Avast 4.8 and World of Warcraft

[Arnie-san]

I was playing WoW as usualy, then got popup from Avast (4.7 back then) to reboot computer as new version (4.8 ) was installed. Turned off WoW, rebooted... and hell started. System as such worked very good, but the moment I started WoW (and so far only WoW, other games seems to work good) - I couldn't play it anymore. My keyboard/mouse was lagging constantly (writting anything to chat window was cousing ~1sec delay before each letter appeared, pressing a couple of times forward button only coused my character to run forward by itself for a couple of seconds without mouse/keyboard reacting at all, etc.).

I uninstalled Avast - zero problems. Installed 4.8 again - same problem. I checked on another computer - again, installing Avast 4.8 started to couse this sort of lags in WoW, making it unplayable. Lowering wow.exe priority in task manager to below normal was fixing most of the lags, but at times those still were back. I've changed Avast back to 4.7 and problem vanished.

Now, my system is WindowsXP SP2 (32bit) - all updates installed, A64 3000+, 1GB RAM, Avast settings on standard. And stopping all providers did not help either, only full uninstallation helps.

[alanrf]

Another WOW player has reported concerns after installing the new release. 

See if the advice from DavidR can help you get any further clues to what may be happening in this thread.

[Arnie-san]

No, that's not it. Even turning off Avast completly (leaves icon with "\" in tray) doesn't help, only full uninstall does. I suspect it has something to do with rootkit scanner as it's the main thing added in 4.8.

When the lag happens my FPS in game and network latency are not changed, everything seems normal, just keyboard/mouse input is lagging terribly, like WoW suddenly would be hogging whole CPU power not leaving enough cycles for that input to work good. Even if I press KB/mouse buttons too fast in that lag I can hear system speaker beeping about buffer overflown, and when lag passes - all the letters I pressed are being spit out in chat window all at once in an instant.

I hope that will help to identify the problem.

[Vlk]

Try disabling the avast self protection module (Avast Settings -> Troubleshooting page).
Does that make any difference?

[elsia]

I have the same issue with World of Warcraft. More detail on the symptoms:

This only happens in fullscreen mode. If one uses WoW windowed mode the particular WoW keyboard lag symptom disappears, but reappears in other applications (like a web browser running at the same time).

I tried:
*) Pausing all resident protection shields
*) Disabling avast! self-protection

Neither removed the symptoms.

I have:
*) "Check for fullscreen applications before displaying popups" enabled.

Neither fixed the problem. I have yet to try uninstall avast to see if that solves the problem, but from what I saw on the WoW forum, there is a good chance that it is indeed an avast-related issue.

[marfi84]

Try disabling the avast self protection module (Avast Settings -> Troubleshooting page).
Does that make any difference?

i have that problem, resolved with a work around: running World Of Warcraft in windowed mode. Disabling avast self protection don't fix it. There are a post on the Blizzard Forum at: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html;jsessionid=F4035002DA9A865C470A04B8DE02752B.app09_03?topicId=3508311176&sid=1

[Arnie-san]

Seems I am not alone. And no, disabling it did not help. Windowed mode isn't an good sollution either as background programs lags then (as previous posters wrote) and my FPS drops (quite old GFX card :/).

[Vlk]

One of the previous users also reported that the issue only happens if either Internet Mail or WebShield provider (or both) is running. Otherwise, everything's fine.

To that end, could you please retry with both of these providers stopped?

Thanks
Vlk

[Vladimyr]

Try disabling the avast self protection module (Avast Settings -> Troubleshooting page).
Does that make any difference?

i have that problem, resolved with a work around: running World Of Warcraft in windowed mode. Disabling avast self protection don't fix it. There are a post on the Blizzard Forum at: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html;jsessionid=F4035002DA9A865C470A04B8DE02752B.app09_03?topicId=3508311176&sid=1

Just noticed this thread - checked link to WOW forum - noted all reporting this problem have ATI GPUs. Could that be significant?
Number one son currently WOWing with avast! 4.8. Has not reported any performance differences, especially keyboard related, between avast! Home 4.7 and 4.8, with or without 'Web Shield' and/or 'Internet Mail'

Specs summary:
VIA KT600 Socket 462 m/board
Athlon XP 3000+ (2197mhz)
1.5GB RAM
GeForce 7600GS AGP 512MB
ZBoard USB keyboard
PS/2 mouse

[Arnie-san]

One of the previous users also reported that the issue only happens if either Internet Mail or WebShield provider (or both) is running. Otherwise, everything's fine.

To that end, could you please retry with both of these providers stopped?

Tried that - no change. Going back to 4.7 makes all of those problem vanish, installing 4.8 again = they appear again, so it's definitely something with 4.8. I tried all the settings, stopping all providers, and one by one - everything I could think off - nothing helps.

And to Vladimyr - remember that those problems shows in WoW only if it's runing full-screen. Runing it in windowed mode makes them not apparent unless you try to alt-tab to use other programs (Opera browser, etc.) as then problems shows in those programs for a change. So, if you could check if your son is runing WoW in full-screen mode or windowed mode it could maybe help a bit.

[Vlk]

Is any of the avast processes (generally, ash*.exe) taking up any CPU resources on your system?
(e.g. use the Task Manager to find this out).

We'd really like to find out what's causing the problem 

[Arnie-san]

Is any of the avast processes (generally, ash*.exe) taking up any CPU resources on your system?
(e.g. use the Task Manager to find this out).

When I do nothing but staring at task manager - no, CPU usage of those processes stays at 0%. When I start WoW - ashServ.exe uses 2-8% for just a moment while WoW is loading, then drops to 0% again. When WoW is up and runing alt-tab to see task manager window and checking - still on 0% on all processes. When there is lag in WoW, I quickly alt-tab, but it still is on 0%.

And well, as I said, the funny thing is that lowering wow.exe priority in task manager to below normal or even lower fixes most of those lags (sill shows at times but not too often), like it would be WoW's fault. It can maybe have something to do with Warden system built-in in WoW? (anti bot/cheating system)

EDIT: Maybe it would be a good idea to just download WoW's trial and check it at your own computers? I mean, active account isn't really needed for it as it shows even on login screen (writting anything as a password a couple of times - not pressing enter - is enough for sympthoms to show as suddenly letters shows 1 per second top and it stops responding to the KB till lag passes when it spits out everything one wrote at once). Just a suggestion, as it seems easier to me than waiting for me or other poeple to answer on forums every time.

[Terroth]

Wanna add something:

Patch 2.4.1, Avast 4.8, no lag at all. What about that?

[Arnie-san]

Missign all relevant details - WoW in fullscreen or windowed, ATI or NVidia card, etc.

[Terroth]

Hehe, alright :p

ATI Radeon HD2600 XT (Driver 6.14.0010.6734)
Full-screen mode.

Windows XP 32-bit