Windows 2000/Avast 7.0.1474 won't update virus defs

[REDACTED]

Hi all,

I know this is ancient history, but I still have a machine that can only run win2k...and it's running the pro version of win2k just fine.  This is a laptop with 324 MB of RAM -- that's all it can hold.

I have successfully installed and run v7.0.1474, but it won't update the virus defs via the UI.  The complaint is "there isn't enough space on the disk" (I have over 1.2 GB free).  I increased swap space to 1.5 GB on a non-system disk, just to make sure there's virtual memory space.

Then I find there's a utility on the Avast site for updating virus defs w/o using the main UI--it's vpsupd.exe, downloaded from here.  But when I run that, all I get is a "program is too big to fit in memory" error message.  There are only 20 processes running on this system, and none of them can be terminated (they're privileged as system tasks, including Avast itself).

I tried doing the same stuff in windows' SAFE mode, to no avail.

What am I missing?

[drake127]

Basically, you don't have enough RAM to fit entire VPS into a memory. I tested Windows 2000 with avast! on 512 MB RAM and everything was fine. You can try to increase size of you swap file to something like 1024 MB and see if it helps. I can also recommend getting your hands on avast! 8 (8.0.1497 being the latest available).

[REDACTED]

Thanks for the response -- I increased swap significantly beyond 1GB (on a different drive) and that made no difference.

Regarding v8.x of Avast:  does it run on Win2K?  I saw no evidence of that.

[INGBEAN]

Hello davofanmail!


Welcome to the forum.

Yes, I confirm that avast! Free V8.0.1497 is running on Windows 2000.
On my Notebook B (see signature below), I have installed 256MB RAM only (more is not possible).

Due to Notebook B is permanent off-line, I normally update via vpsupd.exe - file without problems.
Today (or tomorrow) I will update again, then I post the results here.

How many RAM is used in idle?
Maybe you can prevent that programs are automatically starting during PC-boot?


Best regards from Austria!

INGBEAN

[drake127]

If my suspicion is correct, I can recommend one more option. Get yourself some older version, like 6.0.1203 (we don't provide downloads anymore but you can find them on the Internet, e.g. FileHippo being the respectable source), install it, update VPS and then update program itself. You should end up with version 8.0.1506. However, it's just an idea, I cannot say that it will help you.

[=SKY=]

Hello davofanmail!

Welcome to the forum.

Yes, I confirm that avast! Free V8.0.1497 is running on Windows 2000.

+1 (see my signature)

on my W2k-PC with 1Gb RAM.

You need Service Pack 4 and Update Rollup 1!

The error message "there isn't enough space on the disk"  appears

1. only on OS older than XP (W2k is the only supported one at this time)

2. only when your machine hasn't had an automatic update of the virus defs for "a longer time".

I tested this on my PC:
if I don't use my PC for a few weeks and because of this, there wasn't an automatic update of the virus defs in this time, the virus defs get to big and W2K can't work with them.
In this case the error message appears!!!

The SOLUTION:

Download the virus defs for OFFLINE installation from avast!-page and install them (doubleclick and then just a few seconds you have to wait) WITHOUT connecting your machine to the internet while doing this.
After this your avast! will update automatically the virus defs again!!!

Edit:

Here you can download older versions of avast!:
http://www.oldapps.com/avast_antivirus.php

[REDACTED]

SKY....YES YES YES-- this looks to be the same symptom, as I haven't successfully updated the virus defs in a couple of months.

So fine:  WHERE do I update the virus defs from manually?  I have not had any luck finding the page with those current files...all I can find is the utility "vpsupd.exe" from here http://www.avast.com/download-update which also cannot install on my machine because it claims not to have enough memory.

[drake127]

Did you try my suggestion? The likely issue is that you are unable to perform rather memory intensive update of old VPS. The solution might actually be to download even older VPS (packed with old installers) and thus forcing avast! to download the current VPS from scratch and not update it.

[=SKY=]

...all I can find is the utility "vpsupd.exe" from here http://www.avast.com/download-update

That's it!

At my beginning with avast! (V. 5) my W2k-PC had 256 MB RAM.
After the error message appeared the first time in V. 7, I "pimped up" to 1 Gb RAM and used the workaround as I wrote.
So far no problems.

Sorry, but I haven't another solution for you.

But perhaps the suggestion of drake127 can solve the problem...

Please give us a short feedback!

PS: INGBEAN (see above) from the german section of this forum knows W2k very well. Perhaps he has one idea more that can help you...

