Author Topic: 5.0.418 AV and floppy drive problem  (Read 18694 times)

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Tekie

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5.0.418 AV and floppy drive problem
« on: February 21, 2010, 04:31:56 AM »
First off I need to say what a really great application Avast 5 AV is, I just came from using Kaspersky when my license expired and after trying out a lot of the competition find this to be among the top both in term of features and user friendliness (love that new user interface).

Ah yes but I didn’t register just to offer praise, after installing 5.0.418 Pro on two of my laptops and thinking I was ready to buy the license I installed it on my desktop system (running Xp Pro) and found a bug that makes use for me highly annoying.
See my desktop system still has a 3.5” floppy disk drive (remember them, hey I still like to run old DOS apps too), after installing Avast 5 each time I use Windows explorer to view “My Computer” it tries to access the floppy (A:\) drive even though there is no disk in the drive thus resulting in the drive searching (grinding noise) for a few seconds before shutting off. Additionally when I click on the floppy drive in explorer with no disk inserted I’m presented with a dialog box telling me the disk isn’t formatted instead of the usual operation which in which explorer displays a dialog asking you to insert a disk in drive A:

In an effort to try and isolate the problem I’ve disabled all shields (same problem)
Uninstalled Avast but not rebooted (same problem)
Uninstalled Avast and allowed system to reboot (problem solved)
Reinstalled Avast just to see if problem behavior returns (yes it does)

In a effort to eliminate a possible conflict between Avast and my particular hardware as a cause I have an old PIII system set up triple boot (Xp, Win7 & Vista) that I use for testing during software development, just for fun I hooked up an old floppy drive to that system and installed 5.0.418 in both Xp and Win7 and on both OS’s explorer still tries to access the floppy drive when opening “My Computer (Xp) or Computer (Win7)” from the desktop until Avast is uninstalled and the system allowed to reboot.

Hope this is fixed in a future update as I really like the new Avast (that old UI in 4 was too funky)

Offline Gopher John

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Re: 5.0.418 AV and floppy drive problem
« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2010, 04:59:35 AM »
I have a 3.5" floppy drive on this machine and don't have the issue of attempted access.  Why Avast might trigger it on you machine and not mine is a mystery.

Did you uninstall Kaspersky using their uninstall tool before installing Avast?  See http://support.kaspersky.com/faq/?qid=208279463.
AMD A6-5350M APU with Radeon HD Graphics, 8.0GB RAM, Win7 Pro SP1 64bit, IE11
i7-3610QM 2.3GHZ, 8.0GB Ram,  Nvidia GeForce GT 630M 2GB, Win7 Pro SP1 64bit, IE 11
Common to both: Avast Premium Security 19.7.2388, WinPatrol Plus, SpywareBlaster 5.5, Opera 12.18, Firefox 68.0.2, MBam Free, CCleaner

olddog

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Re: 5.0.418 AV and floppy drive problem
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2010, 05:34:25 AM »
tekie,

I don't have that problem on any of the XP computers I use Avast 5.0.418 on either (one XP-Home SP2, one XP-Pro SP3, one XP-Home SP3), so I would suggest this is something specific to your particular setup.

Tekie

  • Guest
Re: 5.0.418 AV and floppy drive problem
« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2010, 11:15:45 PM »
I have a 3.5" floppy drive on this machine and don't have the issue of attempted access.  Why Avast might trigger it on you machine and not mine is a mystery.
Did you uninstall Kaspersky using their uninstall tool before installing Avast?

Well just to be sure I have a spare hard drive I did a clean Xp install on and still have the same problem.
To investegate further I tried both Avast AV Pro and the freeware version, odd but only the pro version causes the problem of the A drive serching for a disk when "My Computer" is opened, the freeware version doesn't do that.

I would also point out that it only acts up when the system is rebooted after the Avast installation, now since Avast doesn't require a reboot after installation I tried a "Removable Media Scan" both before and after reboot.
Below are screen caps of the results showing a definate problem with the way the A:\ drive is detected before and after.




« Last Edit: February 21, 2010, 11:20:53 PM by Tekie »

Tekie

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Re: 5.0.418 AV and floppy drive problem
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2010, 11:19:55 PM »
tekie,

I don't have that problem on any of the XP computers I use Avast 5.0.418 on either (one XP-Home SP2, one XP-Pro SP3, one XP-Home SP3), so I would suggest this is something specific to your particular setup.

Not likely since I've tried it on two different systems one with WinXp Pro and the other a dual boot with both XpPro and Win7, same problem on both machines and also happens under both Win7 and Xp

olddog

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Re: 5.0.418 AV and floppy drive problem
« Reply #5 on: February 22, 2010, 04:59:55 AM »
Tekie,

Whilst I'm not in a position to offer you a solution or even a work around, I'm pretty sure the error codes and descriptions that are returned in your screen prints are actually XP error codes (or from the Microsoft operating system) rather than codes from Avast.

If you put a diskette into the drive which has some files on it, scan it, then take it out and retest with the removable media scan, you will probably like me get a different message and code than if you boot up and do the test without having used the drive.

