Author Topic: Program's Internal State Corrupted???  (Read 16350 times)

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LeLe

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Program's Internal State Corrupted???
« on: April 19, 2004, 04:57:29 PM »
 ???
I have been using Avast (home version) for almost a month and a half, and have been very pleased with it. Yesterday, I discovered that my computer had several windows indicating some 'buffer' errors. I deleted those windows and tried to get into my Outlook Express (I have the latest IE browswer installed on a Win98 os, Compaq Presario computer). A window came up with the following:
"Buffer Over-run detected Program....OGRAMFILES\ALWIL\Software\Avast4\ASHMAISV.exe
A buffer program has been detected which has corrupted the program's internal state. The program cannot safely continue execution and must now be terminated."
Has anyone had this happen before, and if so, what did you do to fix it? Help!
Thanks!

LeLe

Offline vojtech

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Re:Program's Internal State Corrupted???
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2004, 05:58:39 PM »
You will have to download your mail with the scanner disabled (by the Mail Protection Wizard).

I would appreciate if you could resend me the mail that is causing it to help repair this bug. Thank you.

LeLe

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Re:Program's Internal State Corrupted???
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2004, 08:02:15 PM »
Thank you for responding. I am at work at the moment, but when I get home, I will disable the avast antivirus scanner from my Outlook Express (email) and see if that fixes the problem.
I seriously do NOT want to be without an antivirus scanner for my email program (IE Outlook Express). I have come to rely on its detection accuracy. Is there any way that I can reactivate the antivirus for my email? If so, please let me know how I can do this.
BTW, are you sure you want me to forward all my email (if it works)? Most of it is spam (a real nuisance!). Let me know one way or another.
Thanks!

LeLe

LeLe

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Re:Program's Internal State Corrupted???
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2004, 09:38:38 PM »
I went home at lunch and disabled the avast antivirus feature for my email program. I was able to download my email after that with no problem. I then sent you the emails that I had received, so far. The concern I have is that I will need to keep it disabled in order to get my emails from now on. That would not be very wise, imo. I would like to know what I need to do to fix this problem thoroughly, so that I can get the avast antivirus functioning in my email program, again.
BTW, before going to work this morning, I downloaded my emails (that I had not been able to download when the 'buffer' problem began last night) by using the online 'mail2web' site. Unfortunately, I deleted all of my 'junk' email from there. The email that I did not delete is what I sent to you. That may or may not have the 'bug.'
Any suggestions?

Thanks,

LeLe

seand

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Re:Program's Internal State Corrupted???
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2004, 11:13:17 PM »
Please see thread (click here) Buffer overrun problem.

This is the same problem discussed there since this past Saturday.  So far there has been no response.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2004, 11:16:51 PM by seand »

LeLe

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Re:Program's Internal State Corrupted???
« Reply #5 on: April 20, 2004, 06:13:28 AM »
Thank you, Seand, I caught the 'buffer' posts after I had submitted my query. :-[
Yes, indeed, it appears to be exactly the same problem. Now if we can only find out 'why' it is happening, and better yet, find a long-term solution.
I will stay alert to posts and see if someone can find the remedy without having to go to drastic measures of deleting or disabling avast. Avast has been such a good antivirus program - I would hate to lose it.  :-[

Again, thanks!

LeLe

Offline Vlk

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Re:Program's Internal State Corrupted???
« Reply #6 on: April 20, 2004, 08:11:12 AM »
This seems to be a very serious problem -- but to solve it, we absolutely need the data, i.e. the emails that are causing the mail scanner to fail...

As many as possible, and ideally - in the "wire" format (i.e. as plain text messages), nothing like MS Outlook .msg files...

Thanks
Vlk
If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving's not for you.

seand

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Re:Program's Internal State Corrupted???
« Reply #7 on: April 20, 2004, 08:40:01 AM »
LeLe, I could not agree more!  Avast is the first antivirus program I have ever used that handled mail so well and with such small resource requirements.  At this point I don't think I could live without it.

I did uninstall/reinstall avast yesterday as well as visit the MS windows update site and scanned for updates even though technically speaking I had taken the most recent critical updates last Thursday.  Lo and behold the site reported I needed a "wrap up" patch (about 256K) to complete my updates.  I installed that immediately.  Since that time avast has downloaded/scanned about 2000 mails (cleaned 4 infections) without a problem.

I am keeping my fingers crossed for the AM download on Tuesday.  One of the accounts I check gets LOTS of spam (and viruses!) so I am a little anxious to see if all goes well.    This problem seems to have appeared for several people on the same weekend (ariaaudio was the first to report it in the other thread I mentioned above) and I can only assume it is a new variant of a spam message/virus, or else is associated with the MS critical updates  that everyone in the world was advised to take late last week.  (The only other change in my system I think are the two "push" VPS updates I got in avast  Pro late last week.)

