When Windows starts a red circle stays for 1 minute..

[Wizard17]

I'm on cable and I get the red circle on boot but it doesn't take very long for it to go away.  I don't view this as a problem.  It takes a moment for Avast to come online along with everything else that is booting up at the same time.  Enabling and disabling your connection rather than being online all the time is something that can be selected in the Avast menu settings.

I've been following this thread with interest because I've got a similar problem...

You can delay automatic windows logon by doing following, see if that helps:
Start->run...->type "gpedit.msc" (Only in XP Pro)->Press enter->Navigate to "Local Computer Policy"->"Computer configuration"->"Administrative Templates"->"System"->"Logon"
From there, enable "Always wait for the network at computer starup and logon"

This will delay starting of explorer right after logon until the network is available...

But this doesn't solve my problem:
When PC starts up and logs on automatically, explorer loads and system starts normally. When everything's done I end up with all startup programs loaded (both from registry and Startup folder) but more than half of the sys-tray icons are missing. As such, I can't access any of those programs from sys-tray. If I then logoff and logon again, everything is normal. I have tracked it down to Avast being the cause of this somehow, if I uninstall avast only, leave the rest the way it is, I don't have this problem.
Any ideas?

[Culpeper]

I have had problems with that darn Avast system tray icon every since I switched to XP.  There are threads in the very forum discussing such things as missing Avast icon that gives some ideas on what can be done.  Such as the following...

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=16372.0

and

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=19370.0

[Lisandro]

Do you normally run both WebShield and Internet Mail providers? (as otherwise, the reg file will not work for you, as one of the services will not start).

Should I set the services to automatic?

[alanrf]

Vlk,

forgive me if I have extrapolated too far the logic of your analysis with the Workstation service.  In discussing this with one of my folks (who has the red circle) we decided to perform a quick test on his machine, not with the registry changes but simply wiith the Workstation service set to disabled.   

The result was - no change in the appearance of the red circle.

[Vlk]

forgive me if I have extrapolated too far the logic of your analysis with the Workstation service.  In discussing this with one of my folks (who has the red circle) we decided to perform a quick test on his machine, not with the registry changes but simply wiith the Workstation service set to disabled.   

The result was - no change in the appearance of the red circle.

This most likely means that it was not the Workstation service which was causing the problem in his case. It would be actually interesting which service locked the SCM then. To find this out, start the services applet (services.msc) when the red cross is on, sort the list by Status, and see which of the services is in the "Starting" state (as opposed to "Started" or a blank space which means stopped).

BTW I'm assuming that this will be done when the ashServ.exe process is still not started, i.e. the avast service hasn't been given a chance to start (yet).


Thanks
Vlk

[Lisandro]

Do you normally run both WebShield and Internet Mail providers? (as otherwise, the reg file will not work for you, as one of the services will not start).

Should I set the services to automatic?

Vlk  :'(  :'(  :'(

[Vlk]

Should I set the services to automatic?

No, not really, it makes no difference as the providers start them anyway.

[Lisandro]

Should I set the services to automatic?

No, not really, it makes no difference as the providers start them anyway.

Thanks... I`ve thought that they were started when 'needed', I mean, while opening the browser for the first time, WebShield service will be started, when the email program is opened, mail service will start.
So, as I can see, I`m completely wrong. The services seem to be started by avast!

[RicardoB]

Vlk, did have a clue with the dump file I uploaded?

You think the problem is from the Operating System or from Avast?

[Vlk]

well, as I said, the dump seems clean. I.e. it shows normal initialization of the ashServ.exe process - which is indeed not taking so long, even on your machine (according to what you said).

The real problem lies in the fact that Windows starts the ashServ.exe process late. I.e. it takes a long time for the process to even appear in the list of running processes.

This is usually caused by the Service Control Manager waiting for some other service to complete loading - and as I suggested, this may often be the case of the "Workstation" service which tends to wait for a network connection to become active.

At this stage, I'm not sure how to help further... I'll try to investigate other methods of loading the ashserv.exe process earlier, but it will probably never be 100% (MS said this should be improved in Vista where there's no Service Control Manager lock in place anymore).


Thanks
Vlk

[Lisandro]

I'll try to investigate other methods of loading the ashserv.exe process earlier

If you find something for XP, please, let us know.
Besides the net start and net stop methods, I can't find how to manage XP Services loading.

[Jack4378]

Hi

I have been having the same problem with the long startup and red circle and have read with interest all the posts here. 

I have somehow managed to rid myself of the problem, but I don't know exactly which of the following did the trick.  I thought I would post what I did in order to help out others who are experiencing this rather frustrating issue.  Mine only started when I built a new computer and re-installed Avast.

In order, I:

1. Ran the Workstation registry patch provided earlier in this posting.
2. Changed the Avast Antivirus startup to 'Automatic' (explained earlier in this thread).
3. Changed every other entry referencing Avast to 'Automatic' that was listed in Startup.
4. Ran Ashampoo WinOptimizer and stopped the following services from starting up at boot:

a) all the Acrobat services - Speed launcher, Gamma Loader, Acrobat Assistant & UpdateScheder
b) Bluetooth Authentication Agent
c) Nerocheck.exe
d) Quicktime Task
e) SunJavaUpdateSched

Then, Windows Services:
a) Messenger
b) Netmeeting
c) QoS RSVP
d) Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
e) SSDP Discovery Service
f) Task Scheduler
g) Terminal Services
h) Uniterruptible Power Supply
i) Alerter

Obviously, these can be changed without purchasing and running Ashampoo - run services.msc from the 'Run' menu and disable/enable as described.  I don't work for Ashampoo!


My specs are:

XP Home SP-2
AMD X2 Dual Core 4400+ Socket 939
Asrock Dual SATA II MB
2gb PQI RAM DDR400
Asus 7900GTX Video Card
Seagate 300gb SATA II HD
Pioneer 109 DVD-RW
BenQ 52X CD-RW

Nothing overclocked and no goofy software that would screw around with XP startup.

I am sorry I didn't properly test each step listed above to ascertain which startup service was delaying Avast, but I hope that this may help others eliminate the red circle.

If I can help in any other way, please let me know.

Many thanks to all for your posts that helped me, especially Vlk's.

Jack

[Lisandro]

I thought I would post what I did in order to help out others who are experiencing this rather frustrating issue.

Thanks Jack. Indeed it could help.

Ran the Workstation registry patch provided earlier in this posting.

This is the most important and, for the majority of the users, the only thing they have to do.

2. Changed the Avast Antivirus startup to 'Automatic' (explained earlier in this thread).

It's the default...

3. Changed every other entry referencing Avast to 'Automatic' that was listed in Startup.

I'm waiting for Vlk's answer to my post about this 

Stopped the following services from starting up at boot:
a) all the Acrobat services - Speed launcher, Gamma Loader, Acrobat Assistant & UpdateScheder
b) Bluetooth Authentication Agent
c) Nerocheck.exe
d) Quicktime Task
e) SunJavaUpdateSched

Won't harm... indeed will make a faster boot...

Then, Windows Services:
f) Task Scheduler
i) Alerter

I won't do with this two Services...

[taff]

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=24617.0


From the inserted thread link I have been having the same problems


I think that the only real way around it is for avast to put out some sort of patch  ::)before a lot of us migrate to AVG.

I will give it one month before I migrate   

[taff]

Jack4378


Thanks a lot
I copies your suggestion word for word and it's all sorted

Cheers