can you get 4.8 free version

[icethenet]

I see all the other but they say good for 60 days. I have 5.0 but it is a piece of crap keeps locking up my system avastSvc.exe puts the cpu to 99% and memory to 162,000. The only remedy is to reboot. I was pissed about 1/2 way through a video rip I had to reboot after 2 hours of waiting for the task manager to open to figure out what was causing my machine to bog down. Now I have to wait another 2 hours. I am going to uninstall this product and look for something else or install an older version. Until they get this "BETA" program debugged. Fine Virus protection but the GUI or Something need's major overhaul. This has happened about 5 or 6 times I didn't know what was doing it because I would just reboot. I was thinking it was Firefox again. This time I waited and was Shocked and Horrified to see that my Anti-virus Program is the Virus.

[Rick F]

5.0.594 is NOT beta.  It was beta for awhile and 99% of the users are happy with its performance.  You can get the older vers. 4.8, but I don't know how long it will be supported.  Rumors are that maybe you'll still be able to get virus updates until January, 2011.

Here's a link for older versions it your really want to go that way:
http://filehippo.com/download_avast_antivirus

[SafeSurf]

Hi icethenet,

Welcome to the forum.    Often times when someone is having difficulty with an AV it is due to other things.  So let's trouble shoot to see what is going on.  First I need to know the following:

1. What is your OS, 32 or 64-bit, RAM?
2. What version of Avast did you install?  5.0.594? 
3. What product of Avast did you install?  Trial (30-days), Free, Pro, AIS?
4. What other security software do you currently have or did you have in the past on this machine including antivirus (AV), firewall (FW), and other security programs (resident and on-demand)?  If they were in the past, how did you remove them (the vendor's uninstaller's tool or another way)?
5. Are your MS Updates (if you have Windows) current?
6. Are your software updates current?
7. Are the Avast definitions (updates) current?
8. When was the last time you did any kind of scan in Avast, and if so what kind of scan was it?

I'm sorry for all the questions, but this will help identify issues that are causing problems.  Thank you.

[icethenet]

5.0.594 is NOT beta.  It was beta for awhile and 99% of the users are happy with its performance.

Sounds like what bill gates said 

[icethenet]

Hi icethenet,

Welcome to the forum.    Often times when someone is having difficulty with an AV it is due to other things.  So let's trouble shoot to see what is going on.  First I need to know the following:

1. What is your OS, 32 or 64-bit, RAM?
sys is 64 2.61GHZ OS 32xp media center ram 1gig ram 4000+ AMD
2. What version of Avast did you install?  5.0.594?
yes
3. What product of Avast did you install?  Trial (30-days), Free, Pro, AIS?
Free
4. What other security software do you currently have or did you have in the past on this machine including antivirus (AV), firewall (FW), and other security programs (resident and on-demand)?  If they were in the past, how did you remove them (the vendor's uninstaller's tool or another way)?
Prior AVG Then Kaspersky The Avast Vendor unistall from programs Then Personal sweep of Program files and CCleaner for the reg
for security I have avast mbam and nat firewall
5. Are your MS Updates (if you have Windows) current?
Yes
6. Are your software updates current?
Yes
7. Are the Avast definitions (updates) current?
Yes
8. When was the last time you did any kind of scan in Avast, and if so what kind of scan was it?
Full about 2 weeks ago after install impressed it found 5 viruses after kaspersky.

I'm sorry for all the questions, but this will help identify issues that are causing problems.  Thank you.

[SafeSurf]

It looks from your log that you still have remnants of AVG on your system (but disabled).  You may want to run the AVG uninstaller tool again for complete removal:
http://www.askvg.com/ultimate-collection-of-uninstallers-removal-tools-for-all-popular-anti-virus-software/.  Having remnants may cause a conflict with any resident security software.

You also have some things on Start Up that you probably can remove to speed things up, but it is up to you.

Upgrading your RAM may help your speed issue as well.  1gig of RAM is about the minimum we recommend.

Let me ask you about the viruses that Avast found after switching over from KAS.  Were they put into the Virus Chest or what did you do with them?  Did you remove them or area they still sitting in the Chest?

Have you done an Avast Boot-time scan?  Clean?
Have you updated MBAM and done a scan to see if you are clean recently?

[icethenet]

ok well I deleted the remnants of AVG and it seems to be working better I finally got it to do a boot scan it used to lock up and It hasn't locked up yet so it may be cured. This should be checked at install time I know AVG will not load if it sees other virus programs the avast installer should check these things before it was released out of beta.

Well I am still having usage issues it is not as bad now but it is still doing it. Here is a screenshot to show the CPU Shooting up to 80-99% of CPU Power Memory is no longer climbing up to 160,000 but 60,000 still makes machine run super slow.

[Patcac]

2 questions how many gb is ur ram storage and whats ur procesor ?

[Rick F]

This should be checked at install time I know AVG will not load if it sees other virus programs the avast installer should check these things before it was released out of beta.

What  

Do you know how many different AVs are out there?  There's no way an installer could check for all the possibilities. We as users have to take on some responsibility ourselves when installing new software. 

[icethenet]

What  

Do you know how many different AVs are out there?  There's no way an installer could check for all the possibilities. We as users have to take on some responsibility ourselves when installing new software. 

