Avast and System Restore

First off, System specs:

Model: Asus G60VX-RBBX05
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU p7450 @ 2.13GHZ / core
RAM: 4.00 GB DDR2
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M
HDD: 320 GB (48.8 free)
Current version of avast!: 6.0.1367

Okay, now that that is out of the way, I will go ahead and say I know a bit about computers. I’m not your A+ Certified IT technician, but I was the computer guy in my family growing up and in college I furthered my interest even more. I have already searched the forums for a solution, but I had already tried all the suggestions before I even got to this point, so needless to say I’m frustrated and now accepteing any help I can get. Now the problem: I did a system restore and now avast won’t work. Symptoms being complete non-responsiveness and multiple errors. When I open up the UI the screen says “UNSECURED.” Below that it says “Urgent: avast! service stopped,” which is followed by “The avast! antivirus program has been stopped, or is an inconsistent state. Please restart the program to resume protecting your system.” =[
What I’ve attempted so far:

  1. Of course I started off with the big “FIX NOW” button. Nada. It hangs for a bit and gives me the busy cursor likes it’s trying something but to no avail.
  2. Next I tried the more subtle “Start program” link. Same exact response as the first attempt.
  3. Go into Task Manager and look at the services. Sure enough, service “avast! Antivirus” has been stopped. I try to start it up and get “The avast! Antivirus service on Local Computer started and then stopped. Some services stop automatically if they are not in use by other services or programs.”
  4. Well, I figure I’ll just try a clean install. I go to uninstall it from the control panel and get "Error reading product data from “C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast5\setup". Setup cannot continue.”
  5. Well, I was then pretty well stumped at this point and decided to look to the web. Opened up the forum for this next suggestion: repair. Open back up Control Panel and select avast! Antivirus and I can’t get past the last step I just mentioned. No choice to repair or uninstall before I get that error.
  6. Another suggestion from the forums: try updating manually from the avast! website. Downloaded the latest updates found in the file “vpsupd,” run it and then get the same exact error from attempt 4 above.

Well, as you can imagine I am beyond stumped. Like I said, I’m not A+ certified, but I thought I knew more than the average joe. This is just too much for me. I can’t modify the files in anyway without getting the stated errors or just no response whatsoever. I would prefer not to remain unprotected so quick responses are GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!

Sorry to ask but, after each of those attempts, have you tried rebooting? Please do it now and report back.

Yeah, I forgot to throw that in there the first time, but I definitely had done a reboot. I think I even did it three or more times even knowing full well the saying, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.” On flip side, once I got out of that rut, I went back to the webs and started googling away with quotes around my errors and other shenanigans and found something useful: avast! Uninstall Utility! I followed the instructions on the page, and it worked like a charm! I proceeded to reinstall avast! 7, and it’s up and running! Thanks for your quick reply! And I hope this thread will help anyone else who runs into this problem after doing a system restore!

Glad you solved the problem and thanks for the feedback.

Generally speaking, avast 6 had some issues with System Restore.

Also generally speaking, installing over the current installation and rebooting (without uninstalling first) should solve the conflict (for the time being).

Avast Team mentioned that avast 7 should have less conflicts with System Restore, but it’s too early to confirm this.

You’r a a saviour…

Spent all day yesterday trying to sort identical problem. Just happened to google the query and found this post.

Many many thanks,

Martin

If it helps http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=88315.msg753892#msg753892