Avast Free Antivirus - User Interface does not appear

[CaptHastings]

Hi All,

I'm having a problem with one of my PC's with the Free Antivirus.  Admittedly, the machine is ancient (a single core 2.93 gHz Pentium with 2GB RAM - I know, absolute lightning for 1998... ).  I have never had a problem with the Avast Free Antivirus until installing the last update. As of now, I cannot access the user interface.  I have uninstalled and reinstalled the program a few times with no luck.  The program seems to work and has the green 'You are protected' note when I hover over the icon with the mouse.  I like to customise my settings and am unable to at this time.

I'm assuming it is because of the ancient status of the PC, or a system requirement has changed.  I would think that I would not be able to install the program at all if it was that.

Any assistance would be gratefully appreciated.

Cheers,
Mike T.

[DavidR]

There are some limitations for installing the latest versions of avast, they depend on the operating system and some of the hardware.

What is the Operating System installed ?
What avast program are you using and what is the version number and build number ?

That old CPU may not support the SSE2 instruction set.
The CPU and RAM whilst low shouldn't be the issue, but things might be slower.

Ordinarily I would think if you don't have SSE2 it would/should notify you.

I like to customise my settings and am unable to at this time.

What errors are you getting ?

[CaptHastings]

Hi David,

Thanks for responding to my post.

On that unit I am running Win7 Pro 32-bit SP1.  The version of the Free Antivirus is 21.5.2470 (build 21.5.6354.679).  I am not getting any error messages under normal operation or during any installs/reinstalls that I have done.

I expect the interface to be slow on opening with that ancient CPU, but this is much longer than normal.  When either double-clicking on the minimized icon in the notification area or right-clicking the icon and choosing 'Open Avast user interface', I initially see the interface start to load with a white box, and then nothing happens.  As I'm sure you're aware, that box then turns a dark color, then the interface loads (which works fine on my other considerably more up-to-date units that have the same version installed).

Prior to updating/installing/re-installing to the current version, of course things would run considerably slower, i.e. scans and manual updates.

Cheers,
Mike T.

[DavidR]

I think with that ancient system and only 2GB RAM is going to struggle.

I don't know what other programs you have running but they are all going to be fighting for a share of the available RAM and CPU.  When you run low on RAM then the swap file has to be used so data is going to be switched out of RAM to the pagefile.sys and this also uses CPU and this further slows things down.

You may have another available RAM slot on your system.  If you can source any compatible RAM for this system it may only be able to take 4GB, you would be surprised how much difference this would make.

[CaptHastings]

Hi David,

As you say, it's more than likely the ancient system; there's not much running in the background other than a firewall.  It's only used for occasional browsing on the net when the other units are occupied.

I'll see if I can find the MB manual (I've got it somewhere) but I think the RAM is maxed out.

I appreciate the assistance! Thanks again!

Cheers,
Mike T.

[DavidR]

You're welcome.

A very long time ago on my XP Pro system, I increased my RAM and that did make quite a difference.

If I remember correctly Crucial have a means of checking the RAM you have on your system and if there is scope for upgrade, either an empty RAM slot or being able to use a higher RAM chip. Also if memory (excuse the pun) serves me correctly they guarantee compatibility or exchange or refund.

https://crucial.com/  It comes right in where it will check your system for existing RAM, etc. etc.