Avast and Windows Security Centre stopped functioning

Viruses and worms
1

It started with the spinning circle while trying to open Windows 7. After several failed attempts I went into Safe Mode. Avast was no longer working. I reinstalled Avast (in ‘safe mode with networking’), but got error message ‘Avast background service is not working’, and ‘You are unprotected’ message. I was unable to open as scan. Windows Security Centre service can’t be started. Is this a malware problem? I have scanned three times with Maleware bytes, but nothing found.

Any help much appreciated.

2

hey and welome to the avast forum. quick question how did you uninstall avast throught windos add/remove programs or with they uninstall tool?

if you want a check up on your computer please follow this guide

https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=53253.0

from there attach the logs from mbam frst+additional.

a malware expert will check thoose loga and help you out.

3

Thanks. I didn’t actually uninstall Avast, but just did a new download assuming it would overwrite the earlier one. I’ll follow your advice and run mbam, which I have on the problem PC, by using ‘safe mode and networking’ and post the log(s) - on this thread I guess as the link you gave is for information only. I trust I have understood correctly - I am not an advanced user.

4

Please follow the scans in this topic and attach as many of the logs as you can run.
Logs to assist in cleaning malware

Come back and ask if you have any questions or don’t know how to do something in the scans requested. Thanks.

5

Thank you. Here are the logs of the mbam scan, Farbar FRST and Additions and MBR. Hope these help.

6

Let us see if this gets you booting normally again.

Open notepad by pressing the Windows Key + R Key, typing in Notepad in the Run dialog and then pressing Enter. Please copy the contents of the Code box below. To do this highlight the contents of the box by clicking [Select] next to Code: , then right click on any of the highlighted text and select copy. Paste this into the open notepad. Save it to your desktop as fixlist.txt


CloseProcesses:
LastRegBack: 2015-07-14 17:47
Reboot:

NOTE. It’s important that both files, FRST64 and fixlist.txt are in the same location or the fix will not work. You may have to move FRST64 from your Downloads directory to your desktop (best place to put it; we will remove later).

NOTICE: This script was written specifically for this user, for use on that particular machine. Running this on another machine may cause damage to your operating system

Run FRST64 by right clicking on the FRST64.exe file, selecting “Run as Administrator…”. The User Account Control may open up; if it does, select Yes to continue to let FRST open and load.

The tool will check for an updated version of itself every time it loads; please allow it to do this and the program will either inform you it is downloading an updated copy (and to wait until it is safe to continue) or show nothing (meaning there is no update found) and you can continue on. Press the Fix button just once and wait. The tool will process the script and ask for a restart of your system.

http://i1351.photobucket.com/albums/p785/dbreeze2/just%20stuff/Press%20the%20FIX%20button_zpsdd5zi3mt.png

If for some reason the tool needs a restart, please make sure you let the system restart normally. After that let the tool complete its run.

When finished FRST will generate a log on the Desktop (Fixlog.txt). Please attach it to your reply post. Also, tell me how your system is running now.

7

Thanks for your help. I moved FRST64 to the desktop, then ran FRST64, which did indeed download the log to the desktop after it had done the restart (normal not safe mode, which I have been using). The desktop opened OK, but the spinning circle appeared when I moved it down to the icons in the bar as the bottom of the screen. Then the message box came up with cancel or end process again. I clicked end process and now have the blank blue screen. I better switch off using the on/off button of the PC and open again in safe mode in due course. I’m sending this message from another computer (a Mac so I can’t really transfer - and it might nor be safe to do so anyway). I’ll try and send the fixlog when I get back into safe mode on the problem PC.

8

Here is the fixlog file.

9

Hate to ask the obvious question but did you try the Repair Your Computer option in the Advanced Boot Options menu (the menu you use to get to Safe Mode)?

If you can get to the System Recovery Options menu, please choose the Command Prompt, type in sfc /scannow and press ENTER.

Let me know how this goes for you.

10

I went into the Repair your computer option and ‘system recovery’ and ran sfc/scannow. The result was ‘There is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart Windows and run sfc again’. I did this and got ‘Windows error recovery’ saying it did not shut down successfully. (Will donate in due course - a bit nervous to give details at this stage.)

11

One other thing to try before we pull in the big guns >>>>

Go back to the Repair Your Computer option in the Advanced Boot Options menu; then the System Recovery Options menu. Choose the System Restore and pick one of the restore points (there is an option to choose a Restore Point to use other than the last one) before the problem started.

12

It took a while to do system restore, but the result is: 'System Restore did not complete successfully. Your computer’s system files and settings were not changed. Details: An unspecified error occurred during System Restore. (0x80070002)

I should note that I did a system restore before starting this thread, but without success, so this time I took a date even earlier.

13

Update. After the Windows Recovery error message as cited above, the PC started doing some updates, but I had to do a hard closedown (power button) to stop it as I was going out before it finished (had only done 8%). I booted it up in safe mode when I got back and this time got a message "System Restore completed successfully…'. I booted again (in normal nor safe mode this time), but still get the spinning disk (and have done the usual hard shut down).

14

I suspect that the “hard closedown” (multiple times) is corrupting your system files.

Please run the following tools from the command prompt (it does not matter if this is the Recovery Environment or Safe Mode):

CHKDSK /R

This will want to run during the next system boot; allow this to happen and reboot the system so it will run.

After that, return to the command prompt and run the following:

sfc /scannow

15

Sorry to be slow - it was quite a job. I attached the CBS log, but when I tried to post an error message came up saying it was too large. Not sure what to do.

16

Did the routines run to completion or did you see error messages and/or the routine stop with the error?

17

Ah - I see now in the Administrator: Command Prompt box after the scan that it also said 'Windows Resource Prtection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.

18

You can zip (compress) the CBS file and use a file sharing site to upload it. Dropbox is fine and then you can PM me the download link.

Next, do you have access to a Win7 OS installation disk?

19

I’m not sure if I managed to ‘PM’ you the dropbox link - I tried. I added the link in the message box and clicked your name beneath the send box. Hope it got through?

No, I am afraid my pc did not come with a Windows 7 install disk.

20

Scrap trying to zip the CBS log file as windows will not let you do that anyway.

Run a Command Prompt (cmd.exe) window and type this in then press enter.

findstr /c:“[SR]” %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log >sfcdetails.txt

This will select only the entries in the CBS log that SFC put in there and copy them to the sfcdetails.txt file. Attach the sfcdetails.txt file to a post here for my review. Thanks.

See you posted anyway while I was typing; not a problem. Please run the command posted here anyway.

Oh and you did the PM correctly! Very good!