Avast 7.0.1426 has real problems

[gotty]

I updated my PC (Win7/64) this morning from latest 6 to 7.0.1426 and the computer started to run very very slow (to the point where mouse cursor only moved once every few seconds). I thought I'd better leave it, but after 2 hours the problem was still there, even after rebooting.

Went into Safe Mode, removed Avast (including using latest aswclear), rebooted and all was fine. So I tried installing again, and the computer was fine until I rebooted (it had said that autosandbox wouldn't work until rebooted), and the computer ground to a halt again.

This time I hit the hibernate button on the PC itself, the computer hibernated normally and, bizarely, when I brought it out of hibernation everything was fine.

Since then I've had phone calls from several friends (with XP or Win7) to say that they've updated to the latest Avast and their computers have crashed or frozen. I've been able to get one running smoothly again over the phone, but will have to visit the others to sort things out over the weekend.

So there is something clearly VERY wrong with this version and I think that we'll just strip Avast off and use something else.

It has certainly shattered my (our) faith in Avast

[Pondus]

remove avast 7 and 6 with this and reboot     http://www.avast.com/en-eu/uninstall-utility

then install avast 7 again 



do you have any other security programs installed ?

[gotty]

Thanks - but if you read the message I already used aswclear (to remove 6 and 7)

[Pondus]

no....you said you used it...but not on 7 first....then 6       but if you did...OK

Went into Safe Mode, removed Avast (including using latest aswclear), rebooted and all was fine.......

[AdrianH]

Which version of Avast, free, Pro or AIS ?

What firewall are you using?

[gotty]

Which version of Avast, free, Pro or AIS ?

What firewall are you using?

Free ... Windows 7 firewall on two machines, no firewall (external hardware only) on a third. Not sure about the others.

One Windows 7 installation is brand new (was a clean installation of latest Avast 7 onto a virgin Win7 installation)

[Para-Noid]

What anti-virus was on the "virgin" machine? And how was it removed?
Have you tried a "repair"? Did you use a registry cleaner on the leftovers. http://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/
As Pondus asked, what other security software are you using? 

edit: Sorry Pondus didn't mean to step on your toes.

[AdrianH]

Which version of Avast, free, Pro or AIS ?

What firewall are you using?

Free ... Windows 7 firewall on two machines, no firewall (external hardware only) on a third. Not sure about the others.

One Windows 7 installation is brand new (was a clean installation of latest Avast 7 onto a virgin Win7 installation)

Try resetting the Windows Firewall to default settings .

[DocV]

I've had similar problems to what gotty describes here (Avast 7 free) on 2 different computers running 32bit Win7. In both cases general system  responsiveness was severely affected: some normal windows services (Networking) would not start at all. Windows startup was so crippled that nothing could be done or accessed on the computer, not even the start menu. I also was not able to get into task manager as that service was apparently not running either, even after waiting for over an hour. A couple of BSODs were produced as well, crashdump information cites aswMonFlt.sys and fltmgr.sys. I first tried uninstalling and doing a clean install of v. 7, which didn't help.
I tried uninstalling version 7 and reinstalling version 6, but the problem persisted. I then ran the aswclear utility (for v5, v6 and v7) and reinstalled v. 7 again. No luck.
-I have been temporarily using a trial version of another vendor's AV (which will expire soon), hoping that the situation with Avast 7 would get fixed in the meantime...
right now I'm afraid to go back to Avast and really can't spend time trying to locate and fix problems that shouldn't be there in the first place.
I agree with gotty that something basic must be very wrong with v. 7 and hope the Avast team can fix this.

[AdrianH]

I agree with gotty that something basic must be very wrong with v. 7 and hope the Avast team can fix this.

Except that v7 is in use on millions of machines without any issue at all.

avast! in numbers

203,333,854registered users of avast!
148,560,401active users of avast!
357,145infected websites discovered with help of avast! CommunityIQ in last 30 days
46,451,512users prevented from visiting infected sites in the last 30 days

Did you ask for help? Did you generate any dump files for avast to check?

[sezor]

Me too, I'm having problems with 7.0.1426 - on win 2k with zone alarm, 
- a bsod and memory dump (I can send you a minidump if you want)
- on startup, processor @ 100%
- if I then pause avast for 10 minutes, it rights itself at the end automatically, everything becoming normal

[sezor]

Hmm, I spoke too soon.
No sooner had I written the above then all programs on 2k stopped responding. 
And they did the same on another, xp, machine.  On it, neither firefox nor its instal program work. 
And turning off avast doesn't correct it once it's started, though it does if you do so before the trouble starts. 

[sezor]

Is there any way we can revert to an earlier version? 

[Dch48]

Which version of Avast, free, Pro or AIS ?

What firewall are you using?

Free ... Windows 7 firewall on two machines, no firewall (external hardware only) on a third. Not sure about the others.

One Windows 7 installation is brand new (was a clean installation of latest Avast 7 onto a virgin Win7 installation)

Try resetting the Windows Firewall to default settings .

Yes this seems to have helped quite a few people having problems.

[scottinaz]

Mine works perfectly,,  sorry,  but the problem must be on your end.