I have a number of PC's that still have 3.5" disk drives, including P3, P4 and Core 2 Duo CPUs. The characteristics of the floppy drive is slightly different between all of them, whether this is mainly to do with the hardware, bios or software drivers I don't know, but on the P4 and Core 2, as well as a portable that all have XP and Avast5 Home installed, your original problem of the floppy being accessed when you open Windows Explorer doesn't occur.

Tekie

  • Guest
Re: 5.0.418 AV and floppy drive problem
« Reply #6 on: February 22, 2010, 05:48:03 AM »
Hey olddog,

I do realize that it is possible that this just could be something that by chance happens on both my machines specific to my hardware. (Yeah that's the type of thing that drives programmers nuts)

Just for kicks could you try this for me and let me know what happens.

With no floppy in the A drive double click on it and see if windows ask for you to insert a disk OR does it say the disk is unformatted "Do you want to format the disk yes/no"

What does it do on you machines?

olddog

  • Guest
Re: 5.0.418 AV and floppy drive problem
« Reply #7 on: February 22, 2010, 06:40:30 AM »
Just for kicks could you try this for me and let me know what happens.

With no floppy in the A drive double click on it and see if windows ask for you to insert a disk OR does it say the disk is unformatted "Do you want to format the disk yes/no"

Tekie,

I only have access to one PC right at the moment, the Core 2 Duo listed in my signature. On that, if I reboot first then click on the A drive in Windows Explorer, it says "The disk in drive A is not formatted etc".

If I then put a diskette in the drive, click on it and read it, then take it out and click on the A drive again in Windows Explorer it says "Please insert a disk into drive A". The drive A light stays on and it continues to graunch every few seconds like it is still trying to read a disk until I click on Cancel.

Once I reboot it returns to the alternative message "The disk in drive A is not formatted etc".

I have tried this with Avast running normally (File, Mail, Web and network Shields on - I don't have the behaviour shield installed), and off line with all shields turned off - the results are the same both ways.

When I open Windows Explorer it doesn't check drive A unless I click on it.

Tekie

  • Guest
Re: 5.0.418 AV and floppy drive problem
« Reply #8 on: February 23, 2010, 05:52:48 AM »
Yay! I've not gone crazy, here's another user with the same problem I have.
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=56126.0

Anyways until I sort this out (or better yet Avast does), since I rarely use the floppy drive I'll just disable it in the Windows device manager and then if I want to use it it'll just be a few more clicks.

xatrix

  • Guest
Re: 5.0.418 AV and floppy drive problem
« Reply #9 on: March 03, 2010, 04:38:33 AM »
Yes, i confirm, the problem stands still...

I'm using Windows 7 (7600) Ultimate and Avast! 5.0.418 version.
It's really annoying!
« Last Edit: March 03, 2010, 04:40:39 AM by xatrix »

YoKenny

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Re: 5.0.418 AV and floppy drive problem
« Reply #10 on: March 03, 2010, 04:57:08 AM »
I do not have a problem one either of my systems.

I have to click on the floppy in My Computer to have it request access to the floppy drive.

Jon_T

  • Guest
Re: 5.0.418 AV and floppy drive problem
« Reply #11 on: March 03, 2010, 05:26:31 AM »
Tekie,

My Dell PWS 390 (Win XP Pro SP3) with avast! Pro 5.0.418 does the same thing.  Never really noticed before since the PC sets back under my desk, but experiencing the same when I use Windows explorer to view “My Computer” it tries to access the floppy A:\ drive.

I am also getting the same "The disk in drive A is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?"
 message when I double-click on the A:\ drive icon.


My older Dell 4450 (Win XP Pro SP3) still with avast! 4.8 Home, does not try to access the A: floppy drive.  However when I double-click the A: drive icon I get the same above message.

Do not have time right now, but have a old Toshiba notebook (Win XP Home) still using avast! 4.8 Home I'll see what it does.
« Last Edit: March 03, 2010, 05:29:11 AM by Jon_T »

xatrix

  • Guest
Re: 5.0.418 AV and floppy drive problem
« Reply #12 on: March 03, 2010, 11:05:52 PM »
Look, i seems to have no such a "shit" with diskette format, but it's still scratch my floppy disk drive when i open My Computer, no matter is there disk in or not...

Offline jhanks64

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Re: 5.0.418 AV and floppy drive problem
« Reply #13 on: March 18, 2010, 08:14:10 PM »
I have the same exact problem on my Windows 7 Enterprise 32bit system.

Yesterday I discovered that 4 computers running Windows XP Pro (all with floppy disk drives) also had the problem.  The computers without floppy drives did NOT have the problem.

Even trying to save a file took 20 seconds for the network drives to show up.

Reverting back to Avast 4.8 fixed the problem.


insiemes

  • Guest
Re: 5.0.418 AV and floppy drive problem
« Reply #14 on: March 30, 2010, 02:54:08 PM »
I have a same problem WinXP SP3 & Avast 5 Free. (2 computers with floppy drives)
Version 4.8 works perfect on both.