0xc0000005 error - program will not initialize after install

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi,

I am a long time avast! user, and have used it on all of my PCs (Win2K, WinXP and Vista). Last night, my new Acer laptop (running Vista Home Premium), on which I had Avast 4.8 installed since purchase, decided to throw up on me. As I was composing an e-mail, the PC locked up. I did a reboot, and when the laptop rebooted, I received the dreaded 0xc0000005 error, saying “the application failed to initialize.” In addition, I received not one, but two Vista dialogs saying that the avast “GUI component” failed to start. As a result, no blue ball in my system tray. I uninstalled avast and reinstalled using my saved setupeng.exe copy - but no use. The first time, I received an error message stating that a service failed to start. So I uninstalled again, and tried to delete the “Alwil” folder in Program Files. Whoops - can’t do it, don’t have enough permissions. So I rebooted and logged in as administrator, and tried again to delete the folder. Uh oh - even as Administrator I couldn’t do it! I downloaded the aswclean.exe file that others have referred to on this forum, and ran it as administrator in safe mode - that appeared to clear it out. So I attempted to install again. No dice. Same 0xc0000005 error, same Vista dialogs about the GUI component. In order to at least use my computer, I had to download and install clamwin.

The PC came with Norton Internet Security 30-day trial, but I immediately uninstalled it prior to installing avast, and the PC ran flawlessly until last night. I recall it had just downloaded a new virus database, but the program itself did not update, so I don’t believe that was the culprit. I am running no Norton, McAfee, Zone Alarm, or other problematic programs. My laptop is an Acer Aspire 4520-5458, 1gb RAM, 120gb HDD, nVidia GeForce 7000M graphics, Windows Vista Home Premium, and I use Windows Defender, Spybot S&D, and Windows Firewall (though I may investigate more robust solutions for that).

I have searched the forums for this same problem, and while others have experienced similar issues, no one has experienced this particular problem - program stop while running. I have tried the steps outlined by others to reinstall, to no avail.

All of my Alwil folders have been deleted, so no install logs to look back upon. I could understand why a program might fail to initialize on first start, but not while running. I hope someone has some ideas on how to fix this issue, because I feel much safer with avast than with just about any other AV program.

TIA

dan

2

Is it the 4.8.1201 latest one?

You can’t install/uninstall avast if you’re logged as a common user (not admin).

  1. Remove NAV or any other Symantec product through Add/Remove programs from Control Panel. Boot.
  2. Use Norton Removal Tool for Windows 2000/XP/Vista. Boot.
  3. Install avast! (or repair the installation) and boot.
3

Thanks for the info! Yes, it was the 1201 build. My user account is set up as an “administrator,” but I know that doesn’t give me as much power as the true Administrator account (and even it couldn’t delete those directories without resorting to Safe Mode!). I will also try the NAV removal tool - I was aware that Norton left little bits of itself throughout the hard drive and registry, but always believed they were harmless until now. I’ll give the tool a try and report back.

4

Used Symantec’s NAV removal tool, reinstalled avast! as administrator, rebooted - same problem. The actual dialog box says “avast! service GUI component has stopped working.” I get two boxes like that on reboot, and the dialog box with the 0xc0000005 error.

I even tried installing avast! in safe mode, to no avail. I resist the thought of turning off UAC to make it work…especially since it worked just fine until last night.

I don’t understand why a service or an application that worked fine one minute would simply stop working in the next. I checked my Windows Updates, and the last Vista-specific update was downloaded and installed three days ago…so I don’t think that’s the problem. The other updates are all for Microsoft Office or Windows Live Mail. I downloaded and installed SP1 last weekend, so I don’t think that’s the problem either. But I’m pretty much a Vista novice (although I’ve used Windows and PCs for years), so there may be something else in Vista that somehow, out of the blue, decided to cause avast! to stop working.

I’ll do some more research and hopefully one of the fine folks on this forum will have another suggestion, or perhaps the developers will figure out what’s going on and release an updated version. In the meantime, I’m using clamwin to stay protected.

5

Some kind of myths for me… The Administrator account in under the Admin group… I think the power is the same…

We’re waiting for your input.

6

Vista has really handcuffed the Administrator account, as well - I have to go into safe mode to do anything as administrator.

See my post above. To make a long story short, after all my attempts avast! still doesn’t work.

7

In the hopes that someone will see this and know what’s going on…

I once again attempted to install avast! 4.8 last night. Prior to doing that, however, I have been hard at work making sure it’s not my computer that’s at fault. I ran memtest86 and it came up clean - no errors in my memory chips. I then took the plunge and ran CCleaner on my registry - it came up with quite a number of entries for Norton Internet Security that I wiped out. Then I downloaded and installed JKDefrag’s GUI interface - it’s quite a nice program, not only does it defrag the hard drive(s) but it also optimizes the registry and does a couple of dozen other things. I optimized the registry and then defragged the hard drive. I then attempted once again to install avast! 4.8. I ran the install program as administrator, and it seemed to install flawlessly - no errors. I rebooted, but once again on reboot I received a dialog box saying “avast! service GUI component has stopped working.” Then the dialog box with the 0xc0000005 error saying the program failed to initialize. So I once again had to use the Avast uninstall utility in safe mode to uninstall the program, and went back to Clamwin antivirus. (My company also allows us to download and use McAfee Virus Scan Enterprise edition - I may install that instead.)

I am at my wit’s end regarding this problem. I have double-checked all my Windows updates, ensuring that I didn’t get one on the day my avast! stopped working. I am frankly puzzled by the fact that it simply stopped working in the middle of a task, when it had been working flawlessly up until then. A side note: My wife’s computer and my daughter’s laptop both run Windows Vista, and both run avast! anti-virus, and neither has reported a problem. If it’s a computer hardware issue (which I still have not completely ruled out), then the laptop goes back where it came from and I get a new one. But if anyone has any insight on this issue, or any workarounds, or at least can give me an idea of what’s happening, I’d be grateful. I want to continue to use avast (and will on my other two computers) but I don’t want to keep beating my head against this brick wall. I know the developers are busy people, and I appreciate the fact that this forum is here for issues such as this. Please investigate and respond. Thanks

8

Well, either nobody knows what’s going on, or nobody wants to answer. But I think I determined that it was Service Pack 1 that was causing problems. I had to restore my hard drive to get rid of it, but I think things are back to normal.

Stay away from Service Pack 1!