avast home Version 4.8.1335

[loyheng]

I downloaded avast home edition version 4.8.1335 a few weeks ago and almost immediately my PC experienced frequent total freeze on start-up.

I recalled encountering this same problem one to two years back and it was due to an avast upgrade so I uninstalled the latest version and installed back the last version 4.8.1296.

Pleased to report that the problem hasn't resurfaced.

I wonder why avast software team didn't properly tested the upgrade versions prior to its public release. Is it because it's a freebie?   

[alanrf]

avast did test the update well and so did many of us in the user community as beta testers prior to the release.  It has worked well for me and for the group of avast users (on a mix of XP and Vista systems) that I support. 

Sorry for your problem but yours is the first report of this condition that I have seen for this update.  Given that you report a similar incident (again in the time that I participated in avast's beta testing) I have to suspect that some other software or configuration is contributing to this problem.

   

[igor]

Can you try to generate a full memory dump at the moment the computer is frozen, compress it and upload it to our FTP?
Here is a description on how to generate such dump (the discussed problem is unrelated and very old - but the description is valid). The dump may tell us more about the problem.

The description I linked is for PS/2 keyboards only (i.e. not USB). If you have an USB keyboard, it wouldn't work.

What operating system do you use?

[Lisandro]

I wonder why avast software team didn't properly tested the upgrade versions prior to its public release. Is it because it's a freebie?   

On contrary, Alwil team does a very good job... being free is not even an issue here. It's a serious company.
Sorry from what happened, but 75 millions of avast users and not that many with upgrade problems...
Please, follow Igor's advices.

[Bluesman]

On contrary, Alwil team does a very good job...

I agree to that, and also we usually get betas like alanrf said, to try, before there is a official update, and we have the betas to help Alwil Team to hunt down bugs. So, the public releases are pretty stable.

[gery]

working perfectly well here with no issues at all. in fact it is very rare if not at all  for me to ever face issues with updates on my laptop.

[loyheng]

Thank you everyone here who has responded.

Sorry, pls. don't get me wrong. I'm not questioning the sincerity of ALWIL team on the free edition. On the contrary, I appreciate this free gift much especially for the financially stretched. It's just that I suspect that they may not pay so much attention to it. Well, this could be misplaced.

Anyway, my PC's is operating on Windows XP Home service pack 3 with 1 GB ram.

I only experienced this problem twice over the years. Most of the past upgrades were problem free and the second last upgrade was o.k., so it's most probably due to a bug in the new version.

I'm very sorry. I 'm unable to comply with Igor's advice as I'm computer illiterate and I fear that I might mess up my PC if there is a misstep.

[RejZoR]

They pay Home Edition just as much attention as to Professional Edition. Both programs are the same (this means they also use exatly the same engine and signatures on each update). So what gets fixed in Home, it also gets fixed in Pro version (and vice versa).
Core elements are no different between editions. Only extra features and settings are different.

As for the problem alone, there is milions of computer configurations in PC world, so no matter how much testing you do, there will always be something that will go wrong.

Does freeze also accour in Safe mode (hold F8 button during system start)? I'd also try to re-install avast! from scratch.
This often fixes certain issues.

Follow these steps:
1. Uninstall avast! (either in normal or safe mode)
2. Reboot as told by installer
3. Use this utility: http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-uninstall-utility.html
4. Reboot again as told by utility
5. Download latest version of avast! here: http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html
6. Reboot again as told by installer

Does this help? Or are you still experiencing freezing?

[Lisandro]

It's just that I suspect that they may not pay so much attention to it.

On contrary...
Home version has more than 75 million registered users
Maybe you should try RejZor's advices to get an installation from the scratch.

[dwayne_doberman]

I too have the very same problem.

The PC will boot up to the welcome screen with the user accounts displayed. But when you press the icon for your account, the computer does not respond. You cannot enter your password or do anything else, except re-boot and startup in safe mode.

I have resolved this issue in a clumsy way: I basically set the avast services to manual startup then start avast after logging in using the batch file below:

batch file:

sc start "avast! Antivirus"
sc start "aswUpdSv"
sc start "avast! Mail Scanner"
sc start "avast! Web Scanner"
"C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashDisp.exe"

This allows me to get logged-in and continue working as normal.

Igor, will try to follow-up with the memory dump using the procedure you described.

[Lisandro]

This seems the same as delaying the avast services start in the Troubleshooting tab of avast settings...

[dwayne_doberman]

After further experimenting, resulting in 4.8 becoming unusable (due to me messing around with the .ini file and a few other things) I was forced into un-installing 4.8.

After a complete new installation of 4.8, the lock-up problem at the welcome screen has been resolved!

I don't know what the problem was, but I now have my computer working with Avast and with no messy workarounds needed.

[Lisandro]

Anyway, glad that everything is right now