Author Topic: Installing the trial mode for Avast! messed up my keyboard drivers  (Read 3965 times)

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Let me first say that I have fixed my keyboard drivers as of right now by doing a system restore, helpfully created by avast when it installed trial mode. However, I would like to know what happened to make it easier to deal with next time (the on-screen keyboard is a real pain). I am on windows 8.1 if that helps.

Basically, following the restart for installing trial mode, my keyboard would not work at all, although it was recognized by the computer (the keyboard in question is a Rosewill RK 9000-BR and it is shown as an HID-Compliant Device in Device Manager; although my knowledge of connector names is not great, I will say I was not using a USB A connector and I think the connector was called a PS/2). By sheer luck I attempted to open BIOS and restarted my computer, and once in BIOS my keyboard worked perfectly fine. I attempted to uninstall the drivers and reinstall, however, I noticed that Avast! had installed a driver for my keyboard and it was reappearing (or not getting uninstalled) when I uninstalled the drivers. At this point, I identified the problem as being related to Avast! (it started once I installed trial mode and I saw Avast! drivers). I considered deleting the driver, but I had insufficient privilege (despite being admin, I guess it isn't supposed to be easy to delete things from System32) and I didn't want to have to research from the on-screen keyboard how to do so. Following this, I just did a system restore once noticing that avast! had made one earlier that day.

The driver in question was aswKbd.sys (C:/Windows/System32/drivers/asKbd.sys IIRC). Would it be safe to attempt to delete it if this happens in the future? Would uninstalling/reinstalling avast do the trick (I did not consider to do so)? Are system restores the best way to fix this problem? An inquiring mind wishes to know.

edit: If I shouldn't be asking about an already-resolved problem let me know and I'll just delete this post.
« Last Edit: August 14, 2014, 12:36:25 AM by Inquiring Mind »

Offline Eddy

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Re: Installing the trial mode for Avast! messed up my keyboard drivers
« Reply #1 on: August 13, 2014, 06:30:51 PM »
The keyboard can be ps2 or usb.
There are two versions of that keyboard.

Let me guess, you did not disable windows defender before installing avast.
I suggest you do so and perform a repair of avast.
Let's see if that solves things.

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Re: Installing the trial mode for Avast! messed up my keyboard drivers
« Reply #2 on: August 14, 2014, 12:32:52 AM »
As far as I can tell, Windows Defender was disabled before and after installing Avast!. I apologize if I was not clear enough, but I have fixed the problem, I would just like to know what other measures I can take were it to happen again.

I forgot to mention that I have had Avast! installed prior to updating to trial mode.

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Re: Installing the trial mode for Avast! messed up my keyboard drivers
« Reply #3 on: August 14, 2014, 07:05:21 AM »
@Inquiring Mind:
I have also had this issue before, and I think others have also. I think it was something to do with the firewall driver effecting the usb keyboard driver. Fortunately you had a system restore image to utilise. I had this issue a few months back and reverted my system (win 8.1) to an image prior to install of Avast to get it working.
From my perspective Defender was disabled, no other security product active at the time.

Regarding would uninstalling Avast help in the future, for me yes it did (I went back and did more testing at the time, installed avast and the same issue happened) - I would advise keeping a copy of AvastClear on your PC - http://www.avast.com/en-gb/uninstall-utility. You can then use the on screen keyboard to log in, navigate to the file and remove avast.

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Re: Installing the trial mode for Avast! messed up my keyboard drivers
« Reply #4 on: August 14, 2014, 07:56:13 AM »
@ Inquiring Mind,

Just so we know for the future:

What version of Avast Trial were you installing?  Was this a clean install or an upgrade over your previous version (and what product did you have) when it gave you the problem?

What other security software do you have on your machine including in the past (did you uninistall it using the vendor's uninstaller tools or another way)?

I'm glad your problem is fixed now, but it is good for us to know these things should the issue come up again.  Thank you.  :)