Avast 5 + HASP SRM = Blue screen of death

[Francois1138]

I recently tried to update my Avast Pro 4.8 to version 5 and discovered that it crashes HASP SRM runtime (http://www.aladdin.com/support/hasp.aspx). Enabling heuristics in Avast Pro 5 crashes aksfridge.sys Aladdin driver.

Running my Windows XP Pro SP3 in safe mode and uninstalling Avast was the only solution I found to prevent the blue screen of death.
Can anyone confirm this ?

[igor]

What exactly does it mean "enabling heuristics"?
Do you have any minidump files created for the bluescreens? (C:\Windows\Minidump)

[Francois1138]

Sorry I don't have a minidump and I don't intend to reinstall Avast until I hear the problem is fixed.
By "enabling heuristics" I mean enabling the Avast shields. But anyway try to install the HASP runtime on a Windows XP with Avast 5 installed and you will get the blue screen of death during the installation.

[browbotham]

I emailed a minidump to VLK on Sunday, created by this exact same problem with aksfridge.sys. You need any more, I've got plenty.

[thewebguy]

I had the same issue.

After install, get BSOD with error relating to aksfridge.sys.

Needed to uninstall all avast products and reinstall.

Tell me how to get a report and Ill send one in!

(Note my aladdin hasp is with PROCODER 3 software)

[essexboy]

That affects other systems apart from those with Avast http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/itprovistasp/thread/7e2a9d8e-6cee-4db0-9f33-1af011f01bc8 it may be something to with the security features of that programme

If the BSOD relates to aksfridge.sys. how can it be the fault of Avast ?

[igor]

I believe this is already fixed - will be released soon.

[thewebguy]

That affects other systems apart from those with Avast http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/itprovistasp/thread/7e2a9d8e-6cee-4db0-9f33-1af011f01bc8 it may be something to with the security features of that programme

If the BSOD relates to aksfridge.sys. how can it be the fault of Avast ?

The only thing I did was install the new version and never had any issues before....and after reverting back to a previous version of avast everything is fine again...in my book the issue is with avast

I see the issue may be resolved...so Ill await further info for a new download.

[zerospam]

If [a] BSOD relates to [a driver from vendor 1's product]. how can it be the fault of [vendor 2's product]?

If vendor 2's product does something illegal, it easily can cause vendor 1's product to crash. Thus, for example, BSODs often point to a crash in Microsoft's ExFreePool, but none of those BSODs are actually ExFreePool's fault, and most of them aren't even Microsoft's fault. Instead, they almost always are caused by some driver attempting to free memory that it doesn't own, or memory that it's already freed, or memory that it allocated via some other mechanism, etc. Bear in mind that BSODs result from failures in kernel-mode code, and it's extraordinarily easy for a bug in such code to corrupt virtually anything in the system.

[igor]

The problem should be gone (or so I was told) in the new build.

[Francois1138]

can anyone confirm the fix ?

[KTDOG]

I installed Avast! 5 (version 5.0.377.0) on Sunday, January 31, 2010 and did a full system scan.  Everything seemed to be fine.  Powered down the computer last night.  During this morning's reboot, my notebook entered into Windows XP (background screen appeared and then the system tray started filling in.  After Avira and Avast! appeared, the Windows song came on along with the speaker icon and then a second later the blue screen of death appeared - aksfridge.sys identified as the culprit and the crash caused by PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA.

Thankfully the programmers at Avast! kindly recommended in the installation of creating a System Restore Point prior to installation.  I recovered my computer by going into the START menu and then HELP AND SUPPORT (right above the SEARCH button), then select PERFORMANCE AND MAINTENANCE from the menu, then select USING SYSTEM RESTORE TO UNDO CHANGES and then select from the right menu choices RUN THE SYSTEM RESTORE WIZARD.  I used the avast! restore point and then recovered my computer.

I checked the version of the software that I downloaded and installed on Sunday (version 5.0.377.0) as noted above and then went back to CNET (link: http://download.cnet.com/1770-20_4-0.html?query=Avast+Free+Antivirus&tag=404&searchtype=downloads) to the Avast Free Antivirus link and noticed that the version of the software has changed to Version 5.0.396 - and according to the documentation it was added today, Monday, February 1, 2010.  I feel comfortable that my computer is virus free so I will not be reinstalling Avast! until I get confirmation that this conflict with aksfridge.sys is resolved. 

Background History
I already had Avira AntiVir Personal installed and on Sunday I installed Malwarebytes's Anti-Malware and did a scan with it and then installed Avast! 5 and did a full scan.  I added this extra protection in response to a Trojan detected by Avira and I wanted to see if Malwarebytes's or Avast! would also detect this infection (neither did!  In fact Malwarebytes picked up 5 different problems and Avast! found zero.).

[thewebguy]

Installed PRO version 5.0.418 and all is fine. No issues as of this post.

[Dr. Sleep]

This problem is not fixed.  I have the same problem, even with the latest version of Avast.  There is an issue with aksfridge.sys in version 5.0x that did not exist with 4.x

[Vlk]

If you have a (mini)dump file associated with the crash, please send it to my email address (available through my forum profile) and I'll have a look at it.

Thanks
Vlk