Avast CRASH MY PHOTOSHOP !!! - Need help !

[Dariusz]

Heya

Long story Short - from 6 months + I'm killing myself with photoshop and crashes on open/save file. Today I decided to finally troubleshot it(btw I RMA 60%of my PC because i thought it was hardware...). The moment I turn off Avast I can open/close/save/ files in photoshop.

How can I exclude photoshop from avast active scanner and any other services its running so I can work again and still use avast !?

Thanks, bye.

[ady4um]

You "could" add PS to the exclusion list of the file shield.

But I have to say, this is VERY strange, and it sounds more like some conflict with previous security tools.

Maybe a clean uninstall of Avast (http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility) could help? Then reinstall it using the latest setup.exe. When running the removal utility, use it with each and every version / edition of Avasty you ever had, with reboots in between, an selecting the correct folder.

When this started happening, were you using Avast (or other security software)? Were you using both Avast and PS before that?

If you were using other security tools before, and you THINK you uninstalled them (using "Add/Remove Programs"), maybe you should run the specific removal utilities for those other previous security tools too. Look for specific removal utilities for other security tools in the PARTIAL list located at http://thewebatom.net/uninstallers/security-software/.

Removal utilities for your previous security tools may help you solve some conflicts with your current installed tools (and we've seen them, a lot).

Better yet, run the removal utilities under Windows Safe Mode, with reboots in between.

Please report back.

[Dariusz]

Heya

Right heres the story.

Last year around December my photoshop started to crash on 2 occasions. Either when I 2x click on PSB file which st art photoshop - load file - crash. Or when I work on file and if I click CTRL+SHIFT+S (the window pop up to save file as) and photoshop just disappear - vanishes(no error codes). Since then I was RMA my ram/motherboard/etc/etc...

I am using avast from like.... 6 years-8years + ? A looong time ago and I don't really want to leave it !!! 

I used Avast b4 the crashes happen so I think there was some update of photoshop at around December which could start causing the problems...

Now I guess its not too common to hear people saying that about avast - but the reason why its happening I think its because of the files I work on. They are 7gb + BIG and use 48 gb of my ram(I guess they would use more if I had ) so maybe when file like this goes throu avast shield maybe some errors pop up here and there... I was using ECC Registered memory...

About windows - I have reinstalled my windows multiple times and I always had this issue - always with avast - I never susspected it to be an issue and to be honest even tho it crashes every time avast is on and when I turn off the shield crashes go away I'm still not 100% sure its avast - but so far all things point at it...

Now I was trying to disable separated shields of avast to find out which 1 exactly was it (I only had time to test like 2-3 of them) but it looks like the moment any of shields are working I get the error.

I usually have 2 errors they change from each crash to crash :

BEX64 with ntdll.dll
APPCRASH StackHash (and some numbers)

Will start testing again in a min and see.

Thanks, bye.

[Dariusz]

BTW how can I remove PSD from scanning files ?

Also I did 5 tests so far. On/off avast
on OFF 5x no crash
on ONN 5x crash.

[ady4um]

BTW how can I remove PSD from scanning files ?

Add <drive>:<\path/to/psd_files/>*.psd to all exclusions list of every and each shield.

For example:

Code: [Select]

C:\Documents\*.psd
should be added to EACH shield's EXPERT settings (since, according to your own report, this is happening with any shield active).

An additional exclusions list is in the general settings of Avast, for when you use some scan (which is not the case you are presenting here)

The help file included in Avast is also helpful, specially for a user with so many years of using Avast.

Also I did 5 tests so far. On/off avast
on OFF 5x no crash
on ONN 5x crash.

Send the memory dump files to the write-only ftp location : ftp://ftp.avast.com/incoming.

[Dariusz]

Heya

Where can I find memory dump ?

BTW how can I remove PSD from scanning files ?

Add <drive>:<\path/to/psd_files/>*.psd to all exclusions list of every and each shield.