Yes I know how many there are! but how many have conflicts with Avast. It is those that Conflict with Avast that have to be detected and removed before installation. I don't know of many AV's that have this type of Installation Problem. And why should I take responsibility for installing software? I am a windows user  not a Linux User 

[Gargamel360]

Yes I know how many there are! but how many have conflicts with Avast. It is those that Conflict with Avast that have to be detected and removed before installation. I don't know of many AV's that have this type of Installation Problem. And why should I take responsibility for installing software? I am a windows user  not a Linux User 

Wow, if you feel the responsibility isn't yours, that means you are a man without boundries
You should install all the A.V.'s listed on VirusTotal, then sue all the vendors individually when you have to reformat, since it is clearly their fault, never yours

[SafeSurf]

Yes I know how many there are! but how many have conflicts with Avast. It is those that Conflict with Avast that have to be detected and removed before installation. I don't know of many AV's that have this type of Installation Problem.

The problem is not specific to Avast having a problem with other AV's upon installation, but it is a known issue that ANY resident security software can cause a conflict with another resident AV.  See below:

Running two AV on the same computer can create all kind of mysterious windows errors and false detections.

Clash Of The Antivirus Apps:
http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/2003/s1407/38s07/38s07.asp

Why you should never run more than one AV (see reply from quietman7):
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/index.php?s=49db784baecf17e7b189c833aafb624d&showtopic=260844&view=findpost&p=1441638

But back to your issue.  So it seems that removing AVG helped with your issue; this is good. 

You also have some things on Start Up that you probably can remove to speed things up, but it is up to you.

Upgrading your RAM may help your speed issue as well.  1gig of RAM is about the minimum we recommend.

Let me ask you about the viruses that Avast found after switching over from KAS.  Were they put into the Virus Chest or what did you do with them?  Did you remove them or are they still sitting in the Chest?

Have you updated MBAM and done a scan to see if you are clean recently?

Can you please comment on the above questions I asked previously since this will help me trouble shoot to help you better.  BTW, was your Boot scan clean?  Thank you.

[mikaelrask]

why do you want the old 4,8 version? when the new 5 is far better then the old 4,8 its lighter on ram, fast scanner and have behavior shield added to mention a few options avast 5 have that 4,8 didn't By the way the support of avast 4.8 will be drooped around 1 of September. hope this will convince you to go for the version 5 of avast

[icethenet]

But back to your issue.  So it seems that removing AVG helped with your issue; this is good. 

You also have some things on Start Up that you probably can remove to speed things up, but it is up to you.

Upgrading your RAM may help your speed issue as well.  1gig of RAM is about the minimum we recommend.

Let me ask you about the viruses that Avast found after switching over from KAS.  Were they put into the Virus Chest or what did you do with them?  Did you remove them or are they still sitting in the Chest?

Have you updated MBAM and done a scan to see if you are clean recently?

Can you please comment on the above questions I asked previously since this will help me trouble shoot to help you better.  BTW, was your Boot scan clean?  Thank you.

[/quote]

OK here was the viruses avast found after kis
win32:
trojan-gen
malware-gen
dropper-gen
dropper-gen
vbmod[trj]
malware-gen
malware-gen

I did full mbam found 4 more malware detetected
I did full A/V Scan found like 4 more found 2 on boot scan

system is running better but still memory locks at times.
I just shut it off in services and run it when I want to run scans
the memory leak happens more when I run bittorrent.
but not necessarily only when when I run bittorrent.

I am an IT for a non profit org. I was seeing if avast would be a good choice for the network. I just don't think the 5.0 version is good enough yet and the 4.8 loosing support is not a big confidence builder. I have to install this on 26 computers and I can't imagine having this many problems X 26 that is why I was checking the 4.8. I know this software is really good at detecting viruses and believe me I am impressed with what it does but how can I recommend this software when it has a high price tag for site licenses and the forum is full of complaints. I think that Avast should rethink the 4.8. I think I am going to keep looking perhaps panda looks good. I will keep avast on this machine but not let it run. Seems to be my only option because AVG just doesn't work anymore. Avira never has and there is not many more free ones worth considering. I am going to give it one more field test on windows 7 before I give up on it entirely I doubt with windows xp that 1gig of ram is going to be the problem I know it would with vista or win7 but that is why I run XP it is extremely fast on these modern CPU's and dosn't need much more memory it would be nice if I had more but haven't had any problems running any software that I want. I run dreamweaver photoshop and illustrator and firefox and a few other programs all at the same time and ocasionally it will bog down because firefox has always had a memory leak problem. I am about to 86 that also but I use it for designing websites and well I am hooked even if my memory hits 300,000 all the time. but avast is strait locking my cpu up and that just is so not cool.

[SafeSurf]

Avast will be releasing v5.1 in a month or two.  This will be helpful to someone like you with many machines; you may want to check their blog.  You update one as the admin. and all will be updated...I don't have all the details yet, but they are also updating things from v5.0.594 as well.  Avast is the only AV with a boot-time scanner and in 5.1 it will work for Win7. 

I also run XP machines, so I can relate to your memory issues.  I have tested other AV's and that is why I stuck with Avast.  But this is certainly your decision.  I would look into the new version that is going to be release though.