[Avast 7] Mail Shield won't start

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

After a reinstall from scratch (ran aswclear) I can’t get Mail Shield to run even after several reinstalls. The shield status is showing: Please run the avast! service first to run this shield. Of course the service is running (and all the other shields too). The Mail.log file contains only:

27.2.2012	22:41:39	000006F4:   Started, Log = 1
27.2.2012	22:41:39	000006F4:   Build 7.0.1407
27.2.2012	22:41:39	000006F4:   OS Windows 7 Workstation (Service Pack 1)
27.2.2012	22:41:39	000006F4:   tdi.Initialize failed
27.2.2012	22:41:39	000006F4:   Stopped
27.2.2012	22:41:40	000006F4:   CATCH (...) in MainLoop
27.2.2012	22:41:40	000006F4:   CATCH (...) in DeInitApp

Weird thing is the setup log contains this:

27.02.2012	21:39:36.000	1330375176	(null)	Service avast! Mail Scanner uninstalled

even though it is the log for the install run. This is the only mention of the Mail scanner in the whole log file.

2

I forget which topic it was in, but I found a solution that worked.

Run aswclear again, then before you restart, open C:\Windows\system\drivers and look for any leftover files starting with “asw” and ending with “.sys”. Deleting those, restarting and installing once more fixed this for me.

3

I’ve unstalled and reinstalled three times without success. No aws* files in the driver directory. Same problem. Click on FIX ON does nothing. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

4

Same problem here.

This is from the log Mail.log.

2/27/2012 7:22:14 AM 00000774: Started, Log = 1
2/27/2012 7:22:14 AM 00000774: Build 7.0.1407
2/27/2012 7:22:14 AM 00000774: OS Windows 7 Workstation (Service Pack 1)
2/27/2012 7:22:14 AM 00000774: tdi.Initialize failed
2/27/2012 7:22:14 AM 00000774: Stopped
2/27/2012 7:22:14 AM 00000774: CATCH (…) in MainLoop
2/27/2012 7:22:14 AM 00000774: CATCH (…) in DeInitApp
2/27/2012 6:35:38 PM 00000790: Started, Log = 1
2/27/2012 6:35:38 PM 00000790: Build 7.0.1407
2/27/2012 6:35:38 PM 00000790: OS Windows 7 Workstation (Service Pack 1)
2/27/2012 6:35:38 PM 00000790: tdi.Initialize failed
2/27/2012 6:35:38 PM 00000790: Stopped
2/27/2012 6:35:38 PM 00000790: CATCH (…) in MainLoop
2/27/2012 6:35:38 PM 00000790: CATCH (…) in DeInitApp

This happens when I install from Safe mode. I can never get a successful install in normal windows mode. Gets stuck on installing the firewall NDIS driver.

Definitely serious problems with Avast’s install process. Perhaps the project was to ambitious for the resources at hand.

5

Hi guys, thanks for your logs. It seems to me that the line: Tdi Initialize failed. is going to be the rpoblem. I will look at the code a try to find out what might be causing it - as soon as the sun rises.

lukas

6

Hi

Mail Shield down and real time shield not working. Please fix this very urgently.

7

Same problem here.

I solved this by installing avast 6 and an upgrade to avast 7. After that, avast 7 is running fine…

8

I got the same problem here with Windows 7, but I didn’t install it on Safe Mode.

9

Same problem. Windows 7 Professional x64 SP1 Russian. Uninstalled avast 6 in safe mode using Avast Uninstall Utility (was having problems with auto update hanging). Rebooted in normal mode, downloaded installer, installed and mail shield won’t start.

Thought it could be related to the problem with the update hanging, so I downloaded the fix released yesterday but it returned error 11 which means that there is no problem for that fix to fix.

I don’t have real need in mail shield but it’s a bug that should be fixed :slight_smile:

10

After aswclear under Windows Safe Mode, search for possible remnant folders “avast*” or “alwil*” and delete them.

Also look into “C:/windows/system32/drivers/” for avast drivers left starting with “asw*”, specially "aswdrd2.sys. Delete them.

Now reboot into Normal Mode and install avast.

A new program update will also come soon.

11

Success on 10th try. Didn’t change anything or deleted anything manually (on first try I checked the drivers folder, but there was nothing there, even checked the driver keys in registry, but there were no orphaned avast entries), just did install → uninstall (+ aswclear) 9 times and on 10th install everything started working, so no clue what the issue is.

12

Hi guys,
we have finally found the problem that is causing this bug.

One driver that is needed for correct startup of MailShield (and also for correct operation of WebShield) is incorrectly installed. (on Win7 only)
It is caused by the aswclear ver. 6, that is unaware of the fact, that it has been renamed in Avast7 for Win7 OSs to aswrdr2.sys and leaves it there on the system, which again (and this is probably a bug) causes setup not to install it correctly next time.

We will fix it in the next build, for now, please use the following .reg file to import the missing settings into the registry. (please note, you will have to disable Avast Self-Defense features before the import and re-enable it after).

Steps:

  1. Go to settings/troubleshooting and uncheck “Enable Avast! Self-defense module”
  2. Download the following link and open it - click on it. The message box appear informing you that this will change registry. Click Yes.

http://public.avast.com/~rypacek/aswrdr/aswrdr-win7-installation-fix.reg

  1. After successful registry import, you should see another message box confirming it. It it shows an error, probably you haven’t gone through the step 1.
  2. Re-enable avast! self defense, similary to step 1
  3. reboot

Lukas.

13

lukor, no issues here for me with the mail shield on a completely clean install of the latest 7 installer so would there be any benifit in myself running this fix - or not needed ? more so for the reason that you say this affected the webshield as well.

14

I also can’t start Mail shield.
EDIT: Finally fixed. Thanks

15

Danny96, thanks for the edit, I was a little surprised that the fix did not help for you.
Lukas.

16

I think he originally posted before running the fix.

Is this fix worth running even if there are no noticable problems Lukas?

17

If posted before fix, that it has no value.

This fix only installs aswrdr driver, if it was not installed correctly. Works only on Windows7, where the problem is found - or more precisely it SHOULD NOT be run on other system. Also, if you don’t see such problems (e.g. Mail Shield is started, Web Shield shows scanned URL) there is no point of running the fix - it won’t do a thing.

18

No worries, thanks for the reply :slight_smile:

19

So there wili be an update to fix that available via autoupdate? I don’t need to fix that immediately but I don’t want my current avast installation to be corrupted in any way.

20

I don’t understand the question. Is your avast installation corrupted?