Explorer and Avast 6.0.1289 Problems

[DonZ63]

Avast 6.0.1289, WIN 7 SP1 x64

Ever since I installed this latest Avast update, I have been having problems with explorer.exe crashing. Problem happens when accessing Control Panel screens for the most part. It is also intermittent in occurance.

I have researched the issue and done the recommended fixes such as sfc /scannow and updating my nVidia graphics drivers. Problem persists. I did notice that Avast has injected a module, ashSHa64.dll into explorer. Wonder if that is the culprit?

I have attached the latest crash dump.

[mitchell64]

I was having the same problem but i thought it was related to something else, it resulted in me restoring to a clean image of my O.S. which meant a clean install of Avast & the problem has appeared to have ceased.

In reading your post i am now wondering if it was the Avast update that caused the problem & not what i thought it was ??

[DonZ63]

I subsequently found a comment on the web about items added to the right click context menu can cause this problem. The one mentioned was for MBAM. So I disabled the MBAM option along with a few others and it did not help. Further after playing around with the right click options, the crash for explorer.exe is now occuring in ntdll! I haven't disabled the Avast right click option. Might do that and see if it will stop the explorer crashes.

One thing I did not mention previously is that when an explorer crash occurs, I have seen activity coming from the lower task bar network connections icon; like a temporary discontent. This indicates to me that explorer might also me trying to dial-out for some reason at the time of the crash. Since I am using the WIN 7 firewall w/default config., nothing should be stopping explorer from dialing out if it wanted to.

My PC is clean as a whistle malware wise so I don't think that is an issue.

[ady4um]

I don't know if this is your specific case, but problems with Windows Explorer are sometimes seen when other security tool was not completely removed.

Even if you ran "Add/Remove Programs" (say, for your previous AV), there might be some remnants clashing against your current Avast.

Find some removal tools at : http://thewebatom.net/uninstallers/security-software/, download the appropriate removal utility for your old security tools and reboot into Windows Safe Mode to run it.

Then run a Repair of Avast installation ("Add/Remove Programs -> Avast -> change -> Repair). Then reboot.

[DonZ63]

Only thing I recently uninstalled was Comodo. This explorer.exe problem predates that uninstall.

I uninstalled Comodo using RevoUninstaller Pro. And then manually scrubbed my registry and HDD. Forget some of these "recommended" unistallers. Comodo's for example has multiple disclaimers that it is not an "approved" Comodo product. So why would anyone use something the manufacturer disclaims?

I am fed up with software injecting crap into Windows modules. Yesterday I saw an MBAM Pro .dll injected into explorer.exe that mysteriously has disappeared today. I have turned on DEP for all applications and so far have not had an explorer crash. Time will tell ..........  

[DonZ63]

Found the solution to this.

More research yielded WIN 7 power management conflicts with AND processors affecting explorer startups in the control panel . Both BIOS power management and AMD cool & quiet driver.

I had my power management setting at the default balanced setting. Changed it to the performance setting and haven't had an explorer crash since.

[DonZ63]

This wasn't WIN 7 power management after all. No sooner than I posted that reply, explorer started crashing again.

Set web shield setting to "known browsers only." That did the trick.

This doesn't surprise me since every time I had an explorer crash, I saw my network connection toolbar icon flashing momentarily to disconnect status. 

[Saulius]

Interesting and annoying problem.

Don't know if this is possibly part of the problem, but are you using or have you used the MBAM trial or paid version?

I had problems with it showing funny things and connecting to the internet by itself especially after the trial ran out. I think the problem was that after it had run with self updating, there were problems of it somehow trying to update itself or being unstable after new updates as reverted back to manual only.

I did experience crashes at the time, buy I also became aware that I had root-kit infections on my system. So not entirely certain what caused the crashes, program instability or the root-kits but I swiped my system clean, perform a fresh install of everything but only chose the free MBAM this time. Are you sure your system is clean?