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Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: y2ken on January 16, 2011, 04:05:27 PM

Title: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: y2ken on January 16, 2011, 04:05:27 PM
Did anyone else experience a problem with the newest program update?
I'm using Avast! Free Edition w/ Windows7 Home Premium 64bit. I just installed the latest program update from my current version of 5.0.677 to the newest version and upon rebooting found that my PC was HOSED! None of my installed programs would work! I was getting a variety of different error messages.
Luckily I back my entire installation every day with "Acronis True Image Home 2011" but of even THAT wouldn't work from within Windows so I had to use the Acronis Boot/Rescue Disk in order to get my system back.
Love Acronis, but I'm feeling no love for Avast! right now.  >:(
 
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: schmidthouse on January 16, 2011, 05:04:41 PM
Did anyone else experience a problem with the newest program update?
I'm using Avast! Free Edition w/ Windows7 Home Premium 64bit. I just installed the latest program update from my current version of 5.0.677 to the newest version and upon rebooting found that my PC was HOSED! None of my installed programs would work! I was getting a variety of different error messages.
Luckily I back my entire installation every day with "Acronis True Image Home 2011" but of even THAT wouldn't work from within Windows so I had to use the Acronis Boot/Rescue Disk in order to get my system back.
Love Acronis, but I'm feeling no love for Avast! right now.  >:(
 

Hello y2ken and welcome: Sorry to hear you are having problems with Avast program upgrade.
Have you tried a 'Repair' of Avast. Go to Control Panel, Add and Remove Programs...choose Avast then 'Change/Remove and then scroll to 'Repair'. Often  times that's all it takes to resolve the issue.
If that doesn't work then you may have to do a 'Clean Install'.  :)
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: pdoreika on January 21, 2011, 04:10:18 AM
It happened to me too.  My wife's laptop ran Avast free on Windows 7 home premium 64bit, and a couple days ago EVERYTHING stopped working.  No programs would startup, and I am unable to uninstall anything.  Fortunately it's only a couple months old and I have the restore DVD's.  It's fixed now, but, without knowing it was AVAST that caused the problem, I started up my desktop computer this morning.  I was greeted with a promp to update the AVAST program and did so.  Now my desktop, that's run great for over a year is hosed.  The same problems with it as the laptop had.  Unfortunately, I have no backup, and am struggling to find a way to back out the update.  Since even AVAST won't start, and won't uninstall, I am in a quandry.

I had recommended AVAST to a lot of friends in the past year or two.  Now I am trying to track them all down to warn them NOT to update the program.  I hope AVAST has some kind of a fix for this as I can't stand to loose my desktop computer.
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: Nesivos on January 21, 2011, 05:25:30 AM
Did anyone else experience a problem with the newest program update?
I'm using Avast! Free Edition w/ Windows7 Home Premium 64bit. I just installed the latest program update from my current version of 5.0.677 to the newest version and upon rebooting found that my PC was HOSED! None of my installed programs would work! I was getting a variety of different error messages.
Luckily I back my entire installation every day with "Acronis True Image Home 2011" but of even THAT wouldn't work from within Windows so I had to use the Acronis Boot/Rescue Disk in order to get my system back.
Love Acronis, but I'm feeling no love for Avast! right now.  >:(
 

Sorry but this post reads like someone trolling for Acronis :)

JMHO ;)
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: brhokla on January 21, 2011, 06:00:21 AM
I don't think so.  I've been an Avast fan for some time now, you can see my posts and my ratings here and on C/net of the product.  I have had no problems until the new update.  It jacked my computer all up but i was able to fix it.  I think many of the problems people are having is due to the Firewall they are running.  That appears to be what my issues where combined with the program update from inside Avast GUI.  Do a complete uninstall and clean Avast with the cleaning tool Avast provides then turn completely OFF your Firewall for the Avast install.  Make sure you did a clean reboot before the install also.  This fixed my problems and now it again runs like a champ! 
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: Charyb-0 on January 21, 2011, 06:17:06 AM
y2ken, are you using Online Armor. If not, what firewall are you using? brokla's solution might be the answer.
See this post.
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=69336.0
and
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=69385.0

Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: Nesivos on January 21, 2011, 06:37:24 AM
I don't think so.  I've been an Avast fan for some time now, you can see my posts and my ratings here and on C/net of the product.  I have had no problems until the new update.  It jacked my computer all up but i was able to fix it.  I think many of the problems people are having is due to the Firewall they are running.  That appears to be what my issues where combined with the program update from inside Avast GUI.  Do a complete uninstall and clean Avast with the cleaning tool Avast provides then turn completely OFF your Firewall for the Avast install.  Make sure you did a clean reboot before the install also.  This fixed my problems and now it again runs like a champ!  

