Latest Avast update screwed my PC!!

[gutterboy]

I have been using Avast on my Windows XP (SP3) box for awhile now & the latest update (which needed a reboot) screwed my windows.

When I have to click my username to log into windows 60% of the time after clicking it it wouldn't go anywhere, the other 40% of the time I got windows to actually load I had other issues such as when clicking my internet connection icon to log into my net it wouldn't open, my Eudora mail wouldn't fully load (splash screen wouldn't go away).

I tried a few system restores & they didn't work, so I went into safe mode & uninstalled Avast & bam..... problems gone.

I have now had to download AVG, but I would prefer to keep using Avast so a fix to this issue would be great!

[rlm2008]

You need to check out this thread.

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=40340.0

Culprit seems to be dmserver.dll. You can disable avast temporarily in safe mode with msconfig and by entering service.msc and disabling the 4 avast services.

Reboot into XP normally, which it should do without any issue and then run avast antivirus. On my kit the memory test picked up on dmserver.dll straight away. Option, delete it.

I did a search for dmserver.dll and found an older version under $uninstall I think it was. I then just copied that into windows/system32

Back into safemode to enable avast (services and msconfig), reboot and all should be fine.

Credit to Otter

RLM

[gutterboy]

Thx for that mate!

[gutterboy]

Does anybody know if this was fixed in the latest release?

[Lisandro]

Does anybody know if this was fixed in the latest release?

What is this in this question? A lot of users had no trouble with XP SP3 and avast. What is your exactly problem now?

[gutterboy]

A lot of users had no problems? Well it seems many did..... there is obviously a issue somewhere...a "hack" had to be applied to fix the issue.

I wish to go back to using Avast, but I'm not going to mess around with applying hacks when it should work without them.

[sunrisecc]

I updated to the latest Avast (from the previous version) on 2 of my computers which were running XP Pro Sp3. Avast has never hiccuped. I am using Windows FW and Windows Defender on each. I have no additional running defense software. I did this each time Avast was updated in the last two weeks.

[Lisandro]

A lot of users had no problems? Well it seems many did..... there is obviously a issue somewhere...a "hack" had to be applied to fix the issue.

There is no hack to be applied, not patch, not update... avast work on XP SP3 for sure.
Something *else* is messing its installation. The problem I'm not being able to guess what is it. Maybe if you post a list of the installed programs, at least, the security ones.

[gutterboy]

The hack I was mentioning was with regards to the link that "rlm2008" posted about having to replace "dmserver.dll" or something..... so it is a bit of a hack yes.

As for security programs..... the only other program I was running other than Avast at the time was Armor2net firewall.

[Lisandro]

Armor2net firewall.

Bingo! Online Armor has issues with Webshield of avast and other users complained about that. Maybe uninstalling the firewall, booting, installing again. Or do the same with avast (entering in installing mode on the firewall).

[gutterboy]

I will try that out... thx!

[DavidR]

The hack I was mentioning was with regards to the link that "rlm2008" posted about having to replace "dmserver.dll" or something..... so it is a bit of a hack yes.

As for security programs..... the only other program I was running other than Avast at the time was Armor2net firewall.

Well hardly a hack or everyone with XP SP3 would have to do this and I have XP Pro SP3 on two systems and neither detects any problem in dmserver.dll, so it is still a mystery.

Though online armor has some issues relating to the web shield, I some how doubt it has anything to do with the problem with dmserver.dll, unless it brings its own copy of dmserver.dll to the party.

[gutterboy]

Well I uninstalled Armor2net & then reinstalled Avast & no-go... still had issues getting into windows, went back into safe mode & uninstalled & everything was fine again..... so it goes without saying I won't be installing Avast again until they get this issue fixed/release a more stable version.

[normishmael]

Guys I don't thank Armor2net firewall is OnlineArmor.
It is that rarest of rare breeds a rouge firewall!!
Just about every site on Goggle with the name Armor2net,other than
the security sites that detect it as a ad-ware,causes my WOT firefox
extension to go red.
No wonder Avast was cutting left.

No,this thing is not Tallemu at all.
Its out of Sparks nv,USA,and even their website is flagged.

[oldman]

Interesting, I can't find anything bad about armor2net. Got some links?