WinXP SP3 Problem After Boot

[bevills1]

The problem began about 3 weeks ago after Avast anti-virus update. Approximately twice a week system boots to Desktop with all icons but missing icons in the systray, and no icons respond when mouse is clicked plus CtrlAltDel doesn't bring up Task Manager. The only way the system will work again is to completely power off manually and restart. I've also noticed mup.sys used to be the last thing to load when booting to safe mode, but now there are 2 additional things that load after mup.sys that I think were added by the Avast update.

Could this problem be due to the Avast update or maybe an early sign of a failing hard drive? If it is due to the Avast update, should I switch to AVG, Avira or other anti-virus?

[transporterfan]

Are windows updates installing? Had a computer 8 weeks ago (XP x64) flagging every clicked folder as a virus in Avast after update.
Told the client to file a bug report with Avast and turn off Windows Update for a couple of days (a previous solution).
Three days later I updated Avast for him, turned Windows Update back on, and the problem 'cured itself'
Try turning updates off (if you can), re-registering Windows Update DLL, and/or turning Avast off (offline). See what happens.

[Nelson37]

Test by using Safe Mode or MSConfig to disable Avast. Or, just uninstall it.

One reason I don't use that prog, this is not terribly uncommon.

[NoBuddy]

Maybe Avast Update didn´t install correct. There was a Version change from 7 to 8.
Try uninstall via control panel and choose change. Disable the functions you don´t need. If that doesn´t solve the problem try a complete uninstall.
There´s stuff in the new version which I don´t like, like checking other programs for being uptodate. Just unckeck all the unwanted stuff. Otherwise Avast works great with a small footprint.

[Bjs]

Before anything run chkdsk /f then see how it performs.

No information regarding hd runtime

This condition could be an early indicator the raw read value of the hd involved is well below 70% and due for replacement.

You can download the free version of disk monitor from here

It'll give you a better indication as to the hd's health status.

If it's ok, then start trying other suggestions but under no circumstances disable firewalls or av products without first disconnecting the system from the net or run the risk of system infection.

[Hoser Rob]

With this sort of problem after an avast update I would immediately do the following without a second thought:

- download the installer for microsoft security essentials

- uninstall avast and say good riddance

- install mse. The windows tech support people at the local university (in which all students are required to have a laptop) recommend it. It's quite good.

All anti virus programs will let malware in, so it doesn't actually mean anything to say one is better than another because it blocked 97% in a benchmark and another 95%. None of them actually work. The security bottleneck is you.

Plus, as you may have noticed, the windows integration of many of those other anti malware programs is not so great. Particularly on networks. Which is pretty stupid for an antivirus program when you think about is.

I don't recommend microsoft software often. I rarely even use windows anymore. Their media software is atrocious. But mse is really good. And they aren't always trying to upsell you.

[hech54]

Geez all this "reverse-fanboy" nonsense.
I've been using Avast Free Home for YEARS with absolutely ZERO problems whatsoever.

[transporterfan]

Never had a problem with it either. My favourite for the last 4 years...and I tried them all.
Nowhere near as glitchy or over-sensitive as the others.

[Nelson37]

Running a program on one or a few systems does NOT give you a realistic assessment of the program. Run it on several dozen different systems and you get a much more realistic picture of what problems may occur.

I've done it. I am the guy who has to remove or fix it for FREE if I put it on and it causes problems. I absolutely will NOT install avast on a customer's system and be responsible for it. If they insist, I will get IN WRITING with their signature on the invoice that I have recommended against it and WILL NOT be responsible for any failures, if called to fix it those hours will be billable and not covered under warranty of any kind.

This program has rendered customer's computers totally unusable on SEVERAL occasions. Usually due to a botched update. That level of problem is, IMO, totally unacceptable.

[hech54]

Running a program on one or a few systems does NOT give you a realistic assessment of the program. Run it on several dozen different systems and you get a much more realistic picture of what problems may occur.

How about almost a million?

[Nelson37]

Seriously? Where are the number of problem reports? Where is any useful information of any kind? Does that chart mean that AVG is a BETTER antivirus program than Malwarebytes?

You have absolutely got to be out of your freaking mind. Number of downloads equals a reliability report? McDonalds hamburgers must taste better than Five Guys, because they sell more.

