Avast service can't start

[ady4um]

Did you run the removal utility for avast before reinstalling the last time? I would:

1_ Uninstall.
2_ Removal utility several times, for each version that was ever installed / updated in your system, whit reboots in between, always to Windows Safe Mode http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility.
3_ Reinstall using the latest stable version and reboot.
4_ Update definitions if possible (just wait 10 minutes after reboot; do not force the update), and then check again for the service status.
5_ Check for the avast driver status (device manager -> show all devices -> avast driver -> properties).

I don't know why, but my avast service in msconfig shows the full info (including the correct manufacturer), but your screenshot above doesn't.

If the steps above won't let avast service to work as normal, then either something won't let it start, or it is being delayed "too much time", or there is something "blocking" it (whether some remnant of some older security tool, or some "malware").

According to your next feedback, we'll see what to do next if necessary.

[rghthndsd]

I always run the utility in safe mode before attempting another install.

I installed Malware Bytes and ran a system scan.  It came up with nothing.  Same thing with HijackThis.  A boot time scan with Avast also detects nothing.  I do not think malware is the problem.

Is there a way I can determine a reason for the service not starting?  An error log somewhere?  So far everything I can find just says "it failed".

Also, note that avast stopped working when I applied several Microsoft updates.  Is there any way I can check the integrity of these updates?  I only know of chkdsk, and this reports nothing (other than a couple of sectors that were falsely labeled as allocated).

[essexboy]

1. Please download the Event Viewer Tool by Vino Rosso http://images.malwareremoval.com/vino/VEW.exe and save it to your Desktop:
2. Under 'Select log to query', select:
* System
3. Under 'Select type to list', select:
* Error
* Warning

Then use the 'Number of events' as follows:

1. Click the radio button for 'Number of events'
Type 20 in the 1 to 20 box
Then click the Run button.
Notepad will open with the output log.


Please post the Output log in your next reply then repeat but select Application.

[rghthndsd]

Nifty little program.  Don't think it will help to much, but at least you guys get to see what I see.

[essexboy]

Is Avast installed on the same drive as windows ?

Vino's Event Viewer v01c run on Windows XP in English
Report run at 21/01/2012 10:00:31 AM

Note: All dates below are in the format dd/mm/yyyy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'System' Log - error Type
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Log: 'System' Date/Time: 20/01/2012 3:18:38 PM
Type: error Category: 0
Event: 7022 Source: Service Control Manager
The avast! Antivirus service hung on starting.

Log: 'System' Date/Time: 20/01/2012 3:07:13 PM
Type: error Category: 0
Event: 7031 Source: Service Control Manager
The avast! Antivirus service terminated unexpectedly.  It has done this 2 time(s).  The following corrective action will be taken in 5000 milliseconds: Restart the service.

Log: 'System' Date/Time: 20/01/2012 3:07:01 PM
Type: error Category: 0
Event: 7031 Source: Service Control Manager
The avast! Antivirus service terminated unexpectedly.  It has done this 1 time(s).  The following corrective action will be taken in 5000 milliseconds: Restart the service.

Log: 'System' Date/Time: 20/01/2012 11:17:12 AM
Type: error Category: 0
Event: 7034 Source: Service Control Manager
The avast! Antivirus service terminated unexpectedly.  It has done this 5 time(s).

Log: 'System' Date/Time: 20/01/2012 11:12:58 AM
Type: error Category: 0
Event: 7034 Source: Service Control Manager
The avast! Antivirus service terminated unexpectedly.  It has done this 4 time(s).

Log: 'System' Date/Time: 20/01/2012 11:08:24 AM
Type: error Category: 0
Event: 7034 Source: Service Control Manager
The avast! Antivirus service terminated unexpectedly.  It has done this 3 time(s).

Log: 'System' Date/Time: 20/01/2012 11:08:23 AM
Type: error Category: 0
Event: 7031 Source: Service Control Manager
The avast! Antivirus service terminated unexpectedly.  It has done this 2 time(s).  The following corrective action will be taken in 5000 milliseconds: Restart the service.

