Avast has borked my machine

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

So, the power went off in the office. I turned on the computer (running XP SP3) and it ran very very slowly. I booted into Safe mode. The computer ran very slowly, but I was able to schedule a ChkDsk.
I rebooted. Chkdsk ran, The Windows logo came up and went to a black screen with an arrow. The hard drive light flickers, but Windows won’t load any further.

Went into Safe mode. The OS stopped loading at aswRvrt.sys.

Checked around the Internet, which is how I ended up on this forum. My situtation seems to be a fairly common problem with older versions of Windows + Avast.

I loaded the Recovery console, ran another ChkDsk, which didn’t find anything.
I did a search in the System32 folder for all drivers starting with ASW.
I checked that each one of them was used by Avast, and I disabled them via the Recovery Console.

Windows still won’t load…same black screen.
Windows in Safe Mode stops at MUP.sys.

I am stumped. I really really don’t want to reinstall Windows, but I can’t think of anything else to do to get rid of Avast and get my system running again.

2

To get rid of avast! (completely) run both avastclear and Rejzors uninstall utility. The other instructions mentioned are to do a clean install.

  1. Download Avastclear, Rejzors uninstall tool and the appropriate Avast program edition

Note: You need to be ONLINE during this install

http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_free_antivirus_setup_online.exe
http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_pro_antivirus_setup_online.exe
http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_internet_security_setup_online.exe
http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_premier_antivirus_setup_online.exe

Avastclear : http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avastclear.exe
Rejzors Uninstall tool: http://rejzor.wordpress.com/avast-cleanup-tool/

  1. Uninstall Avast by control panel [If you don’t have Avast in control Panel go to #4]
  2. Uninstall in safe mode using Avastclear.
  3. Run Rejzors Uninstall Utility in Normal Mode (removes traces avastclear doesn’t) - reboot.
    Check : Once uninstalled check in device manager>view>show hidden devices if there is anything related to avast with a yellow triangle… if so, uninstall it and reboot.
  4. Install the version you downloaded.
  5. Reboot.
3

If the power went down and XP hangs at mup.sys then it is Windows , not avast that is the issue.

Try some of these :

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-system/mupsys-error-on-windows-xp-pro/b1483aab-cc1c-4ab5-b7de-9a5ae9a10a40

http://www.aitechsolutions.net/mupdotsysXPhang.html

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/393442/windows-xp-freezes-at-mupsys-in-safe-modeno-administrator-passowrd/

4

Well, I can’t load Safe Mode or Normal Mode Windows. Any other ideas?

Any solution will have to run the Recovery Console.

5

If the power went down and XP hangs at mup.sys then it is Windows , not avast that is the issue.

The problem is Avast, because Safe Mode stopped at all the ASWxxx.sys entries until I disabled them.

I also lose the keyboard if I disable aswkbd.sys. What the heck is up with this? The program shouldn’t be sitting on my keyboard like that.

6

Hello,

Follow this guide (If you cannot Boot the computer) and attach FRST.txt log http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=53253.0

7

Since it is a office system, why not let the admin solve it?

Andrey, that will not work since he can’t get windows to boot.

Perform a in-place-repair to make windows work again:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

8

MUP.sys is trying to run chkdsk…

When run in Safe Mode, the last thing you see is MUP.sys being loaded.

EDIT - additional infomation:

It can appear that the computer is “stuck”.

If the HDD light is flashing, chkdsk is running…it may take a while to complete.

9

Eddy, he need to create a bootable cd with OTLPE following the guide and run Farbar Recovery Scan Tool from Reatogo desktop. Of course he need in other PC to create a bootable cd and download FRST.

@sglinert
try to run this command from the command prompt:
Chkdsk c: /r

This will reset the boot data
Then try a reboot to normal windows

10

If the HDD light is flashing, he needs to let chkdsk complete before doing anything else.

11

Aha. Chkdsk is indeed running. That answers that. Safe Mode loaded to the screen where it says Safe Mode in all four corners, but there’s still no desktop. I will let it run overnight. I ran ChkDsk /r from the Recovery Console yesterday in the hopes that it would reset the flag. Obviously, that didn’t work.

