Win XP SP3 install fails, too soon to generate log file

[sparge]

Hi folks, Had a search of the forum, can't find my problem described, so here goes.

Just got a new 2nd hand PC yesterday, after my old PC (with a paid subscription to Internet Security) steadfastly refused to boot, and I am installing my stuff onto it from the external HDD where I keep all my data. Most stuff is installing and working OK, but I cannot get Avast Internet Security to install. I had a lot of trouble downloading it at first ("unknown network error"s) but now I can download it no problem, and have done several times. Trouble is, as soon as it loads and displays the initial "Install now" screen, I get an "Avast Internet Security has encountered a problem and needs to close" error.

I saw that MS VC++ 2008 Redistributable was needed for Avast to work, so I made sure I had that installed properly (I uninstalled three versions, and re-installed it and then its SP1, and then five .NET framework 4 security updates). That didn't help.

I also downloaded the MD5 check utility and checked the hash checksum of the downloaded file, and it doesn't match. So that seems to be the fundamental problem. The MD5 checksum I get is always the same, just not the same as it is supposed to be - so I don't think the problem is that I am only getting part of a file, or a corrupted fie.

Does anyone have any advice on how to get Avast IS to install please? I am feeling naked without it.

Andy

[Pondus]

any other security programs installed?

[sparge]

Hi Pondus, Not that I can see. I suppose there might be fragments of previous installs left over but there's nothing evident in the Start Menu.

[DavidR]

I'm not sure how you are going about it this way:

I am installing my stuff onto it from the external HDD where I keep all my data. Most stuff is installing and working OK, but I cannot get Avast Internet Security to install.

If you mean that you are trying to run the avast installation file from the external drive, then that might be the problem. Try copying the AIS installation file to the C: drive of your internal hard drive. Whilst the program doesn't have to be installed on the C: drive, I don't believe it can be installed on an external drive.

You could also try downloading AIS directly from avast.com and transfer that to your c: drive before installing it.
AIS:     - http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/avast_internet_security_setup.exe

.NET Framework isn't a requirement for avast.

[sparge]

Hi David, Well spotted!

• I always set My Documents to a folder on my external drive so anything that gets downloaded goes there.
• I don't have an archived version of the Avast 7 setup file on my external drive. On my old machine, I had started with Avast 5 and updated directly several times, so I only had the Avast 5 setup exe - when I tried to use that, it informed me that it was not the latest version and it would download the latest version for me before installing it.

I'm not trying to install Avast to the external drive, just to install it from there. But I just tried copying the setup file to C and I still get the same problem. I will try downloading directly to the C drive and see if that helps.

Andy

<edit after trying download to C drive>
It didn't help. And I checked the Md5 checksum again and it was the same value I was getting before, but not the same one as the Avast website tells me it is supposed to be (I can't find the page now, I found it before by searching the forum for "install fail").

[DavidR]

Did you download the file from the link that I gave ?
Where did you get the installation file before (as this one should be for version 7.0.1474 ?

With all the faffing about with possibly different versions of avast it is probably best to start from a clean slate:
- Download the latest version of avast! Internet Security, 7.0.1474 from the location I gave before and save it to your HDD, somewhere you can find it again (if you didn't save your last download). Use that when you reinstall.

- Download the avast! Uninstall Utility, aswClear.exe find it here and save it to your HDD (it has uninstall tools for 5.x, 6.0.x and 7.0.x).

• 1. Now uninstall avast! (using add remove programs, if you can't do that start from the next step), reboot.
• 2. run the avast! Uninstall Utility from safe mode, first for 6.x if previously installed and then for 7.0, once complete reboot into normal mode.
• 3. install the latest version, reboot.

Note: The default install location for avast7 if doing a clean install is C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast, for avast5 (or if having updated from avast5 previously) it would be C:\Program Files\ALWIL Software\Avast.

[sparge]

Hi David,

I got it sorted! Everything discussed so far was a red herring. The problem was a NVIDIA firewall that I did not know was on the PC (I had disabled the Windows firewall but the NVIDIA one seems to be built into the network adapter somehow). Once I discovered and disabled it - happy days, Avast installed just fine. Thanks for your efforts to assist.

Andy

[DavidR]

You're welcome, thanks for the clarification of the real cause.