Author Topic: Boots to black screen after installing Avast Free 7  (Read 14425 times)

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SDAberle

  • Guest
Boots to black screen after installing Avast Free 7
« on: July 02, 2012, 11:31:18 PM »
I just installed an update to bring my Avast Free Antivirus up to version 7.0.1451. The second last step in the update process rebooted my system (an ASUS B43J notebook PC running Windows 7 Pro with 8GB of RAM, plugged into an ASUS docking station and running two Philips LCD monitors). After the reboot, and after logging into Windows, I went to a black screen where all I could see was the mouse cursor. Eventually I discovered that I could get the system to respond to Ctrl+Alt+Del and show me the typical Windows 7 Ctrl+Alt+Del screen. I tried rebooting several times in this way, always with the same result. I removed the notebook from the docking station and rebooted, again with the same result. I rebooted and re-started in Safe mode and was able to see my desktop, rebooted again in normal startup mode, again able to see my desktop, and finally shut down, re-attached to the docking station and rebooted yet again. All seems to be working fine now.

The experience was frustrating and I'm puzzled to understand why it should have happened. I looked at the KnowledgeBase and found an old article (https://support.avast.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=229) that made reference to a similar problem installing Avast v.4 with an ASUS PC and connecting the problem to an ASUS program on the system. I don't need support with this problem as I seem to have resolved it successfully, but I did want to report it to the Avast support team.

I tried to post a support ticket but, although I'm registered and able to log in to the web site, I was unable to log in to the Submit A Ticket page (http://support.avast.com/index.php?languageid=1&group=eng&_m=tickets&_a=submit). Again, frustrating. I see other forum users have had the same problem and have been advised to forget about submitting a ticket and just post here on the forum. I'm perfectly happy to do that (as I now have) but it leaves my wondering why bother to invite users to submit support tickets at all? Is a different login ID needed to post a ticket, or are some users blocked from posting support tickets for some reason(s) or what? It would be good to be able to understand.

SafeSurf

  • Guest
Re: Boots to black screen after installing Avast Free 7
« Reply #1 on: July 03, 2012, 12:27:12 AM »
I see other forum users have had the same problem and have been advised to forget about submitting a ticket and just post here on the forum. I'm perfectly happy to do that (as I now have) but it leaves my wondering why bother to invite users to submit support tickets at all? Is a different login ID needed to post a ticket, or are some users blocked from posting support tickets for some reason(s) or what? It would be good to be able to understand.
Some other users have submitted multiple support tickets, which only puts them to the bottom of the list; one ticket is all you need.  However because a new version of Avast was recently released, I suspect that the server(s) for submitting tickets may be busy and that is why you had difficulty.  But you did the right thing by researching online in the forum to find your answer and resolved your problem, and reporting it here where the Avast Team does read the forum.

Thank you for reporting it, and let us know if you have any further problems.  :)

SDAberle

  • Guest
Re: Boots to black screen after installing Avast Free 7
« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2012, 02:06:06 AM »
Thanks for the encouragement. Just to clarify: I wasn't trying to submit multiple tickets; I was trying to submit one ticket, and I was unable to log in to the Submit A Ticket page.

tyraarane

  • Guest
Re: Boots to black screen after installing Avast Free 7
« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2012, 06:22:06 AM »
After the reboot, and after logging into Windows, I went to a black screen where all I could see was the mouse cursor. Eventually I discovered that I could get the system to respond to Ctrl+Alt+Del and show me the typical Windows 7 Ctrl+Alt+Del screen. I tried rebooting several times in this way, always with the same result. I removed the notebook from the docking station and rebooted, again with the same result.

How long did you wait on the black screen before rebooting? When I upgraded to 7.0.1456, I experienced this same issue after rebooting to complete the install...but after 1-2 minutes (tops) my desktop loaded correctly. I'll have to see if it does it again on the next boot, or if it was a one-off upgrade thing.

My PC isn't an ASUS, but I do have an ASUS motherboard, so there may be a conflicting program at the BIOS level there.