For example:

Code: [Select]

C:\Documents\*.psd
should be added to EACH shield's EXPERT settings (since, according to your own report, this is happening with any shield active).

An additional exclusions list is in the general settings of Avast, for when you use some scan (which is not the case you are presenting here)

The help file included in Avast is also helpful, specially for a user with so many years of using Avast.

Also I did 5 tests so far. On/off avast
on OFF 5x no crash
on ONN 5x crash.

Send the memory dump files to the write-only ftp location : ftp://ftp.avast.com/incoming.

Also u mean I have to add all PSD files that I create + PSD location folder? Thats like 800 GB of data... Not really possible to do it this way

Also its not only PSD, once I work on PSD for some time and have a lot of layers when I want to drag extre pictures to Photoshop(JPG/Tiff anything) It will crash as well...

[ady4um]

For someone saying that he is using Avast for so many years, you certainly are asking for too-basic questions. I don't mind answering, but the basic answers are already there in the built in help of Avast.

When I clearly said to use "*.psd", means any filename with the extension "psd", so in that case there is no need to add each psd file. If you use a specific location with "*.*" means any filename with any extension in that specific location. And just to be completely clear, I am NOT recommending this, since it opens a security risk. I am just answering to your question.

Either there is some bug (in Avast or in PS), or something else is happening in your Windows. For the developers of Avast to find out if there is a bug, they need your memory minidumps (at least, and possible even more info).

So please send the dumps of your crashes in a zip to that FTP location I linked to. In the zip, add the dump files and add a text file with a link to this topic.

[Dariusz]

Heya

Yea I don't really spend a much time on learning all the features of Avast. I know its on- its working - no need more to know.

Yeh I try adding just *.psd but didnt do nothing so I assumed I do something wrong.

Where can I find the minidump file?

In zip file u mean create notepad and put it there or name the zip file with the link to this forum ?

Thanks, bye.

[Lisandro]

Do not change the dump extension. It will corrupt while uploading. It will worth nothing.
Check the folder C:\ProgramData\Avast Software\Avast\log
Are there any files called unpXXXX (where XXXX is a random number) or *.mdmp there?
If so, send them to
They may contain more information about the problem (maybe a link to this thread).

[Lisandro]

Oh sorry, the crash was of PhotoShop and not of avast...
I don't know where PhotoShop stores the dumps.

[Dariusz]

Hey

I narrow it down. Its Behavior Shield. The second I disable it - I'm free of errors

What is it ? How badly I need it? I try dissabling *.psb/psb but no help. Will work on it more but still do I need it ?

Thanks, bye.


Edit

But adding exact EXE to exclude list in behavior solved my problem o.o. Looks like case closed for now hehe...

[Lisandro]

Inside of Behavior Shield reports, is there any info about the blocking?
C:\ProgramData\AVAST Software\Avast\report\BehaviorShield.txt

[Dariusz]

Last few logs.

*
* Shield stopped: Saturday, October 29, 2011 2:27:44 PM
* Run-time was 2 minute(s), 55 second(s)
*

*
* avast! Real-time Shield Scan Report
* This file is generated automatically
*
* Started on: Saturday, October 29, 2011 2:28:06 PM
*


*
* Shield stopped: Saturday, October 29, 2011 2:28:12 PM
* Run-time was 6 second(s)
*

*
* avast! Real-time Shield Scan Report
* This file is generated automatically
*
* Started on: Saturday, October 29, 2011 2:42:44 PM
*


*
* Shield stopped: Saturday, October 29, 2011 2:58:37 PM
* Run-time was 15 minute(s), 53 second(s)
*

*
* avast! Real-time Shield Scan Report
* This file is generated automatically
*
* Started on: Saturday, October 29, 2011 2:59:43 PM
*

[Lisandro]

Unconclusive...

[Dariusz]

Yup. Thats why I did more test with advance options.

and as soon as I enable Monitor the system for unauthorized modifications - bum Crash

The previous 2 options for low-level rootkits and malware-like behavior works just fine...