broken, scratchy audio/video

[seeyuh]

After installing Avast Home, my playback is screwed up. Mp3/WMAs on the computer skip/scratch, Youtube videos skip/break/scratch; haven't tried a DVD or CD yet, I'm afeared! The Windows sounds @ boot and shutdown are broken and scratchy, that Avast guy that tells me my virus is updated, does the same. Uninstalled Avast, no change. Updated drivers, no change. System Restore, no change- and won't Restore to anyplace before Avast installation! Reinstalled Avast- no change. The AV works nicely, a little more draw of resources, but not bad, I like it except for screwing up my playback.

HP notebook dv5000 [has been GREAT for 15 mos, til Avast! Grr.] XP home, 512, AMDTurion64, ATIgraphics.

Can anyone help?  Thanks.

Seeyuh

[ifihadonechance]

Well, I don't see hoe avast! can fit into this. It can't make your sound or video go scratchy...   

[ifihadonechance]

This might sound strange but have you tried pausing the web shield and then looking at a youtube video?

[seeyuh]

No, I will. But that won't help my mp3/WMAs, that are "in" my computer....

[seeyuh]

Well, I don't see hoe avast! can fit into this. It can't make your sound or video go scratchy...   

sorry, but this lil computer was awesome til the Avast installation. i'm not cuttin on Avast, I like it, I was just trying to find a solution.

[seeyuh]

I installed, left default settings, scanned, looked the virus chest, etc; didn't move or delete anything. Next time any sound occurred, it was screwed up.

[ifihadonechance]

I installed, left default settings, scanned, looked the virus chest, etc; didn't move or delete anything. Next time any sound occurred, it was screwed up.

Do you use headphones?

[seeyuh]

nope, no headphones.  It's a Windows issue, I think, that somehow was brought on w/ Avast. 
Now maybe this is important: when I ran my Directx diagnostics, when it gets to the screen with a white box moving around the black background, that white box moves intermittantly, on a rhythm, NOT smothly like it should. The troubleshotter there says no problems.....I probably have to reinstall DirectX or something. But I thought I'd start here, in case any Avast users knew anything, since this started after my avast installation. Anymore ideas? thanks.

[ifihadonechance]

nope, no headphones.  It's a Windows issue, I think, that somehow was brought on w/ Avast. 
Now maybe this is important: when I ran my Directx diagnostics, when it gets to the screen with a white box moving around the black background, that white box moves intermittantly, on a rhythm, NOT smothly like it should. The troubleshotter there says no problems.....I probably have to reinstall DirectX or something. But I thought I'd start here, in case any Avast users knew anything, since this started after my avast installation. Anymore ideas? thanks.

Do you update your computer and do you have the latest version of DirectX?

If not, I will provide you the links for them.

Microsoft Update - http://update.microsoft.com/

Download Direct X (June 2006) - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&displaylang=en

As DirectX also controls sound and video, it is recommended you install the latest version of direct X

[seeyuh]

Yes, already did all that, too; says the computer is up to date w/ DirectX9.0c.
Rats.....

[ifihadonechance]

Yes, already did all that, too; says the computer is up to date w/ DirectX9.0c.
Rats.....

This is the only idea i got left.... hopefully this will work. 

I have got a feeling you might want to install the latest sound and video codecs. Maybe a reinstallation of it.

Do you know what codecs are installed on your computer? 

[seeyuh]

I'll have to go and dig around, first to educate myself, thn do the codecs. thanks for the input. Just gimme some time, I'm selftaught....

[madpro]

I am having a very similar problem.

I am using VLC to watch avi's and it was stuttering every few minutes. I checked task manager and noticed ash.exe (or similar) service was spiking the cpu usage up to 80% at exactly the same time the video was. I googled the file and it was an avast file. I am not in front of my own PC at the moment so the filename i've given is probably wrong. This only started after i reinstalled windows (XP PRO). It never happened before even though there is no software that is different. When i disabled avast the video was fine.

Any help would be great 

[Lisandro]

Please, never post twice the same. Just double the help effort 
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=29356.msg241179#msg241179

[Jason237]

I'm having the same trouble, which seems new and I've been using avast! for months.  When I listen to my music library in iTunes, frequently when it moves to a new song, about 10 seconds in the computer freezes up for a couple of seconds, causing the music to "skip" (presumably the sound card repeating its buffer).  When it unfreezes, ashServ jumps up the Task Manager process list, often up to ~60% CPU usage, for one tick before dropping back down.  Meanwhile, on the avast! control panel, the Scanned count jumps by about 9, ending with iTunesPrefs.xml.

I suspect that there's some recently introduced bug that causes on-access scanning to hog the CPU much more than it used to in general, but people are noticing it most with music/video because it's more noticeable if it causes the sound to skip.