Current build 4.7.827 Problems ?

[lakrsrool]

Ever since upgrading to 4.7.827 I have had a couple of issues:

Two questions:

1) I have now had Avast just skip by the 21 day interval to update VRDB.  The last time it got to day 24 and I finally just manually updated VRDB.  I was hoping that this time it would update automatically on schedule but it is now day 23 and no update again.

I have VRDB set to update when Idle just as I've had it set for the last 20 months with no problems until I upgraded to the new version.

Does anyone else have this problem?

2) The shortcut menu on right click on the Avast Icon doesn't alway stay and will disappear so that you cannot really use the shortcut menu on the icon in the systray sometimes.  Sometimes it has worked, no problem, but other times it will disapear after a couple of seconds.

Does anyone else have this problem?

Thanks

[alanrf]

I have participated in all recent betas ... so about as up to date as can be:

1) Successful automatic VRDB update 5/15, previous 4/25.
2) No "rapid disappearance" of avast tray icon right click menu observed.

[Lisandro]

I have VRDB set to update when Idle just as I've had it set for the last 20 months with no problems until I upgraded to the new version.

Any program that could change the keyboard/mouse behavior? If you set to 'screen saver' time, will VRDB work?

2) The shortcut menu on right click on the Avast Icon doesn't alway stay and will disappear so that you cannot really use the shortcut menu on the icon in the systray sometimes.  Sometimes it has worked, no problem, but other times it will disapear after a couple of seconds.

As the first one, I never experienced this second problem.
Is your mouse working perfectly?
Did you install any other antivirus? When the icon disappear, is avast disabled? (you can check if ashserv.exe process is running or not).

[lakrsrool]

It's NOT the tray ICON that disappears, it is the context menu (the short cut menu) which shows up (in this case momentarily) when you right click on the icon that disappears so that you cannot select any thing to use on the menu.  But the Avast icon is always there.

I will try a reboot, I kind of think it may be a memory problem because the right click menu disappearing just started and was working for awhile after the version update.

As far as the VRDB update which is supposed to happen every 21 days not working, this has not worked at all since the version update as I mentioned. I do have a animated flag running all the time on my desktop.  This has NOT been any problem with ANY older (previous) versions of avast.

Is it possible that the newest version of Avast is more sensitive to this program running than older versions thus the animated flag executible programming keeps the VRDB update from running because Avast with the VRDB update set to "idle" does not consider the computer to be "idle" ? 

As I said it has always worked before, so it would have to be something in the newest version that would make Avast think that the computer is not idle.

[igor]

The context menu display has actually very little to do with avast! - that's a Windows thing. avast! tells Windows to include its "Scan..." item, but appart from that, it doesn't affect the context menu in any way. So, if the whole menu disappears, the problem is somewhere else. (How about a "faulty" mouse that randomly clicks on the desktop by itself?)

I think there were no changes in the VRDB code for a very long time - including the detection of "idleness" (which has actually nothing to do with programs running on background - "idle" means that no keys are pressed and the mouse is not moved). Hmm... the idea of a randomly clicking mouse comes to my mind again...

[alanrf]

igor,

I believe that you may have misread the post by lakrsrool.  It think the menu that is disappearing is the one produced by right clicking on the avast icon in the systray.

[igor]

Right, but it doesn't really make much difference. avast! tells Windows to display the menu, and the rest (the display/handling of mouse operations) is up to the OS.

[lakrsrool]

Thanks for the help. As far as the right click issue I probably shouldn't have included this part in my post since this had worked after the upgrade and just as I had posted earlier:

I will try a reboot, I kind of think it may be a memory problem because the right click menu disappearing just started and was working for awhile after the version update.

After rebooting the problem disappeared.  What I found out before I rebooted was that it was only when I hovered over parts of the context menu that had extended menus like "Pause Providor", "Updating" etc., Actually I was always trying to go to the "VRDB" part of the context menu and because it had an extended menu (like the others which did the same thing) the menu would disappear as soon as my mouse hovered that part of the menu.

As I thought by rebooting it must be clearing out memory or cache or something like that (not sure how it all works) because that fixed the menu problem and the context menu works just fine again.

My real concern was that the VRDB is not running when the computer is idle after 21 days as it always had before. (which is all I should have posted on).  It was just that it is now day 24 again after not working the last time and just as I was ready to post on this then the menu thing started.

