I have been running Avast Free Antivirus on two PC’s for some time with no problems. I recently purchased the three-computer license for Avast Internet Security and upgraded one machine with no issues at all. The successfully upgraded PC is a Sony running W7 Pro 64 bit. After upgrading, I subsequently did the upgrade to v 7.0.1456, and it works great.
Now for the problem: when I attempted to upgrade the second computer on 3 July (also running W7 Pro 64 bit), Windows crashed… totally black screen, no response to mouse or keyboard. To re-start, I had to follow the “Windows Repair” routine on the boot screen, and re-boot to the “last known successful start.” I tried again… same result.
I searched the forums and found no identical issues, and in desperation, I spent the $170+ to subscribe to Avast’s Tech Center… the one that replaced iYogi. Over the next three days, I worked with 4 different technicians, each of whom started with the “totally remove all versions of Avast” instructions then sent me an new license key & reinstalled Avast Free & tried to upgrade. Result: black screen, dead computer.
The last person I worked with gave up and said he would forward all the records of my hours on the phone with them to Avast Technical staff, and asked me to generate a support ticket, which I did. I got a reply from someone named Miroslav Jenšík instructing me to go through the exact same procedures that were done at least six times with the subscription guys (he also sent me a new license key). I replied, explaining that this had already been done numerous times, and that I was not willing to go through the lengthy process of getting windows to start after the crash.
I have since gotten another reply from Vladimir Hornicek, with almost identical instructions (and he sent me a new license key, too).
At this point, I have resigned myself to having wasted the money buying a 3 machine license, and wasted the subscription money, too. $200 and hours of telephone time down the drain.
Anybody got any ideas?