ashmaisv.exe memory cannot be read at shutdown

[sungod76]

At shutdown during the screen that says windows is saving settings and then says windows is shutting down, I get a window that pops up and says "ashmaisv.exe referenced memory at (can't catch all the message), memory cannot be read," and then my laptop goes ahead and shuts down ok. No other problems, just this quick message right before shutting off.I access my mail via ATT's web site.I don't use Outlook Express at all. Any known issues and how to prevent this?

System Specs:
Windows XP SP2 (with all the latest updates)
Pentium 4 2.2 GHz
ATI Mobility Radeon 9000
768 MB DDR SDRAM PC2100 (133MHz)
60 GB Hitachi Travelstar 7K60
Internet Explorer version 6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227.2254
Maxthon version 1.6.1 (build 50) unicode
Avast version 4.7 Home build 4.7.1029 vps file version 000763.4
Zone Alarm 6.1.737.000
Counter Spy V2 version 2.5.1032  def version 602

[DavidR]

Is there anything in the windows event viewer that might give more information ?

I can't see why your system would be reading memory when shutting down, I could perhaps understand if you were going into hibernation. So I'm not sure what would be trying to read the memory on shutdown, perhaps the event viewer might throw some light on it.

You might want to change your avatar for another, resize or use this one. We try to keep avatars around 100 X 100 for those who don't have high resolution monitors.

[sungod76]

I could not find anything in the event viewer.

[DavidR]

That doesn't surprise me too much, I was hoping it might have caught something though.

I would normally say if you use web mail viewed through your browser then you don't need the Internet Mail provider as this doesn't scan web based email only email through a pop3 email client like OE, Thunderbird, etc.

I'm still at a loss as to what/why something would be trying to access the memory on shutdown, as I see no reason why ashMaiSv.exe would need to access memory, more so because you aren't using an email client.

All I can suggest is monitoring the situation to see if it happens at every shutdown if it doesn't cause a problem I wouldn't be unduly concerned. You could terminate the Internet mail provider then ashMaiSv.exe wouldn't be running to require memory access.

However, with the Internet Mail set to High sensitivity it can provide a useful function of detecting if your system is sending out spam, too many identical emails in a short period. You don't have to have an email client on your system as some trojan spambots come with their own very small smtp routine. So that decision would have to be yours.

[Lisandro]

Did you use AVG or ClamWin before using avast?
Did you use (or still use) any spam tool?
Any other program that manage email messages (filters, etc.)?