avast! 5 Pro problems: AVAST service won't start and licence file has a 00000002

[cad]

Hi.  We purchased two copies of avast Pro and on our XP desktop, all is well.

BUT …

On our Vista Home Premium PC, avast shows with the red X on its tray icon, opening the UI shows the FIX NOW button but pressing this (and the Start avast button below it) does not work.

In Windows, Services, starting the avast service manually also fails (Service was started and then stopped).

In the avast subscription dialog, it claims that the subscription is valid BUT all our licence details have disappeared (?).  Reload the license.avastlic file also fails with a 'Not a valid license file error 00000002' error.

I have tried copying the licence file from our desktop as well, and trying to reinstall that.  No dice.

Shutdown and reboot of the laptop doesn't help either: same result.  avast service refuses to start and licence info. is still missing and refuses to be replaced from a known good avast licence file.

Can anyone supply any advice about this?  Is it a known problem or bug?  Both our PCs are fully up to date with all latest MS patches and fixes.

Thanks in advance.
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BFN
CAD (Cad Delworth CEng MBCS CITP)

[Pondus]

have you tried avast repair?

For a repair of avast. Windows, Add Remove programs, select 'avast! Anti-Virus,' click the Change/Remove button from the pop-up window, scroll down to Repair, click next and follow.

Is any previous installed antivirus removed?
have you used a removal tool to remove all leftovers?
removal tool can be found here http://uninstallers.blogspot.com/

[cad]

have you tried avast repair?

Not yet.  The desktop and laptop are at our bridge club, and I 'manage' those PCs for them.  The fault only appared tonight, which is also the night when I run the tournament.  So, not time tonight to even do the Repair attempt.

But thanks for all your tips (and the speedy reply!): I will give them a try in the next day or three, if I can fit in the time around my work commitments.

Is any previous installed antivirus removed?

No previous anti-virus existed.  avast was the first anti-virus on the laptop from new, and it has worked AOK for about a year now.  I can't imagine any reason why avast 'suddenly' doesn't want to start its service (unless it's because the licence info. has 'disappeared'); nor why the avast licence info. has 'suddenly' disappeared.  The laptop gets very light use and is rarely connected to the Internet unless it's yours truly applying Windows Update or something!
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BFN
CAD