Avastui.exe application failure

[stumppen]

Hello.

My Avast Free Antivirus 7 won't start anymore. It is in the system processes but I can't access the UI. When I try to open it, it says the application failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect.

I've uninstalled Avast via the tool, then reinstalled. No avail.

I'm using Windows XP Home SP3.

[jefferson sant]

1 Enter the Start Menu, type "msconfig" in the search field and press Enter.



2 Upon entering msconfig, check the tab "Startup Programs". Now you can see all the programs that start up along the windows. In XP some programs are under the name of its executable, check the avast antivirus service if this option is checked

[DavidR]

Try a repair of avast:
XP - Add Remove programs, select 'avast! Anti-Virus,' click the Change/Remove button and select Repair, click next and follow.

You may need to reboot after the repair.

[stumppen]

snip

It is ticked.

repair and reboot

Didn't work.

[DavidR]

Why didn't it work, what errors were displayed ?

You could try a clean reinstall of avast:
- Download the latest version of avast, 7.0.1474 http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/avast_free_antivirus_setup.exe 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 both 5.x and 6.0.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 5.x if previously installed and then for 6.0, once complete reboot into normal mode.
• 3. install the latest version, reboot.

[stumppen]

I have done that already, exactly how you described. It went smoothly, but it didn't fix my problem.

No error messages are displayed when the repair is done. Same behavior after reboot.

[DavidR]

Have (or did) you another Anti-Virus installed in this system, if so what was it and how did you get rid of it ?

What has changed recently on your system about the time this failure to start happened ?

[stumppen]

Avast had been working till this started happening 1-2 days ago. I have not had other anti-virus programs in my computer.

My 3d-card's fan recently went haywire and I've been experiencing alot of blackouts on my monitor. I'm guessing Avast might have somehow gotten screwed up during one of the boots, when I resetted the computer during a monitor's blackout which happened when Windows was booting. That's the only thing I can think of.

I installed Microsoft Visual C++ Express 2010 when I read from another same type of thread that it could solve the problem. It didn't.

[DavidR]

Normally if this is a side-by-side error that indicates a C++ installation issue and normally we just have the user install the 2008 redistribution version.

Side-By-Side Configuration is Incorrect Error - You need to install MS Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable.

You need 2008 SP1 - this is the one:
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package ATL Security Update

But with the 2010 version I would have thought it would be work with that - plus as I mentioned these are normally accompanied by side-by-side error.

[stumppen]

Attempted repair.

"Error 1310. Error writing to file C:\WINDOWS\winsxs\Manifests\x86_Microsoft.VC90.ATL_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_9.0.30729.4148_x-ww_353599cs2.cat. Verify that you have access to that directory. "

Retrying and skipping don't work.

EDIT : No, the file is there but it can't do anything to it.

[DavidR]

Sorry this will probably need some qualified help as it is outside of my knowledge as an avast user, seems like it is something over and above the avast issues.

[stumppen]

Damnit.

Thanks for trying.

[DavidR]

You're welcome.

I just wonder if there might be some hard disk corruption, the chkdsk function might help, it would certainly check for disk problems, info http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265. Run the command chkdsk /f (from a dos command window) to run a check and fix any bad sectors.

Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHKDSK.

[mchain]

hi stumppen,

Use of System Restore without first disabling the self-protection module within avast! can cause a similar issue.  Reason is, avast! wakes up and finds itself in a different and new environment after restore is successful and complete and will not start because of that.

Did you use System Restore without disabling the self-protection module first?

In addition to running chkdsk (drive letter): /f/v using cmd within the Run box, run sfc /scannow from the Run box as well.  You must allow sfc to complete the scan to repair broken system files or risk further corruption of the operating system.  Do not cancel this scan once it begins.  This sfc process will take a bit of time to finish; in XP you will need your installation cd disk for your cd drive when prompted to do so.  EDIT:  Please  reboot your system after running sfc /scannow to activate and register repaired system files.

Running sfc /scannow will also repair any other corruption issues in operating system files caused by force-shutting (quit) your system down as you described you did due to the black monitor issues.

Avast had been working till this started happening 1-2 days ago. I have not had other anti-virus programs in my computer.

My 3d-card's fan recently went haywire and I've been experiencing alot of blackouts on my monitor. I'm guessing Avast might have somehow gotten screwed up during one of the boots, when I resetted the computer during a monitor's blackout which happened when Windows was booting. That's the only thing I can think of.

I installed Microsoft Visual C++ Express 2010 when I read from another same type of thread that it could solve the problem. It didn't.

Issue with your video card hardware may also be relevant to this, as in overheating issues.