I will listen to other opinions, but I believe what I see and experience, and I know the difference between a professional opinion, like my own, and that of less experienced youngsters who think terms like "fanboy" comprise useful evaluation.

I am just freaking amazed.

Do the cost-benefit analysis between time lost with a virus infection from a slightly less effective antivirus prog, and time lost due to a slightly better antivirus prog that frequently has major defect problems. I have. Dollars and numbers. I do not recommend Avast, and will only install it under the conditions outlined previously. Business or Home, teenage boys or little old ladies, safe or unsafe surfing habits, the numbers point to the same answer.

OR, you could just use the one with the logo you think looks the most spiffy-keen.

[davexnet]

I used to use Avast, but quit about two years ago wheren they were having all those issues transitioning between
version 4/5. I installed MSE (on XP) and stuck with it, but MSE causes some odd performance issues.

Avast 8 just came out, so I decided to give it a try. SO far, so good - in my mind the question is, how effective is it?
I guess time will tell.

About three years I picked up a virus(es) that caused havoc. There was all kind of screens opening up,
lots of bogus EXE's in the Task Manager. During all this activity Avast real time protection was active,
but not a peep out of it. It wasn't even aware an infection had occurred or was active. How can this be?
I was looking at it, trying to figure what to do first, when of all things Windows Derfender pops up with a message saying that it had detected some malware, it had initiated some cleanup, and asked me to reboot. After reboot, the system was usable, and I was successfully able to clean the system.
Who would have thought? So many people said it was rubbish - in fact, I had even forgotten it was
active - but it saved my bacon here.

On the Wilders Security forum, the members are excited about a new free A/V from BitDefender.
Very light, minimal design. I'm trying it on one of my XP boxes now.

[DarrellS]

The problem with Avast is the sandbox feature. It used to pop up a message with an option to turn it off but now it runs automatically. I started having problems a couple of weeks ago also after installing the newest version. I had been using 6 with the daily updates but was bugged to upgrade the engine. All the programs that I installed after the upgrade were screwed up. I uninstalled the new version and told them that the reason I uninstalled it was because it sucked

I found a link today that showed me how to shut the Sandbox feature off (it was impossible to find on my own) so I re-installed it.

Under "File System Shields", click Settings. On the left you will see the panel, you will see Auto Sandbox. Click it and uncheck "Enable Auto Sandbox Feature".

While in the "File System Settings", you might want to uncheck everything if you trust Avast to catch stuff before it enters your computer and you scan your downloads before you install them. Otherwise, it will scan your programs every time you try to use them. It you're the type of user than doesn't want to be bothered with safe computing habits then go ahead and leave everything checked.

I gave up on AVG a long time ago. It used to be my favorite anti-virus program but it got to be where it bogged everything down, threw up a lot of false positives and didn't catch stuff that Avast did.

[hech54]

Seriously? Where are the number of problem reports? Where is any useful information of any kind? Does that chart mean that AVG is a BETTER antivirus program than Malwarebytes?

You have absolutely got to be out of your freaking mind. Number of downloads equals a reliability report? McDonalds hamburgers must taste better than Five Guys, because they sell more.

Never said that.
What I said was that I believe the hundreds of thousands of people who downloaded the program
over one person who SAYS he is knowledgeable on the subject without an ounce or shred of evidence that
said knowledge is real. That would be YOU I'm talking about.

[budz]

Yup the sandbox feature causes many problems....after the last update I turned that sucker off.....runs fine with no probs....been using Avast for years with no issues....

[Nelson37]

Hmm, and yet there is still ONE of us who believes a number of downloads is actual, useful, information about a program's real-world effectiveness.

How does that chart show that the #3 downloaded program is BY FAR the best and most effective virus removal tool available? One which, along with the #4 downloaded program, is not only EXTREMELY effective, but has not one time, running on approximately 100 Pc's for over three years, been itself the Source of a problem? In the hands of mostly fairly inept users?

Do as you wish. Other people installing Avast are a source of income for me. Go ahead, make me more money.

I've been posting here well over 10 years. Plenty of ounces and shreds available for all to see.

[hech54]

Hmm, and yet there is still ONE of us who believes a number of downloads is actual, useful, information about a program's real-world effectiveness.

