Author Topic: Avast causes sytem crash Win-Me  (Read 10091 times)

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r2baruch

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Re: Avast causes sytem crash Win-Me
« Reply #15 on: December 15, 2005, 06:09:21 PM »
memtest returned no errors (5 passes). 
highjackthis log attached
I think the situation is getting worse.  today it froze while I was in the middle of checking mail.
Is it OK to delete the symantec entries that are in the highjackthis report? Even though HJKTS seems to be frozen as soon as it comes up and can only be closed through close programs dialog box.
Starfighter, what do you say about reinstalling windows?
Can you send me a link to instructions for reinstalling, I haven't found anything in microsoft.
« Last Edit: December 15, 2005, 06:24:20 PM by r2baruch »

Offline Lisandro

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Re: Avast causes sytem crash Win-Me
« Reply #16 on: December 15, 2005, 06:37:25 PM »
Is it OK to delete the symantec entries that are in the highjackthis report? Even though HJKTS seems to be frozen as soon as it comes up and can only be closed through close programs dialog box.
If you're not using any other Symantec product, I see no reason for not getting rid of that entries.

Can you send me a link to instructions for reinstalling, I haven't found anything in microsoft.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;315341
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314058
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm

Boot from your Me CD and start installing overwriting the current version (Do not format the drive. This way all data will be preserved).
Use the same drive, same partition, same directory (possibly, C:\Windows).
Install a firewall (ZoneAlarm, for instance)
Install avast
Visit Windows Update and install all security patches/updates.
The best things in life are free.

r2baruch

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Re: Avast causes sytem crash Win-Me
« Reply #17 on: December 15, 2005, 07:21:05 PM »
Does mean I eill have to reinstall all the programs?

Offline Lisandro

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Re: Avast causes sytem crash Win-Me
« Reply #18 on: December 15, 2005, 08:18:19 PM »
Does mean I eill have to reinstall all the programs?
No, on contrary, they will stay all there is you DON'T reformat and install Windows IN THE SAME FOLDER as before.
All your programs and your documents, as I've said before, will be there.
The best things in life are free.

Starfighter

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Re: Avast causes sytem crash Win-Me
« Reply #19 on: December 15, 2005, 11:22:40 PM »
rdbaruch,

If I may make a suggestion, before you reinstall Windows ME... make sure you don't have any spyware.  Avast doesn't detect spyware, as it is primarily just an antivirus program.

Here are 2 very good free (for home use) anti-spyware programs programs:

Spybot Search and Destroy (version 1.4)
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html

Adaware SE:
http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html

Make sure to immediately update the spyware patterns/defintions before you do a scan/clean-up.
 
Run 1 program...  then run the other program... as sometimes 1 will catch what the other doesn't...

Let us know if this helps...

Starfighter

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Re: Avast causes sytem crash Win-Me
« Reply #20 on: December 15, 2005, 11:28:58 PM »
By the way... looking at your hijackthis log files, it looks like you have (or had at one time) other anti-virus programs installed (i.e. Trend Micro, Panda etc).  Did you make sure to uninstall those?  You should only use 1 anti-virus program at a time... otherwise you can run into problems.
« Last Edit: December 15, 2005, 11:32:57 PM by Starfighter »

r2baruch

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Re: Avast causes sytem crash Win-Me
« Reply #21 on: December 17, 2005, 05:33:38 PM »
Those are their on-line scanning programs.  They shouldn't be active or interfering as long as I don't run them.  If you think they are the source of the problem I can remove them, but do you really think they are causing problems?

The condition of my computer seems to be deteriorating as to the frequency of freezing or rebooting.  Today I had great difficulty booting up altogether.  I also have mail undeliverable messages to an address that there is no way I would have sent something to.

Is it possible that the freezing occurs specifically in sites concerning computer security?

I also had difficulty generating the HJT log since the HJT seems to freeze after the scan but before letting me save the log.
« Last Edit: December 17, 2005, 05:47:52 PM by r2baruch »

CharleyO

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Re: Avast causes sytem crash Win-Me
« Reply #22 on: December 17, 2005, 08:23:14 PM »
***

I can not say for sure but it seems you may have a "bot program" infection (undeliverable messages you did not send) that is stealing your system resources ... or else, for some other reason, you are losing system resources to something that shouldn't be. This could be the reason your computer is "freezing" and/or rebooting as these bot programs tend to max-out a computer's resources.     >:(

Also, too much heat can also cause these things to happen. Check your cpu & system fans. Try running the computer with the side cover off to see if this improves the freezing/rebooting problem. Set a portable desktop fan blowing into the open case to see if this helps.   

Sorry if these things have been suggested before but I did not read the first page of posts about this.    ;)


***

r2baruch

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Re: Avast causes sytem crash Win-Me
« Reply #23 on: December 17, 2005, 09:23:05 PM »
Thanks.
The heating point hasn't been suggested yet and I will give it a try.

However I suspect the problem is with  a bot program or other malware.  I have scanned with nearly everything readily available and have not yet found anything.

The only thing is a CA online scan found a browser hijacker peopleonpage.apropos in a zonemap\domains key in the registry, but the behavior is not hijacker behavior.  I also found that the zonemap keys are full of ad related sites which I  presume are sites that are being blocked from entering the computer by ie-spyads or spyware blaster etc.

CA also found netzip, fresh devices, and network1.popups in zonemap\domains, but I am not seeing behavior that I would relate to these sites.

In the meantime, the computer is close to becoming unusable with freeze or reboot every few minutes.
« Last Edit: December 17, 2005, 09:29:32 PM by r2baruch »

Offline Lisandro

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Re: Avast causes sytem crash Win-Me
« Reply #24 on: December 17, 2005, 10:10:05 PM »
The only thing is a CA online scan found a browser hijacker peopleonpage.apropos in a zonemap\domains key in the registry, but the behavior is not hijacker behavior.  I also found that the zonemap keys are full of ad related sites which I  presume are sites that are being blocked from entering the computer by ie-spyads or spyware blaster etc.
I think your assumption is right. These keys are there by ie-spyads and spyware blaster  :)
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