Did you try this?:

How many RAM is used in idle?
Maybe you can prevent that programs are automatically starting during PC-boot?

[REDACTED]

Hello everyone,
I tried all suggestions, none of them worked.  But I did make some interesting (horrifying) discoveries:

• FileHippo's download images for all of the version 8 releases point to the current Avast, not the historical ones.  Verified this on two separate machines, different browsers.  Reported this to FileHippo so they can fix it when they have time.
• Downloading the vpsupd.exe tool must be done directly on the target machine -- you can't download it on another (dissimilar hardware architecture) machine and copy it over. There's some cleverness in the download button that is target-machine sensitive.
• When I did download the updater directly to the target machine, it functioned.  However, it (incorrectly) claimed after 15 minutes of prcoessing that the virus database was already up to date.
• I decided I have some sort of corrupted install of v7.  So I uninstall it and go back to v6...since I can't go to v8 via FileHippo.
• v6 installs just fine, but it won't let me register online...so I have to go through the offline registration + key
• That said, v6 DOES let me update the virus defs and the engine...looks like no problemmo for now

Will it work to update to v8?  In theory, the internal updater should work fine.  But for now, I've wasted way too many hours to try and find out.

[INGBEAN]

Hello davofanmail!

Downloading the vpsupd.exe tool must be done directly on the target machine -- you can't download it on another (dissimilar hardware architecture) machine and copy it over. There's some cleverness in the download button that is target-machine sensitive.

Download the tool with any PC direct from this link:
http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/vpsupd.exe
Then you are able to copy the file on USB Flash drive or burn a CD...

When I did download the updater directly to the target machine, it functioned.  However, it (incorrectly) claimed after 15 minutes of prcoessing that the virus database was already up to date.

Yesterday I was able to perform the VPS-update via "vpsupd.exe" without problems (it took 5 minutes).
The "peak commit charge" of RAM during update was 424616K, so it's now near to "limit" value.
But as you can see on the attachments, I have a relative low memory usage in idle (around 120 MB).
On this PC not many programs are installed...
As already mentioned, on Notebook B are only 256 MB RAM possible!

I decided I have some sort of corrupted install of v7.  So I uninstall it and go back to v6...since I can't go to v8 via FileHippo.

I found a link, where you can download avast! Free V8.0.1497:
http://forum.avadas.de/download/8.0.1497/avast_free_antivirus_setup.exe

v6 installs just fine, but it won't let me register online...so I have to go through the offline registration + key

I can use the "off-line" registration only, due to Notebook B is not connected to internet.


Best regards!

INGBEAN

[REDACTED]

Ingbean--thank you SO much for the direct links!  Very helpful to anybody still running Win2K.

As a footnote, I should add some hints to make room on older systems:

• turn off hibernation and move the swap file to another partition to give yourself more room on the system disk
• remove unnecessary fonts and devices (check out "show hidden devices") to make the kernel smaller
• turn on kernel paging so that the amount of RAM "nailed down" is smaller (I used X-tech setup to do this, but there may be a simple registry edit that can do it as well).
• uninstall unneeded applications

Doing this, I was able to get the kernel to occupy less than 5 MB RAM and the system disk to have >2 GB available.  As I'm assuming that my v7 install was corrupted somehow, the memory utilization of Avast I was seeing is probably irrelevant.

[INGBEAN]

Ingbean--thank you SO much for the direct links!  Very helpful to anybody still running Win2K.

No problem, you're welcome.

INGBEAN

[=SKY=]

FileHippo's download images for all of the version 8 releases point to the current Avast, not the historical ones.

Because of this I gave you the following link:

Here you can download older versions of avast!:
http://www.oldapps.com/avast_antivirus.php

However, it (incorrectly) claimed after 15 minutes of prcoessing that the virus database was already up to date.

Then try this:

1. Download the vpsupd.exe file at another PC

2. Copy this file on the "avast!"-machine

3. Start this machine (IT MUST BE THE FIRST START OF THIS MACHINE AT THE DAY YOU DOWNLOAD THE vpsupd.exe) WITHOUT INTERNET CONNECTION!!!!! --- OTHERWISE YOU GET THE (INCORRECTLY) MESSAGE, THAT THE DATABASE IS UP TO DATE!!!!!

4. Install the vpsupd.exe file with doubleclick (wait till the message appears)

5. NOW you have the newest virus defs and get the following automatically.

[REDACTED]

Thanks for the detailed procedure,Sky...lots of ways to do it wrong, you've found the way to do it right.

I'll try that process if v6 fails for some reason.