[Resolved] AVAST stops very often

[SafeSurf]

Ethrea,

Essexboy should be back with you shortly.  Thank you for posting your logs. 

[essexboy]

Hi there my apologies for the delay I seem to have lost notification for this thread

Further analysis indicates that it was a bug in Combofix, and it was pulled.  So your winit is not infected and OTL confirmed that with the MD5 signature.. 

What are your current problems ?

[Ethrea]

Still the same as before :
- Avast stops alone about every 2 hours, for no reason.
- Avast stops when I'm surfing on the Internet (about every 5 pages, and sometimes it stops firefox or google chrome).
- When I stop or uninstall avast, I cannot see my mouse.

[essexboy]

This is a tad baffling as I can see no malware that would be causing this

When Avast stops could you open task manager and take a screenshot so that I can see what is happening at that stage

[Vlk]

Could you please try updating to the latest pre-release version and see if it makes any difference?
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=63151.0


Thanks
vlk

[Ethrea]

It's very surprising, Avast didn't stop today. I'll do this next time it happens.
If It doesn't happen before tomorrow evening, I'll consider there is no problem anymore. And I'll tell you on this thread.

[Treborprime]

Did you check the application log in the event viewer? Any errors related to avast?

Either way your best bet is to run an out of windows virus scanner or reformat and reinstall the computer. Some infections just can't be removed once they take hold.

AVG has a rescue kit that will make a bootable CD that is basically an out of windows virus scanner. UBCD also has a couple of included virus scanners that run outside of windows.  These solutions require that you are comfortable in making a boot cd and booting from that CD.

http://www.avg.com/us-en/avg-rescue-cd
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

I always resort to these tools when faced with a consumer level computer that is infected heavily. They work 95 percent of the time. The other 5 percent are those cases that require a reformat and reinstall of all software.

I wish Avast had a similar tool.

[SafeSurf]

@ Treborprime, while we appreciate your help, the OP is currently working with a Certified Malware Expert (Essexboy).  Thank you.

[Ethrea]

I had no problems for two days. I think this problem : "Avast stops" is gone, I don't know how.
I still have this one : when I stop a service or uninstall Avast, I cannot see my mouse on the confirmation screen, but it's not a big problem and as long as I remember, I've always had this bug with Avast 5.

Thank you all

[SafeSurf]

You are very welcome Ethrea.  You have been very patient through this process and we appreciate it while trying to help you. 

You may want to give it a few more days to make sure things are working OK.  If things are working fine to your satisfaction (fixed), then please go back to the first open post in this topic, click the modify button in that Post and change the title/subject, add [Resolved] to the beginning of the title so this thread can be closed. 

Feel free to come back any time you need help, to learn something new, or just to ask questions.  We are here 24/7 for your convenience.  It has been my pleasure assisting you.  Thank you. 

[Ethrea]

S***. It did it again today.
I'm trying to update to the pre-release version.

[SafeSurf]

I'm trying to update to the pre-release version.

v.668?  Are you trying a manual or automatic update?

This is a tad baffling as I can see no malware that would be causing this

When Avast stops could you open task manager and take a screenshot so that I can see what is happening at that stage

Are you able to do this for Essexboy?

Otherwise, is your machine acting OK? 

Perhaps sending a mini-dump file to Avast to analyze may help....here is how to do it:

Here is additional information on how to invoke a memory dump file:  http://support.avast.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=71.

Please, zip and upload the C:\Windows\Memory.dmp file to this anonymous ftp server and name it uniquely: ftp.avast.com/incoming.  Avast will analyze it to try to see what might be causing the problem as well. 

Let me know if you have any questions as I will be online later.  Thank you.

[Ethrea]

I've uninstalled Avast 5.0.594, reboot twice and then installed avast 5.0.668 (which was the pre-release at this time I think), and reboot again..
Avast didn't stop "alone" but when I open firefox or chrome, avast stops as soon as I call the page www.google.com (to be precise, the first time I call this page, it stops the request and Avast, and the next time, I can do what ever I want but avast is off).

I'll try to do what you tell me to Safesurf.

[Vlk]

Please check the folder C:\ProgramData\Alwil Software\Avast5\Log - are there any files called unpsome_numbers.mdmp?

If so, please send a few of them (e.g. the most recent ones) to my email.

Thanks
Vlk

[SafeSurf]

Ethrea,

Do as Vlk, suggested in his post and email him as he requested.

Update MBAM and Avast and run scans again to make sure everything is still clean.

Do you have any add-on's in FF running?  If so, what are they? 
What is your Firewall?  I just want to see if anything might be conflicting.

Did you already have Chrome on your machine or did you download with Avast install?

I do hope you have some antivirus running now as you should not be unprotected.  If you want, the latest beta Avast version it is posted on the first page of the forum as a Sticky for download (I believe it is 5.0.673).