Log: 'System' Date/Time: 20/01/2012 11:07:13 AM
Type: error Category: 0
Event: 7031 Source: Service Control Manager
The avast! Antivirus service terminated unexpectedly.  It has done this 1 time(s).  The following corrective action will be taken in 5000 milliseconds: Restart the service.

Log: 'System' Date/Time: 20/01/2012 11:04:55 AM
Type: error Category: 0
Event: 10005 Source: DCOM
DCOM got error "%1084" attempting to start the service EventSystem with arguments "" in order to run the server: {1BE1F766-5536-11D1-B726-00C04FB926AF}

Log: 'System' Date/Time: 20/01/2012 11:04:20 AM
Type: error Category: 0
Event: 10005 Source: DCOM
DCOM got error "%1084" attempting to start the service EventSystem with arguments "" in order to run the server: {1BE1F766-5536-11D1-B726-00C04FB926AF}

Log: 'System' Date/Time: 20/01/2012 11:04:16 AM
Type: error Category: 0
Event: 10005 Source: DCOM
DCOM got error "%1084" attempting to start the service StiSvc with arguments "" in order to run the server: {A1F4E726-8CF1-11D1-BF92-0060081ED811}

Log: 'System' Date/Time: 20/01/2012 11:04:12 AM
Type: error Category: 0
Event: 10005 Source: DCOM
DCOM got error "%1084" attempting to start the service netman with arguments "" in order to run the server: {BA126AE5-2166-11D1-B1D0-00805FC1270E}

Log: 'System' Date/Time: 20/01/2012 10:37:15 AM
Type: error Category: 0
Event: 7022 Source: Service Control Manager
The avast! Antivirus service hung on starting.

Log: 'System' Date/Time: 20/01/2012 8:03:23 AM
Type: error Category: 0
Event: 7034 Source: Service Control Manager
The avast! Antivirus service terminated unexpectedly.  It has done this 3 time(s).

Log: 'System' Date/Time: 20/01/2012 8:03:10 AM
Type: error Category: 0
Event: 7031 Source: Service Control Manager
The avast! Antivirus service terminated unexpectedly.  It has done this 2 time(s).  The following corrective action will be taken in 5000 milliseconds: Restart the service.

Log: 'System' Date/Time: 20/01/2012 8:03:04 AM
Type: error Category: 0
Event: 7031 Source: Service Control Manager
The avast! Antivirus service terminated unexpectedly.  It has done this 1 time(s).  The following corrective action will be taken in 5000 milliseconds: Restart the service.

Log: 'System' Date/Time: 20/01/2012 8:03:03 AM
Type: error Category: 0
Event: 7022 Source: Service Control Manager
The avast! Antivirus service hung on starting.

Log: 'System' Date/Time: 19/01/2012 7:32:12 PM
Type: error Category: 0
Event: 7034 Source: Service Control Manager
The avast! Antivirus service terminated unexpectedly.  It has done this 3 time(s).

Is Avast on the same drive as windows ?

Log: 'System' Date/Time: 19/01/2012 7:32:03 PM
Type: error Category: 0
Event: 7031 Source: Service Control Manager
The avast! Antivirus service terminated unexpectedly.  It has done this 2 time(s).  The following corrective action will be taken in 5000 milliseconds: Restart the service.

Log: 'System' Date/Time: 19/01/2012 7:31:57 PM
Type: error Category: 0
Event: 7031 Source: Service Control Manager
The avast! Antivirus service terminated unexpectedly.  It has done this 1 time(s).  The following corrective action will be taken in 5000 milliseconds: Restart the service.

[rghthndsd]

Is Avast installed on the same drive as windows ?

I have three physical drives, each with one partition: a windows drive and two backups (i.e. no OS installed).  Avast is installed on the same drive as windows.

