Author Topic: Avast Will Not Load at Startup After Update (Windows XP)  (Read 13041 times)

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Offline YrbkMgr

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Avast Will Not Load at Startup After Update (Windows XP)
« on: March 18, 2013, 12:22:54 AM »
I'm a long time Avast free user and have recommended it to everyone who asks me what antivirus program to use. Point is, I may not be an expert with Avast, but we've been friends a long time. and I update the program regularly.

I received a notification about four days ago that there was a program update available. I clicked "more info" and it said that it was a 7.x release and fixed problems with CPU usage and Zone Alarm, among other things. Right about the same time, I ran my DVD program to look at something, and the current version of Avast was reporting CyberLink PowerDVD.exe as malicious, and moved it to the chest when I tried to launch it. I took it out of the chest, disabled Avast, and shot the file to Jotti, who reported the file as clean with 21 different antivirus engines, including Avast. So, I figured now was as good as time as any to update and updated Avast via the button that comes up in the notification area.

The program seemed to update successfully, asked for a reboot, which I allowed. Upon rebooting however, windows xp would not load completely. I got my wallpaper, and that's it. No taskbar, no icons, nothing. I decided to wait and see if it was, for some reason, just taking its sweet time. I waited an hour. So finally, I had to cycle the power. In short, I cycled the power 7 times, and Windows XP still would not boot.

So, I ran in safe mode, and did a system restore. The system restored, but now told me that I was using Avast PRO, and I was running a trial version. I did some research here, and found someone from the forum (an Uber poster) had said that Avast didn't play well with system restore. So, after trying to repair the installation and rebooting, no change. It said I was using Avast PRO (even though Add/Remove Programs showed Avast for Free in the list).

I run Norton's GoBack on this machine. I tried to restore my drive to an earlier time, but to no avail. For some reason, all of GoBacks restore points were corrupted and I could not restore my drive to any earlier point. So, okay...

I uninstalled Avast and used aswclear.exe to completely remove Avast from the system. I then reinstalled the program that I had downloaded earlier (avast_free_antivirus_setup.exe).

After installation, I registered the program, re-imported all of my previous config files, and rebooted.

Avast loaded with windows, and I scanned my system thoroughly using high heuristics and scanning for root kits, and the whole lot. Avast reported a clean bill of health. Oddly enough, my account at my.avast.com still shows I'm using the PRO version.

I rebooted. Avast will not load at startup. I have rebooted about 50 times total, and for some reason, quite a few of my startup programs will not start up. My Nvidia control panel won't start, no GoBack icon in the system tray, NO AVAST.

As a test, I downloaded the eicar test file and was able to download it without incident. I right clicked on it and tried to scan it from the context menu and it told me that AvastSvc.exe was not running, and (basically) please start the program.

Regardless, no matter what I do, I cannot get Avast to start with Windows, even though it is clearly in the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" section of the registry. That said, the entry is ""C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\avastUI.exe" /nogui". I'm not sure what the nogui switch is, but I don't want to screw around anymore experimenting.

Can you offer any guidance whatsoever?

Marzbar

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Re: Avast Will Not Load at Startup After Update (Windows XP)
« Reply #1 on: March 18, 2013, 01:22:53 AM »
I suspect the key to your corrupt installation is due to the fact you mention seeing an update to version 7. 0. 1483 on your system and not V8 before you updated the program. Several people are reporting this anomoly which has been happening for over a week at least. ie. See my recent post below on the subject. Also I believe its probably related to the disappearence of definition verification green popups for some time, also noted by other posters. 

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=118073.0
 
No response from Avast team at all yet. Until it gets addessed I for one will stay on v 7.0.1474 which is working ok at the moment. We should be able to have confidence in the GUI updater working correctly.

Offline YrbkMgr

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Re: Avast Will Not Load at Startup After Update (Windows XP)
« Reply #2 on: March 18, 2013, 02:06:25 AM »
thank you for the reply. I'm going to try and reinstall 7.x.1474. Unbelievable....

Offline YrbkMgr

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Re: Avast Will Not Load at Startup After Update (Windows XP)
« Reply #3 on: March 18, 2013, 03:49:25 PM »
Well, this isn't working out at all. I removed version 8, ran aswclear.exe from safe mode, reinstalled 7.0.1474. The same thing is happening. This didn't happen before the upgrade, so I'm not sure if the version of aswclear.exe that I'm using (7.0.4123.445) is completely removing version 8. I even tried an earlier version that was running successfully (7.0.1466.549), and the same symptoms appear.

Something got broken with the version 8 install, and regardless of restore points or removal and re-installation, the following occurs.

