Avast died. Windows Vista

[Don H]

  I had a lot going on so I really don't know if it was something I did or a malicious resident or web pgm that killed Avast, but die he did.

  I was doing my normal "Update and Run" of all my anti-malware" (windows defender, spybot, spyware blaster, spyware terminator), and had started Avast on a memory scan while I was updating Defender. (All the others turned out to be current).
  I never got the splash screen which normally displays on Spybot termination, so I restarted an Avast memory scan (I was offline by this time, having completed all updates, and started concurrent scans by everything listed above). The second invocation of Avast also silently died.

  Then I noticed that neither the "A" nor the "i" balls were present in my system tray ... OOPS!!!
  I rebooted and they came back, and I am presently doing a "All hard disks" "Through" Avast scan which seems to be doing ok ... but I am more than a little perturbed that Avast died without any notice or warning or whatever.

  Anyone have a similar experience ... or have an explanation ??


thanks

Don H

[Mikos]

  I had a lot going on so I really don't know if it was something I did or a malicious resident or web pgm that killed Avast, but die he did.

  I was doing my normal "Update and Run" of all my anti-malware" (windows defender, spybot, spyware blaster, spyware terminator), and had started Avast on a memory scan while I was updating Defender. (All the others turned out to be current).
  I never got the splash screen which normally displays on Spybot termination, so I restarted an Avast memory scan (I was offline by this time, having completed all updates, and started concurrent scans by everything listed above). The second invocation of Avast also silently died.

  Then I noticed that neither the "A" nor the "i" balls were present in my system tray ... OOPS!!!
  I rebooted and they came back, and I am presently doing a "All hard disks" "Through" Avast scan which seems to be doing ok ... but I am more than a little perturbed that Avast died without any notice or warning or whatever.

  Anyone have a similar experience ... or have an explanation ??


thanks

Don H

I also use Vista but that has not happened to me yet. Well... I hope it doesn't. I have other anti malware and other scanners in my PC but I do things differently from yours. I suggest, you use the scannes one after the other, not simultaneously doing stuff while another is running. This is what I normally do:

1) I update my scanners (I am also using Malwarebytes Anti Malware and Super Antispyware) individually. Meaning, I update Avast first. Then when it is done, I leave it alone then update Malwarebytes Anti Malware, then exit it out. Then update Super Antispyware.
2) When I do the scans, I just leave the AV or scanner using to run alone by itself. So that means, when I scan with Avast, my MBam and SAS are not doing anything. They are not even running. After running Avast, I turn off all its shields, then run MBam. Of course, I am already offline when I do this to prevent any possible infection from the net since I am switching off Avast. Same thing with SAS. Then restart the PC, and make sure that Avast has all its needed shields up.

So far this practice have saved me a lot of troubles, both in terms of running the software and in terms of being protected and staying protected. I hope it helps out in your case also.



Mikos

[Pondus]

I suggest, you use the scannes one after the other, not simultaneously doing stuff while another is running

+1

[Omid Farhang]

I was doing my normal "Update and Run" of all my anti-malware" (windows defender, spybot, spyware blaster, spyware terminator), and had started Avast on a memory scan while I was updating Defender. (All the others turned out to be current).

No doubt by doing it, these programs would conflict and lead each-other to terminate. don't do it, I promise you even if you have a malware which one them can detect, during this kind of scan what you said they would not be able to detect it.

Please use only one real-time on-access scanner and also only run one scanner at time. for on-access scanner trust avast! antivirus detection and for on-demand scanner you may use "Malwarebytes Antimalware" and "SUPERAntiSpyware", then you might be able to drop SpyBot. also I hope you use Spyware Terminator as "Scanner Only".

SpyBot is not doing well as before and you might remove it from your list and if you like the alarms it give you for start-up programs and such as, you might try "WinPatrol", many times it has reported TeaTimer/Resident feature of SpyBot caused conflict or High-CPU usage and slow down in systems and I guess you have seen it has not good detection like before. by using "Malwarebytes Antimalware" you would get better detection.

if you like to use "Many Programs" for layered protection and say risk of Malware is more than more than one program at a time read this story!:

The risk is greater and I will tell you why. Usually security programs conflict with each other and the result is loss of functionality and you can easily predict what happens next.
We had a customer that uses 4 firewalls, 5 anti-virus software and 3 anti-spyware software. So, judging after you, this customer had a bullet-proof configuration. But you are wrong: he also had more that 10 malware active. QED & case closed.

[Don H]

Hi Guys!
  On your advice I've downloaded and will install those 2 mentioned anti-malwares. (And yes, I don't use "Spyware Terminator" except for quick scans, results of which I take w/ very large grains-of-salt unless/until other AV pgms confirm.)
  He (Avast) *was* damaged on-disk: He claimed to "Update" fine, but the blue balls NEVER rotated anymore. So I just finished uninstalling, downloading, and re-installing him, and the balls are spinning just fine now. I don't doubt that Windoz did the damage. In that same time-frame I was dinking w/ the Registry, cleaning out an unstable Seamonkey 2.x, reloading SM 1.1.18, and trying Google Chrome. And trying to setup Cloud drives ... which apparently are not feasible w/ my erratic WiFi isp.
  As for scanning one at a time while doing nothing else, that isn't really feasible: A boot-time Avast scan takes at least 4 hours all by its lonesome. I will try to avoid doing simultaneous scans though, and (only) run just-updated anti-malwares, and only do it sequentially instead of concurrently.
re Spybot:
  I hadn't heard (or experienced) anything bad about him (??). I've used his scanning, site-blocking, and Tea-Timer from day-one, although I now also use "Spyware Blaster" (non-resident) for blocking bad sites. Once-upon-a-time I was very happy w/ AVG 7.x as my master Quick-Scanner ... But they wrecked and then discontinued it, forcing me to use those other unreliable pgms mentioned, hoping Avast's "On-Access" will catch anything they miss.

thanks again,

Don H.