Avast 4.8 and World of Warcraft

[Arnie-san]

aswFsBlk.sys - Start value 3
aswSp.sys - Start value 2

Lags are back.

EDIT:

Just to be 100% sure I did the opposite too, changed Start value of aswSp.sys on 3 and aswFsBlk.sys on 2, reboot - no lags.

[Vlk]

Very good, thanks for testing.
So it remains to find out which part of aswSP.sys is causing the problem, and fix it.

Would you guys be willing to do a couple of more experiments?
It's sort of embarassing to ask you like that, but since we're not able to reproduce the problem I have no other choice a.t.m...

Thanks
Vlk

[Arnie-san]

That's not a problem for me, I'll gladly help. Just not always I can do it fast enough - work and life sucks me in at times.

[Nefilim]

No problem, just tell us

[JayDeeIrl]

I would like to help out if possible.

I dont want to switch from avast so am willing to help find a solution.
I have to warn though, right now my free time is a little limited so you may find my responses slow.

[Chowhound]

(...)

1. with avast 4.8 installed, boot into Windows Safe Mode
2. from there, run regedit and navigate to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services
3. in the aswSP and aswFsBlk subkeys, change the value called "Start" to 3 (manual start).
4. reboot the system

(...)

Hello,

I play EverQuest II on a Windows XP (Home) system (with an ATI video adapter), and I've been experiencing problems very similar to what others are reporting since I upgraded to V4.8 this past week.

I've followed the instructions quoted above and (so far) I'm not having anymore problems.

Question: Is it safe for my registry settings to remain as they are now?

Question: Will there be a new version of Avast! (or a patch) that will address this problem?

Thank you.

CH

[fishey]

when i use safe mode windows xp will not shut down it gets stuck at "saving your settings..." for hours is there another way to edit the registry?

[kragl]

I have keyboard\mouse lag too in WoW. I found shutting down the ATI hotkey poller process ATI2evxx.exe reduced my control lag issues, I hadn't suspected AVAST, though that makes more sense, as AVAST and WOW are the only things that have been updated recently.
What video card is everyone that is having this problem using?
Perhaps it could be a combination of AVAST 4.8, ATI drivers and WoW 2.4.1, that has some weird kind of conflict?

[Aias]

I have confirmed the same problem with EQ2 the dau I installed the Avast upgrade.  Once avast 4.8 was uninstalled the problem was gone.   :'(

[Nordic]

Only programs affected that I have found are WOW (all the time) and LotRo (only twice per 30 min play).

I have ATI Radeon X1950 Pro as my video card. I guess I will also go for the 4.7.downgrade while this is solved.

[Myrune]

[...]

Could you guys please try one more thing?

1. with avast 4.8 installed, boot into Windows Safe Mode
2. from there, run regedit and navigate to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services
3. in the aswSP and aswFsBlk subkeys, change the value called "Start" to 3 (manual start).
4. reboot the system

[...]

I play EQ2 on an older AMD based system (2800+) with an ATI AGP Pro x700x video card.  I started seeing this issue a couple of days ago and the game became completely unplayable on SUN.  I also noticed that the TV which is usually displayed on the second monitor and all web pages were stuttering so bad as to be unusable, just like the game.  I could not scroll web pages or change channels on the TV.  If I turned off EQ2 and rebooted everything was fine until I tried playing the game again.  I truly thought it was the game until I stumbled upon this thread.  The fix listed above resolved my issue instantly and completely.  I also shared this fix with two other friends with similar setups and it apparently has resolved thier issues as well.

I registered simply to let you know that this is resolving the issue and to pursue whatever you were thinking is causing the issue.  I'll check back on these forums from time-to-time to check on progress.

Furthermore, thank you for a great product that generally isn't too harsh on resources.

[Karhal]

I am also having problems with World of Warcraft, sometimes my character runs out of control and then i recover the control of its actions.

If i am chating, the chat freezes for a moment and then writes everything i typed meanwhile it was frozen

I have done this things until now

1) Format C and reinstall everything and the newest drivers for every device (audio, graphics....)

