Author Topic: You are unprotected  (Read 4260 times)

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Offline andrewbaggins

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You are unprotected
« on: January 31, 2020, 04:37:01 AM »
a week or two ago my avast tray icon showed a red x. long story short, i uninstalled avast free then installed it afresh.

now, today i finished playing an installed game (which has run ok for months) and an avast message appeared on the screen saying "avast needs to restart your computer". so i clicked ok/restart.

after restarting the red x on the avast system tray icon appeared once again. when i right-click and select "update program" a window opens but it's gray and says "loading... this won't take long". 5 minutes later the window still shows the same message.

i cancelled/closed the window and rebooted the computer. same problem after reboot - red x, loading .... never loads.

closed window and selected "update virus definitions". now, an error message appears "rpc server is unavailable."

checked windows services; confirmed rpc server (RPCSs or something) is running and set to automatic. rebooted again, same problem.

computer is running windows 8.1 pro fully updated, no other problems.

can anyone shed light on how to fix and prevent this issue, please?

Offline Asyn

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Re: You are unprotected
« Reply #1 on: January 31, 2020, 05:05:45 AM »
Repair Avast:
1. Control Panel -> Add/Remove programs -> Avast
2. Click on 'Repair'.
3. Follow instructions.
4. Reboot.
W8.1 [x64] - Avast Free AV 23.3.8047.BC [UI.757] - Firefox ESR 102.9 [NS/uBO/PB] - Thunderbird 102.9.1
Avast-Tools: Secure Browser 109.0 - Cleanup 23.1 - SecureLine 5.18 - DriverUpdater 23.1 - CCleaner 6.01
Avast Wissenswertes (Downloads, Anleitungen & Infos): https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=60523.0

Offline andrewbaggins

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Re: You are unprotected
« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2020, 02:24:21 AM »
Tell me where you see "Add/Remove programs" and, especially, "Repair", please. As previously mentioned, the computer is running Windows 8.1 Pro.

In the attached screenshot please note the available options above "Avast" which is highlighted.

Offline schmidthouse

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Re: You are unprotected
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2020, 02:32:31 AM »
In your screenshot of programs installed, on the top there is an option "uninstall" choose that.  You will be shown Repair in the process

Offline HooDoo

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Re: You are unprotected
« Reply #4 on: February 01, 2020, 10:37:53 AM »
I had the same problem, and it also happens every so often an update tells me to restart the pc. What works for me is simply uninstalling Avast and doing a clean install.
It's a little annoying to have to do that and restart again to upgrade it to premium but a clean install usually works.

Offline chris..

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Re: You are unprotected
« Reply #5 on: February 01, 2020, 11:13:11 AM »
I had the same problem, and it also happens every so often an update tells me to restart the pc. What works for me is simply uninstalling Avast and doing a clean install.
It's a little annoying to have to do that and restart again to upgrade it to premium but a clean install usually works.
You mean that every time avast asks you to start up and you do, you have the problem indicated by andrewbaggins ....:
Quote
red x, loading .... never loads.
...despite previous clean install ?

At the moment Asyn and Schmidthouse are only offering Andrewbaggins a repair.

If it still doesn't work, they will certainly offer to do a clean install, but if this procedure is well done, the user won't need to do it every next time. :)
If this is your case, this is another problem. :-\

Offline andrewbaggins

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Re: You are unprotected
« Reply #6 on: February 01, 2020, 06:09:50 PM »
Thanks for all your replies on this issue. I really appreciate everyone's help.

Currently, Avast is working normally. Not sure if I fixed it, but here's what happened.

I recently added a dual-band USB Wi-fi adapter to my laptop whose built-in Wi-fi was 2.4GHz only (thus limiting my download speed). This addition achieved the desired speed boost from around 60Mbps on 2.4GHz to around 180Mbps on the 5.0GHz band of the USB adapter. So far, so good. What I didn't notice right away is that, when I woke the laptop from Sleep later on, the new adapter wasn't reconnecting to the router. I wasn't trying to use the internet right away so I didn't notice that I had no internet.

This is when I think that Avast was trying to check for updates or otherwise "phone home", and it couldn't dial out, so to speak (does anyone remember dial-up internet @ 56Kbps?). Anyway, an Avast window would open with blank grey background and the message "Loading ... this won't take long", and the message didn't go away.

Eventually, I noticed the lack of internet connection when waking the laptop from Sleep. This led me to check the adapter's Properties window / Power Management tab where I unchecked the box next to the option "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power". Now, after about 24 hours, the internet connection works when I wake the laptop from Sleep, and that Avast "Loading ..." window and the attendant red exclamation mark on the Avast system tray icon have not recurred.

Another option might be to adjust the settings in Control panel / Power options so that the laptop go-to-Sleep option is set to "Never". I don't like that option as much, but it would probably have the same effect for keeping Avast + internet working.

Offline Asyn

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Re: You are unprotected
« Reply #7 on: February 01, 2020, 06:52:16 PM »
You're welcome and thanks for the feedback.
W8.1 [x64] - Avast Free AV 23.3.8047.BC [UI.757] - Firefox ESR 102.9 [NS/uBO/PB] - Thunderbird 102.9.1
Avast-Tools: Secure Browser 109.0 - Cleanup 23.1 - SecureLine 5.18 - DriverUpdater 23.1 - CCleaner 6.01
Avast Wissenswertes (Downloads, Anleitungen & Infos): https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=60523.0