I wasn't referring to your post or denying that such a problem exists.

I was referring to the original post that started this thread which reads to me like spam because of the overemphasis on mentioning Acronis.  It reads like the poster is here just to hype Acronis.  Sorry that is my take on that post.  Not insisting that I am correct, just saying that is how it reads to me. :)
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: james11 on January 21, 2011, 08:18:45 PM
Yes, I can confirm that the update hosed my machine. I am running Win7 Pro 64.
If it makes a difference, I am runnning Online Armor. I could not access my browser.
I could not uninstall Avast. I could not run Malwarebytes Anti-malware.
I probably could not run anything and reboots were slow.
Things appear back to normal after using the Avast uninstall utility in safe mode.

Now that I have downloaded and re-installed Avast, things are going smooth so far.
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: pdoreika on January 21, 2011, 08:22:35 PM
Both my computers ran the 64 bit Comodo free firewall.  I had the Beta version of Internet Explorer 9 installed on both and all Microsoft updates were up to date.  I also had Spybot S&D with the tea-timer installed on both.  As I meantioned earlier the laptop was fixed with a re-install of the operating system.  I have NOT re-installed Windows on my desktop, but was going to do that tonight.  I might TRY saving it first however.  I am not looking forward to the possibility of reinstalling EVERYTHING I had on it again.  The biggest thing that worries me is that programs won't start, or uninstall.  I wonder if I will be able to disable the antivirus, and even if so if the computer will come back to life enough to uninstall AVAST.  So far it's been a very frustrating issue.
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: pdoreika on January 21, 2011, 08:25:28 PM
Can someone post a link to the "Avast uninstall utility".  I would like to try it tonight.
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: Charyb-0 on January 21, 2011, 08:27:09 PM
Can someone post a link to the "Avast uninstall utility".  I would like to try it tonight.


Link to Avast uninstall utility.
http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: AU4U on January 21, 2011, 08:46:28 PM
FLAT OUT BRICKED LAPTOP AS WELL!!!! >:( >:( >:( >:(
Tried to recover the OS from safe mode and it crippled my PC so bad I couldn't even role back to a recovery point!
Ended up having to reinstall the VISTA, then do the upgrade to WIN7 over the Vista factory OS, do a recovery from a mirror image that was 6 months old, THEN, do all the drivers for WIN7 again.

Me thinks that the Online Armor Firewall (free home edition) had something to do with this as well, It may have detected the change in avast!, and prevented the install to complete.
REGARDLESS of the firewall, THIS SHOULD NOT OF HAPPENED!!!



Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: cardocpdx on January 21, 2011, 09:38:12 PM
Avast's latest update also locked up my system.

3 week old install of Windows 7 Home Premium x64.  Fully patched.  Windows firewall, Windows defender and no other "security" software.

System will boot but at log on a "userinit.exe error occurs and freezes system.  ALT+CTL+DEL does bring up the screen to start task manager etc.

Since last night I have:
1) Restored from backup 2 days old
2) Installed avast update again
3) System broken - Can't log on.
4) F8 and system Restore (2 day old restore point). Could log on but most applications won't open.
4) Boot to safe mode and uninstall Avast
5) Able to log on, applications work.  Clean install of current download from avast
6) Boot time scan (1 suspicious file deleted from Chrome Cache)
7) System broken - Can't log on.

I'm at work now, when I get home I guess I'll remove avast again and then, if there is no solution on here have to try another AV program.  I've had a long good run with Avast, and I'm sure they will fix whatever is causing this soon. 
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: MartinJaeger on January 21, 2011, 11:40:24 PM
Same to me.
I have a Lenovo Laptop with Windows 7 64bit professional installed.
As Security Software I installed Avast Free Antivirus and Threatfire, using standard Windows “Defener”-Firewall.
It’s a new Installation from about a Month ago, The System is up to Date with all patches.

Avast requested a program update to days ago.
After rebooting nothing works. All Lenovo System Tools, even Window System programs "COM Surrogate" does not work (e.g. can’t open System properties). I can't run Firefox. Luckily Opera did well and I was able to download some deinstaller.

Deinstalling Avast in protected Mode (hitting F8 Key before Windows Logo comes up), was the only solution to get the System back to work.
I also tried to reinstall it, with brought the same problems back. After that I tried to install in protected mode, but even this won’t do.

Another important issue: The deinstaller seems not to delete everything. After reinstalling, all my old program properties, like excluded Folders, are still there.
I first need a full deinstaller that deletes all avast-System registry entries and all definition and other created files and databases of that program. May be that will help, otherwise a clean new install of Avast is not possible.

