Author Topic: Locks computer when viewing browsers download tabs , forgets settings  (Read 2836 times)

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Mele20

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I've been using the betas for several months on Vista Ultimate and really liked Avast 5. (I LOVE the GUI in particular). This release version (.377 now) is far more buggy than the beta versions I used.

I merely LOOK AT (not downloading anything) Firefox or Opera download tabs, Avast locks the CPU at 100% usage for at LEAST 3-5 MINUTES!  Evidently, it thinks the LINKS on those tabs are actual files and it scans all of them.  I have no intention of clearing the links as I use those links frequently as the fastest way to open to the file in the Downloaded Programs folder. Fx will clear them automatically after about three months anyway so they don't ever become a massive list. With Opera, I clear them when I get a long list but not until then. I have never had ANY other AV program treat those links as though they are the actual files! I set any AV I use to "scan all files" in real time and no other AV has caused a problem like this on my browser's download tabs.

When I download a file, even a very small one (75KB), Avast locks the CPU at 100% for 3-5 minutes also while it scans all those links and delays the download until it scans the links and this takes 3-5 minutes.  I noticed this behavior with the latest beta builds but it was less dramatic and slowed downloads but wasn't locking the CPU for long periods until the release version.

The other irritating problem I have is that Avast cannot remember its settings. It remembers the ones that are not that important but it forgets the important settings as soon as I shut down the computer.  When it was locking the CPU a little while ago, I tried to kill the process in Task Manager and was blocked! Now, the first thing I do with an AV with settings like Avast and Avira regarding protecting themselves (I will protect my AV in other ways thank you) is uncheck that setting. In Avast you have really hidden that setting but I found it and unchecked it. That setting should not exist as I need full control at all times over what processes are doing on my computer and if I need to kill one I should be able to do that.

Anyhow, Avast had forgotten that setting. It forgets every time I shut the computer down.  Plus, in this case, I had updated the version and that also makes Avast forget important settings. I didn't check that setting after updating although I checked the others and it had reverted all of them to the defaults that most Antivirus programs use because, otherwise, users without powerful computers complain about slowness. It also forgot my settings for Scan when writing, Advanced, and Actions and some others also.

Otherwise, it is performing well and as long as I don't shut the computer down so my settings are forgotten, or update the build (so the settings are forgotten), or download anything or look at my browsers download tabs (just surf) then everything is ok.




Mele20

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Re: Locks computer when viewing browsers download tabs , forgets settings
« Reply #1 on: January 27, 2010, 09:12:19 AM »
I see this got lost in the avalanche of posts.

I just wanted to add that I turned off the proactive module in case that might have contributed to my problem.

Earlier today, I was  in a rush to get to an appointment yet I needed to access and print some information from a medical labs website to take to the appointment. The information was in PDF form only. A very small PDF. I tried to download it on firefox 3 and Avast froze the download and kept the CPU at 100% activity and I could not wait three to five minutes for Avast to get through with whatever it is doing anytime I try to dowload even a very small thing. I had to use Task Manger and kill Avast process so I could do this download quickly.

I did not install Avast 5 on top of 4.8 as many who are having problems have done. I upgraded from the last beta version to the release version so this version installed on top of the last beta.

I had real time scanner shield, mailshield and network shield, and proactive. No others. I'm going to have to uninstall it because of this download problem.

Offline Vlk

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Re: Locks computer when viewing browsers download tabs , forgets settings
« Reply #2 on: January 27, 2010, 09:19:13 AM »
Mele, it would be useful if you could try the latest (pre-release) build 5.0.393 as described in the other [sticky] thread.
If the problems persist even in this build, I'd like to find out more -- namely, which process(es) is/are taking up the CPU, and if you could create a dump of these processes when the problem is simulated (Task Manager Processes tab -> right-click on the process -> Create Dump File).

What I find sort of surprising is that none of the issues seems to be happening here...

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

Mele20

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Re: Locks computer when viewing browsers download tabs , forgets settings
« Reply #3 on: January 28, 2010, 02:29:51 PM »
I am frustrated, irritated and puzzled.  I have tried repeatedly to get a dump after I installed .394. I merely go to Fx download page and all hell breaks loose. Avast.svc process locks the CPU at 100% usage. I wait a bit to see if it will let up a little and it does long enough for me to finally right click on the process and choose "create dump" but EVERY TIME I DO THIS I then get a normal popup saying wait while dump is being created. That is misleading though as there is NO dump being created! Instead that message will stay there on the screen until 15 minutes, 30 minutes later I finally try to close the message. LOCKED...the ENTIRE computer is totally locked. No CPU usage...just so completely locked that if I manage to get out of full screen view so I can access the VPC Console on the host computer to RESET Vista, it REFUSES to reset! I have to do a hard shut down and use undo disks to erase what I have tried to do since the last boot.

This is really, really BUGGING me! I was even motivated to try installing Vista Service Packs 1 and 2 in case that was the problem but stupid me I didn't think until after I downloaded that huge Service Pack 1 that I can't install either because while they can be downloaded to my recently created second virtual disk (since I am out of space on the original disk...goofed way back in May 2008 and didn't realize how big I should have made the original virtual disk...I was used to XP virtual disk size) the Service Packs can't be installed (like programs can) on the new virtual disk because Windows is on the original (C) disk and I don't have the space there.

But Avast should run ok on straight Vista Ultimate with no service packs. I am reasonably sure this is not a Firefox problem because it happens also on my newly installed Opera 1010 also when I access the download tab there.  So, any suggestions? I'm going to have to be using my Win 7 virtual machine starting tomorrow for awhile more than the Vista virtual machine because Avira has finally gotten beta 3 ready for us testers available sometime Thursday and I am testing it on Win 7 virtual machine. But I still want to get to the bottom of this problem.  (I need a new computer with hardware virtualization and more RAM as I can't add any RAM to this very nice Dell XPS 600 machine...(weird glitch with the nVidia mobo) unless I run XP 64 bit and then I can add up to 8GB RAM, so I can't run both virtual machines at the same time like I used to run both XP SP1 and SP2 virtual machines at the same time.  But if you have suggestions, I'll do my best to switch back and forth between the two virtual machines). 

Oh, I noticed with all this undo disks, hard shutdowns, and stuff, you'd think Avast might forget the settings like I had noticed it was doing...but, no, it has remembered them so far so maybe I didn't click "ok" somewhere  when it was forgetting.