what Event Viewer has to say about this incident (what caused it and why exactly).