Something Is Wrong With Free Avast

[Bigaldoc]

I've used free Avast for a few years now and had no problems other than a false alarm or two and that was long ago.

Last evening Avast popped up a notice that there is a PROGRAM update available. Since it's one of the few programs that I allow to update itself directly, I of course clicked OK. The update took only a couple of minutes but required a reboot as is often the case with soaftware updates.

Since the reboot, Avast has DESTROYED the performance of my machine (XP at the time). Task Manager says 986-98% free but it took TM about 2-3 minutes just to open. Pressing Win-E as I always do to run Explorer yields the same 2 minute OR LONGER delay in opening. And on it goes.

I have temporarily disabled Avast to prove to myself that it IS in fact the culprit and things are running OK now. I'll be turning Avast back on now and if the slowness is still there I may do an image restore from yesterday morning.

[Bigaldoc]

I've been trying to troubleshoot this thing for the past two hours with no success. Checked the Avast forum and don't see any posts about this problem and there are a ton of posts from today. So maybe it's something in my setup that the latest Avast doesn't like. I've just downloaded a fresh copy and when I finish here I'll uninstall the current, reboot and try a new install.

I've also run Malwarebytes which didn't find anything.

While Avast was active I tried closing all kinds of things either from the tray icon or the task manager such as desktop weather, JRE and so on. Nothing I closed made any improvement AND CPU usage except for momentary blips, stays at 1-6% so I'm at a loss for words.

Here goes...

[stuck]

Perhaps the upgrade has kicked of some sort of detailed scan in the background?

Ken

[Bigaldoc]

Perhaps the upgrade has kicked of some sort of detailed scan in the background?

I did wonder about that, Ken. But when I opened the Avast GUI, I didn't see any indication that there might be a scan in progress and I looked at every screen, albeit agonizingly SLOW to respond.

Secondly, I don't pretend to understand enough about the "technicals" to understand how come Task Manager shows only "single digit" CPU and yet EVERYTHING on my system slowed to a very bad crawl.

More in a followup post in just a minute...

[Bigaldoc]

Preamble: I realize as I prepare to write this that there are those of you who use paid applications like Kaspersky or others; and various free ones such as the popular Microsoft Security Essentials, and those choices are obviously very valid.

As I was using Revo to uninstall Avast I got to thinking that maybe I've just gotten so enamored of Avast that I don't realize how much it has been "hogging" (or not) my system the past few years. Ya know, it's kinda like a loss of hearing - it comes on slowly with age and ya don't realize how bad it is until you see an audiologist (been down that road!)...

So, while unprotected anyway, I not only downloaded a fresh copy of Avast for possible reinstall, but I also grabbed a copy of AVIRA which has been commented on here in Eileen's Lounge. I also did a few quick passes on places like C/NET and so on to get a feel for currently "popular" free AV programs. As in the past, the most favored three by users and reviewers seem to still be Avg, Avira and Avast.

As I write this I'm currently running Avira and will do so for a week or more to see how things go. I've said in the past that I've not had any complaints with Avast but I'm hesitant to reinstall it only to have to remove it again. If I learn anything more I'll post further.

[stuck]

I used Avria from when I put this XPMCE box together in Dec 2009 until a couple of weeks ago. The only 'fault' was the nag screen urging you to upgrade to the paid version, plus a mysterious 'unused' registry key that Avria will not say what it does and Ccleaner found but could not remove unless Avria was fully stopped. However, there was no point removing this key as it just came back when Avira updated (there is a thread somewhere in the Lounge that I started about this key).

Then a couple of weeks ago Avria released a program update and along came an Ask toolbar. I declined but then it looked like Avria was not working because the umbrella in the system tray would not open. I switched to MSE and advised stuckling2 to do likewise. stuckling1 didn't switch and by the time he was offered the Avira update Avira had acknowledged the closed umbrella notice was a bug, Avira hadn't stopped working and released a bug fix.

Meanwhile, stuckling2 is complaining that MSE is heavier on memory than Avria and on his ageing laptop has caused a noticeable performance hit so he may yet go back to Avira.

As for me, MSE seems slow to start on boot. I regularly get XP security notices in the system tray saying MSE is turned off only for MSE to then finish loading and make the notice go away. Avira has a spefcic setting that allows it to start early in the boot process. So I too may yet go back to Avira.