How does that chart show that the #3 downloaded program is BY FAR the best and most effective virus removal tool available? One which, along with the #4 downloaded program, is not only EXTREMELY effective, but has not one time, running on approximately 100 Pc's for over three years, been itself the Source of a problem? In the hands of mostly fairly inept users?

Do as you wish. Other people installing Avast are a source of income for me. Go ahead, make me more money.

I've been posting here well over 10 years. Plenty of ounces and shreds available for all to see.

Again....nobody ever said that the "number of downloads is actual, useful, information about a program's real-world effectiveness." Reading the reviews from the hundreds of thousands of users of Avast Free Home, you will find numbnuts who will automatically blame something like Avast for their recent computer problems....but simply by Googling you will find that the mup.sys error (which is very similar to the problem my wife's laptop had recently) is usually due to a USB problem. My wife's laptop crashed after she yanked a USB stick out of her laptop and apparently the computer was not "done" with it yet......even though it showed no activity.
If the OP's problem is similar to my recent laptop fiasco....I never did manage to get the laptop up and running with it's original HDD. I had to replace the HDD and load a Paragon backup of the HDD that I made a few years ago.
I was also able to save data from the non-booting HDD with Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery:
http://www.stellarinfo.com/windows-data-recovery.php
How's that for real-world, effective, helpful, non-brow-beating, first-hand-experience information?

[Nelson37]

So if the chart is not useful, WTH did you post it for? You seemed to think it meant something when you posted it.

It means a bunch of people downloaded the prog. That's it, that's all.

Now if you have actually read "hundreds of thousands" of reviews, excellent. Half a dozen or so, not so much.

Single-incident reports are nearly useless, using that I can prove that I have fixed numerous problems simply by being on the phone with the user. You need repeated incidents of same or similar circumstances to draw conclusions.

It's a simple procedure, but there is absolutely no need to explain it, even though it solves the problem. Yes, I remember that one.

[hech54]

So if the chart is not useful, WTH did you post it for?

Simple. To show how many other people's software opinions I'd rather view than yours.
In case you hadn't noticed....even in this thread alone....people get sick of getting talked down to
and brow-beaten by you and your supposed vast knowledge of computers and they start to ignore you.
You haven't noticed that yet?

[Nelson37]

Goody. Personally, I place zero value on opinions from dumb-asses such as yourself.

Anybody with some smarts care to question my knowledge and abilities?

I solve problems every day, and have done so numerous times on this board. Count where I've been wrong, and when I've been right. As I said, it's out there for all to see. Find me a time when I got the info I asked for and still failed to come up with a solution to the problem.

Yes, I'm good.

No, I don't suffer fools gladly. IMO a swift kick in the ass gets them moving in the right direction more often than asking nicely a dozen times. People who simply refuse to describe clearly their precise actions when those are fundamental to solving a problem, frankly really piss me off.

If people fail to respond cause they don't like my attitude, well, gosh, that just ruins my entire day. Percentage-wise, analysis tells me that either they didn't understand the question, don't want to admit some error, forgot to follow an earlier instruction, or were just busy, most of the time. Those who supply the info and follow procedures get answers, and arrive at solutions. When I piss somebody off, it's usually on purpose and for a definite reason. I don't really care, I just like solving puzzles.

Edit: No, I don't think I am smarter than everybody else. I KNOW that there is a 99% probability that I am smarter than any particular individual that I encounter. Just in case you were wondering.

[bevills1]

System was run a couple of days with Avast shields turned off, and the problem hasn't recurred. I'm now trying the reply #13 suggestion to turn off AutoSandbox and will see how that works. BTW I'm running Avast 8 on another similar PC, and there's been no problems on the other PC.

I've used Avast for years with no problems until recently, and I'd like to continue using it if I can identify and fix the problem. If the problem isn't fixed, I may try mse.

[hech54]

System was run a couple of days with Avast shields turned off, and the problem hasn't recurred. I'm now trying the reply #13 suggestion to turn off AutoSandbox and will see how that works. BTW I'm running Avast 8 on another similar PC, and there's been no problems on the other PC.

I've used Avast for years with no problems until recently, and I'd like to continue using it if I can identify and fix the problem. If the problem isn't fixed, I may try mse.

