I have no idea if this is the right place to post this. I have had to actually uninstall Avast to get my computer back working. When I turned the computer on this morning I had a notification of an Avast Emergency Update v 7.0.1456.418 so I clicked the button. I use Avast Free. It began installing and I got no options from that point. It installed a bunch of google stuff [never did get any screen asking if I wanted it.] Once installed it said it needed to restart my computer, I clicked yes and the problems began. The system restarted put the logon screen up and I clicked OK but then it gave me a black screen, nothing loading. I waited but nothing happened after 5 minutes, I had to power down with the power button. Suffice it to say, that the update was 5:30a.m. my time [California] and I have just now finally got to the forum.
After multiple restarts, all of which would finally load Windows and the avast icon in the tray, it would not load my sound icon in the tray, nor my ZoneAlarm, nor would it let me do anything once I finally got to that point. If I clicked on IE to go to the web [trying to get here and find out if there were issues] all I got was the hourglass and had to go to task manager to restart. If I opened and then closed Task Manager my Start bar would disappear, which of course meant I couldn't get anywhere. Finally, after multiple tries, and getting the same problems - I could get to nothing on my computer after I did get it started, no matter what I clicked, if it wasn't on the desktop, all I would get was the hourglass. Ultimately, I finally remembered something about safe mode and finally hit the right key F8 and got to it. At that point I removed Avast and now everything works fine. Of course, I have no protection.
I'm sorry if this is long, and if I haven't given you the information you need. I'm not a computer beginner, but I'm not real knowledgeable either. Is it absolutely necessary to have that beta thing that this update is because if it won't let me use the computer, I'll sure never get a virus, but that would only be because I'm not on the web anymore
I have WinXP Pro SP3. My only antivirus is [was] avast. I also have zonealarm free 10.1.101.000
I appreciate any help.
Ruth