Author Topic: Uninstalled Avast and now pc won't work  (Read 4810 times)

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Uninstalled Avast and now pc won't work
« on: March 07, 2015, 09:44:07 PM »
Windows 8.1 running on 120gb SSD with 1TB HDD

Two days ago my son asked me to uninstall Avast off his PC.  After uninstalling I tried to restart the pc but it went into automatic repair which was unsuccessful.  There are a number of options to try and get it working, I.e. Refresh (didn't work), System Restore (there were none), Start-up Repair (didn't work), Safe Mode (didn't work). 

Is there anything you can suggest to get it working again? 

If there is more specific information needed please let me know.

Thank you

Jane

Offline lakrsrool

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Re: Uninstalled Avast and now pc won't work
« Reply #1 on: March 08, 2015, 02:39:47 AM »
I'm assuming you've done this: Automatic Repair in Windows 8 since based on what you've described it sounds like this is what you've done. You might still want to check out the link anyway to make sure you've covered all your bases regarding the windows 8.1 "Automatic Repair" feature that is new with this OS.

Do you have a backup?  If so you might want to check this out:  Use Windows 8.1 System Image Backup (changed from Windows8) 

If not you might want to check this out:  Unable to refresh or reset PC after Automatic Repair fails in Windows 8

Processor: i3 2.53 GHz 4 GIG RAM, OS: WIN 7, Connection: High Speed, Virus/Malware Protection: Avast-2015, SpywareBlaster, Windows Firewall & Defender. Email: Outlook 2010 w/ POP Peeper Email Notifiers.

Offline davexnet

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Re: Uninstalled Avast and now pc won't work
« Reply #2 on: March 08, 2015, 03:58:57 AM »
How interesting.  Even with all the advanced recovery options in Win 8.x, you still have to manually
rename registry hives to get the advanced repair options to work.

A couple of weeks ago my Vista PC refused to boot, somehow avast had become corrupt.
No normal boot, no safe mode; last known configuration didn't help either.
Essexboy in the virus and worms forum gave me a list of instructions to be used with FRST.

This list did a partial uninstall of avast, so that when Windows starts, it no longer attempts to load avast.
Once this was done, Windows booted normally and I was able clean it up.


AMD FX-4300 4GB DDR3
avast free 2279 (Windows XP), MBAM free

Offline Eddy

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Re: Uninstalled Avast and now pc won't work
« Reply #3 on: March 08, 2015, 04:42:34 AM »
The real missing information is:
- Why did the son asked to uninstall avast
- How exactly was tried to uninstall avast
- What exact version of avast

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Re: Uninstalled Avast and now pc won't work
« Reply #4 on: March 08, 2015, 10:01:01 AM »
The real missing information is:
- Why did the son asked to uninstall avast
- How exactly was tried to uninstall avast
- What exact version of avast

To answer:

My son said he had started getting intermittent problems with Avast preventing him visiting websites he visited regularly.... As we had a different paid for anti virus package with a spare licence my intention was to uninstall Avast and put this other one on instead.  Although I still use Avast on my laptop without problems.  Prior to uninstalling I checked for any out of date drivers and did all updates that were needed, restarting after each one.... This included Avast.  I used the Avast uninstaller to remove it and after the restart the pc failed to start.  It was the free version of Avast.

I spent many hours on it yesterday following help given by people far more experienced than me, but nothing works.  One process was a scan (sfc scannow I think it was) but the system said there was a repair pending and a restart was required.  The restart does not change anything.  I think I'm now faced with a clean install.  Not ideal, but as we have a second drive with saved documents on, at least we won't lose everything..... And there will be steps now taken to get better backups done.  Someone has recommended something called Reflect, so will look into that.

Offline Eddy

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Re: Uninstalled Avast and now pc won't work
« Reply #5 on: March 08, 2015, 12:07:09 PM »
- Download the latest drivers for the network card/wifi (depending on what the system has)
- Delete all network devices from the network properties
- Delete all network devices from the device manager
- Reboot
- Install/setup everything from scratch

There is a very good change this will solve the problem.

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Re: Uninstalled Avast and now pc won't work
« Reply #6 on: March 09, 2015, 12:11:28 AM »
Thanks, I finally resorted to a clean install of Windows in the end. 

Offline Eddy

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Re: Uninstalled Avast and now pc won't work
« Reply #7 on: March 09, 2015, 04:35:34 AM »
Suggestion:
If everything is installed, windows, drivers (check device manager for problems), applications that are used....
Set everything to what you want, background, font color/size and such things...
Create a image of the drive and keep it in a safe place.
It is much easier and faster to put back a image than it is to install everything from scratch.