Unable to load application error ending in 0xc0000005

[chris..]

I'm sure you can easily reproduce the error on every win 7 64bit.

I have 2 pcs w7 64bit and I don't have a problem with both.
So , the problem is elsewhere than the OS used (ex:other soft , driver , hardware , ....)
It's probably more complicated for avast to find out where it comes from.

[Turtle3]

Hi,
may I ask you to do test. Disable Behavioral shield and try to start the failing application again.
Please let me know if it helped.

Hi, I tried disabling all the shields, one by one, and nothing worked. Then I disabled all of them and that didn't work either.

I don't know about computers, but as the Firefox and Chrome work when the antivirus is not installed, maybe the antivirus detects the .exe files of Firefox and Chrome as a potential threat? Or maybe antivirus instalation takes/changes some file/s that those programs need to be loaded, and then when you uninstall the antivirus the file/s go back to place? Well, I am sure you already though of that 

[Turtle3]

I'm sure you can easily reproduce the error on every win 7 64bit.

I have 2 pcs w7 64bit and I don't have a problem with both.
So , the problem is elsewhere than the OS used (ex:other soft , driver , hardware , ....)
It's probably more complicated for avast to find out where it comes from.

More info about my PC in case it helps:

Windows 7 Home Premium
Service Pack 1
Hewlett-Packard PC
HP Pavillion g6 Notebook PC
Intel(r)Core(TM)i5-2430M CPU @ 2.40GHz
RAM  4GB
SO  64bits

[kwiq]

Hi all,
being not able to induce the issue in house we are looking for a brave hero who would allow us to connect to his/her PC and let us examine the issue. Our QA team will contact you with instructions how to set up remote session in a time you choose.
Thank you for your help !

[chris..]

Hi,
may I ask you to do test. Disable Behavioral shield and try to start the failing application again.
Please let me know if it helped.

Hi, I tried disabling all the shields, one by one, and nothing worked. Then I disabled all of them and that didn't work either.

I don't know about computers, but as the Firefox and Chrome work when the antivirus is not installed, maybe the antivirus detects the .exe files of Firefox and Chrome as a potential threat? Or maybe antivirus instalation takes/changes some file/s that those programs need to be loaded, and then when you uninstall the antivirus the file/s go back to place? Well, I am sure you already though of that 

Hi,
have you tried to disable self-defense before disabling agents, rather than uninstalling avast ?

[Turtle3]

Finally something! 

I disabled sef-defence. Antivirus din't ask me to restart mi PC. I tried opening Firefox. It didn' work.

With sef-defence down, I ticked/checked the Passive Mode box. The Antivirus asked me to restart my PC. I did so.

Then I tried to open Firefox, and it worked!! Same with Chrome.

Then I checked the Antivirus settings and realised that in addition to the above, I had Firefox and Chrome as Exceptions. I had added them  a couple of days ago, trying to solve the problem, and then I had forgotten about that. I don't think it affected the test, but I state it here, just in case.

As I am not happy with surfing the web with Avast on passive mode, I disabled the passive mode, and restart my PC. The error 0xc0000005 problem is back, and again I can't open Firefox neither Chrome. 

But at least that was something.

Maybe more people can try, and tell us what they get.

[Dr.Falken]

**** WARNING ****
ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR DATA
USE THE FOLLOWING AT YOUR OWN RISK !!!
**** WARNING ****

Hi,
I'm a technician from Monterotondo (Rome, ITALY) and 3 days ago a client bring us a computer (Windows 7 x64) unable to launch any browser (error 0xC0000005).
Using ProcessMonitor I've found out that the error is caused by snxhk.dll located in C:\Program Files\avast software\avast\ folder (on x64 OS)
snxhk.dll should be related to Avast Sandbox.
Renaming this file is the only workaround to keep Avast protection.
The procedure is:

• disable Avast self-protection
• rename C:\Program Files\avast software\avast\snxhk.dll to snxhk.dll.old (or whatever you like)
• re-enable Avast self-protection

That's all! Your browsers should work again 

Meanwhile I hope that Avast's developers will fix this...

Greetings from Monterotondo! 

[Asyn]

Interesting, thanks for sharing..!!

[Andi555]

Thanks Dr. Falken, my two machines working again. Knowing the DLL there should be a chance to find out which changes led to the problem and fix the bug.

BR,
Andreas

[gpw]

Hi!
Today got the same problem.
Win7 64.
All my browsers - Firefox, Opera, Chrome, IE refused to open with the same error 0xc0000005.
Resolved the problem by returning back to the previous system checkpoint. (however it said it couldn't perform complete return, but as a result surprisingly the problem looks to disappear)
Not sure if it returns after the next attempt to update.

Through all the years of my experience it's the 2nd serious bug after Avast update.

[Asyn]

Hi, you could try the workaround from Dr.Falken (Reply #36).

[gpw]

Hi, you could try the workaround from Dr.Falken (Reply #36).

Yep, thx. I already saw that one. Will definetely use it if after the update it is back.

PS. It is again back after update. Following Dr.Falken's post it was resolved (Thanks!).
The surprising fact was the previous serious problem (which as I could remember affected on Adobe Acrobat Reader (disapppearing of filedialog menu text)) was also connected to the same DLL file problem and was resolved in the same way!

[kwiq]

Hi all,
we are working on micro update for snxhk.dll, I hope we will release it today or tomorrow.
Thank you !!!

[Turtle3]

I found the snxhk.dll file where Dr. Falken said. But as there seem to be 2 files related to that one (at least in my PC):

snxhk.dll.156985307402302
snxhk.dll.sum.156985307402302

and my level is just user-level, I think I won't change anything and wait for your update. 

Thank you very much to all of you and specially to Dr. Falken!! 

[kwiq]

Hi all,
micro update was released yesterday,
to take immediate effect please reboot your pc !