Avast(Free) dies during update. Major panic!!!!

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
21

Something is interacting in those systems (win2k sp4 ?) with the normal automatic partial download.

I think you are confused, or not reading carefully. I do NOT have the problem. I’m helping.

Downloading the full VPS as DavidR instructed could be useful simply because the complete set of files is replaced, not just a partial update. But that’s not the only part that may be involved, and until more reports (and solutions) are actually seen here, I am not discarding anything. The previous stable version with a new full VPS manually downloaded might get a working system to some of these users reporting the problem.

The logic I used, and the instructions, are adequate for the current state of the problem. Once we KNOW what exactly is the combination that provokes the problem, then the instructions and solutions can be improved.

22

No. Rebooted 1000 times. avast! is dead.

I hope, that a new update will solve the problem soon… :cry:

23

Hi David,

no, I didn’t try this.
I want to wait till I can update automatically again.

Because of my Acronis-Backup the programm is now allrigt again. Just the updates are old (30.07.2011).
I think, I can wait till tomorrow and hope that a new update will be o.k…

24

Seems to be isolated to Win2K. Update will cause Avast to stop working.
Reinstalled Avast and performed auto update and same issue.
Reinstalled Avast and performed manual update and was working until reboot of system. Now same issue.
Most likely something in the actual update file and Win2K.

25

Thank you for the feedback, momaru!

…and welcome to the forum! :wink:

26

The point I was making is to let those with more experience assist those with the issues. :slight_smile:

27

First, for those having problems, my apologies for this little OT.

@Para-Noid, I am “afraid” my words now may sound “aggressive” or alike in some way, so please don’t misunderstand me. There is no such intention.
With the information provided by those users having problems to this point, Is there anything I wrote that is incorrect or inadequate in some way? Or something that contradicts what David wrote? I really would like to know.

28

I am very certain it is isolated to win2k (it’s win2k pro sp4 btw) because I have systems running xp, vista, and 7, all without issues so far. My win2k system only has the usual adobe, java, ms office services running in the background. I’m not saying it can’t be some other third party program causing the issue, but from reading the current posts, it does seem like it is win2k itself and whatever is in that update.

Of course, it may be getting to the point where Avast is at it’s limit for win2k support. :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks for the welcome ~SKY~.

29

I confirm same symptoms as in Moriarty’s original post, and my machine is also W2K-SP4.

Had been working fine until this new 6.0.1203 update. Current Status tab says “unsecured”, “service stopped”, and neither the “Fix Now” nor “Start Program” buttons on that page seem to do anything.

30

Same problem here! And I’m also running Win 2k Pro SP4.

The problem definitely occurs during a engine/definition update.

Upon seeing the problem and not being able to fix it, I restored my whole system from backup. The problem quickly recurred. I thought huh??? not realizing that my restoration was being modified by Avast’s automatic update. I restored again… same problem! I restored a third time, this time uninstalling Avast right away and then re-installing it. Finally it worked (yay!)… for about 5 minutes. Then the same thing again! Aaargh!

Then I remember the last time I wasted a lot of time fixing a problem not of my making… caused by a corrupt Avast definition. So I came here and found to be true what I was then suspecting.

So I restored my system AGAIN, this time disconnecting my internet service long enough to turn off Avast’s auto restore. Now everything is fine.

I hope Alwil is watching this board and will fix this problem. It’s not guaranteed given that Win 2k is obsolete (in most people’s minds, not mine).

31

Another Win2k-SP4 user here who has the same problem, the autoupdate today broke the Avast service so the real time shields are not working. The repair option ran without any errors but the Avast service still crashes. So I had to reinstall and stop the autoupdate.

Can you guys let us know when the new defs are fixed so I can set the update settings to automatic again…

32

A follow up for a second machine with W2K-SP4: things seemed OK at version 6.0.1203 with virus def 110805-0, but then a Program Error message (see attached screen capture)

After that, Avast! also lists the virus definitions version as “Unknown”

33

I and 2 other friends are also having this problem. Any fix? We all are running the Free Avast on Win 2000 Pro, the ball has a big red X on it and the program will do absolutely nothing, no update, no scan, nothing…Any help out there? I am using a computer with XP running Avast so I figure it is only affecting Win 2000 Pro os’s.

34

Well since the problem seems to have just occurred today (yesterday for some), we will have to be patient and hopefully the team will release an update for the program or definition.

As some have suggested, if you have a backup, perform a restore, or else you can uninstall/re-install Avast. Either way, you will need to disable the automatic update for the time being, until a possible fix is released.

