Author Topic: Avast no longer completing scans  (Read 5062 times)

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japmatrix

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Avast no longer completing scans
« on: October 12, 2008, 04:20:18 AM »
Hi all,
I have Avast 4.8 Home edition running on Windows XP and it has always worked fine until recently. For some unknown reason whenever I attempt to scan my system Avast stops scanning once it scans inside my Zone Alarm folder. When I say 'stops' I mean the program just seems to freeze and the scanning stops, no matter how many hours I leave it. I then have to quit the program. If I individually select folders, including the Zone Alarm folder, then it scans them without any trouble. I've always run Zone Alarm and this problem has never occurred in the past.
I've even switched Zone Alarm off before performing the scan but it still freezes when it gets to the Zone Alarm folder.

Things I've done to my system since my last scan:
1. Replace the power pack. The old one burnt out so I put in a new one.
2. Upgraded the ram to 2gig.
3. Installed a second hard drive.
4. Installed windows updates.

Strangely enough, my Ad-Aware has also started freezing during a full system scan.This is also a new problem. However, it seems to freeze while scanning archives (despite switching off the scan archives option).

Both programs worked fine in the past. I have used two online scanners, McAfee and Get Trend Mirco, online virus scanners and both came up clean. I've scanned with Spybot and Super Antispyware as well and nothing bad has popped up. I have no idea why this is happening.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

lferg854

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Re: Avast no longer completing scans
« Reply #1 on: October 12, 2008, 07:15:35 AM »
I had a similar problem a few months ago.  It would always "lock up" at the same spot every time.  There was a conflict (I thought) with Spyware Doctor and Avast.  I could shutdown Spyware Doctor and Avast would then "unlock" and finish the scan.  When it locks up, see if you can shutdown Zone Alarm and if Avast then continues from the "lockup state".  The actual culprit was an intermittently failing D drive which was causing a controller malfunction at the same point everytime...didn't make sense because it was "locking up" while scanning the C drive. I accidently found the failure while looking in Event Viewer one night.  Although the drive was causing no problems, a SMART test showed it to be failing.  Once I replaced the drive, it has never locked up again.  Don't know if this is your problem, but just thought I'd throw in my two cents worth since I had experienced a similar problem.  Good luck!

japmatrix

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Re: Avast no longer completing scans
« Reply #2 on: October 12, 2008, 07:49:39 AM »
Thanks for the suggestion but no luck. I tried switching off Zone Alarm when Avast got stuck on the Zone Alarm folder but no luck. I don't really want to uninstall Zone Alarm.

ardvark

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Re: Avast no longer completing scans
« Reply #3 on: October 12, 2008, 09:35:24 AM »
Thanks for the suggestion but no luck. I tried switching off Zone Alarm when Avast got stuck on the Zone Alarm folder but no luck. I don't really want to uninstall Zone Alarm.

If nothing else works, you can try performing a repair installation by going to the "Control Panel" and then "Add/Remove Programs" and finally, clicking on the entry for avast. The option should be listed on the very bottom of the menu when it comes up.

Should this fail, you can try uninstalling avast using this tool....

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-uninstall-utility.html

and then install a fresh copy of avast. You can use your current license number.

Hope this helps. :)

Best Regards...

japmatrix

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Re: Avast no longer completing scans
« Reply #4 on: October 12, 2008, 03:38:19 PM »
Thanks for your help Ardvark. I tried both of your suggestions but to no avail. Avast gets stuck and stalls on either Zone Alarm or the recycle folder (which is empty). I'm at a loss.

liljohnny

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Re: Avast no longer completing scans
« Reply #5 on: October 12, 2008, 03:58:16 PM »
hi i just have one issue and dont speak very well the english i hope you understand me
the problem is that i have avast antivirus since i buy my compute (1 year and 1/2 a go) and i have a spawn virus and my avast antivirus is not longer reciving actualizations so i try to remove from panel de control but dosent work and i download the uninstall tool but i dont know how it works what can i do????

Online DavidR

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Re: Avast no longer completing scans
« Reply #6 on: October 12, 2008, 04:27:23 PM »
@ japmatrix
Try this (right click the avast 'a' icon), Program settings, Exclude and add/exclude this file ?:\System Volume Information\Tracking.log

The ? is a single character wild card which means you don't have to exclude this file in multiple locations.

Now I don't know if this is the cause of your problem but ZA did seem to have an issue with this file as far avast scans went it seemed to lock it up. I know you aren't reporting this as in the System Volume Information folder, but it is hard to determine what file it is on exactly.
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Online DavidR

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Re: Avast no longer completing scans
« Reply #7 on: October 12, 2008, 04:29:04 PM »
hi i just have one issue and dont speak very well the english i hope you understand me
the problem is that i have avast antivirus since i buy my compute (1 year and 1/2 a go) and i have a spawn virus and my avast antivirus is not longer reciving actualizations so i try to remove from panel de control but dosent work and i download the uninstall tool but i dont know how it works what can i do????

Please start a New Topic of your own as this seems unrelated to the original subject and will just confuse the topic and we will try to help. 
- Go to this link, http://forum.avast.com/index.php, scroll down to the Viruses and Worms forum and click it, click the New Topic button at the top of the list and post there.
Windows 10 Home 64bit/ Acer Aspire F15/ Intel Core i5 7200U 2.5GHz, 8GB DDR4 memory, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD/ avast! free 24.2.6105 (build 24.2.8918.824) UI 1.0.799/ Firefox, uBlock Origin, uMatrix/ MailWasher Pro/ Avast! Mobile Security

japmatrix

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Re: Avast no longer completing scans
« Reply #8 on: October 14, 2008, 02:16:55 PM »
Many thanks David. That seems to have fixed the problem. Avast is scanning fine now.

Online DavidR

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Re: Avast no longer completing scans
« Reply #9 on: October 14, 2008, 02:25:36 PM »
You're welcome, thanks for the feedback, strange how ZA and this tracking.log gets snarled up.
Windows 10 Home 64bit/ Acer Aspire F15/ Intel Core i5 7200U 2.5GHz, 8GB DDR4 memory, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD/ avast! free 24.2.6105 (build 24.2.8918.824) UI 1.0.799/ Firefox, uBlock Origin, uMatrix/ MailWasher Pro/ Avast! Mobile Security