I have been running avast internet security for several months in Windows XP/SP3. Avast was running fine yesterday. My system was left running overnight and this morning I discovered a red X on the avast system tray icon. The message displayed is, “The avast! antivirus program has been stopped, or is in an inconsistent state. Please restart the program to resume protecting your system.” Neither the Fix Now or the Start Program buttons solve the issue.
As suggested in other posts, I have run the avast repair function and rebooted my system, but the problem persists. My version of avast is 6.0.1637.
Any ideas on why this would suddenly happen and how I can repair it?
Exact same situation with me. Computer on overnight and this AM the Red X over the AVAST icon in the system tray. None of the interface fixes work. Tried sutting down and a reboot …no luck. Running Windows XP Home. Avast needs to get on this ASAP!
User supertoaster suggested that you can fix this issue by rebooting in safe mode, and deleting the 1201250_stream folder under defs. I tried it and it worked for me, too.
You can find that 1201250_stream folder in C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast5\Defs. I deleted it in Safe Mode (left it in the recycle bin, just in case I need it back). Then, I rebooted as normal, and all is well again.