Shortly after I booted up my machine this evening, as Avast was updating, there was an error message saying (as far as I remember it) “AVASTSVC has caused an error and will be shut down by Windows. You will have to restart the program”.
There seemed to be no way of getting Avast to work again, and all protection appears to be turned off, so I downloaded the current version, uninstalled Avast, and re-installed it, which went OK until I tried to update the definitions, when exactly the same thing happened.
I’m posting this via my laptop, which I have set to manual updates! I haven’t a clue what to do next. My operating system is Windows 2000 Pro.
Looks like I’m in the same boat here. Same os too. I tried the idea in one of the threads of doing Add/Remove programs, and Repair on the Avast entry. I think it tried to update the dat files, but Avast was still dead. The Fix and Start program buttons don’t accomplish anything except use a little cpu for a few seconds. I strongly suspect corrupted .dat files, so I’m not going to try doing anything like a reinstall.
What settings are you using for updates? This may seem a little redundant but can you run a scan?
Have you tried to scan with your other security software? ???
I tried to run a scan just now, although I am not currently administrator, but I should still be able to run a scan. The popup says “Unable to start scan. There are no more endpoints available from the endpoint mapper.”
I have not tried using other security software to run a scan, since I don’t have any anti-virus software except avast.
I strongly suspect corrupted definition files, as Jack mentioned. Everything was fine till I was in the middle of the definitions update this morning. Avast did its update thing, but died somewhere in the middle. I forget the exact sequence, but I think that unsecured notice appeared in the main avast summary window, along with the x’d-out icon in the systray.
With Avast on ‘Summary>Current Status’ it says “Unsecured” and if you click on “Fix now” you get the message “The following components could not be started: Mail Shield, File System Shield, Web Shield, Script Shield, Behavior Shield, Network Shield”. I don’t have P2P and IM installed, so that’s nothing working.
I’m off for a good night’s kip now(!) but my current plan, on the basis that the problem is a faulty update, is to do another re-install in the morning, when there should be another update available and see if that will work. I’ll check here first to see if anyone has managed to sort it out in the mean time!
SAME PROBLEM here with WINDOWS 2000 Pro SP4!!! >:(
All is dead. Set the Update from automatically to manual after I did a backup from 30.07.2011.
But the virus definitions are old now.
All shields are disabled.
I may have missed it but, which edition (Free / Pro / AIS) are we talking about? Which version of Avast?
If Windows is not “up-to-date” (for example, Win 2k with SP4 at least) then update it before reinstalling Avast.
How much RAM and free HDD space do you have? Have you check that you get to at least the minimum resources needed by the current Avast?
The current stable version of Avast is 6.0.1203. You may download older free stable versions from http://www.filehippo.com. (BTW, the old version 4.8 is still supported too, for now.)
Please clean you web browser’s cache.
If it is not “too difficult”, and you are sure that other components (soft and hard) are working correctly (no corruption of general files / file system), then I would suggest a new download, probably of the previous stable version (6.0.889 I think) instead of the latest, and then use the Clean Uninstall Utility from http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility directly under Windows Safe Mode.
Then reboot in Normal mode and install anew using the new downloaded setup (again, better to start with the previous stable version instead of the latest one).
In Avast → settings → updates → select the option to use “direct connection (no proxy)”. This may solve some problems when Avast updates the database.
Then try using that version for some days, updating the database and engine only (not the program). If in this situation all works correctly, then keep using that version with normal database updates at least until the next stable is ready (and then wait for some additional days too).
If any of these questions and/or steps are not clear enough or you get some problem in the process, please come back to ask, reporting the details of the problem.
Have you tried a Manual update of VPS - Avast! Manual Virus Definitions Update Download - avast! Virus Definitions Update - Manual Download VPS Update (virus definitions, vpsupd.exe, approx 31MB). - Save the file to your hard disk, locate where you saved it and double click it and that should carry out the virus definitions update.
Note: Ignore the file name in the images of the page that is displayed after clicking the download link, they are for the main program, not for vpsupd.exe which will be downloaded.
I believe you. Maybe something I said was giving a different impression? Several users posting in the same post with the same problem but with slightly different systems!
I have the same problem in my Win2000 system! During the last update I received the same error message. Uninstalled and reinstalled Avast and it was OK, but when start the update, returns the error. Sorry for my English ;D
The database release might be corrupt, but we don’t know (yet) if downloading the VPS manually and applying it actually solves the database corruption.
After downloading the VPS manually and applying it, reboot into Windows Safe Mode, go to administrative tools → services and check the “autostart” of Avast Service. The reboot into Normal Mode.
If then the manual download of the VPS solves the problem, great. If it doesn’t, then we will probably see a new update available at http://www.avast.com/virus-update-history and when you do, you might have to repeat the manual download again with the new database (and maybe the activation of the autostart service too).
@ ady48um If the update is corrupt it should be on everyone else’s machine and my machine is fine. So doing a manual download is still downloading the same file. I would follow DavidR’s advice. Going back to an older version wouldn’t solve anything either since it is still downloading the same vps. DavidR knows what he is talking about.
