avast won't update

[crimsonpirate]

hey guys ...

got a prob ... as of yesterday my avast won't update ... no matter if i try an update of the virus definitions or of the software itself, it will give me the message: "last encountered error: the package is broken" ... an intended repair of the software met with the same success ... prior to the problem my computer froze once and i had to reset it ...

verison of avast: free 5.0.594
OS: vista home premium

hope you can help me with that ... i'd hate to completely reinstall the program ...

[CraigB]

Hi crimsonpirate, what av did you have prior to avast?  did you uninstall it completly before installing avast? do you have any other av program's on your cpu as these will conflict. What had you done before the freeze (download, installs, uninstalls)

[crimsonpirate]

Hi crimsonpirate, what av did you have prior to avast?  did you uninstall it completly before installing avast? do you have any other av program's on your cpu as these will conflict. What had you done before the freeze (download, installs, uninstalls)

always had avast ... for several years now ... also have it on all my other computers ... first time with a prob ... updated from a later version (can't remember which) to 5.0.594 a few days ago ... worked fine up to yesterday ... no other av ... no idea why computer froze ... it does that on a regular basis ... i've had this asus with windows vista for more than 2 years now but to say i'm not happy with it would be an understatement ... it hasn't really worked properly from the start ...

[Tarq57]

Sounds like the computer might be a bit low on free resource.
To help with that you can check the start up list (let me know if you need to know how) and disable programs from starting with Windows. Lots do, and they don't usually need to.

What might have started your problem is if you hadn't rebooted after upgrading to this Avast version.

I think the only thing for it now, is probably a full removal/reinstall.

-Download the latest Avast from here, and the uninstall utility from here.
-Go offline (your computer will be unprotected) and attempt to remove Avast via the control panel.
-Reboot into safe mode. Don't worry if the program removal didn't work properly.
-Run the Avast uninstall utility. Reboot.
-Install Avast from the new setup file. When the orange icon appears, and is turning, you can go online again.
-Reboot. Sometimes a second reboot can help.

Report back. Hope it works.

[Lisandro]

Which firewall do you use?
Please, upload (attach) the avast log: C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast5\Setup\setup.log
(or the shorter C:\Users\All Users\Alwil Software\Avast5\log\Setup.log).

If the file is too big for the forum, post the last 400-500 lines of it.

[wontUpdate2]

This is EXACTLY what is happening to me right now! all of a sudden it doesnt want to manually update. Ive tried multiple times and it continues to fail. I do use Avast and AVG virus scan.

[DavidR]

Having two resident scanners installed is one too many and not recommended as rather than provide twice the protection it can cause conflicts that could leave you more vulnerable.

Conflict can appear in many ways.

[CraigB]

Was it version 4 that you upgraded from? sometime' installing version 5 over 4 can create problems but then again you said you have always had this problem. Tarq57 could be correct in saying that this might be resource related, a safe way to check if alot of start up's are needed is by going to  http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/ this i found is the best way to check off everything in your start up list to make sure if it is really needed or not.

[SafeSurf]

@ wontUpdate2,

Having two resident scanners installed is one too many and not recommended as rather than provide twice the protection it can cause conflicts that could leave you more vulnerable.

Conflict can appear in many ways.

You need to decide if you want to keep Avast or AVG.  AVG has had it's problems.  If you want to uninstall AVG, here is the uninstaller tool:  http://www.askvg.com/ultimate-collection-of-uninstallers-removal-tools-for-all-popular-anti-virus-software/ - scroll down to AVG.  After running the uninstaller tool, you need to reboot your machine. 

If you still have problems with Avast after uninstalling AVG, it is possible you need to do first a repair of Avast.  If that fails, then you will need to do an uninstall using the Avast Uninstall Utility Tool and do a clean install (please ask us the procedure if you don't already know it) of Avast since you had 2 resident AV's in your machine at the same time.

Please let us know if you have any questions.  Thank you.

[crimsonpirate]

  ... hmmmm ... everything works fine again (without me doing anything) ... does that suggest the prob was with avast and the packages they offered for download? ... i can't imagine that, because then much more ppl would have reported problems ... well ... whatever ... it works again ... i thank all of you who helped me with my little issue ... till next time ...  ...

[SafeSurf]

Give it a few days and see how your machine works with future updates.  If all goes well, report back.

When you feel that your issue is now resolved/fixed, please go back to the open post in this topic, click the modify button in that Post and change the title/subject, add [Resolved] to the beginning of the title so this thread can be closed.  Thank you.

[crimsonpirate]

ok safesurf ... i'll give it few days ... up to now everything is fine (just got a message from avast when i turned my laptop on that the virus database has been updated) ... i'll flag it as "resolved" if the prob won't turn up again ... reading through the forum it seems though that i'm not the only one who recently had probs with the "update" ... anyway ... i'm over the moon that everything works again ... thx again to you guys for your time ... 

[DavidR]

When you read through a 'support' forum you have to expect to see people with problems. There are very many reasons why this might happen and not all of them are an avast issue.

So with over 100 million avast users you have to take into consideration that you don't see many that come to the forums to say they don't have a problem with updates, etc. Nor are all those reporting a problem are an avast issue only.