[Avast Free] Avast is off all the time and refuses to turn on. What do?

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I’ve been having the same problem for a couple months. I recently upgraded to Windows 8.1 (from Win7, did a proper hdd wipe) and the problem popped up again shortly after the installation.

Basically Avast won’t turn on. I see this screen:

http://i.imgur.com/bYlI3Uc.png

when I click ‘Resolve All’, the window freezes (goes into Not Responding mode) for about 60 seconds and then I get this other window:

http://i.imgur.com/fbHE12d.png

I click no but then it goes back to the first screen, Avast is still off. I still get periodic notifications of ‘Avast! Virus database has been updated’ but the thing still appears as off. I’m worried I might have a virus that’s doing this, maybe one of the programs I use is doing it and that’s why the problem persisted through a Windows reinstall.

I tried going into safe mode and doing a full scan. I also uninstalled Avast using the official uninstall utility in safe mode and then reinstalled it. It worked fine until the next restart, when it started misbehaving again.

Help. ;-;

2
  • Which version of avast! Free…??
  • OS…?? (32/64 Bit…?)
  • Other security related software installed…??
  • Which AV(s) did you use before avast!..??
3
  • Latest, I think (2014.9.0.2018)
  • Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
  • Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and anything that came with Windows (like Windows Firewall and Windows Defender)
  • None. I’ve been using Avast for many years

Any idea what my problem could be? :frowning:

4

Sounds very much like possible ‘remnants’ issue somewhere that’s corrupting your current installation.
Possibly not everything that needed to be ininstalled from previous installations was uninstalled.
Just a thought

5
  1. Download avast! Free Antivirus: http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_free_antivirus_setup.exe
  2. Follow instructions: http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility (Run this tool for all prior installed avast! versions…!!)
  3. Reinstall avast! with the downloaded installer from point 1.
  4. Reboot.
6

I already tried that, like I said before. Even went on safe mode to run the uninstall utility. That was back in win7 though, I guess I’ll try again when I get back from work. Will post results then, thanks!

7

NP, awaiting your reply.