In regards to the VRDB update, the explanation of what is meant by "idle" was helpful:

... detection of "idleness" (which has actually nothing to do with programs running on background - "idle" means that no keys are pressed and the mouse is not moved)....

This makes sense since I never had a problem before, which is why I wondered about Avast now being more sensitive to computer activity, but the explanation above rules that out.

I really don't think my mouse is having a "random clicking" issue, since as I said the VRDB update have always ran after 21 days right up until the time I upgraded to the newest version of Avast.  The next two times after I upgraded to the current version VRDB has not ran it's scheduled update after 21 days.

I know the VRDB Update works because I ran it manually on day 24 after  the first time the VRDB didn't run on  it's own.  I've tried setting it to "screen saver" and back to "when idle", thinking that a change would help.

Perhaps it is a memory issue as far as the scheduled startup of VRDB getting launched in that the new version actually does take up more memory than it had before on previous versions.  This is the only thing I can think of since the manual VRDB update works ok.

With that said, since no one else has the problem unless I'm the only one with a memory problem for scheduled VRDB updates I would have to assume that it is not a problem with the upgrade, which is why I had asked if any others have had a similar problem.

I'll keep hoping that at some point the VRDB will update again on it's own.  I will be moving some software off of my hard drive as soon as I purchase some more peripheral storage as I am down to only around 900 mb of storage, maybe this will help.

Thanks so much again for all of the help.   

[MikeBCda]

With regard to the menu problem, especially since it seems to be occuring mostly with sub-menus -- have you tried playing with "menu speed"?  I'm not sure where you'd find this in Win itself, but if you have TweakUI (a great no-cost addition from MS), if you click on Mouse in the left-hand menu it's right on the first screen.

Also, would you please confirm/clarify whether this menu problem occurs only with the avast icon, or also elsewhere in Windows?

[lakrsrool]

MikeBCda wrote:

Also, would you please confirm/clarify whether this menu problem occurs only with the avast icon, or also elsewhere in Windows?

Good idea, I should have done this, but it's to late now since I've rebooted and the problem no longer exists.  It is the first time this has ever happened with any context menu of any kind on my computer including Avast.  As I had thought since it had never happened before and I had done nothing to my computer prior to it happening I surmised that a reboot would fix the problem as this is the case very often with unexplainable things happening and just as I thought it did fix the problem.  I can now hover indefinitely over any context submenu on Avast without a problem.

My big concern (since the reboot fixed the menu problem anyway) is why VDBR update has not been working for the last two time it should have since I upgraded Avast to the current version.

Does anyone know how Avast checks for this update.  In other words, does Avast check every 4 hours to see if the date is past the 21 days?  And if Avast doesn't do the update on the 22nd day (after 21 days) will Avast still keep checking for every day past the 21 days? In other words for me it is currently now been 25 days, so in this case will Avast still keep checking even though it is not the 22nd day but is the 25th day since the last VRDB update?

As I've mentioned a manual update works fine so it's not that the VRDB update doesn't work.  I've also tried switching between "screensaver" and "idle" options, thinking that Avast maybe needed to "see" this set again.  As I've said I've had no problem with the VRDB update until the last two 21 day intervals since updating to the current version of Avast.

[MikeBCda]

Does anyone know how Avast checks for this update.  In other words, does Avast check every 4 hours to see if the date is past the 21 days?  And if Avast doesn't do the update on the 22nd day (after 21 days) will Avast still keep checking for every day past the 21 days? In other words for me it is currently now been 25 days, so in this case will Avast still keep checking even though it is not the 22nd day but is the 25th day since the last VRDB update?

In the INI file (see Tech's marvelous thread explaining that) there's an entry giving the time in minutes between updates -- 21 x 24 x 60.  You can change that if you like, but it's recommended no more often than 14 days.

Assuming you're set to auto-generate (either when-idle or when screen-saver's on), avast checks the system date/time more or less continuously (I'm pretty sure, anyway) and tries to start when "that time" arrives.  I'm set for when idle, and if I don't notice that the VRDB icon is active, typically it'll appear and disappear as the generator grabs what idle time it can in between keyboard/mouse input activity.

