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Then this week AVG released a mandatory update for AVG 2011 Free that has been causing severe issues, especially on systems running Windows 7 64-bit. This has been widely documented on the company's forums where it's been identified that the antivirus' database update 271.1.1/3292 (432/3292) will prompt you to restart, after which the OS will come to a halt, show a "STOP: c0000135" error and completely fail to boot.
AVG has promptly pulled the update from its website and come up with a set of instructions to bring your system back up. The fix requires the use of AVG Rescue CD that can also be used to boot from a USB drive.
Unfortunately this reminds us of the ZoneAlarm fiasco a few years ago. The ubiquitous freeware firewall turned awry at a time when Windows PCs where transitioning from XP to Vista and the software's erratic behavior potentially brought the whole OS down with it.
User Comments: 58
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Yeah stick a fork in it... It's done. Microsoft is where it's at
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Zilpha said:
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.
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Another vote for MS Security Essentials. It has worked flawlessly and without hogging a ton of resources for me so far.
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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...
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StaffJos said:
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 :-)
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Cota said:
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.
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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.
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yowanvista said:
Another reason to avoid this bloatware
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hee hee hee...Glad to be an Avast man right now...
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lchu12 said:
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.
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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_highlighting2-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.
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vipre is light.
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Agree with others, AVG was the program back in the day... these days its MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials).
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Guest said:
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_highlighting2-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.
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.
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Not much use to someone that only has one computer that was trashed by your update.
Thanks for the pain AVG.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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Yes, me too. I'm actually an Avast! reseller. I have NEVER seen Avast! cause this kind of issue, widespread or odd. Norton has several times that I've seen, and now AVG. Of course, when McAfee failed the VB100 test with 5 wildlist misses, I got a great opportunity to sell to their base. I have regularly been converting people from these anyway, and it's always nice to have additional compelling reasons to close more conversion deals!
Great job, Grisoft! Way to make my product easier to sell to AVG's customer base as WELL as Norton and McAfee's!
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AVG is a bug filled annoying resource hog. Use Microsoft Security Essentials.
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Well, you know my thoughts on AVG.
Uninstall > Then run the Remover Tool > Restart > And use a better Antivirus
I always recommend Free Avira Antivirus
If your Windows is still presently not working from this AVG update issue, then read here on how to resolve it: http://free.avg.com/us-en/faq.num-4080
A few here have quoted MSE from Microsoft ironically.
Not sure why, as MS generally make Windows and they are also involved with lots of other applications, like Office and stuff like that (actually seems to be an endless list of stuff)
Antivirus software are best left to Antivirus companies; that specialize in this only.
Just as Anti-Malware programs (such as the best free one, Malwarebytes) should be left to Anti-Malware specialized companies.
I mean seriously; AVG themselves ask you to create a boot disc to fix this issue.
If they then bring out an entire Operating System would you buy it?
I use MS Windows to run Windows, and that's all I use from MS.
If you have been around a while you'll be aware that all other programs that MS put out are not as good as the free 3rd party stuff that specialize in their one area.
On top of all this, I've never liked AVG, and I recommend you remove it as soon as possible.
If you use and like MSE, make sure you do extra scans with other free scanning tools, just in case
How could I not comment on this topic on pulling AVG.
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I used AVG back when it was still version 7 then upgraded to version 8 and 9. I switched to MSE when an AVG AV update bricked the program. I'm currently using Avast since I found that MSE slowed down my system quite a bit. It must be because it's a 4-year laptop with a single-core Celeron with 512 MB RAM running XP Home. I have had no problems so far with Avast and would recommend it anyone needing a free and effective AV program.
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If your not able to boot into your system just follow this
http://free.avg.com/ww-en/faq?num=4080
Just make the usb boot and it will work if you have a BSOD or are unable to boot in safe mode or any of that in like 2 minutes. At least they put out something simple to fix it. But I already didn't like AVG now I really don't.
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this happened to me as well. i spent the entire day trying to figure out what was wrong and couldn't find any issues so i just end up wiping the whole drive and did a fresh install. thought it was a hardware issue or windows. right after i finished installing, i came across this article, not this particular one but one engadget. turns out that AVG released a fix. well too late now. i did create an image of my previous windows in case the fresh install didn't work and is a hardware issue. but since i installed all my software etc. back, didn't feel like dumping the old image back trying to fix the stupid avg issue. at least i now have a back up image in case i need it. i am just going to drop AVG and stick to MSE instead.
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