Boot-time scan procedure without working screen? 5.0.xxx

[ChromeBallz]

A friend of mine installed Avast Free on his laptop, where he has to use an external monitor for it to work - His main screen died some time ago. However, since he installed Avast and set it to a boot-time scan the laptop doesnt start at all.

What input is required during the boot-time scan? Maybe it's possible to try the required keystrokes for it to continue and boot up?

[Asyn]

What input is required during the boot-time scan? Maybe it's possible to try the required keystrokes for it to continue and boot up?

ESC stops the boot time scan...
asyn

[ChromeBallz]

So you don't have to press enter anywhere or something similar? In that case it's quite weird, his laptop hasn't reacted for 4 hours now.

[DavidR]

I don't know if an external monitor kicks in that quickly, has he been able to view it at any time before windows it up and running ?

But the Esc key should work to stop the scan, if it isn't stopped the scan could be quite long on a low powered laptop if it has a lot of data on it. However 4 hours is a very long time.

Setting it to a boot-time scan should only be a one shot deal, e.g. it should run once and not again unless he schedules it again, in which case it would run on the next boot.

So there would appear to be something else going on here.

What is his Operating System ?
What version of avast is he using including the full version number, avast free 5.1.889, etc. ?

[ChromeBallz]

His laptop monitor does not work, he has a CRT hooked up to it, hence the problem - It's scanning before the second monitor kicks in and he's blind.

He's using Vista, and i can't check the version - It's the one you download (avast free) from the main site, not yet updated. Not sure which one that is to be honest.

[DavidR]

I'm aware his monitor doesn't work, that is why I said it may be too soon for the external monitor to kick in. That however, shouldn't stop the Esc key from working to abort the scan and why I said there may be something else going on.

I take it that he won't be able to boot into safe mode either, as he won't be able to see the boot screen that he is interrupting to try and boot into safe mode. Once the boot is interrupted there would normally be a display of what options he wants to choose. If you can't see a screen he won't be able to select safe mode with networking, etc.

So I really don't know what else to suggest.