Avast update since 10/14 hangs GTA: Vice City

[mkosma]

I have had Avast 4 working well for a couple months on my WinXP Home system.  And have had GTA: Vice City working fine during that whole time.

Now, when I tried to run the game today, it launched its spinning CD image, but the DVD drive never spun up, the logo screen never appeared, and it hung there on the icon forever.  Couldn't even get it to stop that by killing all tasks in task manager.  

So, I began a process of elimination.  I noted my last saved game was dated 10/12/04 at 9:14am.  That was the last time it worked, so something had changed between then and 10/16 at midnight or so.

Lots of red herrings ensued - google desktop, new gamepad software/hardware, etc.  Long story short, I found that all I needed to do to get GTA:VC working was to run msconfig and disable only one of the avast items (ashmaisv).  

Next question is, what changed?  Must have been an avast program update or a virus list update, or perhaps an interaction with something else that changed on the PC - e.g., an automatic download from microsoft or something?

Here's what I could find re Avast:

ver 4.1 home edition, build Jun2004 (4.1.418); Xtreme toolkit 1.9.4.0; activeskin ver 4.2.7.3;

VPS file 15.10.2004; file ver 0442-3

Log file shows these entries:

10/12/2004 1:13pm app: 1232 - VPS updated
10/14/2004 6:28am app: 1240 - VPS updated
10/15/2004 1:18am app: 1244 - VPS updated

Any other info that might help?

Any workarounds other than not running the darn thing?

[RejZoR]

ashMaiSv is a mail checker process. Its a bit strange that Internet Mail provider would interfer with game

[Eddy]

Open the on-access control panel (click the blue ball next to the clock) and pause 1 service at a time to see which one exactly is causing the game not to load. Let us know which one it is.

Leave everything enabled in msconfig

[igor]

There was no program update recently - and I doubt a virus database update could change anything here (unless there is a false alarm there - but you'd probably see the ordinary "Virus found!" dialog in that case).

Try to scan the game folder... and as Eddy suggested, try to stop the resident providers before starting the game.

[galooma]

my kids are able to play it fine on my system as recently as yesterday with no problems .
 Microsoft did have some auto updates recently though. maybe that could be the cause.

[RejZoR]

Id say its a graphic related problem.

[mkosma]

Well, I did some more testing, and here's what I found.

Started system normally.  Paused all 5 services from the Avast icon.  Started GTA ... stops running at CDROM cursor, nothing happens.  CD never spins up.

Opened task manager, and killed the process AshMailSv.

Tried again (even without rebooting) ... lo and behold, the drive spins up and the program launches.

FYI I am running Zone Alarm Pro 5.1.033.000

[mkosma]

bump ... any ideas?

[Eddy]

I've seen several systems with Avast and GTA vice, and none had a problem. Check the system and event log for errors. If needed set the log settings higher and see if it is mentioning anything.

[mkosma]

Okay, tried that.  I opened up Event Viewer, made sure all logging types were enabled, then cleared each of the logs.  Then I started Vice City.  Same behavior as before, it hangs on the CD icon, and the DVD drive is never accessed.  

Checking Event Viewer, there are NO new entries under Application, System, Security, or Antivirus.  

Are there any other logs I should be checking?  Any other ideas?

[Eddy]

Upgrade to Avast 4.5 beta and see if the problem still excist.

Read HERE on how to upgrade.

[mkosma]

will do ... also, it looks like the problem might relate to an interaction with Google Desktop Search.  I installed GDS, then uninstalled, then noticed this problem, then reinstalled GDS, then noticed that to get GTA to run I have to terminate both the ashmaisv process and GDS.

I'll report back on whether v4.5 makes a difference.