Win XP fails to boot after Avast! update.

[aistomin]

  :'(
Hi all,

I actually don't even remember which version I used (for sure it was some recent version of free edition), what happened was as following:
I noticed a green message telling me that there is more recent Avast! version available. So I clicked to update. The update and installation went well (no errors or warnings) and at the end I got the usual message: do you want to reboot now ? So I clicked yes.... Since then WinXP is not booting. I have a black screen saying "Missing operating system". The hard disk is correctly recognized in the BIOS setup, so on the hardware side everything seems ok.
I tried to boot from Win XP CD, but it failed also with BSOD.

Thanks anyone....

Here is the technical info.

OS: WinXP Pro
Avast! version: Recent free edition version.
VPS version: One the recent
Basic hardware: Intel Pentium D820, 1Gb RAM, MSI mboard
Internet connection: ADSL
e-mail client: none
other security software: none
steps to reproduce the bug again: update latest version with nothing runing in background
Do any error messages appear? : no, update went in a completely regular way.

Thanks again,
Anatoly.

[rassel]

Try to download the latest avast from here http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html and than  uninstall Avast, reboot , reinstall , reboot and after that the security center might says that avast is out-of-date than the thing you need to do is wait for the avast to update.(While waiting for avast to update enjoy your other games he he he) If this cant help you than dont ask me.

[aistomin]

Yep, that sounds very good idea, if.... I could boot my PC....
Thanks anyway.

[Tarq57]

Try hitting f8 during initial load, to get to the boot options, and see if "last known good" works for you.

[aistomin]

ok this is mostly strange....

The following happened:
1. box was turned off for 2 days.
2. Today I managed to boot with Knoppix CD. I was able to access the hard disk, so I was calm - the data is safe.
3. I turned the box off (including the switch on PS) in order to add another CD drive so I can burn data using Knoppix.
4. Windows booted like nothing happened....

Summary:
1. Windows ? stable ? yea....
2. Knoppix - the coolest thing - in 2 min you have Linux up and running
3. I don't know what the hell happened here...

Thanks all,
Anatoly.

[DavidR]

A mystery for sure, don't you just love computers

Thanks for the feedback, welcome to the forums.

[Darth AkSarBen]

It could be signs that your Hard Drive is ailing or ageing.  I'd sure do some more HD checking to see what the status is.  Aida32 is a good program that tells something about everything, including the hard drives.

[Negeltu]

On one of my systems if there is a power spike in the house electricity that particular system will not boot again unless I pull all power from it.  That means I either switch off the actual switch on the psu or unplug it from the wall.  Otherwise it won't matter how many times I try to boot that machine.  I believe totally switching off the psu by unplugging it or using it's main switch shuts off ALL current to the board and reinitializes something.  That's my only explanation for what has happened to you.  Glad you're back up though

[aistomin]

Well - this is a follow up. I'll post a separate topic also.

The same thing happened again:
Avast update -> reboot -> Black screen says "Operating system not found".

Well, this time I didn't panic. 
I booted with Knoppix, verified disks are good, switched PC off and went to sleep.
Tomorrow morning I came up with though that this looks like BIOS is looking for OS in wrong place... I checked BIOS definitions and was amazed to discover that boot sequence was set to:
1.CD
2.USB
3.USB
Hard disk was just not there ! Once changed the definition, Windows booted smoothly.

Is there any chance Avast update can alter BIOS ??!

Thanks for all responses !
Anatoly.

[aistomin]

Well - topic popped up to the top of the list - I won't post separate thread.

[igor]

Is there any chance Avast update can alter BIOS ??!

No, certainly not.
Maybe your BIOS battery needs to be replaced?

[aistomin]

SpeedFan 4.33 shows 3.30V
And still, it happened twice at the same circumstances ...