Avast Background Process starts but get no interface

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Evening all,

I have Avast free antivirus installed but when i left click the system tray icon or the start menu shortcut, the avast service runs in task manger but i get nothing opening on my desktop.

I have done the usual restart, full shut down and back on again. I have uninstalled through control panel, used the avastclear utility. I have installed with the online installer and the full offline installer.

I have repaired avast, modified avast by removing and adding install options. I have installed with the bare essentials. I have removed any remaining folders from the uninstall when using control panel or the avastclear utility.

I am running Windows 10 Pro 64bit, fully up to date. New PC build last month.

The only thing i can find is this error:

"Code integrity determined that the image hash of a file is not valid. The file could be corrupt due to unauthorized modification or the invalid hash could indicate a potential disk device error.

File Name: \Device\HarddiskVolume4\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\wsc_proxy.exe"

Hard Disk Volume 4 is my 3rd visible partition which is 2 1TB drives in a raid 0. Drivers are fully up to date and had no issue with Avast opening until i tried to check Avast today.

Because of the above event, I scanned all drives using chkdsk /f /r with no error on drives.

Event ID was 5038.

I have also tried AVG Free in case it was just an UI issue, I get the same issue.

I tried another virus checker that is not AVG or Avast and have no issue with their UI opening.

Any help appreciated

2

Do Repair Avast:

  1. Avast GUI → Settings → Troubleshooting
  2. Click on ‘REPAIR APP’.
  3. Follow instructions.
  4. Reboot.
3

Thank you for the reply.

The issue is I can not access the GUI/UI. It will not open. I can get the repair option if I try to remove Avast from Program and Features. I mentioned this in my original post that I have already tried this method.

4

If Repair doesn’t fix the problem, try the following:
If your Avast settings are not the default settings and you want them restored after the Clean Install, follow this before removing Avast.
https://goo.gl/TXjM7h
Clean Install of Avast:
https://goo.gl/4Ptzkf

5

I can not do the first option as i can not access the GUI/UI, it will not display on the desktop when I open from the system tray or start menu.

Per my original post, I have used the avastclear uninstall utility, all with the same results.

6

You could try the latest beta: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=227253.0 And see if the problem return or not? but before install this beta remove prev avast by avastclear uninstall utility.

OR
https://support.avast.com/en-in/article/Troubleshoot-Antivirus-UI-Failed-load

7

Unfortunately the beta did not work, I am now getting the application error AvastUi.exe The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0150004). Click OK to close the application, with Event ID’s 7000 and 26.

This is happening with the beta and now the stable version.

8

Submitting a support file using the Avast Support Tool:https://support.avast.com/en-in/article/Submit-support-file

you can provide the support File ID here.I will report it to avast dev.

9

Hello, I submitted the report on the 19th but have not heard anything back.

The FILE ID was C5M65

10

→ https://support.avast.com/article/Troubleshoot-Antivirus-UI-Failed-load

11

The Avast UI does not even get that far. No window will open on the desktop. An instance will appear in Task Manager and nothing else happens.

12

I am notified avast dev let see…

13

One other thing to consider…You haven’t said how you are getting the installation files.

Running the online stub installer sometimes results in exactly the same issues you are reporting. These issues likely are happening because a critical file is lost or corrupted in transit or network glitch happens. Most of the time the online installer works satisfactorily, but sometimes it does not.

Try downloading the full offline installer and run that instead.

14

+1
“Try downloading the full offline installer and run that instead”.

That has happened to me in the past and the direction is spot on.

15

Thank you Be Secure for following up and thank you Mchain and Schmidthouse for the replies.

I mentioned in my original post that I tried the offline installer. I got the file from this link https://www.avast.com/installation-files.

I have since done a full wipe and clean install of Windows 10 Pro 64bit. I did a full Windows update and driver install then I tried the latest version of Avast Free antivirus (19.5.2378) using the full offline installer.

The issue is still present.

16

Next step is a clean install.

Clean Install of Avast:
https://goo.gl/4Ptzkf
If you need additional help with the Clean Install, watch this:
https://youtu.be/p-h3myRD51A

17

Unfortunately I have done this several times including a full wipe of the PC and a clean install of Windows 10 Pro 64bit.

The latest offline version of Avast free antivirus was used and was installed before any other program was installed.

18

Hopefully Avast can give you an answer based on your support file submission.

19

Hopefully and thank you for your suggestion.

20

Hi knightstalker83,
I found error 0xc015004 which might point to broken redists in system event log.
0xc015004 - STATUS_SXS_ASSEMBLY_NOT_FOUND: The referenced assembly is not installed on your system. There are no errors or warnings in AvasUI.log.

Can you make a procmon log and upload it to avast ftp server ?

  1. download procmon (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon)
  2. Run it as admin
  3. Open Avast UI and induce the issue
  4. Save the procmon log Menu → File → Save … → All event , Native Process Monitor Format
  5. Zip the log file as knightstalker83_6_2019.zip and upload it to avast ftp : ftp://ftp.avast.com/incoming (https://support.avast.com/en-eu/article/FTP-file-upload)
    Thank you for report !