Does anybody here know if there is a download section for older functional definitions/updates? This is for people that may have to uninstall/re-install Avast, but won’t have a new enough definition to use for the time being

35

My WIN2K (SP4) system - which has run AVAST just fine for over a year, is ALSO suffering from these issues. I have uninstalled / reinstalled & run manual updates (as has been suggested above) several times & keep returning to AVAST saying “your program has stopped or is in an inconsistent state”. Clicking the accompanying “Start Program” link or the big “Fix Now” button doesn’t help. Now I am here at the forum to add more weight to the notion that the free version is not happy running on Windows 2000, Service Pack 4 anymore. Can someone from Avast please help us WIN2K users, please?

36

Having read through this thread the symptoms that several here are experiencing appear to the same problem I had with avast 4.x when I was testing it on Ubuntu.

I don’t know what caused the problem. I finally just uninstalled avast! from Ubuntu and then eventually uninstalled Ubuntu. :slight_smile:

37

Another victim?:

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=82720.0

38

Just did another re-install and turned off auto-updates, so Avast is functional - albeit with nearly 3-week-old definitions. As momaru asked earlier, is there any way of downloading earlier versions of the complete definitions, so at least they would only be a day or so old?

Don’t think the problem is anything to do with the program version (6.0.1203). I do manual program updates and I’m sure it’s quite a while since I updated to this version, with no problems until now.

39

Well I am having the same issue here too, butalso I fear it has something to do with the TSDD rootkit that might be causing this, some how linked with volsnap.sys supposely according to ComboFix, and this log may determind the issue, could be wrong of course,

2011-08-06 05:57 . 2011-07-04 11:36 309848 ----a-w- c:\windows\system32\drivers\aswSP.sys
2011-08-06 05:57 . 2011-07-04 11:32 19544 ----a-w- c:\windows\system32\drivers\aswFsBlk.sys
2011-08-06 05:57 . 2011-07-04 11:35 43608 ----a-w- c:\windows\system32\drivers\aswTdi.sys
2011-08-06 05:57 . 2011-07-04 11:32 25432 ----a-w- c:\windows\system32\drivers\aswRdr.sys
2011-08-06 05:57 . 2011-07-04 11:36 441176 ----a-w- c:\windows\system32\drivers\aswSnx.sys
2011-08-06 05:57 . 2011-07-04 11:35 102616 ----a-w- c:\windows\system32\drivers\aswmon2.sys
2011-08-06 05:57 . 2011-07-04 11:35 96344 ----a-w- c:\windows\system32\drivers\aswmon.sys
2011-08-06 05:57 . 2011-07-04 11:32 30808 ----a-w- c:\windows\system32\drivers\aavmker4.sys
2011-08-06 05:56 . 2011-07-04 11:43 40112 ----a-w- c:\windows\avastSS.scr
2011-08-06 05:56 . 2011-07-04 11:43 199304 ----a-w- c:\windows\system32\aswBoot.exe
2011-08-06 03:28 . 2011-07-07 03:52 41272 ----a-w- c:\windows\system32\drivers\mbamswissarmy.sys
2011-08-06 02:54 . 2011-08-06 02:54 -------- d-----w- c:\program files\AVAST Software
2011-08-06 02:54 . 2011-08-06 02:54 -------- d-----w- c:\documents and settings\All Users\Application Data\AVAST Software

And here a bit of a suprise thanks to WinDBG,

First chance exceptions are reported before any exception handling.
This exception may be expected and handled.
eax=00000000 ebx=00000000 ecx=7ffa4000 edx=07bd9898 esi=00000000 edi=00000000
eip=00000000 esp=050ffc18 ebp=050ffc60 iopl=0 nv up ei pl nz ac po nc
cs=001b ss=0023 ds=0023 es=0023 fs=003b gs=0000 efl=00010212
00000000 ?? ??? <— Zero-Day offset crash

Offsets to the offending area of the Zero Day,
00: 0x0 <---- Zero Day
01: aswScan_7be0000!aswscnDllMain+0x5a
02: Aavm4h!AavmSpamSetOption+0x92
03: ntdll!LdrpInitializeThread+0x7f
04: ntdll!RtlReleasePebLock+0xf
05: KERNEL32!_lopen+0x42
06: ntdll!KiUserApcDispatcher+0x7

Apparently Zero-Day activity is occoring with this, chance is some malware have a chance to disable this permanently if anything.

40

Same prob, too. :-[

With online update, and manual update from above.

Windows 2000 SP4 5.00.2195
Avast 6.0.1203
VPS unknown (after update)

mfg J-A-U