Avast 7 + Windows7 Laptop Problems

[neksko]

@neksko, your crashes are not caused by avast, it seems like hw fault (memory, cpu); would you mind check memory status (memtest86.com), check cpu temp, etc. Thanks.

My laptop still shows no issues with any hardware or other software.  As I have seen no fix in the making still I decided to do some tests.  I am now using Avast 6 and running a custom scan to scan all memory and files on my system.  I have come to find that at 68% my system begins to stop responding, this happens to be while scanning the windows\assembly folder.  I excluded this folder from the scan and begun again after a reboot.  From here I started watching system resources much more closely and came to a startling discovery.  Avast is eating up immense amounts of memory when it scans running processes on my laptop.  Once it is done scanning those running processes it DOES NOT release the memory, even if you stop the scan.  This is most likely what is causing the slowness which users are seeing.

Is Avast causing these running processes to eat up memory?  It looks like several basic windows processes begin to use up more then double their normal amount of memory when it scans them:
dwm.exe
wltray.exe
bcmwltry.exe
explorer.exe
svchost.exe
delldock.exe

I know there was a previous issue with Avast and some Dell drivers.  Who has the ability to test this out and confirm?

[dbvirago]

I've had three laptops lock up this week after upgrading to 7. Boot to safemode, uninstall Avast and computer boots correctly. Will be uninstalling Avast from all corporate computers on Monday.

[goofix]

the exact same problem, after update to avast 7 pc gets stuck after start up, the only thing that helps is to uninstall it

[mil1ion2]

I just purchased Avast last week for the first time ever.  Since then, my Outlook Email will not function properly.  It locks up after one use and I have to re-boot my computer just to make it do anything.  I am currently not even able to open Outlook.  I have re-installed my Office program but it still isn't working.  Has anyone else had this problem?? My laptop seems to be working ok otherwise.

[MrBrillo]

... like most other folks, I've also had the same frustrating problem after installing the latest Avast 7.xx upgrade. And also, like other folks, it seems a total uninstall in Safe Mode is the only way to get over this issue. The problem I have now is that my machine is now vulnerable.

Avast people: the product seems to have a flaw - not everyone in this forum can be wrong, particularly with the diagnosis and the workaround (i.e. uninstall Avast). Any chance on some positive commentary on your product?     

[DanyR]

I had the same problem with my DELL desktop (Win7 Ultimate x64).  The update from 6 to 7 went just fine until Thursday.  I shut down the PC and went for three days off.  Today (Monday) the PC would start to the greeting/login but not further.  Maybe a longer wait after login would have helped, but I never tried.  Instead I found this thread.

To fix it I just booted in safe mode, used the aswclear.exe from the avast site and reinstalled V7 after a reboot.  Now it seems fine (I installed using the user defined installation where I unchecked all that Sandbox/Safeguard stuff (even if the sandbox is still available in the settings, where I deselected it).

We will see whether or not my system stays responsive in the next couple of days.

Cheers,
Dany

[sckarolek]

Same problem. And, even more troubling, when I left messages yesterday chiding "PK" for blaming the problem on end user hardware, my messages were deleted and my account was deleted. I just recreated and am posting again. How about some help for your paying customers Avast! We're vulnerable!

[MrBrillo]

Same problem. And, even more troubling, when I left messages yesterday chiding "PK" for blaming the problem on end user hardware, my messages were deleted and my account was deleted. I just recreated and am posting again. How about some help for your paying customers Avast! We're vulnerable!

Your messages were deleted and you're PAYING. My goodness, you have my sympathy. That's pretty poor behaviour on the part of Avast!

Avast! - any comment? Or are you going to remove my posts also?

[CraigB]

Same problem. And, even more troubling, when I left messages yesterday chiding "PK" for blaming the problem on end user hardware, my messages were deleted and my account was deleted. I just recreated and am posting again. How about some help for your paying customers Avast! We're vulnerable!

Your messages were deleted and you're PAYING. My goodness, you have my sympathy. That's pretty poor behaviour on the part of Avast!

Avast! - any comment? Or are you going to remove my posts also?

His posts were deleted for the way in which he replyed to PK which were rude and demanding.

[MrBrillo]

Ok - you're in charge I guess. However I'd argue that it not good form for a vendor to respond so dramatically to a very real issue that requires a professional response on fault analysis and root cause.