2) Delete the WTF folder in World of Warcraft directory and run again the game (it spent a lot of time creating again the WTF folder). In the game, i set the interface parameters as usually

3) Then i tried again and the problem still was there

4) I tried the last thing, go to the folder WTF, and edit the file config.wtf adding this line SET Numchannels="12" at the end (i am not sure if that was the syntaxis)

5) I tried again in the worse laggy zones and it seemed to run good, without hang-ups, maybe a bit laggy in every zone but nothing worse

6) I reboot the game (not the computer) several times and everything seemed to run fine



My PC

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+
Motherboard: Gigabyte K8NF-9
VGA: Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 3850
RAM: 2 GB (4 modules 512 in Dual Channel)

OS: Win XP Professional SP2

I am using the last version of Avast Free Home Edition


If i have the same problem again (hang-ups in the middle of the game) i wil try to play without Avast and then with Avast Home 4.8 (Free Edition)

In the worse case i will try with 4.7 version or with Antivir until the patch comes (for WoW or for Avast)


PS: I am still doubting if the problem is caused by Avast. Many people are having problems with WoW's patch 2.41 and of course not everyone is using Avast





EDIT:

Quoting the last post before me

I am also seeing than my computer runs slower after playing World of Warcraft with problems, but i think i had this problem before I installed WoW

[Vlk]

Hi again guys,

so, whoever's having the Wow (or other game) issues with avast 4.8 and is willing to help us find the cause of the problem, here's what we'd need you to do (this assumes you have some working knowledge with computers, i.e. are comfortable with copying files, modifying reg keys, booting into Safe Mode etc.).

We have prepared four test versions of the aswSP.sys driver (which seems to be responsible for the issue).
What we'd need you to do is try installing the new drivers (in the given order) until the problem is resolved.

That is:

1. boot into "Safe mode with networking", and place this file
http://public.avast.com/~vlk/wow-fix/1/aswSP.sys
to the \windows\system32\drivers folder (overwrite existing).Then reboot the system.

2. boot into normal Windows and see if the problem is resolved. If it is, there's no need to continue and simply report that patch #1 worked for you. If it doesn't solve the problem, then

3. boot into "Safe mode with networking", and place this file
http://public.avast.com/~vlk/wow-fix/2/aswSP.sys
to the \windows\system32\drivers folder (overwrite existing).Then reboot the system.

4. boot into normal Windows and see if the problem is resolved. If it is, there's no need to continue and simply report that patch #2 worked for you. If it doesn't solve the problem, then

5. boot into "Safe mode with networking", and place this file
http://public.avast.com/~vlk/wow-fix/3/aswSP.sys
to the \windows\system32\drivers folder (overwrite existing).Then reboot the system.

6. boot into normal Windows and see if the problem is resolved. If it is, there's no need to continue and simply report that patch #3 worked for you. If it doesn't solve the problem, then

7. boot into "Safe mode with networking", and place this file
http://public.avast.com/~vlk/wow-fix/4/aswSP.sys
to the \windows\system32\drivers folder (overwrite existing).Then reboot the system.

8. boot into normal Windows and see if the problem is resolved. If it is, there's no need to continue and simply report that patch #4 worked for you. If it doesn't solve the problem, then report that none of the patches helped (I hope this won't be the case though ).


I hope I wrote it clearly enough. If there're any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Again, thanks a lot for helping us resolve the issue.

Vlk

[Myrune]

If I get time I'm willing to give this procedure a shot, but it could take a while.  I would usually be online playing my game for quite a while before it would act up...and then I would see things like ttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.... in chat and with the character movements.  One friend did a complete system DNR....grrr...hehehe.
See my post up above stating that your earlier test resolved the issue.
When I get home I'll try to give it a shot.

Myrune.

[kragl]

Hi again guys,

so, whoever's having the Wow (or other game) issues with avast 4.8 and is willing to help us find the cause of the problem, here's what we'd need you to do (this assumes you have some working knowledge with computers, i.e. are comfortable with copying files, modifying reg keys, booting into Safe Mode etc.).

We have prepared four test versions of the aswSP.sys driver (which seems to be responsible for the issue).
What we'd need you to do is try installing the new drivers (in the given order) until the problem is resolved.


Vlk

Will give it a go on the weekend Vlk.

Just to note, I believe most people having this problem are using ATI video cards? Is anyone reporting this issue actually using a nvidia or other card?

Could it be a conflict between Avast and the ATI2evxx.exe hotkey poller application, which is installed alongside the ATI drivers? If I shutdown that process I don't really get any keyboard lag, or at least it is a whole lot less noticeable.