I also ran a Repair from the Recovery disk yesterday. That did not fix the problem.

That’s when I disabled all the ASW drivers in the hope that I could get into Safe Mode.

I will follow these steps…

Download OTLPENet.exe to your desktop
Download Farbar Recovery Scan Tool and save it to a flash drive.

Note that Avast on this computer did NOT like the FRST file and tried to abort the download.

And I am the SysAdmin around here.

Thanks for the help. I will return in a while. I want to let Chkdsk finish in the hopes that I can delete Avast from Safe Mode before I try Plan Q.

12

Okay, I seem to be stuck in ChkDsk Hell. After two days of waiting for ChkDsk to finish and Safe Mode to load, I gave up, inserted the bootable cd with OTLPE…told the machine to boot from the CD…and…ChkDsk started up and is currently preventing anything else from happening. Either that, or the Windows screen I see is actually Windows on my hard drive, and the OTLPE CD doesn’t actually boot. I can’t test this with another machine. I did download the file and burn it to a CD. Not much else to do there.

13

Well, try to boot from usb stick.

Download Peazip to the desktop
Run and install the programme
As it installs this page will show, deselect the AVG ticks
Press decline and it will then install cleanly

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/73555776/peazip.jpg

Download the following files to the desktop … Right click the links and select save as…then select desktop

Rufus

OTLPE_standard

Right click OTLPE on your desktop and select …Open as archive

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/73555776/Unzup%20archive.png

Select OTLPE standard

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/73555776/select%20archive.PNG

Click Extract, ensure that desktop is selected

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/73555776/extract%20archive.PNG

Insert the USB stick Then run Rufus

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/73555776/rufus.JPG

Select the ISO file on the desktop via the ISO icon.

Press Start Burn

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/73555776/RufusISO.JPG

Once the USB has burnt then

[*]Download Farbar Recovery Scan Tool and save it to a flash drive.

[*]Reboot your system using the boot USB you just created.
Note : If you do not know how to set your computer to boot from USB follow the steps here

[]As the Programme needs to detect your hardware and load the operating system, I would recommend a nice cup of tea whilst it loads :slight_smile:
[]Your system should now display a Reatogo desktop.

[]run FSRT
[]The tool will start to run.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73555776/FRST%20Start%20scan.GIF

[*]When the tool opens click Yes to disclaimer.
[*]Press Scan button.
[*]It will make a log (FRST.txt) on the flash drive. Please copy and paste it to your reply.

14

This file: OTLPEStd.exe

Cannot be opened as an archive. When I right-click, I do not see the option to open as an archive.

PeaZip says it’s an executable and can’t find anything to extract. It did ask me if I wanted to try a password.

15

Ah. I see why the CD isn’t bootable. I just copied the file to the CD. I didn’t try to extract it. But see my previous post. My Win7 machine sees it as an executable file and won’t extract anything.

head:::desk

16

Okay. I managed to extract OTLPE_New_Net.iso from the file I downloaded yesterday. I burned it to disk using the imgburn.exe program that was bundled with it. It’s not bootable, that is, the computer refuses to boot from this cd.

17

Gasp. I finally got the bootable USB drive working. Here is the listing from the frst.txt file.

18

Let’s try to use a restore point.

Download the attached fixlist.txt to the same location as FRST
Run FRST as before and press fix
On completion try a reboot to normal windows.

19

No joy. Same problem. I renamed chkdsk.exe and ntfschk.exe so they wouldn’t run at startup, so that’s no longer a problem.

Safe mode loads to the point where the screen says Safe Mode in the four corners, but the desktop doesn’t load. The hard disk light flashes continuously, like it’s running something. The mouse works and the WiFi light is on.

Standard Windows loads the startup screen, but the screen goes black with a (working) pointer…hard disk light flashes as in Safe Mode, but the sign-in screen never loads.

20

I see you have 2 antivirus program (avast and symantec), it can be a problem, if you are agree I can delete both of them but I need in a fresh FRST log