New update crashes PC on start-up

[CavesOfTQLT]

Hi

Everything's been going brilliantly with Avast AV for the past year or so updating automatically with no problems.

Until yesterday when the pop-up window said a new version of Avast was available.

Now the PC crashes just after the log-in screen, requiring the use of system restore to get things working again. This causes the pop-up window to come back saying an update is available and saying yes causes the whole error business to re-occur.

I've had a quick look on this forum, and I've tried the 'remove reboot.txt' file from the Avast Setup subdirectory, and the Add/Remove Avast in the Control Panel, but things are still the same.

Any help on what the problem could be would be greatly appreciated as at the moment I've got Zone Alarm blocking Avast Update to stop the problem happening again.

Cheers.

Edit: Forgot to mention XP SP2

[igor]

Crashes = blue screen?
If yes, do you have any (recent) files in WinNT\Minidump folder?

[CavesOfTQLT]

Crashes = blue screen?
If yes, do you have any (recent) files in WinNT\Minidump folder?

No blue screen ...

Normal events:
a) Turn PC on & BIOS completes.
b) Everything okay to the log in screen.
c) Select user account, enter password & click enter.
d) The screen goes black for a few seconds (as is usual during start-up) until it comes back on with the desktop.

However in this last case (d) something must happen during the screen being off because the next thing you see is the BIOS starting back up, i.e. the PC has decided to reboot.

The only way I can get it to work again is to go into safe mode, and use system restore. After that the PC works okay, but Avast Update kicks in, and Zone Alarm asks me to accept or deny it. If I accept then when the PC is next turned on I'm back at the above scenario.

I even thought of reinstalling Windows just in case but that feaks out with the 'this version of Windows is more up to date than the one on the CD' so it won't allow this.

This problem has only happened since I accepted that latest program (not virus) update, everything before then was working brilliantly.

[Vlk]

Please look in the \windows\minidump folder anyway. Are there any files in there? There should be exactly 1 file per each such sudden reboot.

If there are any, pick a few (preferably the most recent ones), ZIP'em up and send'em to my email address.

Thanks
Vlk

[FML]

Same problem here, after update last night won't go past the loading personal settings page. Only way i was able to boot up was do go safe mode & disable Avast from starting up at bootup. Now boots up just fine, just no Avast protection running.
XP Home Edition

[Vlk]

What if you do Repair of the avast installation from Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> avast antivirus -> Change/Remove?

Also, the contents of the minidump folder would be helpful, as described above.

[CavesOfTQLT]

Sorry for the delay in getting back here.

vlk, I've e-mailed the minidump folder contents to you.

With regard to using the control panel - I've already tried this. An update occurs and then a pop-up window comes up saying avast needs to restart the PC. Say yes to this and the PC shuts down okay, restarts but then just after the log-in screen the crash occurs and the PC reboots.

[Vlk]

What I thought is boot into Safe Mode (which should work even with avast installed), and from THERE invoke the Repair.

The thing is, I see in the minidumps that the avast drivers didn't get (for some reason) updated. That is, there's an old version of the DLL's and an old version of the drivers. Bad things happen.

Also, can you confirm that you're doing the update not from the last version (4.6.652), but from rather old 4.5.549??
Because the drivers that are getting loaded are definitely from 4.5.549.

Aren't you using a low-level program that might be blocking write access to the \windows\system32\drivers folder?

[CavesOfTQLT]

What I thought is boot into Safe Mode (which should work even with avast installed), and from THERE invoke the Repair.

I'll give that a try - boot into safe, control panel/addremove/avast, and I'll try the repair.

The thing is, I see in the minidumps that the avast drivers didn't get (for some reason) updated. That is, there's an old version of the DLL's and an old version of the drivers. Bad things happen.

Quite agree. How those oldies are still in there I don't know  .

Also, can you confirm that you're doing the update not from the last version (4.6.652), but from rather old 4.5.549??
Because the drivers that are getting loaded are definitely from 4.5.549.

Haven't a clue there. I can't even remember when I originally loaded up Avast! it's that long ago, and since then the program has been doing its own thing with regard to updates. I just click when it says there's a new program version available, and after a reboot, it's carries on from there on in.

Aren't you using a low-level program that might be blocking write access to the \windows\system32\drivers folder?

Now on this one I may have a clue. At one point (because my machine was to be used by another user) I clicked on the 'hide files' option for folder properties to hide certain folders, and soon afterwards found that it can foul up writes to those particular folders that got hidden. I'll recheck the Alwil folder to see if 'hidden' is off on it, and also the minidump folder too, plus the system32\drivers. Any others related to the program I should check?

In the meantime thanks for all your help on this issue.

Edit: Alwil folder was not hidden. Windows folder was in hidden state; now changed. I've also noted that some files are in compressed format. I'll have to check the rest tomorrow.

[Vlk]

I doubt the Hide Files option in the Windows Explorer could cause this.
Haven't you played with the avast's Standard Shield settings though? Its "Blocking" feature could theoretically cause this, if manually enabled.

Anyway, this class of problems would be resolved by doing the Repair from Safe mode - so I'm curious if it helps.

[CavesOfTQLT]

I doubt the Hide Files option in the Windows Explorer could cause this.

That's what I thought - but some programs have acted wierdly when they try to write access a hidden folder. The only way I could get them working properly again was to make them visible again.

Haven't you played with the avast's Standard Shield settings though? Its "Blocking" feature could theoretically cause this, if manually enabled.

That's a big no on that one. Avast was installed and left to its own devices afterwards, and as it's been so good updating itself over the past year or so I've never had the need to delve deeper into it.

Anyway, this class of problems would be resolved by doing the Repair from Safe mode - so I'm curious if it helps.

And that's a big yes on that one! Or fingers crossed I hope it has.

Before firing up this PC I went into safe mode, control panel/add;remove progs/delete Avast!, and did the repair option. Then did a reboot with no problems (considering last time it crashed doing this).

I then right clicked the Avast icon in the tray, and forced a program update on the updating tag, rebooted and everything seems to be fine 

I've also removed all the entries in the minidump folder (and put them in another folder JIC), and if everything runs okay for the next few days I'll delete them totally.

Once again many thanks for your help in getting things running smoothly again.

[xistenz]

What if you uninstall avast --> reboot --> download latest avast version --> install avast --> reboot --> insert lisense key?

[igor]

I believe it's not necessary when "Repair" worked