Avast 4.8 and World of Warcraft

[Valpha]

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.

...

Hello, as I also got few lags in WoW (2-4 seconds freeze sometimes) since the last update, i tried modifying the file as you proposed; However, the first file makes my system crash after less than a minute (2 times a blue screen + reboot in a row).  So I stopped my investigation there and just put back the original file.

For information, I have a windows Vista Ultimate x64 and an Nvidia gfx card.

I really hope a solution (which doesn't make my system crash :-p) can be found :-D

Best regards.

[igor]

Valpha, the drivers Vlk put online are for 32bit OS only, certainly not x64.

However, knowing a bit about the changes in these drivers, I somehow doubt they would apply to Vista x64 anyway (even if they were 64bit builds) - unless you have SP1, that is.

[DavidR]

<snip>
Got here from the WoW forums... I was going crazy from what I thought were "lag" issues as my keys were not triggering what they should have. But I can't wait to try this fix!  Love Avast and love Warcraft too... use Avast on all 3 computers at home and 2 have been displaying this problem (need to test the last one too). Will report on it as soon as I can.

This doesn't cripple Avast does it? *worried*

If you read back through this topic you will see it doesn't cripple avasts normal functions. Ulon basically asked the same question in reply #83 and Vlk basically it didn't.

Second, I would like to ask a question. When performing those changes to the registry, will Avart! antivirus still work properly? Or there will be problems and I'm vulnerable to virus?

The procedure (described in the "Reply #57" of this thread) does not require you to change any registry entries.
And in any case, the basic functionality of avast (e.g. scanning for viruses) will not be altered.

Thanks
Vlk

[andy7632]

Im am considering degrading back to 4.7. What are the disadvantages of doing this. I noticed someone said this was not a good thing to do but I was wondering why.

Thanks

[oritsuru]

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

Got here from the WoW forums... I was going crazy from what I thought were "lag" issues as my keys were not triggering what they should have. But I can't wait to try this fix!  Love Avast and love Warcraft too... use Avast on all 3 computers at home and 2 have been displaying this problem (need to test the last one too). Will report on it as soon as I can.

This doesn't cripple Avast does it? *worried*

Thanks for the replies... sorry I didn't read further to see the answer to my concern had already been given.

To update: Applied the above work-around to one of my systems. Tested WoW, and believe I saw some improvement in gameplay (ie: commands actually executed promptly from button presses), but I only had 15 min to play-test this. 

System #1:
WinXP Pro SP2
Intel Core2 Quad CPU 2.4G
ATI Radeon HD 2400 video card
edit: I run WoW in full-screen mode only.

Hope this helps.

[igor]

oritsuru, that "workaround" works, but avast! self-protection modules are disabled that way.
I would be better to check the new drivers, as Vlk posted here.

[oritsuru]

oritsuru, that "workaround" works, but avast! self-protection modules are disabled that way.
I would be better to check the new drivers, as Vlk posted here.

Ah. My misunderstanding (was just so happy to have WoW work better I guess!). When I have more time this evening I will give those a try and report back here with results.

[dorada]

I will disable avast self-defense module until this problem will be solwed by AVAST team.

[Arnie-san]

After day-long testing on 2 computers it seems with driver 1 lags are pretty much gone. None were observed on laptop, and on my main computer I've noticed it 3 times, but just for 2-3seconds and gone again for a long time. I suspect (well, noticed it once, did not check for it on the other lag-ocassions) they occured when Avast was updating (or cheking for) new virus definitions, so not sure if that's even related to the driver as apart that - no lags at all.

[oritsuru]

I did test up through three of the files on my system with WoW last night. 

#1 seemed okay at first but went right back to lagging after 5-10 min or so (or after heavy keyboard activity - hard to tell).

#2 did the same, but the improvement stayed for a longer time.

File #3 seemed to dramatically improve my keyboard response time the whole time I played with it installed. I didn't have any incidences of my keys "sticking" and making my character run out of control with the third file (like others had mentioned and had happened to me several times before) and moves seemed to be executed when I asked them to be (as a rogue character, timing is essential so this is very evident to me).  However the WoW server I play on has been suffering surges in latencies in the 150-350 range lately so I had to take the server's slowed response into account too.  To offset this, it meant I played for about 45min to an hour with each Avast file to see if, overall, I could tell if it was my server or the file causing the delays.

But I didn't test further as #3 seemed to be the 'best' fix for me.

I hope this is solved soon, as I very much like Avast and have recommended it widely to friends and family.

[madrandomize]

Hi i am a new poster here as you can see,i bought yesterday a magazine that had the game Flat-out with it.Before some days i bought also a new graphics card Hd3850 512 mb agp and i wanted to test this game with max settings.

The game was unplayable due to massive keyboard lag from the start,i remember last year i had tested the same game demo and i was very satisfied with the performance of my older graphics card.

I didnt knew the problem with avast then.

So today i started up wow (i play once a week) and i have witnessed the same lag but in a minor scale.I tried to check if others had the same problem and voila i am here now.

The flat-out game problem stayed the same after many reinstalls and because i was so pissed i gave it to 1 of my friends to test it in his pc.I will try to get it back and test it with your fixes so i can see what happens.

I made this post to inform you that also this game "flat-out" has this problem and the problem starts from the start and not on random times.And in single championship mode with other cars in the track.When i was alone it didnt lag.

I will check back at you after my tests
 
bye

[resa1983]

Hey guys.

Also having a problem with Avast.  I decided to try Avast as its the program to have these days.  Unfortunately soon after installing, I started having major lag spikes (from 50ms up to 1800ms), and a lot of disconnecting.   I did have Avast turned off while playing, however it wouldn't leave the taskbar, and the processes in my Task Manager still showed them all running.

I assume that even though the program is 'stopped', things are still running in the background when they shouldn't be.  Like the firewall is still running, but its not supposed to be - which would explain the lag spikes & dcs.

I ended up last night having to uninstall Avast due to the 1.5k spikes, and the disconnects.  Any fix for this issue?

EDIT: Will try the fixes later tonight.

[mrfil13]

I had this problem, ive tried test number 1 and its been working fine for the past 4 hours.

WOW
Avast 4.8
ATI Graphics card
Windows XP


Cheers

[kobuster]

I ran the post 57 tests.  My test to see if it "worked" was to load WoW and try typing characters into the password edit in the login screen.  Versions #1 and #2 both seemed fine the first time I'd load WoW and mess around with the password, but if I quit and loaded it again I'd immediately see the lag.  Version #3, though, seems fine even after 3 loads and playing around for several minutes.

Some additional information:
- I never touched my registry.  The start field for aswFsBlk is 2 and for aswSP is 1.
- The only providers I run are "Standard Shield", "Instant Messaging", and "P2P Shield".
- Athlon 2100+ & Radeon 9800 Pro.

Hope it helps.

[Vlk]

All having the problem, can you please try updating to the latest pre-release version as described here: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=34612.0 and report back if the problem is still there?

Thanks
Vlk