Avast Free doesn't install/start properly

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I’m using Win XP 32 SP3.

In the last few years, it seems the compatibility of Avast with ZoneAlarm has decreased, as previously there were few problems but now they often don’t work together.

After Avast failed to update, without an explanation given directly by the program (when clicking on update in the UI, it would start updating and afterwards would switch to a screen showing just how long the process took without any further information on why it seemingly didn’t update correctly), I decided to reinstall Avast.

I was unaware that I needed a special program to completely remove Avast, so I only removed it through Add/Remove program before reinstalling using the latest Free installer from the website.

I got a “setup has encountered a problem and needs to close” error during install, but the install kept running, so I decided to see what would happen.

Upon restarting, Avast kept crashing and eventually I switched off the startup service. If I launched the program manually, the service was off and nothing could start it (resolve all and the buttons in the program itself didn’t work, there was no result, nor any visible error message as to why nothing was happening). Eventually, I got a “the AAVM subsystem detected an RPC error” message and found this thread: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=3935.30

I uninstalled ZoneAlarm, installed Comodo, uninstalled Avast using the following instructions by “Tech”:

1. Uninstall avast from Control Panel first. 2. Boot. 3. Use Avast Uninstall for complete uninstallation. 4. Boot. 5. Install again. 6. Boot.

Note: I pointed Avast uninstall to the default direction given by the installer, I didn’t change the installation directory so it should’ve been installed there.

I tried removing Spybot Search and Destroy before letting the installer complete the install with the error in the background (after I got the error after the uninstall, I stopped the installation, removed Spybot S&D, downloaded the installer again and launched it again) to see if that might help as I found another thread where it was mentioned that might cause the error, but the installer gave another “setup has encountered a problem and needs to close” error immediately after being launched, even though it kept running on the background and reported that installation was completed this time as well. Predictably, the service won’t activate this time either, presumably due to the error encountered when the installer was launched.

Any suggestions/thoughts on:

  1. What could cause the installer to report an error immediately after being launched and any ways to prevent that from happening.
  2. Where I might find a log or something that details what part of Avast doesn’t start/where the error is, so I might post that here or try to find a solution based on that.

would be greatly appreciated, as I would prefer to keep using Avast, even though I have to jump through a couple more hoops with each update to keep the program running.

2

Hello,

maybe you can see log in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\AVAST Software\Persistent Data
As far as my issue is concerned I have some [fatal] lines in the Update.log

Maybe you could send files to avast by the way :
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=137732.msg1007950#msg1007950

3

Thanks for the reply.

I found the logs in the folder you mentioned, I also have some fatal lines in the update log, but no fatal lines in the setup, which is somewhat odd, considering that it gave an error when launched.

I haven’t experienced any actual crashes or blue screens yet, and I’m using XP Home. XP didn’t start correctly when I reinstalled Avast and I had to reset manually a couple of times until I went into safe mode through the bios, but it didn’t actually crash with a blue screen.

4

Yes me too , fatal are in update.log but the time inside is the same than when issue occurs
I have 2 win xp I tried to install avast 2014
first without issue , without [fatal]
2nd with issues , with [fatal] on some ndis filters

5

Still hoping for some ideas on how to fix this.

6

Seeing the history of security products on that computer… reformat and reinstall the box from scratch.

7

So what you’re saying is that the latest update of Avast is only likely to work with a clean install? I’ll have to switch to a different anti-virus program in that case, pity. I was hoping the issues could be resolved.

8

No, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that your particular one machine may well be so messed up by testing various other security products that it’s the fastest and easiest way to get avast! working. (I’d rather not go into details on things like Comodo - who lack an official uninstaller to wipe their mess, even after those years and years in business.)

9

Ouf , so as far i’m concerned , still hoping for some ideas on how to fix this.
hope avast always on issue.

nb:never used others security products like comodo.

10

Comodo, Spybot and other beep is what the OP mentioned. If you feel your issue is different, you should start your own thread.

11

Ok you are right,
my issue is about BSOD and fssfltr_tdi
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=137732.msg1006676#msg1006676
and sent zip folder last week to “hectic-mmv”
sorry for annoyance here.

12

Spybot: S&D has been on my system for years, and as far as I know has not caused any direct conflicts with Avast. Contrary to the negative opinion you seem to have, I have never had any issues with Spybot thus far. As explained, I installed Comodo to see if the conflict might be related to the firewall, as Avast and ZoneAlarm have had compatibility issues on my PC in the past.

Avast is also the only program that has caused these kinds of issues after an update. By now, after several updates caused issues, I just find it difficult to believe that the problem is not at least partially caused by Avast. After all, compatibility problems wouldn’t be compatibility problems if they just involved 1 program. An argument like “the new version has been tested on 200.000 machines” doesn’t change a thing about the fact that it doesn’t work for some users.

Having to format my drive for every major Avast update, because otherwise it might not work and there seems to be no solution to the issues that pop up from time to time, is not really appealing.

13

Dear all, I try to describe my problem. Sorry for my english.

In last 2 days I have problem that AVAST don’t run. GUI run corectly but shields and service don’t run (icon on tray with cross). When I click to run or fix (I have Czech GUI) Avast look like that OK, but still shileds and service down. Yesterday I uninstall AVAST and again install and look like OK. But today afternoon again the same problem. I have WIN XP SP3. What I can do to fix it ??

Thanks and best regards Roman Herot.

14

I just successfully resolved the BSOD problem upon starting with an automatically installed update from Avast 8 to Avast Free 9 while running ZoneAlarm. My system is XP Pro 32 bit running in a VMWare virtual machine. My solution was a little too convoluted. But what I did was:

  1. Started in Safe Mode and attempted to uninstall Avast - which hung
  2. Restarted in Safe Mode and used regedit to remove all keys related to Avast that it would let me remove
  3. Restarted in Safe Mode and ran ‘avastclear.exe’
  4. Restarted in Normal Mode and reinstalled avast 9 using 'avast_free_antivirus_setup.exe

I think step 2 was redundant (and time consuming).

Regards to all.