XP will not boot until Avast service is disabled

[Blaine B.]

The service cannot start.  The only way to have the service start is to do a "repair" installation.

I never get a BSOD.  The XP loading bar will just freeze indefinitely.  I have to force the computer to shut down by holding the power button.  Then when it boots back up, it automatically shows me the menu for selecting safe mode, last known good configuration, and normal boot.

If I do a repair installation in add/remove programs, it will do the exact same freeze when I restart.  Just on that one particular system.

[cooby]

What are the makes of both of those XP computers?
What disk did you use to reinstall Windows? Common, universal clean XP or disk(s) specific to the computer manufacturer?
Does your father's computer work ok other than the avast issue?

[Blaine B.]

It was a full installation CD for XP SP2 that I slip-streamed SP3 onto.  I have the exact same installation CD that I bought at the same time from the same vendor, and I also slipstreamed SP3 on top of my SP2 installation.  On my system Avast works, on his it does not.  We have unique XP keys, by the way, it is not a shared installation.....even though the XP CDs were identicle, because they were both purchased from the same place at the exact same time.

They are both home-built systems.

Father's system specs:

Asus K8V SE Deluxe motherboard
AMD 3400+ single core processor
1.5 gb DDR RAM
ATI Sapphire X800 Pro 256 mb video
Creative Audigy 2 ZS audio
Dual Seagate 300 gb 7200 rpm SATA drives

My system:

Asus A8N 32 SLI Deluxe motherboard
AMD FX-60 dual core processor
2.0 gb DDR RAM
ATI Sapphire X1950 XT 256 mb video
Creative X-FI Xtreme Music audio
Dual Seagate 320 gb 7200 rpm SATA drives

As you can see the builds were very similar, just a few years apart.

Also, everything else works on his system (and mine)

The only issue is, Avast prevents his system from booting up.  And then when I use last known good configuration, Windows is able to boot, but them Avast complains that its service is not running.

[drake127]

Hi, can you try the following?

1) Get procexp.exe tool (Sysinternals Tools).
2) Disable self-defense in avast! settings.
3) Set registry HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\avast! Antivirus\Start to 3 (by default it's 2).
4) Restart computer, it should start normally.
5) Start ProcExp.exe
5) On command line, type net start "avast! Antivirus"
6) Look if it freezes and if so, create a process dump of AvastSvc.exe.
7) Send this dump to me.

[Blaine B.]

I will be able to try during this upcoming weekend.  That is the next time I will have access to the system.

[drake127]

Just let me know. Cure to deadlocks is only a process dump so we can see where exactly it hangs.

[Blaine B.]

So I should do a repair installation of Avast so that the service will be re-enabled while I am logged in, before I change the registry start from 2 to 3?  Or should I just change that as-is with the service currently disabled?

[Blaine B.]

Any idea how I should restore the Avast service for proper testing?  Should I do a repair installation to get it fired up again or what?

[drake127]

Re-enable the service and set it to 3 (to be able to do a manual start from services.msc).
Set it back to 2 (Auto) if you want it make automatically started again.

[Ironic]

Running Win XP and ever since updating to 9.0.2016 (AIS), I've had the issue of having to waiting at least 10 minutes from boot to login, and then allowing another 5 minutes for Windows to load. I've disabled as many processes as possible (leaving only 25 processes running with 2gb ram) and an AMD Sempron 3400+ processor. Before the last Avast program update there were no issues whatsoever. If I don't wait that 10 minutes from boot to login, Avast will not load at all. I've run process hacker and Avast is calling up svchost to run 100% of CPU, something in that last program update is not sitting well with XP. I can have the computer up and running smoothly for hours and then all of a sudden Avast calls up svchost to eat up 100% of CPU resources. I've performed a repair install, reset settings to default and there's no change. I boot up, and the Hard Drive continuously works (scanning) for at least 10 minutes (did NOT do this before last program update). I've ran full scans after the latest updates of Avast, ran a Rescue Disk to rule out any type of virus or malware causing the issue along with Spybot S&D (NOT resident in memory), and Malwarebytes. I have no doubt this lays with Avast's latest update as I had this installed on 2 other (customers) computers with XP having this same issue. I'll be the guinea pig in helping Avast sort this out, unless Avast decides not to support XP anymore. Just let me know what it is you want me to try so I can not give these 2 people reasons to keep complaining about having to wait when starting their computers.

[Tetsuo]

@Ironic  - For what it's worth, I've been having the same problems on a laptop and the only build that still works on that system is the 9.0.2008.
However, I've reported this problem several times in the last months to no avail - basically I was ignored, so at this point I don't really care any more about reporting things to the developers.
I just wanted to let you know that you're not the only one experiencing those issues - Hope you could solve them soon, though.

[cooby]

Ironic and Tetsuo,
I have a hunch you hijacked this thread and it might not be related to what Blaine B needs. Still,
Perhaps this will help you two where DavidR showed a great solution, though my bootup time wasn't as severe as yours
post #1 and on page 2, post#17 and few that follow here
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=147753.0

[Tetsuo]

Ironic and Tetsuo,
I have a hunch you hijacked this thread and it might not be related to what Blaine B needs. Still,
Perhaps this will help you two

Sorry for the thread hijacking - in my defence I'd say that this is the only one about XP issues where apparently I can see the presence of a member of the Avast Team.
I'm a power user and I've been using and supporting Avast since v4.5 - there's no known solution to this problem - trust me, I know what to do/try etc...
Probably the issue resides in some changes in the code of one of the recent ultra-bloated Avast builds (let's say post  9.0.2008). I will not continue hijacking this thread, though. Thanks

[stevesvcooper]

We have this problem with 2 of our PCs, but apparently not others. The only specifc similarity between them is that they have an ATI Radeon series X300 graphics adaptor installed, in addition to the one on the motherboard - both use the motherboard's adaptor as default.

[simplestreet]

Any ideas?  Is anyone else with XP SP3 experiencing the same type of issue?

I am using XP SP3. And I experienced the same type of problem, until I have to uninstall AVAST today after many days trying.