Hi cwilkins (Charlie) and welcome to the forum.
You have done a lot of troubleshooting on your own, which is a good start.
1. Can you tell me which
product of Avast you have (Free, Pro, AIS)?
2. I know you said you ran the Symantec uninstaller tool, but this is the one that removes (almost) everything. I would suggest running it again:
http://service1.symantec.com/support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039, then reboot. Since Norton is known for leaving remnants behind, go into Safe Mode > Search > All Files and Folders > More Advanced Options...check off every box on the bottom except Case Sensitive > Type in the TOP box Symantec > click Search. Repeat the same steps except type in Norton or what ever product she had. What ever files come up on the right side of the page you can delete, however when in doubt, right-click the file > Properties to see if it really belongs to Symantec/Norton. It the files do belong to Symantec/Norton, delete them and put in the Recycle bin and empty while in Safe Mode.
Restart the machine.
3. What is your firewall (FW)? Have you checked to see if Avast is being blocked?
4. What other security software do your
currently have or had
in the past on this machine besides Avast and Norton....including antivirus, firewall, and other security software (besides MBAM and SAS)? This includes trial software as well.
--> BTW TeaTimer (part of SB&D) have presented problems for some users, so you may want to uninstall this to see if this helps as part of your troubleshooting. This is complete information on uninstalling SB&D w/TT:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/howto/uninstall.html . In addition, you need to go into Advanced settings to disable the resident protection (2 areas to possibly disable – Teatimer and some IE blocking), then de-immunize if the immunity has been set. That takes a minute or more sometimes. The run the program’s own uninstaller, which should be in the Add/Remove Programs.
5. Is Avast working properly? If please tell me what is going on and a repair may be needed:
To Repair your installation:
- Go to Control Panel > Add/Remove programs > Avast Antivirus.
- Scroll down and choose Repair function in the pop-up window.
- Reboot.
6. Have you done any boot-time scans in Avast to check for malware? If so, did it show any infections? Is anything in the Virus Chest?
7. Did you try installing this Winsockfix Utility:
Windows XP –
http://majorgeeks.com/WinSock_XP_Fix_d4372.html8. Lastly, you are using an old version of Avast. The current version is 5.0.677
http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/setup_av_free_eng.exe and soon to be updated to a newer version. I strongly suggest upgrading to the current version which is lighter on the system and has better detection, plus it will give your mother-in-law an chance to get used to the GUI, which is cleaner looking. The support for 4.8 will end shortly after the end of this year.
-->
On-line registration is very simple and it's the preferred method for all users of Avast
Free Antivirus 5.0 installed on a computer with standard Internet connectivity. To perform on-line registration, follow these steps:
http://support.avast.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=459Avast Free Registration Key:
http://www.avast.com/registration-free-antivirus.phpPlease let me know if you have any questions. Thank you.