So basically, yes, it keeps trying (and working) until done, unless there's something messed up with either your system time or your system date/time.  Or the third possibility, that you feel you've ruled out, of mouse (or keyboard) input you're not initiating yourself.

[lakrsrool]

MikeBCda wrote:

In the INI file (see Tech's marvelous thread explaining that) there's an entry giving the time in minutes between updates -- 21 x 24 x 60

Thanks for the info.  I didn't bother to check this right away, but as it  happend VRDB did FINALLY UPDATE, but it was exactly 28 days after the last update.

I had manually updated on day 24 the last time that it didn't update in 21 days.  This time I waited and whala it updated on day 28.  All of this after upgrading to build 4.7.827 as I've said.

So I thought hmmm... Maybe VRDB was somehow reset to 28 days... 

I checked the .ini file using the thread that Tech has posted (great help, btw, just as you said) and I found that "RunInterval" was not even there under [VRDB].

So I have a few questions, with this caveat; I have now upgraded to the current version (build 4.7.844) and my check of the .ini file was after this current upgrade (today), so I have no idea if this setting was there before the upgrade or in fact ever there at any time actually.  But I have always had VRDB updates occurr after 21 days until the last two updates following the build upgrade (build 4.7.827).

Questions:
1) Where did the setting go (assuming it was there before  ), does the version upgrade possibly have some impact on the .ini setting and possibly either change or remove them?

2) If not then why would my setting disappear (assuming it was there in the first place  ).?

3) Is the "RunInterval" required for the VRDB to update automatically on a scheduled date?

4) If it is required (see question 3), how did the VRDB update automatically after 28 days if the "RunInterval" setting is needed?

5) If not required (see question 3), then does VRDB automatically update at 28 days (since that is what happend) when the "RunInterval" value is missing in my [VRDB] settings?

Thanks for the help.

[DavidR]

The RunInterval is a default setting (which may or may not have changed I don't know) and as such you don't need it in the avast4.ini file, this is the same as many other defaults, but the avast4.ini allows for the manual inclusion so defaults can be changed.

The RunInterval I guess would go in the VRDB section of the avast4.ini file, see the Understanding avast4.ini thread for more info on the values http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=1647.msg10271#msg10271.

[VRDB]
RunInterval=30240 (add this line - interval in minutes = 21 days)

[lakrsrool]

Thanks for you reply. 

Yes I understand that the RunInterval would go in the "VRDB section", as I had described in my previous post.  I had already looked at the link you supplied as I had mentioned the link and how it was "a great help" and had referenced my questions to this information. I also understand that I can add this setting to my .ini file.

I guess based on your reply to my post my question as to how VRDB updates without any setting in the "VerDB section" of the .ini file, I am to assume that the VRDB will be updated every 21 days (by default) if the setting is not in the "VRDB section" of the .ini file.

I am assuming this based on my understanding that 21 days is the default setting and I guess Avast will do this if Avast is set for Automatic Updates of VRDB for either the screen saver or idle settings.

... you don't need it in the avast4.ini file, this is the same as many other defaults, but the avast4.ini allows for the manual inclusion so defaults can be changed.

Based on this the VRDB should update in 21 days as a default (since it has been established to be the default setting) and is not required in the .ini file (unless the user wants to change this default setting).

So if I am to assume that version upgrades do not change the .ini settings or remove settings (one of my questions) I presume that I must have never had this setting in my .ini file since it is not there now.

So this would answer all of my questions except the following:

Why has the VRDB started updating automatically in 28 days (this last time) when before my upgrade to version 4.7.827 it was always updating in 21 days?   

Or should I just write this off to another one of those unknown mysteries of the inner workings of a computer? 

[DavidR]

I can't say what the default duration is or if it has changed, I'm just a user like yourself, when Tech did that thread the default was 21 days, if that has changed I have know knowledge of it. So if the runinterval entry isn't in the .ini file the default value (what ever that is) would apply.

In the .ini file there is a setting which indicates when the VRDB was last updated (FullComplete=1148775115), this I assume is what the default duration setting (where ever it is stored) checks, has the last run indication exceed the default duration, if so run the VRDB when the screensaver/system idle, etc. is on.

I never let mine get to the default duration, I do my VRDB scan as a part of my regular weekly system maintenance, so every other week I run it (about 7 minutes) and I know it gets done at a time of my choosing.