Avast not working after reinstalling vista.

[mmoose]

I am writing on behalf of my brother, since my English is a bit better

He bought the avast internet security package about 6 months ago, and installed it on his PC, which is running vista home premium OEM edition, and everything worked fine.

Then he decided to format his PC recently and reinstall windows vista, and it worked as it should until he installed avast again. If he installs avast and then restarts, vista wont start up again properly, instead it says there has been hardware or software changes, and it will need to revert back to a previous restore point.

He tried reinstalling avast after reverting to an older restore point, he also tried reformatting and reinstalling vista, he tried installing before windows had updated anything, and after everything was updated, but he still gets the same problem.

Anyone that have any idea what may be causing this problem?

[Lisandro]

Never restore to a previous point where avast is not installed. You'll get an instable system.
Windows System Restore is very weak on restoring this situation and messes it all.

Isn't there any other antivirus installed? Other security program?
I suggest an installation from scratch:

1. Download the latest version of avast! Uninstall Utility and save it.
2. Download the latest avast! version and save it.
3. Uninstall avast from Control Panel (if possible). If, for any reason, you can't run it, try booting in Safe Mode and doing it from there. Anyway, boot after that.
4. Run the avast! Uninstall Utility saved on 1. If, for any reason, you can't run it, try booting in Safe Mode and doing it from there. Anyway, boot after you've run it.
5. Install avast! using the setup saved on 2. Boot.
6. Register your free copy or add the license key for Pro.
7. Check and post the results.

[Pondus]

If this is one of those PC that comes with a preinstalled antivirus and you have used the recovery partition / recovery cd than you have also reinstalled that antivirus
this must be removed before you install avast, it is also recomended to run a removal tool to clean all leftovers after that AV  http://uninstallers.blogspot.com/

[darth]

Vista tcp auto tuning problems maybe? There may be no connection, but Vista users should read http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/03/22/disable-tcp-auto-tuning-to-solve-slow-network-cannot-load-web-page-or-download-email-problems-in-vista/

[mmoose]

Thanks for all your suggestions

No his pc didnt come with a preinstalled antivirus program, and his internet works fine

He tried to reinstall a fresh copy of vista 3 times, and avast was the first and only program he installed, and still he got the same problem. But the problem is finally solved. I told him to try to install avast without using his license key during the installation, and then it worked just fine, then afterwards he used the license key and still everything seems to run fine. So it seems that for some reason the error occurs when he uses the license key/file during the install of avast, but using the license key/file to registrer avast after the installation works fine.