The problem is being faced by a large Avast! community, and the workaround appears to be to simply uninstall your product. Surely this should be ringing alarm bells?  At least some acknowledgement by Avast! that a problem exists would be a start, and simply offer some premium advice on what the Avast! community can do to protect themselves whilst a solution is being worked on. Of course, I'm assuming that there IS a problem with Avast! since there's no other evidence that proves otherwise.

[CraigB]

Ok - you're in charge I guess. However I'd argue that it not good form for a vendor to respond so dramatically to a very real issue that requires a professional response on fault analysis and root cause.

The problem is being faced by a large Avast! community, and the workaround appears to be to simply uninstall your product. Surely this should be ringing alarm bells?  At least some acknowledgement by Avast! that a problem exists would be a start, and simply offer some premium advice on what the Avast! community can do to protect themselves whilst a solution is being worked on. Of course, I'm assuming that there IS a problem with Avast! since there's no other evidence that proves otherwise.

Well if there is an issue! that is yet to be confirmed as many others here including myself run the latest avast version on win7 laptops with no problems whatsoever, maybe the issue comes down to a corrupted install or some conflict with other software where not sure but avast would be looking into this but until they discover and can replicate the problem the only way to fix the issue in the time being is to perform a clean install.

As for the deletion of the former members posts it was not the vendor that removed them but myself as abusive and rudely demanding posts will not be tollerated buy anyone under any circumstances.

[DanyR]

It does not "happen" only on laptops.  And for the "cleanliness of the history" of the installation, I don't know.  Two colleagues and I have DELL desktop PCs of various OS age (from years to months) who happen to had (!) the same (or at least a similar) problem.
My PC has a "clean" Win7 Ultimate x64 install from two months ago (I just included a SSD), where resides Office 2010, Visual Studio 2010 premium and of course some other tools important for software development.  My colleagues reported that for them all they had to do was log on and wait for half an hour, when the problem vanished.  I for myself having been the third in the row didn't know about their experience so I found several posts on the web stating to uninstall and reinstall, which I did, resulting in a working PC again.

I believe that there must be some issue with the updating process.  I cannot try to reproduce it due to the lack of the old version (it sadly has not been saved for later use on issues like this, and avast only offers the latest version for download AFAIK).

Cheers,
Dany

[sckarolek]

As for the deletion of the former members posts it was not the vendor that removed them but myself as abusive and rudely demanding posts will not be tollerated buy anyone under any circumstances.

So, the statement by the original poster that "there is no problem with avast, the problem is with your system" is not rude or abusive? Come on. There are too many of us experiencing this symptom, consistently repeatable and as yet unresolved in my case, for there to be no blame for avast. I do not have the tools, skills or time to figure out what the exact nature of the problem is but there is a problem, and it isn't my hardware.

Selective enforcement of your powers isn't appropriate. If you're going to delete one post that you feel is rude, you ought to delete all the rude posts. If you're not going to perform your role with consistent quality, step aside.

I suppose you've view this as rude and demanding and delete it too. Oh well. Probably time to throw away my investment in Avast licenses and try to find a vendor that cares.

[bob3160]

As the owner of 3 Dell products, and someone without a problem, I'm also curious why or if the problem is Dell related or
a software conflict or some other problem.
I own a Dell Vostro laptop which is about 4 years old. I run avast!7 on both a Windows 7 Ultimate Partition and a Windows 8 partition - NO Problem
I also own a Dell Inspiron 17R which is fairly new also partitioned for Windows 7 and Windows 8. Both partitions have avast!7 installed - NO Problems
The third Dell is a Dell Mini Running Windows 8 Consumer Preview and avast!7 again, NO Problems.

[CraigB]

So, the statement by the original poster that "there is no problem with avast, the problem is with your system" is not rude or abusive? Come on. There are too many of us experiencing this symptom, consistently repeatable and as yet unresolved in my case, for there to be no blame for avast. I do not have the tools, skills or time to figure out what the exact nature of the problem is but there is a problem, and it isn't my hardware.

Selective enforcement of your powers isn't appropriate. If you're going to delete one post that you feel is rude, you ought to delete all the rude posts. If you're not going to perform your role with consistent quality, step aside.

I see no rude or abrasive posts in this thread other than your's the other day.
The manor and wording of your post was the concern, as for selective enforcement " rubbish " anyone that posted with that attitude would be removed just the same so accept it and stop sulking