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TechSpot

AVG Free 2011 update pulled, crashing Windows 7 systems

Discussion in 'TechSpot News and Comments' started by Julio Franco, Dec 3, 2010.

  1. Julio Franco TechSpot Editor

    AVG used to be a no-nonsense choice among free antivirus suites out there, but it seems the company's software has been suffering as of late. First hint came to our attention last month when one of our readers felt compelled to write us about AVG's painfully sluggish performance and noticeable bloat on its most recent version. This had gone unnoticed to me personally since I have long switched to Microsoft's free alternative Security Essentials, but the latest AVG Free weighs a hefty 140MB.

    Read the whole story
  2. windmill007 Newcomer, in training

    Yeah stick a fork in it... It's done. Microsoft is where it's at
  3. Zilpha Newcomer, in training

    I agree - I didn't think that Microsoft could pull it off but I have been using Security Essentials exclusively for the last month and I barely notice it's there.

    AVG can't compete with Microsoft and Alwil when it comes to lightweight free AV suites. The patch breaking machines is a classic example of rolling out something without extensive testing.
  4. TomSEA TechSpot Chancellor

    Another vote for MS Security Essentials. It has worked flawlessly and without hogging a ton of resources for me so far.
  5. This is EXACTLY what happened to me on my windows 7 64 PC yesterday. i had to reinstall windows completely for a full day. Although AVG is free, I need to stick with Avast or some other program that won't cost me headaches and work time. Thanks for letting me know what the issue was--i was suspicious of everything... One of the errors was a msvcr80.dll and the bsod c0000135 error codes listed above. I encourage everyone to avoid my woe and backup a system restore...
  6. Jos TechSpot Staff

    It's a shame but true... AVG used to be a great antivirus application and I believe one of the reasons it became so popular back in the day (besides being free, of course) is that it was much easier on system resources than, say, McAfee or Norton.

    I also switched to MSE recently on my wife's laptop and it feels snappier. I'm taking about a ~3-year-old laptop in desperate need of an upgrade, so it definitely make a difference :)
  7. Cota TechSpot Enthusiast

    Too bad they ended like that, i switched to Nod32 like 2 years ago and never looked back, we dont need heavy HD UI, tons of animations in the windows or back up and all those kinds of things on the antivirus, we just need to pwn viruses, scripts and a good firewall.
  8. Mischief007 Newcomer, in training

    Microsoft Security Essentials for a very long time now. Other than Kaspersky, I don't like any other anti-virus solution out there. I've tried others and like AVG, they started hampering system performance and were very intrusive. Absurdly intrusive actually.
  9. yowanvista Newcomer, in training

    Another reason to avoid this bloatware
  10. Benny26 TechSpot Paladin

    hee hee hee...Glad to be an Avast man right now...
  11. lchu12 Newcomer, in training

    Yeah, noticed that the new version of AVG was having more and mroe problems, decided to switch to Avast. So far so good....hhmmm gonna need to try MSE.
  12. We’re very sorry for the inconvenience. Over the past 24 hours, AVG has had two update issues. The problems affected Windows 7 users on 64-bit products. As soon as we were first notified about these issues, we immediately began fixing the problems. AVG is taking swift action on this matter. We remain committed to our customers, and, as such, we are taking the following actions:

    1-Updates have been issued for both of these issues and are currently being propagated to the broad AVG user base.

    2-For the next 48 hours, we are offering free technical support to our entire user base; anyone who has been affected by either of these issues.

    PAID CUSTOMERS: Support for System crash after the recent AVG 2011 update 3292 (BSOD)
    If you have encountered the above mentioned issue with the latest AVG update and FAQ 4079 didn’t help you, please contact our English support team by dialing the following numbers:

    1-Home and Free customers: 24/7 support +1-877-367-9933 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting**************+1-877-367-9933******end_of_the_skype_highlighting

    2-Business customers: 9:30am-6:30pm EST +1-828-459-5436 or skype:avg-nc
    You can also email us at updateissuehelp@avg.com.

    FREE CUSTOMERS: Support for System crash after the recent AVG 2011 update 3292 (BSOD)

    1-If you have encountered the above mentioned issue with the latest AVG update and FAQ 4080 didn’t help you, please contact our English support team by dialing the following number:

    2-24/7 support: +1-877-367-9933

    You can also email us at updateissuehelp@avg.com

    AVG sincerely regrets any inconvenience this issue has caused and we are ready to help you resolve this as quickly as possible.
  13. vipre is light.
  14. Agree with others, AVG was the program back in the day... these days its MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials).
  15. PanicX TechSpot Ambassador

    If this post is from an actual AVG employee, then this is very cool. Definitely the proactive situation awareness I like to see from my vendors.

    Unfortunately, as you can see by the posts here, this actual incident isn't the main issue with AVG that most users are troubled with. In actuality, I can't think of a single AV vendor that hasn't had some blunder over the past 10 years, these things happen. The problem most enthusiasts have with AVG, is its cumbersome installation size and operating footprint. Back in the AVG 6.0 days, AVG was light weight, fast and effective. Today, in my opinion, its close to a free version of McAfee in terms of effectiveness and system bloat.
  16. Not much use to someone that only has one computer that was trashed by your update.

    Thanks for the pain AVG.
  17. Jibberish18 TechSpot Guru

    Don't internal Quality Control tests catch things such as this? I mean, how can you let something like this leave your departments? It would be one thing if only a very small batch of people had problems.

    Honestly, a AntiVirus program should be light on resources and very simple. AVG seemed extremely light on resources but was overly complicated. It also ran about 5 or 6 resource tasks, which bothered me. Personally I use Microsoft Security Essentials and have recommended it to many people. Although I do think it slows down some Single Core machines with Win XP.
  18. This didn't just happen with AVG free. It happened on a production Windows 2008 server. There is no excuse for this incompetence. AVG should provide refunds for the lost manhours resulting from this debacle. I for one will not repair this installation. I will uninstall and never look back.
  19. This happened to me 2 days ago and was only suspicious until I went to class the next day and saw another guy having the exact same bootup issue.. I came home and immediately reinstalled windows seeing as how i didn't realize there was a way to get out of it at the time, went on the internet to investigate, and sure enough.. I'm switching to avast for a while.
  20. Looks like AVG can't afford to buy a Windows 7 64-bit license. AVG is doomed!

    Other alternatives:
    1. ESET Nod32
    2. MSE
    3. ALWIL