I would like to hear if someone had a solution for that troublesome update error.
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: Charyb-0 on January 21, 2011, 11:44:19 PM
Same to me.
I have a Lenovo Laptop with Windows 7 64bit professional installed.
As Security Software I installed Avast Free Antivirus and Threatfire, using standard Windows “Defener”-Firewall.
It’s a new Installation from about a Month ago, The System is up to Date with all patches.

Avast requested a program update to days ago.
After rebooting nothing works. All Lenovo System Tools, even Window System programs "COM Surrogate" does not work (e.g. can’t open System properties). I can't run Firefox. Luckily Opera did well and I was able to download some deinstaller.

Deinstalling Avast in protected Mode (hitting F8 Key before Windows Logo comes up), was the only solution to get the System back to work.
I also tried to reinstall it, with brought the same problems back. After that I tried to install in protected mode, but even this won’t do.

Another important issue: The deinstaller seems not to delete everything. After reinstalling, all my old program properties, like excluded Folders, are still there.
I first need a full deinstaller that deletes all avast-System registry entries and all definition and other created files and databases of that program. May be that will help, otherwise a clean new install of Avast is not possible.

I would like to hear if someone had a solution for that troublesome update error.


Removing Threatfire has helped. http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=69336.0

Also, if you are using Online Armor allow Avast full incoming and outgoing access. Please try brhokla's suggestion below.

I had the exact problem and Online Armor/Avast new update had several issues.  Do what I did....  Turn online armor completely off. Uninstall Avast then use the Avast removal tool..  Now install the new Avast after a reboot while making sure your Online Armor is OFF!!!!!!  Once installed do a reboot and you will have to tell Online Armor that the Avast stuff is OK.  Should run fine now.  My system wouldn't do anything, was crawling but once I did these steps it now runs fine.

Important: Read this carefully
http://support.emsisoft.com/topic/3305-oa-and-avast-again/
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: AU4U on January 22, 2011, 03:02:42 AM
FLAT OUT BRICKED LAPTOP AS WELL!!!! >:( >:( >:( >:(
Tried to recover the OS from safe mode and it crippled my PC so bad I couldn't even role back to a recovery point!
Ended up having to reinstall the VISTA, then do the upgrade to WIN7 over the Vista factory OS, do a recovery from a mirror image that was 6 months old, THEN, do all the drivers for WIN7 again.

Me thinks that the Online Armor Firewall (free home edition) had something to do with this as well, It may have detected the change in avast!, and prevented the install to complete.
REGARDLESS of the firewall, THIS SHOULD NOT OF HAPPENED!!!





ATTENTION ONLINE ARMOR SUBSCRIBERS:
READ THIS THREAD THOROUGHLY, OR, JUST EXCLUDE YOUR SECURITY PROGRAMS FROM EACH OTHER!!
LINK:http://support.emsisoft.com/topic/3305-oa-and-avast-again/ (http://support.emsisoft.com/topic/3305-oa-and-avast-again/)

(http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff465/AU4U/OAForum.jpg)
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: dinag on January 22, 2011, 11:44:25 AM
Same problem in Belgium with windows 7 64 ultimate.
I had to reinstall a backup with acronis.
When will avast give an working update 5.1.889 is causing to much problems.
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: zbluebirdz on January 23, 2011, 03:26:18 PM
Just upgraded to v5.1889 and it broke the Intel graphic drivers for my notebook plus some Windows and Acer components.
Had to use Windows System Restore a few times in order to get the notebook working again. Will not be upgrading to v5.1889 - already tried it 2 times - both caused same/similar errors with notebook.

System details:
Acer Aspire 1810TZ,
Windows 7 Premium 64bit,
Comodo Firewall (firewall only),
Avast Antivirus (realtime + mail scaning only),
No other real-time defensive software running.

==================================================
Edit:
-Downloaded Avast Antivirus (free-version)
-Removed existing Avast from notebook
-Rebooted notebook
-Installed Avast Antivirus v5.1889
-Rebooted notebook
Notebook appears to be working with no faults reported by system.
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: Lisandro on January 23, 2011, 06:37:34 PM
zbluebirdz, is Defense+ from Comodo installed?
Did you try an avast installation from scratch?


1. Download the latest version of avast! Uninstall Utility (http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-uninstall-utility.html) and save it.
2. Download the latest avast! (http://www.avast.com/eng/programs.html) version and save it.
3. Uninstall avast from Control Panel (if possible). If, for any reason, you can't run it, try booting in Safe Mode (http://www.pchell.com/support/safemode.shtml) and doing it from there. Anyway, boot after that.
4. Run the avast! Uninstall Utility saved on 1. If, for any reason, you can't run it, try booting in Safe Mode (http://www.pchell.com/support/safemode.shtml) and doing it from there. Anyway, boot after you've run it.
5. Install avast! using the setup saved on 2. Boot.
6. Register your free copy or add the license key for Pro.
7. Check and post the results. If, for any reason, you did not solve, try doing the step 3 in Safe Mode anyway.
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: pcpoorly on January 23, 2011, 11:41:42 PM
Its Threatfire that does this.

