Author Topic: Avast slowing up/freezing pc at startup?  (Read 12266 times)

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TheScorpion

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Avast slowing up/freezing pc at startup?
« on: December 12, 2009, 11:39:56 PM »
I have an Asus laptop, AMD Athlon xp-m. with XP Pro.
I am running the latest versions of Avast, Comodo, Firefox and my email prog is OE.
I have startup applications pruned right down.

Lately my pc gets as far as the desktop and then seems to hang indefinitely with the hd light periodically showing and the Avast icon periodically revolving.
If I try to start my browser or email program, no luck This lasts for maybe 20 minutes or more before I give up and reboot. After rebooting the pc will 'usually' load more or less as normal.
I have a feeling that the Avast process is causing this.
I tried disabling Avast to see if my startup would improve but using services.msc to select manual or disable is denied.
I unchecked Avast in msconfig, but Avast still started at bootup and the check had been replaced.
I tried checking the delay startup function in Avast's troublshooting menu but still the same problem.
Anyone else experiencing this?
Any suggestions?
Thanks.

Offline Tarq57

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Re: Avast slowing up/freezing pc at startup?
« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2009, 04:34:27 AM »
What is the RAM of this laptop?
Is it the Comodo Firewall you have installed, or the suite?
What AV installed before Avast?
What is the disk (percentage) used?
Windows 10,Windows Firewall,Firefox w/Adblock.

TheScorpion

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Re: Avast slowing up/freezing pc at startup?
« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2009, 05:32:42 AM »
What is the RAM of this laptop?
Is it the Comodo Firewall you have installed, or the suite?
What AV installed before Avast?
What is the disk (percentage) used?

Thanks for the reply.

RAM 512mb

As far as I know it is just the Comodo Firewall. Not sure what you mean by suite. If I look under configurations it has a check alongside "Proactive Security updated updated updated"  Proactive defence is set to 'Clean PC'

I've had Avast running for about two yrs with no problems. Prior to that I used AVG but I thought it started becoming too bloated .

I have 60GB disk space of which 35GB is used.

Offline Tarq57

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Re: Avast slowing up/freezing pc at startup?
« Reply #3 on: December 13, 2009, 06:07:49 AM »
The Comodo firewall used to be a standalone application. What you downloaded, you got. Now an entire security suite - including AV - is included in the download package, from which you should install only what is wanted: the firewall in your case. Can you remember what you installed when you ran the file?
See this page (with thanks to another forum member) for a tool to complete the removal of AVG, in case that is a factor.
Windows 10,Windows Firewall,Firefox w/Adblock.

TheScorpion

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Re: Avast slowing up/freezing pc at startup?
« Reply #4 on: December 13, 2009, 06:43:00 AM »
Checked out Comodo and it looks like I installed it ok without the AV.
Also ran the AVG removal tool just in case there was some residue  left, although this problem is a fairly recent one.
Still no change in extremely slow boot.  :-[

YoKenny

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Re: Avast slowing up/freezing pc at startup?
« Reply #5 on: December 13, 2009, 06:54:15 AM »
What is the speed of the AMD CPU?

TheScorpion

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Re: Avast slowing up/freezing pc at startup?
« Reply #6 on: December 13, 2009, 07:17:11 AM »
What is the speed of the AMD CPU?

2.00 gigahertz AMD mobile Athlon XP-M

Offline Tarq57

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Re: Avast slowing up/freezing pc at startup?
« Reply #7 on: December 13, 2009, 07:46:32 AM »
Well, it's no boy racer, but it should be able to run alright without these freezes.
What happened around the time of these freezes? Any other symptoms? Tried putting Comodo in training mode?

Tried any antispyware demand scans? MBAM is very good, and recommended by many here.
Windows 10,Windows Firewall,Firefox w/Adblock.

TheScorpion

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Re: Avast slowing up/freezing pc at startup?
« Reply #8 on: December 13, 2009, 07:58:50 AM »
I've done all sorts of malware scans etc. Once I get over the slow boot, the pc runs as good as usual and everything else is ok. I might try uninstalling and re-installing Avast and see if that does anything.
Is there any way I can disable Avast (without uninstalling) to try a boot up and see if it Avast that is causing the problem?

Offline Tarq57

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Re: Avast slowing up/freezing pc at startup?
« Reply #9 on: December 13, 2009, 08:30:34 AM »
I've done all sorts of malware scans etc. Once I get over the slow boot, the pc runs as good as usual and everything else is ok.
OK, but with what applications have you performed these scans?
Quote
I might try uninstalling and re-installing Avast and see if that does anything.
Wouldn't hurt, or you could try repairing it. I don't think there is enough info here to say whether re-installing it will do any good or not.
Quote
Is there any way I can disable Avast (without uninstalling) to try a boot up and see if it Avast that is causing the problem?
No, sorry. Or not that I know of. Avast isn't intended to be used that way. It's either on or uninstalled. I have read about workarounds, usually in the situation of someone who just wanted to use it as a demand scanner, but the workarounds are never really satisfactory.
Windows 10,Windows Firewall,Firefox w/Adblock.

YoKenny

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Re: Avast slowing up/freezing pc at startup?
« Reply #10 on: December 13, 2009, 09:45:18 AM »
What other applications are set to auto start?

START-UP APPLICATIONS
DO YOU REALLY NEED ALL OF THEM?

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php

Go to PROFILE then Modify Profile then Forum Profile Information then Signature: and put information about your system if you like just like my sigature.

TheScorpion

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Re: Avast slowing up/freezing pc at startup?
« Reply #11 on: December 13, 2009, 11:16:30 AM »
I've done scans with...
Windows Defender
SuperantiSpyware
Spybot S&D
Avast
I also have SpywareBlaster installed.

My startup prog's really are pruned down. I've gone through Services.msc and msconfig deactivating things I know are unnecessary, and also deactivating others that I wasn't sure of by investigating and finding unnecessary from various internet list sources. (Black Viper etc)


Offline Tarq57

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Re: Avast slowing up/freezing pc at startup?
« Reply #12 on: December 13, 2009, 11:21:10 AM »
Do Windows Defender and SAS start with windows?
How long since you did a disk cleanup and defrag?
Windows 10,Windows Firewall,Firefox w/Adblock.

Sakurako

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Re: Avast slowing up/freezing pc at startup?
« Reply #13 on: December 13, 2009, 11:32:36 AM »
- Set Windows XP to Performance mode
- Change security software that has less RAM requirement
- Check Startup & Service
- Increase Pagefile
- Disable System Restore (not recommended)
P.S. Would there be problem when shutdown after restarting to BIOS instead of restarting to Windows, and turn on computer afterwards? ~

TheScorpion

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Re: Avast slowing up/freezing pc at startup?
« Reply #14 on: December 13, 2009, 11:36:15 AM »
Do Windows Defender and SAS start with windows?
How long since you did a disk cleanup and defrag?

SaS doesn't.
Just looked at Defender in Services and it was set to auto - have just set it to Manual so will see if that helps. Also just noted something called Adsched.exe that was in Msconfig startup - not sure what that is, but have unchecked it so will see if these make any difference when I boot up tomorrow morn.
Appreciate the help & suggestions.

Did a disk cleanup and defrags regularly and did one again today.
(Also clean out temp files etc)