Ken

[Roderunner]

Hi Bigaldoc, when you installed Avira, did it warn you that its not compatible with Win. Defender. Avast is similar, but gives no warning.
My laptop was using Avast before I did a clean install (Win7 H Prem 32 bit) over the weekend, reinstalled Avast alls well.
I also replaced Avira with Avast on my main pc (Win7 H Prem 32 bit) and its ok also.
The one tricky bit I noticed after installing Avast was, it was rather slow in updating its self but a reboot or 2 fixed it.

[Bigaldoc]

I don't know where to begin, folks. So, in deference to Ken's and Roderunner's comments, here goes...

I think AVAST has been letting me down for some time! I can't believe that in the brief period when I had it disabled this morning in order to download a fresh copy of both Avast AND Avira, that I picked up EIGHT viruses! Count 'em cousin, eight of those babies! I will try not to badmouth Avast but it sucks if it has let all those viruses get in my system without warning one!

Shortly after installing Avira (no Ask toolbar!) I decided to run a FULL system scan of my two drives (four partitions). It took over four hours to run and in the process found the eight bad guys mentioned above. All have been quarantined and I will continue my test for a week or so to see how Avira behaves.

I haven't yet done any research on the eight items to find out what I can, so I don't know what harm they may have caused me while they were on my system. It's just been a terribly frustrating day for me.

2011-07-12_151826.png

2011-07-12_151450.png

[Roderunner]

Have a read at Avira installation tips, its for an older version but still valid as Avira just re positioned them.
http://www.drtweak.com/index.php?topic=196.0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Bigaldoc]

Lots of screenshots there but what am I supposed to be looking for since I've already installed and run it?

[DenGar]

Strange goings on. I too have used free Avast for years and have been satisfied with it. And yesterday I got the notice of a program update. Downloaded it, but no problems like yours, Al.

[Bigaldoc]

I would normally have chalked it up to a temporary glitch and waited for them to fix it, but I could just about NOT use my computer last night and this morning, so I had to do something.

And NOW, given Avira finding those eight viruses, I'm much more skeptical. How could that have happened with Avast "on guard" for me for all this time and no notices, warnings or anything. I'm quite confused, frustrated and concerned.

[June Bug]

And NOW, given Avira finding those eight viruses, I'm much more skeptical. How could that have happened with Avast "on guard" for me for all this time and no notices, warnings or anything.

BigAl,

Did you have a daily/weekly scan scheduled with Avast. Other than real time scanning I don't think Avast scans the computer by default. If you want the computer scanned on a regular basis you must set up a scan schedule manually.

[Bigaldoc]

Thanks for your comments, June Bug. No, I don't normally have my AV program do a scan because I figure if "real time" scanning is in place, anything that tries to find its way into my computer should be caught at the time of "entry." If an email comes in with a virus payload, I expect it to be caught on the spot. If I web browse to a site that contaminates, I expect my AV program to catch that "real time" also. As with today, since I've run a full scan with Avira and it IS in real time mode, I shouldn't have to repeat full time scans.

BUT, I may have to change that naive interpretation given what I've encountered today. Darn shame that a full scan takes over 4 hours to complete!

[June Bug]

I agree with the "real time" scanning concept, but you never know, something could slip by. I leave my computer on 24/7 and have a scan scheduled Sunday morning at 1 AM. Usually in the bed at that time so I never know it happens.

Been lucky so far, nothing found.

[PaulB]

You seem to have been hit with a number of frustrating problems recently, Al. Maddening, isn't it.

I run MSE as my real-time virus protection with Malwarebtytes on demand scans as a security blanket. Truth be told, I mostly rely on the computing version of safe sex as my main protection. Seems to work for me. As an added precaution, I run a full MSE scan in the wee hours of Sunday morning after having run my weekly full Shadowprotect image backups.

Hope you find a workable solution.

[Roderunner]

Hi Bigaldoc, my link was to show how I set Avira.
Re Avast, I have been forced to remove it from my main pc as it was blocking my emails. Miraculously it runs perfectly on my Laptop, Same OS but different manufacturers. So I'm back to Avira on main pc.