SafeSurf

  • Guest
Re: Boots to black screen after installing Avast Free 7
« Reply #4 on: July 05, 2012, 10:03:41 AM »
I suggest an uninstall and clean install if you are still having problems.
1. Save a copy of Avast and save it to your HDD:
Version 7.0.1456:   
Avast Free AV:        http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/avast_free_antivirus_setup.exe
Avast Pro AV :        http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/avast_pro_antivirus_setup.exe
AIS:                       http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/avast_internet_security_setup.exe

2. Download the Avast Uninstall Utility http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility and save it to your HDD. 
3. Disconnect from the Internet at this time.
4. Go into Safe Mode (hit F8 repeatedly) and run the Avast Uninstall Tool. Uninstall ALL previous versions and products of Avast you had on this machine and reboot in between each uninstall
6. Reboot.
7. Install the newest version of Avast and reboot.
8. Get Internet access and register your copy or add the license key for Free, Pro, or AIS online.
    Free – http://www.avast.com/registration-free-antivirus.php
9. Update the Avast definitions.

Knowledge based article:
https://support.avast.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=504#idt_0003

tyraarane

  • Guest
Re: Boots to black screen after installing Avast Free 7
« Reply #5 on: July 05, 2012, 04:11:34 PM »
Update to my last post: while getting to my desktop was a bit slower than normal this morning for some reason, I definitely didn't experience the black screen issue. Must have been a one-off thing related to installing the update for me.

SafeSurf

  • Guest
Re: Boots to black screen after installing Avast Free 7
« Reply #6 on: July 06, 2012, 12:30:43 PM »
@ tyraarane,

Glad to hear everything is working fine with your machine. 

Now if we can hear back from the OP (SDAberle) to find out if the uninstall/clean install fixed the problem.

SDAberle

  • Guest
Re: Boots to black screen after installing Avast Free 7
« Reply #7 on: August 02, 2012, 10:42:22 PM »
This problem recurred on my machine, I'm guessing after an update to the Avast programme but that's only a guess. That makes twice with this problem with two different updates of Avast 7.

Both times, before it started giving me the black screen, it also did the following:
- Prevented me from connecting to my network, either wireless or wired.
- Prevented Network & Sharing Center from opening -- would just open a blank window with the title bar and sit there.
- Prevented Device Manager from opening - same as above.
- This time only (I think): somehow persuaded Windows 7 that my copy of Windows is invalid. (I got that message near the bottom right of my screen, anyway.)

I waited at the black screen for sometimes 10-15 minutes to no avail. I uninstalled Avast and all these problems immediately ceased. I will perform the complete uninstall and re-install as suggested above and see how that goes. If this problem recurs, that's the end of my relationship with Avast. Up until now I've been completely satisfied but I can't keep going on with this situation.

SDAberle

  • Guest
Re: Boots to black screen after installing Avast Free 7
« Reply #8 on: August 02, 2012, 11:29:29 PM »
I've now reinstalled and I'm at version 7.0.1456. I've tried hibernating and re-activating, logging off and logging on, and rebooting. I got the unfortunately all too familiar black-screen-white-arrow when I logged back in and, when I rebooted, both before and after the login screen, but only for about 5-10 seconds. Apart from that, no system-stopping problems so far but then it's only been 15 minutes ;). We'll see how it goes.

SafeSurf

  • Guest
Re: Boots to black screen after installing Avast Free 7
« Reply #9 on: August 03, 2012, 11:58:53 AM »
If you want, you can submit a dump file when you have the problem:

Here is additional information on how to invoke a memory dump file:  http://support.avast.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=71.

Please, zip and upload the C:\Windows\Memory.dmp file to this anonymous ftp server and name it uniquely giving us the name of the file in this thread: ftp.avast.com/incoming.  Avast will analyze it and respond back to you in this thread.

SDAberle

  • Guest
Re: Boots to black screen after installing Avast Free 7
« Reply #10 on: August 07, 2012, 07:03:46 PM »
Sorry folks. The problem recurred the next time I rebooted and three times is enough for me. I have uninstalled Avast and gone with a different product. I'm done. Best wishes with resolving this one. I can't devote more time to it.