25-hour cycle for "The avast! Antivirus service terminated unexpectedly" ?!?

[glnz]

Igor:  Done, I think.  Thanks.  Very interested to know what you find.

[FlyingHorse]

I opened a support ticket with the same problem back in May. Avast responded:

We have received and acknowledge your issue. Now we will analyze whether there is anything related to avast! that we could change, and if so we will provide a work-around or fix it in a future release. We will monitor how often this issue appears in our customer base and the impact on our market. If you have any additional information about the issue please let us know because it could shed more light on the issue and help us to solve it or identify the cause more quickly. Thank you for helping us to improve avast!

This was from 2nd level technical support

I hope that the OP has better luck than I did.

[glnz]

Dear HorseFly:  A few questions:

1)  Did you have a precise 25-hour repeat cycle like me?

2)  Did you check your Scheduled Tasks for anything possibly related?  (But in my case there is nothing obvious anyway.)

3)  Did you have any possibly conflicting programs like Ad-Aware?  (But in my case I have already proven there's no conflict between Avast and Ad-Aware, at least not with my old, non-updated version of Ad-Aware.)

4)  Did you check the error log and did you look for any unpXXXXXXXX.tmp.mdmp files, as Igor asked me to do?

5)  Did you send anything to Avast's ftp site for analysis?

6)  Are you still getting the 5-second shutoff?

What a way to spend Labor Day !!

[FlyingHorse]

Dear HorseFly:  A few questions:

1)  Did you have a precise 25-hour repeat cycle like me?

2)  Did you check your Scheduled Tasks for anything possibly related?  (But in my case there is nothing obvious anyway.)

3)  Did you have any possibly conflicting programs like Ad-Aware?  (But in my case I have already proven there's no conflict between Avast and Ad-Aware, at least not with my old, non-updated version of Ad-Aware.)

4)  Did you check the error log and did you look for any unpXXXXXXXX.tmp.mdmp files, as Igor asked me to do?

5)  Did you send anything to Avast's ftp site for analysis?

6)  Are you still getting the 5-second shutoff?

What a way to spend Labor Day !!

0. My handle isn't HorseFly 
1. Yes
2. Yes, nothing related
3. No
4. Yes, bunches of them
5. Yes, several times
6. Yes

BTW I'm running Windows 7 x64 SP1 and I've had this problem since the first version 7 release. I never had Avast! installed before that.
Also, if you take a look through the dump files you'll find that Avast! is hitting a null pointer in its own code IIRC.

[glnz]

Dear Igor - This problem might be an embarrassment to Avast - especially if Avast cannot find the cause - but a 5-second shutdown can be deadly.  Five seconds is all the Russian mafia needs to ruin our lives.  Please level with us - what is going on here?  I, too, have posted about this before.  When will there be a solution to this issue?  Surely, the 25-hour cycle must be a good clue.  Kwartet's observation above - and what I found for my settings for Google Update - must help you find why Avast is stumbling on precisely a 25-hour schedule.  Where is your Sherlock Holmes?

Dear Flying Hoarse:  What means "Avast! is hitting a null pointer in its own code IIRC"?  If you have a moment, please explain for a non-tech such as myself.

Thanks to you both.

PS - Just completed a FULL scan by MalwareBytes - zero problems.

[igor]

I checked the dump and I think I found a problem.
Could you please test a modified version of one avast! module to see if it makes any difference (that is, if the periodic crashing stops)?

To replace the module, the following needs to be done:
1. Download this archive
2. Disable avast! self-defense (by unchecking: Settings / Troubleshooting / Enable avast! self-defense module)
3. Navigate to avast! installation folder (by default, C:\Program Files\Avast Software\Avast) - e.g. in Windows Explorer, or any other file manager
4. Rename the file ashServ.dll to something else (e.g. ashServ2.dll)
5. Extract the content of the archive, downloaded in step 1, into the installation folder
6. Restart the avast! Antivirus service (or simply restart the machine)
7. Reenable the self-defense

Thanks!

[FlyingHorse]

@igor

Thanks for the patch. I have it installed and will let you know how it goes in a day or so... 

[glnz]

OK, Igor - trying it.  The zip archive also included a file called ashServ.dll.sum , which I also extracted to C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast5.  Correct?  Thanks.

[igor]

Yes, that's OK.

[glnz]

Thanks.  By the way, is there a way to test that Avast is working with the new dll file?  Is there a fake virus web page we can point to to see if Avast reacts?  Or an email site that will send a fake virus for the same reason? 

[Theo Peterbroers]

Eicar testfile is intended for this sort of thing http://eicar.org/86-0-Intended-use.html

[glnz]

Igor - success so far.  No shutdown message at 9:02 am.  If you don't hear further from me here, that will be good news.

Just out of curiosity, what did you find and fix?

Thanks.

[FlyingHorse]

@ Igor

I have not had a recurrence of the problem since installing your patch. 
Thank you for doing what Avast level 2 technical support couldn't.

[igor]

OK, good to know - thanks!

The bug I found was connected to the CreditAlert feature (and probably bound to a specific proxy setting). I didn't really investigate the prerequisites, just fixed something that seemed to cause a crash.
The fix will be included in the next program update, of course.

[glnz]

Igor - yes - I turned credit alert on fairly recently.  (I'm not sure it's doing anything because I never see alerts, but who knows.) 

Still looking good here.  Thanks!

(Well, no more 25 hours.  Looks like I lose that extra hour of sleep.)