Good to hear.
The only thing I keep Avast from doing is auto-updating.....but then again I keep everything from auto-updating.

[bevills1]

Running Avast a few days now with AutoSandbox turned off has resulted in no problems so far. One thing about Avast 8 I don't like though is its checking for software updates such as Adobe Reader. Is there a way to turn off the software update checks?

[DarrellS]

Settings > Software Updater > uncheck both boxes.

[bevills1]

Monday the problem recurred which must mean something else in Avast is the culprit. I didn't want to spend a lot of time trying to fix it and decided to uninstall Avast. Google search results indicate some short comings with mse, and I really don't like AVG that I used before Avast. Search results on Avira look very good, and I decided to try it. No android protection is the only knock against Avira that I found, but I have no android devices and don't need that. Avira does have a separate android program if anyone were to need it. I've been running Avira since Monday and no problems yet. I've noticed the Avira updates don't slow down things as much as Avast updates did which is another plus for Avira.

[Nelson37]

But But but... So MANY people have DownLoaded that program! It CAN'T be causing a problem!

Avira definitely has a smaller footprint than AVG, but also somewhat less effective. Crapshoot.

Combine with CCleaner and Malwarebytes, both run regularly. The new MSE is similar to Avira, IMO. More clout from my perspective as it is a Microsoft product. Another crapshoot.

[DarrellS]

Monday the problem recurred which must mean something else in Avast is the culprit. I didn't want to spend a lot of time trying to fix it and decided to uninstall Avast. Google search results indicate some short comings with mse, and I really don't like AVG that I used before Avast. Search results on Avira look very good, and I decided to try it. No android protection is the only knock against Avira that I found, but I have no android devices and don't need that. Avira does have a separate android program if anyone were to need it. I've been running Avira since Monday and no problems yet. I've noticed the Avira updates don't slow down things as much as Avast updates did which is another plus for Avira.

Why is this an Avast problem? This sounds like a Windows XP problem to me. I would be googling for an answer to the problem.

First thing I'd do is check taskbar properties and make sure that "hide inactive icons" is not checked. If this does not fix the issue, the missing icons is a known bug in Windows XP that Microsoft never bothered to fix but there are fixes that will at least temporarily fix the problem. If none of the fixes work then I would do a repair install of XP. You'll have to reinstall SP3 after repairing XP SP2 and probably have to reinstall a few drivers. Make sure you unplug your printer, scanner and anything else that will need a driver installed or you will not know which driver that windows is looking for.

When you do a repair install, do not choose repair at the first screen but select install Windows and at the next screen choose repair. Also. make sure to press F6 if you need to install any controller drivers. If you're not going to hot plug or run RAID then you can skip the F6 step.

Maybe Nelson can suggest the best antivirus to use but I myself would stick with Avast since it is considered my most, the best free antivirus program you can use. I've not had any problems the four or so years that I've been using it. If you have a problem with version 8, you could always install 6 or 7 and refuse the upgrade when prompted. The engine used isn't as important as the virus definitions that are downloaded every day. Check some reputable Tech sites and see which antivirus they recommend. I believe that you will find that most will recommend Avast.

[hech54]

Why is this an Avast problem? This sounds like a Windows XP problem to me. I would be googling for an answer to the problem.

My wife recently updated her laptop to Avast 8. She didn't tell me until a few days ago. I must admit I had this thread in mind after she told me she updated to Avast 8, but as it happens.....FanBoy37 was wrong.....again. It's working fine. Avast is still trying to put Microsoft Image Composer in the sandbox....but it did that before(and still does) on Avast 7.
Microsoft Image Composer came out in.....what....1998?

[zoobie]

Same thing happened to me...Although I've been running Avast for years without probs, suddenly the taskbar only had the system speaker showing. After several reboots without success, I discovered it was a weak CMOS battery losing the BIOS settings. Bought an Energizer 2032 at Walmart for $3 and everythings fine again.

HTH

[bevills1]

Why is this an Avast problem? This sounds like a Windows XP problem to me. I would be googling for an answer to the problem.

I believe it's an Avast problem because it began following an Avast update with no other changes on the PC. If the problem recurs with Avast uninstalled, then I'll know it's not an Avast problem and will seek other remedies if that happens. Until then I'm liking Avira just fine.