Lost avast icons in taskbar

[kirbalo]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the help...the tools seemed to run fine, but I knew to monitor the registry to make sure everything was deleted, and "ccApp" and another one kept coming back into my registry.  Then I remembered that SpyBot S&D gave me these problems in the past, so to make things easier, I temporarily uninstalled SpyBot and then, removed the offending symantec registry entries in the "run" key, did an uninstall of Avast, rebooted, then a reinstall of Avast, and...

Everything installed properly!

Hopefully someone can learn from my oversight that some of the anti-spyware programs may be interefering with the installation.

[mauserme]

kirbalo,

Was that related to Spybot's TeaTimer preventing registry changes?

[kirbalo]

Yes.  And I tried to "uncheck" Teatimer in the program, but it came back on after a reboot. 

I also had Ad-Aware SE Professional on my wife's computer and it caused the same problems...

The programs are pretty tenacious, and I first tried to just "shut them off" but that didn't seem to work, since they keep a long track of the registry changes, which is good in normal cases, but a pain when you are trying to uninstall antivirus programs...

[mauserme]

Were there no TeaTimer pop-ups asking if you wanted to allow or block the change?

Those windows, when they appear, are formatted strangely.  There is a check box to "remember the action" but its difficult to read.  If you allow a change but don't check the box, TeaTimer will ask again every time you boot.

[DavidR]

Yes that is one of the drawbacks with some security programs, they can stop you doing things that are legitimate and you forget (or don't know the consequences of their blocking) you have it running.

But thanks for getting back to us, I'm sure it will help others, remind us again or the potential interference of other security applications and I'm sure you won't have this issue again.

[kirbalo]

Were there no TeaTimer pop-ups asking if you wanted to allow or block the change?

Those windows, when they appear, are formatted strangely.  There is a check box to "remember the action" but its difficult to read.  If you allow a change but don't check the box, TeaTimer will ask again every time you boot.

Yes, and I can't remember the sequence, because I was trying so many different variations before just uninstallng, and then reinstalling...

[mauserme]

kirbalo,

I've never had that happen but I'm glad you brought it up.

As DavidR said, its a good reminder ...

[unidyn]

You can check Bitdefender' results by opening the program, click on the  Antivirus option on the left, then click the Quarantine tab at the top.

Ok, I will try that.

The reformat option should be used only as a last resort for an infection that can't be removed by other means, not to fix a program problem.

I haven't given up yet    I will continue to try options.

When you executed ashDisp.exe manually what error did you receive?  Do you get the same error now that you've reinstalled?  Can you post a screen shot?

I will try to duplicate that to see if I get the error again and post that information. I will need to uninstall EZ Armor, then reinstall avast first.

I asked early on if you have any other antivirus programs installed and I understand you now have EZ Armor.  Besides EZ Armor (and Bitdefender) have you ever had any other anitvirus program on your machine.  eg Norton AV?

There has never been another anti-virus program other than avast. Several years ago I switched from McAfee to avast, which I never regretted. Avast caught things (usually trojans it seems), verifying its working. I never got McAfee to catch anything (though I had, which avast found). Now many friends use avast and I have installed it to help others.

When you installed EZ Armor did you uninstall avast! or are both still on your pc?

Avast was uninstalled, using Add/Remove, then followed-up with the avast uninstall utility to remove possible remnants.

I believe I have answered Tech's comments with my responses above. I will also look into the follow-ups from responses and feedback from kirbaro's posts. I might also add that I run Microsoft Antispyware, Spywareblaster and Adaware PE. These have been my only security tools in addition to avast. They have all played together nicely for quite sometime. Again, this all started when I came to my PC to find a message stating that avast must restart the computer for changes to take affect. Ever since that, the realtime scanner and VDDB icons have never returned.

I will continue to work on this because if there is something I've been lucky enough to encounter and can provide information that will be helpful, it should be seen here. I will report back as soon as I have a chance to reinstall avast. I will certainly do what I can to make sure EZ Armor is uninstalled first. This could be tomorrow before I can do that. Before I do, should I remove Spywareblaster, Adaware and Microsoft antispyware too?
 

[unidyn]

One more thing, FYI. I did a rollback to the day before my dilemma started thinking it would help (restore point). I got an acknowledgement that the restore went well, but it did not make a difference.

[Lisandro]

One more thing, FYI. I did a rollback to the day before my dilemma started thinking it would help (restore point). I got an acknowledgement that the restore went well, but it did not make a difference.

Windows System Restore joke (in my opinion)... don't worth even to try... This is the joke of Windows Restore feature...
Only drivers and nothing more... sometimes, nothing more comes before the anything it could do...

Look, better will be disabling TeaTimer, WinPatrol, PrevX, ProcessGuard and any other startup monitor to uninstall avast and then install again...

[mauserme]

... better will be disabling TeaTimer, WinPatrol, PrevX, ProcessGuard and any other startup monitor ...

and that includes Microsoft Antispyware.  Does this really do anything but use resources, anyway?

[Lisandro]

and that includes Microsoft Antispyware.  Does this really do anything but use resources, anyway?

I won't say this way... Microsorf Antispyware is not a good antispyware in my opinion but it isn't bad or a resource hog... Well, at least the ones which are using it do not say so. Besides this, I think it does not monitore the startup items like the other applications I was posted, does it? (I'm not sure as I don't use it).

[unidyn]

I was able to get the error after clicking on ashDisp.exe:

C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashdisp.exe

Data error (cyclic redundancy error)

[Lisandro]

Cyclic redundancy error

http://www.softwarepatch.com/tips/cyclic-redundancy.html
I think avast installation get corrupted.
Can you download a new setup file for instalation, uninstall the actual version, boot, install the new one?

[mauserme]

I won't say this way... Microsorf Antispyware is not a good antispyware in my opinion but it isn't bad or a resource hog

I posted this way because, imho, it never seems to do very much on my pcs.  I've use it for 11 months and my logs show only one spyware removed on each and I think those were false positives.  Based on the reviews I've read I guess others have had a different experience, but I've disabled it.  There is resident protection with it that monitors start up entries, etc.  Those can be turned on or off at the user's discretion.

I suppose I'm a little off topic except I think it couldn't hurt to disable the resident part during the avast! installation.