AIS Uninstall Failure

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi,

Has anyone come across a recurring bug w/the AIS installation utility that causes uninstallation to fail? My platform is Windows 7 x64, fully patched. Since the 1091 update, WebRep stopped functioning in any browser, and I haven’t been able to correctly uninstall AIS using the in-built uninstaller.

I’ve used aswclear (the most recent version) but it doesn’t remove the WebRep plugins, and upon reinstalling AIS again, WebRep continues to be broken.

Here’s the event log detail after the setup utility crashes during uninstall:

Faulting application name: avast.setup, version: 5.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x4dac77ce
Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 6.1.7601.17514, time stamp: 0x4ce7ba58
Exception code: 0xc0000374
Fault offset: 0x000ce653
Faulting process id: 0x16a8
Faulting application start time: 0x01cc082bf11786d7
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\setup\avast.setup
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ntdll.dll
Report Id: 4df42669-741f-11e0-95a7-005056c00008

Since I’m sure someone will want system specs:

AMD Phenom x4 3.2GHz
8GB DDR2
2x 1TB disks
Windows 7 x64 (as mentioned in the post)

Only other security software is Prevx, and the uninstall failure occurs regardless of whether it’s loaded or unloaded.

EDIT FWIW, I managed to get the uninstaller to work correctly in safe mode (took 3 tries, with it crashing at the same point: removing virutalization support) - I then ran aswclear, which didn’t actually remove any of the AVAST/Alwil folders from ProgramData, or the primary folders from C:\Program Files, so I removed those by hand. Despite running aswclear, the webrep plugins were still not removed from IE9, FF or Chrome, so it still doesn’t work for any of those browsers. I guess I’ll try one more time to uninstall, aswclear, manually remove folders and manually remove the extensions/plugins from the browsers at which point I’m going to give up.

2

Download AIS by clicking on the blue AIS in my signature. Install over existing installation. Then with AIS installed, try to uninstall webrep from within the Avast GUI.
(See screenshot)

Reboot and reinstall webrep.

Reboot once more.

Is webrep working now?

BTW: how do you know webrep is not working? What are the symptoms?

3

The MD5 of the installer I downloaded earlier this morning matches the one you requested I download via your sig, so I’ve already run the same installer with no change in the condition of webrep, even after fully removing every single trace left by the uninstaller as well as stuff left by aswclear.

I tried using the uninstall/reinstall commands within the application itself (illustrated in your screenshots, first without rebooting, then uninstall/reboot/reinstall/reboot) before I started trying a clean install of AIS.

While the plugin does load (there’s always a grey webrep icon), it’s not displaying any reputation data at all. Visiting popular sites (MSN, facebook, this forum, avast.com, etc) illicits “this site has no rating” from the webrep plugin, regardless of the browser. Also, selecting a content category and submitting a rating for a site doesn’t work.

Also, another issue with the plugin with regard to chrome (ultimately, the whole reason I’ve gotten stuck in this situation) - my dad (this is his PC I’m working on) removed the webrep plugin using chrome’s “uninstall extension” option after it hadn’t been showing anything but grey bars since the 1091 update. As far as I’ve been able to tell, there’s no way to get WebRep to even show up in Chrome again once it’s been “uninstalled” via chrome unless you flat out remove chrome from the computer and start over with a clean install of the browser with a clean install of AIS. No amount of “uninstall plugin, reinstall plugin” via AIS w/or w/out reboots will make chrome load it again once it’s been removed from the browser as described.

4

That always happens if there is a problem on the webrep-servers… not a fault of the plug-in…

Can you specify that? What does “doesn’t work” mean exactly?

5

I would also recommend a quick scan with Antimalware Malwarebytes…

Click on blue MBAM in my sig, download free version, install, start, perform update via tab in the MBAM GUI (important!) and then run a quick scan and post the log here. The quick scan only takes a few minutes.

Just to make sure there is nothing bad that causes false behavior.

6

To install the plug in to chrome again, just drag the “AswWebRepChrome.crx” from the “C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast5\WebRep\Chrome” in the chrome browser…

7

selecting a rating, and category and clicking “vote” leaves the webrep plugin display open. clicking the icon makes it disappear again. clicking it once again, it doesn’t show any category or rating for the site in question. it’s like no vote or categorical information was ever submitted. i’m assuming that it operates similar to WOT where you submit a rating for a site and it remembers what was submitted and displays it when you invoke the button again. if that’s not the case, and the plugin has no idea what a user has rated/categorized a site with, then i guess it’s working.

8

thanks for that info.

9

Nope, you’re right, it should remember - it’s not working properly…

10

i’m familiar with MBAM; both prevx and MBAM came back clean.

just ran it again:

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 1.50.1.1100
www.malwarebytes.org

Database version: 6485

Windows 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1
Internet Explorer 9.0.8112.16421

5/1/2011 1:37:26 PM
mbam-log-2011-05-01 (13-37-26).txt

Scan type: Quick scan
Objects scanned: 171649
Time elapsed: 47 second(s)

Memory Processes Infected: 0
Memory Modules Infected: 0
Registry Keys Infected: 0
Registry Values Infected: 0
Registry Data Items Infected: 0
Folders Infected: 0
Files Infected: 0

Memory Processes Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Memory Modules Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Keys Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Values Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Data Items Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Folders Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Files Infected:
(No malicious items detected)
11

Hmmm… I’m out of ideas, tbh, since you even uninstalled and reinstalled.

I’m afraid I can’t help you any further, maybe someone else will step in here with more / better ideas. Only thing that comes to my mind would be prevx conflicting somehow… You could try to uninstall prevx, but that’s just a wild idea.

12

One more thing: you don’t have a third-party firewall installed?

Your network is set to “private / home network”?

13

nope, no third party firewall, just AIS. w7 is set to “home network”, ais is set to the default (this is like the 10th time i’ve cleaned up and reinstalled it…haven’t made any config adjustments at all)

like i mentioned in my original post - i unloaded prevx (so the icon’s present but all protection components are disabled) and it made no difference.

ultimately, my big concern was that the uninstaller crashes on this machine unless it’s run from safe mode. webrep not working isn’t a dealbreaker for my dad, but i’ve spent enough time screwing around with AIS today that i’m not real keen on messing with it today :wink:

thanks for your suggestions though, i appreciate it

14

I’m sorry I can’t help you with this issue… Awkward Avast behavior though. Maybe a developer will step in to this thread.

Cheers
Zyndstoff