Avast needs to reboot system every time it starts

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I just installed avast home on a machine with a clean install of w2k, service pack 4, with all updates. Every time the machine boots now a pop-up box opens and says Avast must restart the OS.

The computer is a Athlon 1G, 512Megs of ram, GF2 32 meg video card, via chipset motherboard. Loaded software is MS office 2000 and AutoCAD 2004. Other computers have these same programs installed without issues.

Any clues to the problem?

2

Try to reinstall it. And shutdown all program befor you install it again.

1)Uninstall
2)reboot
2.1)Shutdown all program that is running in you tray and close all windows. And also chose to shedule scan on reboot.
3)Install

3

You could also try a repair of avast. Add Remove programs, select ‘avast! Anti-Virus,’ click the Change/Remove button and scroll down to Repair, click next and follow. You need to be on-line to do this.

4

Operating system restart needed by avast message could be solved, in some systems, by deleting the file \setup\reboot.txt

5

Thanks. I had already tried to repair, and then reinstall, and I tried to delete the reboot.txt file. Still wants to reboot.

The reboot.txt file was empty, and gets recreated each reboot. There’s nothing running in the background.

6

Please have a look in the file \setup\setup.log. It should tell you WHY it is trying to reboot (search for the word “reboot” – note that the file is written sequentially, so the most recent entries will actually be at the end of the file).

Thanks
Vlk

7

Below is the last section of the log file

08:45:38 min/gen Started: 10.11.2005, 08:45:38
08:45:38 min/gen Running setup_av_pro-2b3 (691)
08:45:38 nrm/sys Operating system: Windows2000 ver 5.0, build 2195, sp 4.0 [Service Pack 4]
08:45:38 vrb/sys Computer WinName: ENG
08:45:38 min/sys Windows Net User: SYSTEM
08:45:38 min/gen Cmdline: /refresh /noreboot /updatevps /verysilent
08:45:38 vrb/gen Operation set to INST_OP_UPDATE_INSTALL_PACKAGES
08:45:38 min/gen Old version: 2b3 (691)
08:45:38 nrm/gen SGW32P::CheckIfInstalled set m_bAlreadyInstalled to 1
08:45:38 nrm/int SYNCER: Type: use IE settings
08:45:38 nrm/int SYNCER: Auth: another authentication, use WinInet
08:45:38 vrb/pkg Part prg_av_pro-2b3 is installed
08:45:38 vrb/pkg Part vps-54501 is installed
08:45:38 vrb/pkg Part news-44 is installed
08:45:38 vrb/pkg Part setup_av_pro-2b3 is installed
08:45:38 min/gen Old version: 2b3 (691)
08:45:39 vrb/fil SetExistingFilesBitmap: 699->136->135
08:45:39 min/gen GUID: 26221ac0-250f-4707-b9b3-de71abda02a6
08:45:39 vrb/gen Entering:UpdateInstallPackages
08:45:39 min/pkg Load C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\Setup\prod-av_pro.vpu
08:45:39 vrb/pkg LatestPartInfo: news = news-44
08:45:39 vrb/pkg LatestPartInfo: program = prg_av_pro-2b3
08:45:39 vrb/pkg LatestPartInfo: setup = setup_av_pro-2b3
08:45:39 vrb/pkg LatestPartInfo: vps = vps-54501
08:45:39 vrb/pkg ArePartsInstallable: 1
08:45:41 min/pkg vps: updated [054501]
08:45:41 nrm/pkg Transferred files: 0
08:45:41 nrm/pkg Transferred bytes: 0
08:45:41 nrm/pkg Transfer time: 0 ms
08:45:41 vrb/fil NeedReboot=false
08:45:41 min/gen Return code: 0x20000000 [Something done]
08:45:41 min/gen Stopped: 10.11.2005, 08:45:41

ADDED: Oh, and here are all the reboot statements from the file. I removed all the other stuff:

08:42:54 vrb/sys Reboot set by filRenameOnReboot(C:\DOCUME~1\bigrat\LOCALS~1\Temp_av_sfx.tm~a00896\onefile,C:\WINNT\system32\psapi.dll)
08:42:58 vrb/sys Reboot set by changed resident C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\aswmon.sys
08:42:58 vrb/sys Driver file copied: C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\aswmon.sys
08:42:58 vrb/sys Reboot set by changed resident C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\aswmon2.sys
08:42:58 vrb/sys Driver file copied: C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\aswmon2.sys
08:43:00 vrb/sys Reboot set by non-installed service “avast! Antivirus”
08:43:00 vrb/sys Reboot set by changed resident C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\aavmker4.sys
08:43:01 vrb/sys Reboot set by changed resident C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\aswTdi.sys
08:43:01 vrb/sys Driver file copied: C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\aswTdi.sys
08:43:07 vrb/fil NeedReboot=true
08:43:07 vrb/sys Reboot set by filRenameOnReboot(C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\Setup\reboot.txt,)

8

Seems like avast does not have access to overwrite the files in \windows\system32 and \windows\system32\drivers directory. Can you check that?

Also, please check if the files \setup\INF*.sys are the same as \windows\system32\drivers*.sys (the files with the corresponding names).

9

At least one of the files were not the same (I only looked at one) so I manually copied the files over from the setup/ini directory to the system/drivers directory. It still wants to restart the OS on reboot.

I don’t know why Avast wouldn’t have write access to that directory, and I was able to copy them manually without errors.

10

Try to run repair again and check this registry entry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager, value PendingFileRenameOperations. Does it contain any files related to avast?

11

reboot.txt is pending renaming. Repair had no effect, still wants to reboot.

12

If only reboot.txt is listed in PendingFileRenameOperations, just delete this entry and file reboot.txt.

13

Forejt, shouldn’t the avast! repair (or update) procedure does this automatically? Why did it fail?

14

I got tired of messing with it and reloaded windows again. Same problem. I did everything explained above, compared driver files (they were the same this time), repaired the install, same thing. Deleted the reg key, same thing. Did a repair and then deleted the reg key before rebooting…this time the machine didn’t ask to restart the os the next reboot, but then the second reboot it did.

I’ll try changing other device drivers next, but at this point I’m not sure this machine configuration likes avast.

15

Please don’t give up, I’d say we’re close to the solution.

Did “reboot.txt” was the only entry in the PendingFileRenameOperations registry value? (open [doublick] it to find out - it’s a multi-string typed value so the preview might not be displaying all of its entries).

Thanks
Vlk

16

OK will do, but now on the weekend real life has kicked in and my house remodeling projects take priority. I’ll report back to you soon.

17

OK. The registry key had the following files in addtion to reboot.txt:

psa3.tmp
psapi.dll

However, before I had a chance to start looking down that path, I update the video driver. I didn’t use a brand new driver, but a driver from the 45.xx series of nvidia drivers, since the card is a GF2 I didn’t need the latest driver. No change.

I then got notification that there was a new version of AVAST available, so I ran that update. It didn’t seem to change anything, so I updated the audio driver from Windows Update, for the via integrated sound.

The error is gone now, and there is no registry key for PendingFileRenameOperations. I don’t know if it was the AVAST update, or the audio driver that fixed it, but I suspect it was the driver.