Problems updating

[ladynadiad]

I keep getting windows saying that Avast has encountered an error in updating, unfortunately it gives me nothing helpful as far as an error message goes (just an update time of something in seconds).

Is there anything that can be done about this, as I am guessing I am getting very rare updates as I have only seen it actually be successful once now.  I also am getting rather sick of coming home to find multiple windows to click "don't send" on as it encountered an error at some point.

I have version 4.6 by the way, Windows XP Home edition SP2, and can give any other pertinent info needed.

Right now my best guess would be to uninstall the program and reinstall it, but I would rather try and fix the error before doing that, as I sure don't want to have to be reinstalling this program every month (which is about as long as I have had avast so far)

[TedNelly]

Welcome to the forums

Have you had a look to see if all Avast services are running Start/Control Panel/Admin Tools/Services
Please see attached image of running services

Yes you I would attemp a repair first to do this you must be On Line
Start/Control Panel/Add remove Programs/....Select Avast Anti-virus/Change/Remove.... scroll down and select Repair. When repair is finished doing it's thing Reboot.
Hope this solves the problem

[DavidR]

What might not be helpful to you might just help us so if you can be more detailed or do a screen shot of the error and post it here.

What is your firewall, does it allow access for avast.setup (no access, no update) ?

[CharleyO]

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Welcome to the forums, ladynadiad.   

Please try tednelly's suggestion. If that does not solve the problem, please do as David suggested and give some more info.

Also, if the problem is solved, we would like to know.   


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[ladynadiad]

Well, I just got in from work and it hasn't happened again yet, likely will if I give it long enough.

Checked the administrative tools, everything was there, one was manual and I set it to automatic as pictured.

Checked my windows firewall settings, as that is my only firewall, and while I had no problems til this past week, I made sure Avast was set as an exception.

Once it comes up again, I will grab a screen shot and get it onto one of my hosting accounts somehow.

And if it doesn't come up again, will post again.

But as far as describing the error goes, basically I get a window like when it does do an update successfully, but it is red instead and says an error occured, click here for more details.  I click on it, and all it says is something about a time in seconds.  They have ranged anywhere between 5 seconds and 131 seconds, and it says nothing else at all besides the time, or else I likely would have figured it out by now.

[DavidR]

I recommend you get a full firewall, XP simply doesn't cut it, there is no outbound checking so I'm unsure if that was the problem. I think you would be hard pressed to make an exception for avast.setup as this file doesn't get created until avast checks for updates.

Based on your expansion of the error, check the servers.def file, it may be corrupt and or 0KB in size which is incorrect. Delete the servers.def file if it is 0KB and try a repair of avast. Add Remove programs, select 'avast! Anti-Virus,' click the Change/Remove button and scroll down to Repair, click next and follow. You need to be on-line to do this.

Once you have done this try a manual update and see what happens.

[ladynadiad]

Actually, I never have problems with a manual update without doing anything further, it updated just fine, and that is how I am even getting updates, but I know too well how forgetful I can be and will eventually forget for a month on end!

Servers.def is 8kb in size and contains over 50 servers, did a repair anyhow, but it likely will be a few more hours until I know if it did any good or not.  But I didn't delete the file, as you said only if its 0kb

I was able to grab a screen shot, but MS paint seems to have magically disappeared since last night when I did a massive removal of unneeded programs (as I went into windows components to get rid of windows messenger).  Once I get that back on I can get a screen shot of the two windows that I get when I have a problem with an auto update

[TedNelly]

 Hi ladynadiad if you have trouble with MS paint here is a link to a Free, very configurable,

handy,small screen capture utility

Mirek's Free Software Site
MWSnap

[CharleyO]

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Just in case you do not remember where you found it and you want Paint back again, see below.    


***

[ladynadiad]

Here are the screen shots from earlier today, hope its somewhat visible, I was able to read it and I use a pretty large dimension on my own screen.  Excuse the extra white space, I am not all that great with paint, and had to use MS word as a placeholder for the images while I reinstalled paint.

Oh, forgot to mention, top part is the first error that comes up, bottom part is when I click for more info, which I have to do to get rid of the error.

[Lisandro]

Here are the screen shots from earlier today

When did you get them, just after booting?
How do you connect the Internet (dial-up or permanently connected)?
If you manual start an update, will it work now?
Which firewall do you use? Is avast.setup application allowed to connect?

[ladynadiad]

Here are the screen shots from earlier today

When did you get them, just after booting?
How do you connect the Internet (dial-up or permanently connected)?
If you manual start an update, will it work now?
Which firewall do you use? Is avast.setup application allowed to connect?

Actually, I did a reboot yesterday after I got up and did not get anything for hours.  Yesterday during the time I was at my computer I got the error in total maybe 3 or 4 times only thing I can say all instances have in common was that the browser was open and so was winamp, but those program are always on for me
I have a permanent connection, and its wired to my computer
Unless something has changed since last night and today it would, had a manual update work great last night
I only use MS XP firewall and it has avast set as an exception (can only select them by program, from a list of stuff installed)

[justin1278]

Hello,
Maybe you should try to repair avast! you can do this by going to add or remove, click avast then click change/remove, when the Windows pops up look for repair (you may need to scroll down). Also make sure you have internet connection that is needed to do an avast! repair.


~Justin1278

[ladynadiad]

Already have repaired it, did that yesterday even though I didn't delete the servers.def file as it was not 0kb

Still got the error after the repairing

[madmike13]

I seem to be having the same problem
build 4.6.763
win 98
Athalon 1900+
I am using ZoneAlarm.
I have never had problems updating until yesterday.
It would notify me that an update was available
Now I cannot connect to server.

Well...  while saving the logs and screenshots to post here, I noticed Avast was using IE settings so I decided to check.
Under Internet Options, Connections, Lan settings, Use proxy server was checked but no server address was entered.
I un-checked, problem fixed.   
For some reason it did not affect my browsing.

Thank you
Mike