We've had 10's of phone calls over the last 2 days - only affecting Windows 7 x64 as yet.

Boot in safe mode, go into admin account and uninstall Threatfire the usual way - problem resolved.

Threatfire are losing is recently, this after their big mess up with Skype - Im quickly losing confidence in them

Chris
www.pcpoorly.com
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: Lisandro on January 24, 2011, 12:47:05 AM
Threatfire gave me a lot of problems with Firefox in the past...
Seems to be the destiny for the Behavior Shields...
They all need fine tunning and very good programming.
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: niteowlgary on January 26, 2011, 10:49:16 PM
I had same issue with breaking my desktop after installing lastest update.

the system booted up, but my desktop was all messed up, no system tray, though I was finally able to pull it up from it's hiding place, but all my networking stuff had gone missing.

I am running XP Pro SP2, Avast is only AV, also run Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware, and Spybot Search & Destroy, and that's it, never heard of Threatfire, and have no other firewalls than that from MS.

I was able to restore to previous date from Safe Mode, when it rebooted I tried to FIX Avast from the Interface screen, but had the same issue on reboot.

I then went into Safe Mode and uninstalled Avast, and manually removed all references to "Avast" in the registry, removed the left over folders in all profiles and from the Program Files, and am defragging as I write this.

I was going to download the program and do a clean install, but think I will read here for a while to see if Avast has put out any fixes for this issue, or if anyone has come up with a solid solution.

thanks,
niteowlgary
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: Lisandro on January 26, 2011, 10:53:32 PM
niteowlgary, why didn't you install Windows XP SP3?
Which was your old antivirus before avast 5.1.889?

I suggest an avast installation from scratch:

1. Download the latest version of avast! Uninstall Utility (http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-uninstall-utility.html) and save it.
2. Download the latest avast! (http://www.avast.com/eng/programs.html) version and save it.
3. Uninstall avast from Control Panel (if possible). If, for any reason, you can't run it, try booting in Safe Mode (http://www.pchell.com/support/safemode.shtml) and doing it from there. Anyway, boot after that.
4. Run the avast! Uninstall Utility saved on 1. If, for any reason, you can't run it, try booting in Safe Mode (http://www.pchell.com/support/safemode.shtml) and doing it from there. Anyway, boot after you've run it.
5. Install avast! using the setup saved on 2. Boot.
6. Register your free copy or add the license key for Pro.
7. Check and post the results. If, for any reason, you did not solve, try doing the step 3 in Safe Mode anyway.
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: niteowlgary on January 27, 2011, 02:23:13 AM
niteowlgary, why didn't you install Windows XP SP3?
Which was your old antivirus before avast 5.1.889?

I suggest an avast installation from scratch:


I didn't install SP3 cause SP2 is working just fine.  Does Avast REQUIRE SP3 now??  I know some programs do and for those I did install it on the other machines.

I don't know what version of Avast was on previous, it was 5.x though,

I just went through the clean install process, all went well, until reboot, same thing, lost all networking, can't access it remotely (which is how I use this machine), so it's gonna sit for a while now.

If I absolutely HAVE to install SP3, then I will eventually, in the meantime I'll just remove Avast.

niteowlgary

Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: niteowlgary on January 27, 2011, 03:43:29 AM
FYI,  v5.1.889 is installed and operating quite nicely on another SP2 machine here, so it must be something with this particular unit.  It's a Dell GX240 Optiplex, 1.7Ghz cpu, 512 Megs RAM

I'm thinking a clean install of Windows XP might be in order.. it's been a couple of years.

We'll see if that fixes things.

thanks,
niteowlgary
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: zbluebirdz on January 27, 2011, 11:51:13 PM
zbluebirdz, is Defense+ from Comodo installed?
Did you try an avast installation from scratch?


I only have the Firewall component enabled - Defense+ & Sandbox are disabled due to their restrictive behaviour with other applications.

As mentioned in the 2nd half of my post, I had to roll back to a good Restore Point, remove Avast, then install a fresh copy of Avast. Only minor issue is that during start-up, one of Avast's real-time scanner is a bit slow being enabled. Not going to touch anything - it ain't broken, so why break it?  ;D
Title: Re: Program Update hosed my PC !@!#!
Post by: Lisandro on January 28, 2011, 12:51:41 AM
Only minor issue is that during start-up, one of Avast's real-time scanner is a bit slow being enabled.
Some seconds are normal... You're being protected by the drive/service already loaded.