Avast Boot-Scan not working!

[AaronJ]

Hi my name is Aaron and this is my 1st post to the Avast Forums.  I have been really impressed with Avast through the last 4 years and think it is one of the best AVs out there.

Before I got Avast, I had norton which expired on me and I went without updated definitions for a few months.  In that time I picked up some malware which Avast removed for me.  This was about 3 years ago.  I also left part of it quaranteened until recently when I decided to allow avast to delete it from some sensitive operating areas.  I ended up reinstalling my OS and running through a series of cleaning steps with help from Smartest Computing.  They did a great job! 

So my system is malware free now but Avast won't do a boot-time scan.  I checked the settings and made sure the option was ticked and have it scheduled.  But when I restart my computer, it doesn't do the boot scan, it just starts to Windows like normal.

I tried using the uninstaller app and reinstalled Avast a number of times, even manually deleting any references to Avast in the registry but no dice! 

Does anyone know how to get Avast boot scan working again?  Where does Avast boot from when it does the boot scan, does it boot off of the PQservice, hidden recovery partition?  I ask because my partition may be corrupted but I don't know for sure.  Any help would be greately appreciated.  Thanks!

[AaronJ]

Also, some system specs: 

I am running Windows XP MCE on an Acer Aspire 5100 notebook.  Using Avast free 6.0.1289.

[DavidR]

Why doesn't the boot-time scan work, e.g. what happens when you schedule a boot-time scan, any errors, etc. what ?
What avast version do you have before 6.0.1289 and how did you update to this latest version ?

Has your system ever been able to do a boot-time scan ?
If it has worked before what has changed recently, just prior to it not working ?

It doesn't boot from a hidden recovery partition, it runs from the normal drive, windows actually starts to load but the avast boot-time scan runs before completion of the windows start.

[AaronJ]

Hi David!  The boot scan doesn't come with any errors.  The avast version before this one was wiped off the computer when I did the restore to factory with the restore CDs.  I did try moving over a copy of Avast that I had made of the program files before I reinstalled the OS.  I moved that coy into the program files and tried executing it but it didn't work because I didn't have the proper files and installer.  However, I deleted that file and downloaded the latest version of Avast, 6.0 after that and the install went through with no errors or problems. 

When I schedule the boot scan, it shows up as scheduled and then click restart computer.  The computer boots to normal windows, no error messages or anything.

Yes my system used to do boot scan before I reinstalled my OS and cleaned off the malware / viruses with help from Smartest Computing.  I think they did an excellent job by the way!

Being that the avast boots from normal drive, I get a prompt of which OS I want to boot to, recovery console or Windows XP.  It will automatically pick Windows XP MCE in 2 seconds.  This would be the only other thing that is different from before when Avast boot used to work.

Should I remove the recovery center boot option?

[DavidR]

The program can't be moved (unless you are talking of moving the installation file), it has to be installed or the registry keys, etc. won't be present and there is a registry key involved in the action of scheduling the boot-time scan.

So I would suggest a clean reinstall (assumes you are using the free version):
- Download the latest version of avast, 6.0.1289 http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/setup_av_free.exe and save it to your HDD, somewhere you can find it again (if you didn't save your last download). Use that when you reinstall.

- Download the avast! Uninstall Utility, aswClear.exe find it here and save it to your HDD (it has uninstall tools for both 5.x and 6.0.x).

• 1. Now uninstall avast! (using add remove programs, if you can't do that start from the next step), reboot.
• 2. run the avast! Uninstall Utility from safe mode, first for 5.x if previously installed and then for 6.0, once complete reboot into normal mode.
• 3. install the latest version, reboot.