Avast 4 crashes Windows 2000 Pro SP4

[le_jawa]

I just downloaded and installed Avast 4 on my Win2K system and now I can't even finish booting the system; the system crashes and reboots while the system is still loading.

I booted into safe mode,  looked at the logs and found a bunch of "interesting" error messages.  Here they are:

The Remote Access Connection Manager depends on the Telephony service which failed to start because of the following error: No attempts to start the service have been made since the last boot.

The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load: Aavmker4

(A lengthy message from Dhcp saying it timed out trying to get an address)

(A bugcheck message saying a mini-dump was saved.)

The System Event Notification service depends on the COM+ Event System service which failed to start because of the following error: No attempts to start the service have been made since the last boot.

The avast! Antivirus service depends on the avast! Standard Shield Support service which failed to start because of the following error: No attempts to start the service have been made since the last boot.

Does anyone know why all of these services are failing after avast! is installed?

Thank you!

Jason

[DavidR]

It may be conflict with another AV.

Have (or did) you have another AV installed in this system, if so what was it and how did you get rid of it ?

[le_jawa]

I did.  I uninstalled AVG Free Edition 7.5 before installing avast.  I don't believe I rebooted after the uninstall, and I used the Windows Add/Remove programs.  I had it remove all settings, etc during the uninstall.  I presume that's what you're looking for with when you ask how I uninstalled.

So what's the recommendation?  Reinstall AVG and uninstall another way?

Thank you,

Jason

[DavidR]

Whilst I don't know for sure but it would have been best to reboot after the AVG uninstall before installing avast.

I would suggest you uninstall avast first in safe mode if that is your only way into the system and reboot. See if that lets you back in to normal windows running. If it does check that it has got rid of AVG as a boot should have completed the uninstall (see add remove for an AVG entry), so in theory you should be good to reinstall avast. However, it might be worth running a registry cleaner to clean any redundant entries.

I must say AVG and avast don't usually cause this kind of crash even when AVG is still installed, as avast usually detects it and disables elements to avoid a clash, certainly in XP, but I have no experience of win2k.

What other security based software do you have that might have an effect, e.g. SpySweeper, Spyware Doctor, PrevX, WinPatrol, ProcessGuard, etc. ?

[le_jawa]

I don't have any other real-time scanners installed, but I do have Spybot S&D and Adaware SE installed.  I don't know if those would conflict or not.

I did some more digging that may cover your other thougths, and some other stuff.  AVG was completely uninstalled, unless some little shred got left behind on the HDD somewhere.  I have uninstalled Avast and rebooted; the system ran fine after that.  I tried re-installing and ran into the same problem.

I also did some looking in the app event logs (the last ones listed were in the system logs), and found some more info.  I noticed a while back that it took FOREVER to log out of Windows.  During my check today, I found these in the app log:


The description for Even ID (2001) in Source (rasctrs) cannot be found.  The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer.  The following information is part of the event: The event log file is corrupt.

Windows cannot unload your registry file.  If you have a roaming profile, your settings are not replicated.  Contact your administator.  DETAIL - Access is denied.  ,Build number ((2195))


I checked MS's support site on the latter message and found a known issue regarding printer drivers, AV scanners, and other MS and 3rd party software: Windows has a hard time knowing what process has the registry locked and getting it to let go.  They offer a download to install a separate service (not a great solution, but maybe it will work) that monitors the registry and frees it up.  Since I have had this problem for a while (again, the main symptom is a long logoff time) this may be the whole problem.  I'm going to try it out and see.   Maybe there's some stuff in the registry causing problems if Windows can't proerly release it.   I'll post a note with the results.

The URL for the MSKB article is:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/837115/en-us

It applies to Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003.

Thank you so far, and let me know if you have any additional info.  I will try out your other suggestions here shortly.

Jason

[Vlk]

Please send me the minidump that got generated during the crash (via email - the address is in my profile).

It should be located in the folder \windows\minidump.


Thanks
Vlk

[le_jawa]

Ok, I finally got it.  It wasn't a registry problem at all (although UPHClean that I menitioned earlier did solve my logoff problems).

It turns out I had set some services to manual that should not have been.  They were fine before, but apparently avast needed them loaded automatically.  I just went down the list of all the services that were in my logs and set them to automatic startup and rebooted.  That took care of the problem.  Avast (and Windows) are much happier now.

Thanks DavidR and Vlk for the help.  Vlk, I sent that mini-dump to you anyway just in case it helps you identify similar problems in the future. 

Thanks again!

Jason

[DavidR]

No problem, glad you have it now resolved.

Welcome to the forums and Hapy New Year.

Stick around and browse the forums, especially the sticky topics at the top of each of the forums. They provide a wealth of information to help you get the best from avast.