Author Topic: Avast crashing daily, blocking internet access  (Read 11947 times)

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Offline GreatFox422

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Avast crashing daily, blocking internet access
« on: April 30, 2019, 01:12:51 PM »
Every morning at about 5:30, give or take an hour, avast crashes. According to the Windows Event Logs, this has been happening for over a week now, starting on about April 19th. As time went on, things began to get worse. It would always reboot, but the window began appearing, interrupting other programs (particularly fullscreen) in order to bring up the main menu, despite be having Silent Mode on.


Alongside the error is a message saying that it failed to connect to "shepherd.ff.avast.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded." This is always present after the crash and corresponds with an my internet being quietly severed. Turning off the web shields and then back on again seems to solve at least that issue, though I know I am not the only person to have experienced this.


Absolutely nothing changed on the 19th. I did not visit any new sites that day or the day before, no files were downloaded, nothing "new" was experienced.


I ran the repair function on the morning of the 26th, and it said avast needed to reboot my computer. I do not know if that means it found something broken. However, as of this morning the problem has begun again, at the same time, with another webshield blockage. I tried accessing a log of some sort but it wouldn't load. I just kind of stumbled into it so I don't know what it was for or if it is relebant.


This is an urgent problem because it is definitely getting worse. I am forced to consider uninstalling avast but I would rather not.


My OS is Windows 7 32-bit. I am using free antivirus.



If anyone can help, please.

Offline Asyn

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Re: Avast crashing daily, blocking internet access
« Reply #1 on: April 30, 2019, 01:25:22 PM »
- Which version of Avast Free..?
- Other security related software installed..?
- Which AV(s) did you use before Avast..?
W8.1 [x64] - Avast Free AV 23.3.8047.BC [UI.757] - Firefox ESR 102.9 [NS/uBO/PB] - Thunderbird 102.9.1
Avast-Tools: Secure Browser 109.0 - Cleanup 23.1 - SecureLine 5.18 - DriverUpdater 23.1 - CCleaner 6.01
Avast Wissenswertes (Downloads, Anleitungen & Infos): https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=60523.0

Offline GreatFox422

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Re: Avast crashing daily, blocking internet access
« Reply #2 on: April 30, 2019, 01:31:57 PM »
- Which version of Avast Free..?
- Other security related software installed..?
- Which AV(s) did you use before Avast..?

-If you mean version, my update is set to auto and it speaks of the April 9th update.
-I have Advanced System Care 8 running passively, and I have MalwareBytes Anti-Malware on call. Both have been there since the start of this installation (back in 2016 after I installed a new motherboard), and neither have been updated, nor has any problem of this nature occurred within the past several years, nor the years before.
-On this installation, none. On this PC, none.

Offline Asyn

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Re: Avast crashing daily, blocking internet access
« Reply #3 on: April 30, 2019, 01:34:49 PM »
1. Download Avast Free Antivirus: https://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_free_antivirus_setup_offline.exe
2. Follow instructions: https://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility (Run this tool for all prior installed Avast versions..!!)
3. Reinstall Avast with the downloaded installer from point 1.
4. Reboot.

PS: Regarding Avast & Malwarebytes, see: https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/200324-exclusions-for-avast-users/
W8.1 [x64] - Avast Free AV 23.3.8047.BC [UI.757] - Firefox ESR 102.9 [NS/uBO/PB] - Thunderbird 102.9.1
Avast-Tools: Secure Browser 109.0 - Cleanup 23.1 - SecureLine 5.18 - DriverUpdater 23.1 - CCleaner 6.01
Avast Wissenswertes (Downloads, Anleitungen & Infos): https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=60523.0

Offline GreatFox422

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Re: Avast crashing daily, blocking internet access
« Reply #4 on: April 30, 2019, 01:39:10 PM »
so uninstall and reinstall, basically. I sort of figured that's what repair did.

Offline GreatFox422

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Re: Avast crashing daily, blocking internet access
« Reply #5 on: April 30, 2019, 01:47:01 PM »
Even if this fixes it, why does it keep happening consistently around the same time every day? What is it doing at that time that causes it to crash? Is there a log of any kind kept somewhere?

Offline kwiq

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Re: Avast crashing daily, blocking internet access
« Reply #6 on: April 30, 2019, 01:57:27 PM »
Hi GreatFox422,
can you please upload few dump file for analysis ?
Dump files are stored in c:\Program Data\Avast Software\Avast\log folder and have *.dmp file extension.
Please zip them into  GreatFox422_4_2019.zip file and upload them to avast ftp server (ftp://ftp.avast.com/incoming)
Thank you for report !

Offline GreatFox422

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Re: Avast crashing daily, blocking internet access
« Reply #7 on: April 30, 2019, 02:10:36 PM »
Hi GreatFox422,
can you please upload few dump file for analysis ?
Dump files are stored in c:\Program Data\Avast Software\Avast\log folder and have *.dmp file extension.
Please zip them into  GreatFox422_4_2019.zip file and upload them to avast ftp server (ftp://ftp.avast.com/incoming)
Thank you for report !

I do not have any .dmps but I do have .mdmps. Is that the same thing?


EDIT: NEvermind. They are all datesigned at the moments and days of crash. I'm zipping them now.

Offline GreatFox422

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Re: Avast crashing daily, blocking internet access
« Reply #8 on: April 30, 2019, 02:16:41 PM »
I have them zipped, but how do I upload them? I've never uploaded to an ftp before.

Offline Pondus

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Offline GreatFox422

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Re: Avast crashing daily, blocking internet access
« Reply #10 on: April 30, 2019, 02:32:17 PM »
FTP.   https://support.avast.com/en-eu/article/FTP-file-upload

I didn't expect them to have a tutorial on that. Neat.


Anyway I followed the instructions and sent it with the requested filename. I think. I'm not sure if there's any sort of "upload successful" feedback in this client somewhere...

Offline kwiq

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Re: Avast crashing daily, blocking internet access
« Reply #11 on: April 30, 2019, 03:17:17 PM »
mdmp files are also welcome  :)

Offline GreatFox422

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Re: Avast crashing daily, blocking internet access
« Reply #12 on: April 30, 2019, 03:22:05 PM »
mdmp files are also welcome  :)

Those were sent. I'm not sure if the upload was successful or not; the client didn't say anything like "upload successful" or even "upload failed."

Offline jaroslav.nix

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Re: Avast crashing daily, blocking internet access
« Reply #13 on: April 30, 2019, 04:57:00 PM »
Thanks for uploading. We can now analyze and fix the crash. Reported internally as a bug VLAB-6680.

Offline Jiří Šembera

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Re: Avast crashing daily, blocking internet access
« Reply #14 on: May 05, 2019, 09:21:46 PM »
Hi GreatFox422,

I've added some fixes that should resolve this problem. They are beta-only for the time being. Can you check if the crashes happen also with Avast beta? (link: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=226837.0)

Thank you.