XP SP2 hangs on shutdown

[bro]

My Acer Travelmate 8104, XP Pro SP2, Avast V4.6 Home Edition hangs on shutdown. 
The  "Saving your settings" message is displayed and hangs before the "Windows is shutting down" message appears before power off.  The power button must be held down to power off.  The system hangs rather than is delayed  as I have waited up to 4 hours for shutdown.
   
The workaround is to Rt-Click the Avast icon, select  "Stop On-Access Protection", wait until Avast stops all providers THEN select shutdown and the notebook shuts down correctly. The BIOS is at the most recent version.

Does any one have any better workarounds or fixes?

bro

[Lisandro]

Does this happen only with the last avast version (update) or this is the first time you're using avast and get this problem?
Which firewall do you use?
Any other security program?

[szc]

Hi there and WELCOME to avast! forum.

Sure that's a huge problem. Tell us did you find anything suspicious in log files by any chance ? (My Computer, right click, MANAGE) When Computer Management window is open, chose Event Viewer. Check all those log files inside the right panel for some error information and post back.

I'm sure Alwil guys would be very interested to see what's causing this behaviour because it's obvious it has something to do with avast! since manual stopping of avast! services helps you at shutdown time as you already mentioned.

Regards

[Starfighter]

Bro,

Do you have in your taskbar 2 avast blue circles with the letters "a" and "i" ?  or did you merge them into 1 (just the "a" circle).  If merged into one, split them again (right click on the "a" circle, then click on VRDB, then split).  See if that helps with your shutdown problems (it did for me).


     <---yellow circles.

[szc]

Yes try that.. I've heard some people solved their problems that way. However, Alwil should fix that ASAP.

[bro]

Thanks for the tip but splitting the icon back into two made no difference.

Bro

[bro]

Some further background info:

I have had the shutdown problem for approx 4 months now. When I purchased the machine it had NAV installed but I manged to remove it and installed Avast.  The shutdown problem probably occurred about 1 month after originally installing Avast.  I update Avast automatically so didn't associate it with the problem. 

I have installed many applications and services as I use this notebook as a workhorse eg SQL Server, IINET, .Net apps, full MS Office Pro incl OneNote on client site and assumed the problem was related to one of these recent installs.  During that time I have also reinstalled the Acer legacy drivers & reapplied XP SP2. 

I finally related the problem to Avast by selectively terminating processes and services before attempting a shutdown.  Of course Avast was the last suspect because it has always been there.

Bro

[Starfighter]

Bro,

Do you by chance have any USB devices plugged into your computer?  Some people claim that these devices can cause avast! to hang on shutdown.

Are your temp directories all empty? 

 Also, maybe as an experiment, an avast's "program settings" (right click blue "a" circle icon in taskbar), in the troubleshooting section, switch the database from OBDC to XML... see if that helps.

[internetstatic]

I face this problem too. I have a DSL connection and I've noticed that I my startup/shutdown works fine when the DSL router is switched off, else the computer freezes.

I work on a XPhome SP2. As starfighter suggested, it could be due to the USB devices on my computer. (my DSL is connected to a USB port)

[Clubrhythm]

I am running Windows XP Pro x64 (clean install) and as soon as I installed Avast I noticed that Windows began to hang at shutdown.  It gets to the "Windows is shutting down" and then it never does.  I too have to use the power button to turn the PC off.  I will try the fixes I have seen here when I get home tonight and report back.  I am not thrilled about having to disconnect all my USB devices before shut-down but at least I will have hopefully determined the cause.

[igor]

Clubrhythm: Check this thread, please (post your system specs there). Thanks.

[bro]

Problem resolved!

Thanks for the suggestions.  The only USB device is a mouse and that wasn't the problem.

Starfighter's experiment did the trick.  By switching the database to XML, my Travelmate Notebook shuts down correctly each time. 

I can recreate the problem at any time by switching back to ODBC.

Thanks
Bro

[szc]

You are using avast! Home Edition so for you changing the database from ODBC to XML does the trick. It always does.

For all those using avast! Pro, it is highly recommended to stick with ODBC database type.

[Starfighter]

Bro,

Glad the XML switch did the trick.   It's wierd... on one of my computers I can run avast! Home Edition with using ODBC, while the other, it has to be XML... both XP Home edition with SP2 and avast! home editon etc... go figure...     I blame it on aliens... 

[szc]

DO NOT start again !     

If you keep mentioning word Aliens, these people will start to think about that, and apparently they will start digging... you want to blow the cover ? Is that what you want ?       

I know some people will "kill" us for turning this off-topic, but I am sure we can afford that since this guy's problem is solved now...