1. When I shut down, the system hangs at Closing Network Connections. It takes approximate 4 minutes from the time I click "restart" until the computer moves from "closing network connections" to "saving your settings", and ultimately restarting.

2. Upon bootup, none of the AutoRun entries, including AVAST will load.

I currently have version 7.0.1466.549 installed. If I disable all shields except File System and P2P, the system will boot and all AutoRun entries load properly. With only those two shields loaded however, I cannot perform basic maintenance tasks like Disk Cleanup - the system hangs. Additionally, I cannot run Yahoo Instant Messanger - the system locks up.

Functionally, the system operates fine without Avast protection, and will not load AutoRuns, including AVAST if Avast is in "full protection" mode.

So right now, the only way I can operate this PC is to turn off all shields. Not good. If I can't find a solution, I will have to move to another product.

I'm not sure what happened, or if aswclear is the proper version to remove whatever version 8 installed, but I have feeling that remnants are still on the system preventing the older versions of Avast that used to work, from working as they should.

(hand up in the air) I dunno...


garz

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Re: Avast Will Not Load at Startup After Update (Windows XP)
« Reply #4 on: April 10, 2013, 05:18:52 PM »
I am having the exact same problem with Avast using xp.
is there any solutions  ?
please help

Offline YrbkMgr

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Re: Avast Will Not Load at Startup After Update (Windows XP)
« Reply #5 on: April 10, 2013, 06:16:06 PM »
The solution was to downgrade the version back to version 7.0.1474 that can be found at oldapps.com. Follow the removal procedures given in this forum, basically, removing Avast using Control Panel, then run the Avast Removal Tool (aswclear) - Run it from safe mode to be sure. Then, reinstall version 7.x.

Once I did this, everything went back to normal.

moon-river

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Re: Avast Will Not Load at Startup After Update (Windows XP)
« Reply #6 on: April 11, 2013, 12:00:30 AM »
I was having this problem too with XP - Avast intermittently wouldn't load at start-up and when that happened I couldn't do a proper shutdown either - had to manually turn off. Just uninstalled it.
« Last Edit: April 11, 2013, 01:21:58 PM by moon-river »

Dustbunnie

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Re: Avast Will Not Load at Startup After Update (Windows XP)
« Reply #7 on: April 14, 2013, 02:48:55 PM »
I hope this will be fixed. I don't need to use a lot of energy and time running around uninstalling and finding something and then reinstalling. I paied for Avast and I want a virus protection that just WORKS without bothering me.  >:(

For now I have removed Avast from my computer and downloaded a 30 day free trial of Norton. I hope Avast will be fixed before the 30 days or I might just pay for Norton and loose the subscribtion I have left on Avast.  :(

Dustbunnie

Marzbar

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Re: Avast Will Not Load at Startup After Update (Windows XP)
« Reply #8 on: April 15, 2013, 02:37:07 AM »
 YrbkMgr

Hi, can you tell me, now you are back on version 7.0.1474 and all is running well, if  you are still getting the blue pop up notifier when the VPS come in? If so what version is it telling you to update to? Is it still pointing to an update to the wrong 7.0. 1483 or V8?  And what does it say in the GUI Maintenance page? Just curious. I'm still seeing the spurious version pop up. One thing is for sure, it was Avast that screwed this up at some stage, not us. But still not a peep out of them.  If the internal UI program updater or the notifier pop up is not to be  trusted for XP machines still showing this anomaly, and causing corrupted installs if used, then why the heck haven't they done something about it after all these weeks.

Offline mchain

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Re: Avast Will Not Load at Startup After Update (Windows XP)
« Reply #9 on: April 15, 2013, 04:10:06 AM »
Hi all,

Desktop showing in XP (does not matter what version) without taskbar and desktop icons is a symptom of an explorer.exe hang.

One way to get explorer.exe to run is to depress CTRL+ALT+DEL together, one click only, and Task Manager will open.

Two clicks or depressions of this combination should result in a system logoff and restart.

File>New Task (Run)>click>Create New Task>enter explorer.exe>click OK.  Your desktop will then open completely.  No need to force-shutdown if this is successful.

After that, then enter Safe Mode to uninstall the avast! version causing the hanging issue.  Reboot after uninstalling.
Windows 10 Home 64-bit 22H2 Avast Premier Security version 24.1.6099 (build 24.1.88821.762)  UI version 1.0.797
 UI version 1.0.788.  Windows 11 Home 23H2 - Windows 11 Pro 23H2 Avast Premier Security version 24.2.6105 (build 24.1.8918.827) UI version 1.0.801