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AVG8 and avast... both ruining my system...

7up
Community Veteran
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Registered: ‎01-08-2007

AVG8 and avast... both ruining my system...

Guys, I'm in a fix.
When starting, with AVG8, the system was taking twice as long to boot. Also, the volume icon and my NVidia software icon would not show up.
When I killed explorer and restarted it, these icons would show up with the AVG scanning icon - even though I had auto scanning disabled and there was no HDD activity!
Anyway, I had enough of that so I uninstalled, restarted, volume and Nvidia back straight away with no problems.
So... I installed avast. My word, it got worse!
I couldn't even get a stable desktop. After 3 boots I gave up and uninstalled from safe mode BUT now my volume icon won't come back (but i do still have the nvidia one). Also my system is taking forever to boot up now - with no anti virus.
What can I do?
I don't want to perform a system rollback as I've found that tends to break things in the past (and also delete soem of my personal files for some really stupid reason).
I need a new signature... i'm bored of the old one!
8 REPLIES 8
repcomms
Grafter
Posts: 60
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: AVG8 and avast... both ruining my system...

Sorry I cannot help but I had problems running Avast with AVG8. Slowed the whole thing down and two days later it ground to a halt and crashed.  Cost £85 to get it fixed.  Could not get it running in safe mode to wind it beack on Restore 😞 
Never (touch wood) had probs running Avira and AVG8 though.  They say it is good to have more than one Virus checker running but I sometimes wonder.  Have noticed Avira picks up stuff very occaisonally that AVG never sees so wonder if it actually finds a problem or if it is self induced.
Cheers
Bob
Mav
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Re: AVG8 and avast... both ruining my system...

Quote from: repcomms
They say it is good to have more than one Virus checker running but I sometimes wonder. 

Actually, AFAIK it's quite the oposite. More than one AV would cause many conflicts the consequences being as you described.
Been running AVG8 since it came out and, once I disabled Link Scanner and Resident Shield and found where to turn off Windows constantly reminding me that these two options were off, I haven't had any problems.

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7up
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Re: AVG8 and avast... both ruining my system...

Turning off the resident shield is like completely turning off AVG - pointless having it...
Anyway @repcomms, its normally recommended to have ONLY one AV program however I have on a few occassions had as many as 3 installed and never had any bad consequences.
At the moment though, I wouldn't trust AVG.
I certainly wouldn't run both AVG AND avast at the same time...
I need a new signature... i'm bored of the old one!
Mav
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Re: AVG8 and avast... both ruining my system...

I scan every day and don't like the fact that it will run in the background constantly scanning all files, plus it does help slow things down a tad.
Strange, though, I just went into the settings and can see that Resident Shield is turned off but I see a message that says:
'Resident shield has been running for: 3 hour(s) 40 minute(s) 35 second(s).
Now, why should I get such a message if I have turned it off - the above time is about when I last rebooted.
Looking at Tools - Advanced settings also shows that Resident Shield is off.

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Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear - Mark Twain
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repcomms
Grafter
Posts: 60
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: AVG8 and avast... both ruining my system...

Quote from: repcomms
Have noticed Avira picks up stuff very occaisonally that AVG never sees so wonder if it actually finds a problem or if it is self induced.

OK if I need to decide between AVG8 and Avira, has anyone found a "nasty" on Avira but not another antivirus software - ie - is it actually a problem ?
Thanks
Not applicable

Re: AVG8 and avast... both ruining my system...

Although discounted by yourself, I would think that system restore would be the way to go - it would be less hassle in the long run. Can't understand why files should go missing with SR but just make sure that eveything is backed up.
Mav - why turn off resident shield? I've noticed that it is doing sterling work blocking tracking cookies. It doesn't seem to be causing any problems. However, I agree about the link scanner, which I have disabled in Firefox>Addons (this way you don't get the exclamation mark over the icon).
I should like to have kept it on but I understand that it uses up bandwidth. My friend who is on TalkTalk and doesn't have to worry about usage really likes the link scanner because it makes her feel more secure as she is searching.
Mav
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Re: AVG8 and avast... both ruining my system...

@poppy
As I scan every day (auto usually around 4 am) and also run SpyBot S & D plus Ad-Aware I don't feel the necessity to keep Resident Shield running all the time.
I used to use Windows Destroyer but found that was more hassel than it was worth.
Quote from: poppy
However, I agree about the link scanner, which I have disabled in Firefox>Addons (this way you don't get the exclamation mark over the icon).

If you go to AVG's Tools - Advanced Settings you can see the Ignore Faulty Conditions set of options. This is how I avoid that exclaimation.

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Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear - Mark Twain
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7up
Community Veteran
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Re: AVG8 and avast... both ruining my system...

Quote from: Mav
I scan every day and don't like the fact that it will run in the background constantly scanning all files, plus it does help slow things down a tad.
Strange, though, I just went into the settings and can see that Resident Shield is turned off but I see a message that says:
'Resident shield has been running for: 3 hour(s) 40 minute(s) 35 second(s).
Now, why should I get such a message if I have turned it off - the above time is about when I last rebooted.
Looking at Tools - Advanced settings also shows that Resident Shield is off.

This is what got my back up about the automatic scanning. I'd disabled it but randomly when I crashed explorer and restarted it, I'd find the scanning icon in the tray by the clock! When I clicked stop scanning it would do nothing!
I've noticed in the past that AVG's GUI doesn't give me a lot of confidence. I don't know what the quality of the underlying scanning system is like but I suspect its quite basic. The user interface has always seemed a bit simple for me over the years and I've noticed a few quirky things with the way it operates - as you also have.
Quote from: poppy
Although discounted by yourself, I would think that system restore would be the way to go - it would be less hassle in the long run. Can't understand why files should go missing with SR but just make sure that eveything is backed up.

For some reason, SR will remove files which aren't part of the OS despite the fact they are located in various places. I've had files backed up on different drives before in the same machine and found its even wiped those clean too - even when monitoring on that drive has been turned off!
At the moment though I am in severe shortage of storage space - I don't have room anywhere on my network to back up anything so SR is definately not an option as I know it will start dumping files that its supposed to leave alone.
The best restore software I've ever used was called GoBack years ago. It was brilliant in the early days and would restore the OS without disturbing personal files.
I need a new signature... i'm bored of the old one!