As fas as I could tell none of the emails I had to bypass avast in order to downlaod had suspicious attachments so the problem is either in a new type of html body or else the MS updates.  Perhaps the "wrap up" security patch MS is providing "fixes" something with the critical update they are not talking about..

Keeping my fingers crossed!

Sean D

LeLe

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Re:Program's Internal State Corrupted???
« Reply #8 on: April 20, 2004, 07:18:23 PM »
Seand,
Thanks for the tips. I will check them out this evening (when I am at my personal computer). It would appear that the ms updates may have contributed in some way to this problem, since, I, too, updated very recently. I did not install the patch (wrap?), since I was not prompted to. I will check this out this evening, just in case I need it.
As the present, I am not experiencing any problems. I did as Vjotech recommended and disabled my antivirus. I then went back and reactivated it (after customizing my scanning options by scanning only 'inbound and outbound emails' - I did not check the 'scan archived msgs' box, and that may help).  I then downloaded the current email I had with no problem.
Like you...am keeping my fingers crossed! *G*

Thanks a ton for your help!

LeLe

PS: Methinks, there is more to this problem than meets the eye.  ::)

LeLe

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Re:Program's Internal State Corrupted???
« Reply #9 on: April 20, 2004, 07:20:49 PM »
Drats! I hate it when I misspell someone's name/nic!

My apologies, Vojtech!

 :-[

LeLe

CharleyO

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Re:Program's Internal State Corrupted???
« Reply #10 on: April 20, 2004, 08:26:09 PM »

I don't think the problem you are having has anything to do with the MS Updates. But, then again, that may depend on the OS you are using ... I dunno. I'm using W98SE fully patched and with the recent security updates. None of this caused me any problems with email nor avast!   :)  

The problem is more likely with either Outlook, Outlook Express, or the email you are receiving. Those two are not very good email programs as far as security goes.    :(    

Sorry, but that's my 2 cents worth. Hope the issue is resolved for you very soon!    :)  


seand

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Re:Program's Internal State Corrupted???
« Reply #11 on: April 20, 2004, 09:33:13 PM »
LeLe, so far today no "overruns" but I did not get a lot of mail so not sure yet what the status is.  One question:  you mentioned not checking the "scan archived msg" box, I can't seem to find that option in the Internet Mail On-Access config screens, can you tell me where that option is?

I am using Thunderbird as a mail client and I think you are using Outlook express so I am not sure that this problem is mail client related.  Until we find an actual email that causes this problem I guess it is all idle speculation as what initiated it.  I had been using avast for about three weeks with no problem and then the problem just popped out of the blue this weekend.    It appears a few others also encountered the overrun roughly in the same timeframe based on the posts to this forum.  That is why I believe it is probably one of two things:

1. A new type of html message or virus, or
2. Caused by the MS critical updates we all just installed.

I have set up my mail client to not delete my mail on the pop server after downloading so that I have a second chance at getting it all again in the event I get another crash using avast.  Murphy's law tells me I will have to wait a few days to get tihs to repeat but I am willing to wait if that what it takes to get a solution.  Up to this point I have been real impressed with avast particularly for email scanning in conjuction with Spampal so I really hope I do not have to abandon it now.

Thanks for the kind words CharleyO, I have no other stake in determining the cause other than  getting my avast to work again!

Sean D

seand

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Re:Program's Internal State Corrupted???
« Reply #12 on: April 21, 2004, 02:31:20 PM »
While waiting patiently to get another message that generates this problem I wonder if given the fact that the "buffer overrun" message and program self termination by avast is actually generated by the avast program code itself and not by the underlying Win XP os, perhaps tech support could provide a little more information on the circumstances that can lead to this situation?

This issue is preventing me from deploying avast pro as the standard antivirus solution on several workstations and I am a little frustrated about the lack of feedback on why this internally generated message is being displayed by avast.

Sean D

Offline igor

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Re:Program's Internal State Corrupted???
« Reply #13 on: April 21, 2004, 03:50:25 PM »
Actually, this message is displayed by the Microsoft runtime libraries used by avast. The meaning of the message is "something went wrong". It's not possible to say more, because we don't have any other information.
It seems that there may be a bug somewhere in avast!, causing this message to appear sometimes, but that's all we know right now.

seand

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Re:Program's Internal State Corrupted???
« Reply #14 on: April 21, 2004, 03:59:27 PM »
Thanks for the feedback Igor.

In order to accelerate my attempt to get another message that causes the problem I will be forwarding several other accounts at my company to my own one in the hopes that the increased volume of email will help.  (hate having to deal with all the additional spam in my inbox though!)

I really do hope this issue can be resolved, as I stated elsewhere the elegance and simplicity of avast makes it one of those addictive programs one cannot do without.  The "push" updates feature in the pro edition is just superb.

Sean D