[dchester]

Just as an add on, I had 3 computers do the same thing today.  Looks like a bad update.

[DanielFS]

Agreed,

I am seeing exactly the same thing on my end as well - similar system specs (XP SP3, 2 GB of RAM, Avast! 6.0.1367), and just this morning when I rebooted it started doing this - the service takes 50% of my CPU (or 100% of one core) and remains stuck in the "Starting" state.  Startup is considerably slower as a result, and I have no antivirus protection (cannot enable shields, the "Fix Now" button in Avast! does nothing, etc.).

I ran Process Explorer to see what thread was causing the issue within the Avast! service, and it shows a total of six threads, the oldest of which is "stuck" and is responsible for the CPU utilization (it's continuously executing tons of context switches).  Start address is !CryptVerifySignatureW+0x17 - hoping that helps with the troubleshooting, but I suspect a bad update as well.  Will do some more digging and see what else I can accomplish.

DS

[antrox]

Today i have the same problem!
The computer worked from morning (torrents) and when I returned at night and rebooted it - Avast could not start their service! Manually too will not start! I rebooted it to install auto updates for WinXP.
Antivirus is not working and is not updated! Im in danger!

Services screenshot:

[DanielFS]

Hi folks,

I have both confirmed the suspicion that this has to do with a bad update and have worked out a fix.  Here's what I did:

* Rebooted in Safe Mode (with Networking, though this shouldn't matter)

* Went to my Avast! install directory (C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast5\ in my case, since I've been using it since version 5 and it appears to have kept the same directory even though it's now version 6)

* In C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast5\defs, I saw the file aswdefs.ini and four subdirectories:

 12011401
 12012401
 12012500
 12012500_stream

Not sure what the "stream" folder was about, but these were clearly virus definitions from January 14, 24, and 25th, respectively.

* I opened aswdefs.ini and changed the one entry in it from Latest=12012500 to Latest=12012401, then saved it.

* I moved the 12012500 and 12012500_stream folders to the recycle bin.

* I rebooted normally, but with my network cable unplugged (to make sure Avast! was unable to automatically update).

Problem solved - everything started fine.  I immediately went into the Avast UI and disabled automatic updates under Settings so as to avoid any future problems.  Will try a manual update to the newest defs plus a reboot right now to see if I can recreate the issue that way (after I back up the old defs, in case this actually works, since Avast! has a habit of deleting old defs after some time).

I hope this helps!

DS

[InfernoChaos]

I recently just got this issue today as well where Avast would not start up. The Fix Now button does not work at all and just starts up with a bid red X on the icon on the bottom right.

I would love try out DanielIFS's method, but unfortunately I am no where near computer savvy/literate enough to even think about trying what he did. 

[igor]

There appears to be a problem with the today's update - a new virus definition will be released very soon which should fix it.

[DanielFS]

Hi folks,

A follow-up - very interesting - so I updated to the most recent definitions (January 25) to see if I could reproduce the issue, but this time, no problem!  I rebooted my machine afterwards, and it starts just fine with the 1201250 defs.  If I look in the folder I mentioned above, where the defs are kept, the 1201250_stream subdirectory is gone, so likely that had something to do with what was happening.  With that in mind, I'm thinking that another fix may be to reboot in safe mode, go into the defs subdirectory, and take out any folders marked "stream".

If you're feeling brave (or the above simply doesn't work), you could even delete everything inside the defs subdirectory - my presumption is that Avast! will recover from this by simply downloading new definitions when you start normally once more.  If not, at worst you just download the defs manually, here:

http://www.avast.com/download-update

Good luck to all,

DS

[Verxz]

Hi. I have the same problem (avast wont run and fix now button does nothing), and im not very good at this stuff, but if i understood right, it will automatically upgrade to the working version soon?

[antrox]

it will automatically upgrade to the working version soon?

probably
otherwise too lot of other people will be left without protection.

but how it possible when service and updates not working?