AIS Firewall Problem (Cannot be switched on) - V5.1.889

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I’ve got avast! Internet Security installed on my laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium (with all the avast! updates switched on and everything up-to-date when I went to the office this morning), and today I started getting a warning symbol over the avast! icon in my system tray indicating the firewall was switched off.

When I open avast! to turn the firewall on, I get a pop-up dialogue that says “Unable to start Firewall!!”. Nothing else. No error codes or anything.

I ran a complete scan and avast! pronounced the computer clean.

I have restarted the computer four times already (twice after switching off, removing the battery and power cord and waiting an hour), but I still cannot switch the firewall on. As a temporary measure I have turned the Windows firewall back on, but am pretty unhappy having to do this.

I don’t use the laptop on my company’s network since the MIS team we have are complete morons and the whole system is a digital typhoid station or viruses, worms and malware. What few file transfers I do at work use text e-mail sent to my mobile that’s then copied and pasted into a plain text file and Bluetoothed to my laptop.

Can anyone possibly give me some pointers on how to fix this issue? I want my AIS back!

Thanks in advance.

bwob

2

Do you have any other firewall software installed?

First, try a repair:

  • Go to Control Panel>Programs.
  • Select avast! Internet Security.
  • Scroll down to where it says Repair. Select it and click next.
  • Reboot.

If that doesn’t work try a clean install:

  • Download the latest version of AIS here
  • Download the avast! Uninstall Utility here
  • Reboot your PC
  • Uninstall avast! in Control Panel>Programs. Reboot.
  • Start up in Safe mode. Run the uninstall utiity. Reboot.
  • Reinstall avast.
3

Just the Windows Firewall. The machine came with the Norton poo HP seems to have been coerced into adding, but I uninstalled it.

Thanks Glooby, I’ll give that a shot and pass along the results.

bwob

4

Glooby, I uninstalled the old version, used V6 a little bit, removed it and put in the newest V5 installer.

I am happy to report that AIS V5 is running perfectly.

Thanks for the help. I owe you a Sam Adams (or similar) if I ever make it back to the 'States.

bwob