usigetskin failed

[Swinny]

Hi;
I'm running P4 with Win 98SE - 192 mb Ram.

I know that this is discussed in other links and threads, but I'm getting a little frustrated, because after searching through them all, I haven't been able to find a solution or answer that works....and as a result may have to change AV software.....unless I can solve the problem.
I get the above message when I try start a scan with Avast. After searching this forum, I think I've exhausted all known solutions. The frustration is that although there seems to have been lots of folks with this problem, I don't think I've seen a reply that says that their problem was fixed.
I have been using Avast for about 3 months now, with no problems. This just occured a few days ago. I haven't recently deleted anything reported by Spybot, which appears to exacerbate the problem, so I don't think that's the cause.
After I received the above message, here is briefly what I have done:
1) Unistalled and reinstalled Avast (haven't tried the special uninstall program from the website....will try that next)
2) Done the "Run" suggestion from the support site, but entereing "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\REGSVR32.EXE ACTSKIN4.OCX" gets an error message.
3) Gone into the ini file and changed "ODBC" to "XML"....no luck.
I'm running out of things to do, so any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
After a reboot this morning, I thought I'd try once more to run Avast (kinda that generally useless hope that "if I just try it one more time...maybe it will work" thing), but now Avast simply freezes itself and my computer.Thanks in advance for your help!
Cheers!

[techie101]

Swinny,

Do you have your computer set to download Windows updates automatically?
Sometimes a patch or update from Windows can cause this to happen.

Make sure that Windows is updated with all the critical patches in place.

Run a repair of Avast by using Start/Control Panel/Add-Remove and clicking on Avast.
Look for the Option to repair.  Click on it and let Avast run a repair.  You must be connected to the net so Avast can look for and download any files that it sees it needs.

This is the only thing I see that you have not done.

Good luck.

[Swinny]

Hi Techie101;
And thanks for the advice. I forgot that I had done one other thing that was suggested in the forum and that is the repair one. I've done it, and that didn't seem to help either. As far as the critical updates, I seem to be up to date on all those related to Win 98. I'll try the uninstall again tonite, as well as the repair once more, and post back the results. Failing that, unless someone else has any ideas, I guess that's it.
One last question. I'm assuming that all this is affecting is the "on demand" scanning ability. The rest of Avast protection is still functioning I presume......right?
Cheers!

Swinny

[Lisandro]

Do you have any other antivirus installed in your computer?
Did you have in the past? Which one?
Do you use a firewall? Which one?

Can you try:
uninstall / boot / install / boot again?

[Swinny]

Hi;
Just posting back to let you know that it appears that I was successful in getting rid of the error message and having Avast on demand work again.
I did the uninstall, using the program from the website, a reboot, a clean reinstall, and then another reboot.
So far so good.....keep my fingers crossed.
Thanks for the help, and hope this will assist others with the same problem.
Cheers, Swinny!

[techie101]

Swinny,

Glad things worked out with Technical's advice.  Sometimes, files get left behind after an install that become corrupted and can't be removed normally.  The Avast Uninstall Utility gets ALL the pieces.
A "reboot" is essential when doing most uninstalls before trying a new install.  It insures that the system updates itself to the new configuration.

Sometimes, the simplest of methods works wonders. 

[Lisandro]

A "reboot" is essential when doing most uninstalls before trying a new install.  It insures that the system updates itself to the new configuration.

I'll say more than this...
Programs like TeaTimer, PrevX and other residents that monitors StartUp entries must be disabled while uninstalling or, at least, you must use an anti-shutdown application. Some programs can't be uninstalled correctly as they're blocked by TeaTimer (for instance).
Tons of problems could be avoided...