"Windows is Starting up..." slowed, Avast or Virus?

[xenoss]

Hi.  I'm new to avast.  I got infected by a virus, 1 symptom were fake spyware protection programs.  I cleaned it out using malwarebytes, it didn't do a complete job, because hours later, the same thing happened again.  After a few times I got avast.

Now, it seems to be cleaned for now.  But I notice on boot, the "Windows is starting up" splash screen takes longer than it did before.

I am wondering if this is a known Avast thing?  Does Avast even start that early in the booting process?  Or is this more likely viral symptom/aftermath?

[Tarq57]

Hi, xenos, and welcome to the forum.
There are quite a few likely causes for a slow startup. The chief suspect is likely to be malware, given what you've said, but there could be a couple of other things worth checking, first.

Did you have any other AV installed prior to Avast?  It would need to be completely uninstalled, using a specific removal tool if necessary, and then maybe Avast repaired.

What was the name of the malware detected? Either the infected files (names) that were removed, and/or the name that the rogue called itself.
Can you please post the most recent MBAM report. It can be copied and pasted in your next reply.
What is your OS (including service pack), and the computer CPU and RAM?

I suggest you clean your temporary files (using the built in disk cleanup utility), and run a boot time scan with Avast, to help remove any leftovers.

[xenoss]

It seemed to have been fixed.  This may have to do with eventlog.dll missing.  The virus renamed it into logevent.dll.  So I used Avenger to copy it back to system32.  Before you close thread though I have have another problem with avast:

I had to reinstall avast because of an Unknown Error:  Skin is not a complete skin.

Due to that, I couldnt even run avast.  It also said 7 providers, 4 running.  I forgot to check what was running and what wasn't.  I seem to be able to access avast using ashsimp2.  I don't know what caused it.  Searches didn't reap results, some posts on the avast forums suggested it could be malwarebytes QTing some files.  I checked it but it doesn't seem to include anything avast.  I tried to do repair on avast, but it didn't fix it.  d/lwed a new skin to try and that didn't fix it.  So I reinstalled it.  Now it is functional, and says 7 providers 6 running.  when Avast worked before the error (yea, it worked before but then it didn't) I forgot to check how many providers were running.  But now it has 6 so it is ok (the 7th is probably outlook's).  But I would like to know what causes this so I can prevent them from happening.

EDIT:

Also, when I uninstalled avast, I forgot to clean out the virus chest.  Does the uninstall do that for me?  Thanks.

[Tarq57]

There have been a lot of problems reported here recently with the installer file from Cnet not completing its download, or installing correctly. (This installer file is like a stub installer; after it's downloaded and run, it connects to and gets the remaining ~35Mb or so of setup files to complete its installation.)
It's quite possible yours was corrupt. (If you look around the forum for posts like "setup error" or "installation problem" or similar you might see what I mean.)

If this was related to your situation, it can usually be resolved by downloading the full 37Mb setup file, "setupeng.exe" from the Avast Home download page.

The providers will only run when the system they are designed to protect has started, if you don't use MS Outlook, that will be the reason. It can be permanently disabled if you want.

When the Av is uninstalled, the chest and its contents are deleted. No malware can escape and run.

[xenoss]

The installation file was complete.  And it worked before.  I even ran a scan from avast.  The skin error didn't happen until after a few boots.

I'm suspecting combofix's fix might have done something to it unwittingly.  Now that is works, I'm glad.  Thanks for helping.
Things seems to be working fine now.  I'll open a new thread if this comes up again.