Avast preventing web browser from loading?

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Howdy,

I’ll try to give as quick a rundown of the problem as possible with minimal background.

My father-in-law is also my girls’ babysitter. He uses my wife’s computer for all sorts of stuff. It’s all on the up-and-up since I check for that sort of thing. However he’s older and he’s trusting, and he’s the guy who will click on every sort of “work from home” or “miracle cure” website/link that’s put in front of him.

Long ago my wife’s computer had Norton. But then it started messing with the online gaming so I deleted it and the online games worked fine. In the meantime I installed the free AVG, avast, malwarebytes, etc.

Well, a little over a week ago my wife’s computer got a fairly nasty trojan-type thing. The kind that, in the end and even after running boot scans/quarantines, ended up making it so no program could be executed. You couldn’t even shut down the computer. It was as if you could look at the desktop and nothing else.

So I paid money to a computer repair place to fix it. They ended up having to just wipe the system and reinstall Windows. They also did all the updates for the system and put on Firefox for the computer as well. They also said if I ran AVG that I’d likely be back in their shop within 2 months. And they recommended getting the professional Avast.

So I did. I bought it yesterday and downloaded/installed it today. Everything working fine up to now and I’ve got the family only using Firefox.

However after I installed Avast, none of the internet browsers would open. Well, Firefox wouldn’t open. IE would open to the basic webpage and just sit there loading eternally, until eventually freezing. At that point, I could pretty much not get any other program/feature to activate and I’d have to do a hard re-boot. Also a time or two, the system (after a reboot) would just reboot again for no real reason.

I did some net searching and tried things like adding avast (and other program) exceptions into the Windows firewall. I tried stuff like the avast Web Wall thing only scanning executables downloaded. Stuff like that. Nothing was working.

So I uninstalled Avast and the browsers work just fine again. Because the system was reinstalled it’s got Norton on it (although not activated, just as a program. Doesn’t even show up in the Taskbar). I don’t run any other AV programs on it.

So it seems to me that Avast wasn’t liking the internet. Odd thing is, because it was 3 computers for 2 years deal on the download, I installed Avast on my own computer as well. It’s running right now and I’ve had no problems with it. We both run XP. I suppose the only difference is that I have Norton completely removed from my computer but not hers. I didn’t think it necessary since it’s not even running.

So I’m at a loss as to why (seemingly) Avast is preventing web browsers from working.

Thanks for any help you can give on this matter.

Adun

2

I would definitely remove the trial version of Norton on that computer if you’re going to use Avast! Get the Norton removal tool and use it after you uninstall Norton in the normal way. I have nothing against Norton myself. I think it’s an excellent product if you’re willing to pay for your security but having two AV’s, even parts of them, on a machine at the same time is always bad news.

http://service1.symantec.com/support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039

3

Would the Norton really be the problem even if it weren’t yet activated? It’s not one of the programs that’s currently “on” per the Taskbar or the Task Manager. So I’m not sure how it would affect Avast running.

4

Yes. Any resident antivirus (AV) on your machine may cause software conflicts with each other. Therefore no two resident AV’s are recommended on any machine.

Even though it is not activated yet, it is still on your machine. Therefore, follow the recommendation of Dch48 and the link he provided to you and remove it.

Remember to reboot your machine after wards, clean out your cache and temporary Internet files. CCleaner http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/ is an excellent tool that many of us use here and is free for cleaning up your machine.

If you still have problems after removing it, post back here and we can help you. Sometimes NAV/Symantec can leave traces behind and it is necessary to go into Safe Mode to remove remnants of their product, but we can help you with that. Thank you.

5

I’ve tried removing Norton via the Add/Remove feature, but I’ve gotten a message that says:

“A Norton Internet Security Account with supervisor access must be logged in to uninstall this product. If Norton Internet Security is not running, click the Start menu, select Norton Internet Security, and log in. Setup will now exit. For further assistance please type the following URL into your browser: www.symantec.com/uninstall.”

So it’s basically saying I need an account with supervisor access in order to remove Norton, but we had canceled our account and thus there’s no way to get supervisor access.

Any thoughts on how I can remove this? Pug a lawsuit against them, maybe? >.>

6

I’ve never seen a Norton product do that. The newer versions uninstall cleanly and you rarely need this but if you download the removal tool from them , it should completely get rid of everything. It’s meant to be used if you have problems trying to uninstall their software.

7

Norton… Arrg…

The Norton Removal Tool uninstalls all Norton 2003-2010 products from your computer.

  1. (If possible) Remove Symantec products through Add/Remove programs from Control Panel. Boot.
  2. Use Norton Removal Tool for Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 or Norton Removal Tool for Windows 98/Me. Boot.
  3. Install avast! (or repair the installation) and boot.
8

I am very familiar with the removal of this product, which can be quite stubborn. As Tech. suggested, you need to use the Norton Removal Tool.

Then REBOOT twice (especially with an XP).

Go into Safe Mode. Click Start > Search > All Files and Folders > Click on Advanced Options and make sure all boxes are checked except case sensitive > Type in the very top box of this Window one at a time (doing a new search each time):

  • NAV
  • Symantec
  • or the name of your product (example NAV2010…but be careful because other things with the same initials will come up NOT related to this)

Anything that comes up on the right hand pane you can delete (recycle bin). If in question about the item, you can right click it to see it’s properties; sometimes an empty folder will remain behind. Should you encounter a situation where you cannot remove the folder after getting the property information, get the exact location and we can help you remove it since it is still on your system.

Empty your recycle bin while still in Safe Mode. RESTART your machine. Now REBOOT.

If you don’t already have something on your machine to clean up your machine, many of us use something free: CCleaner http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/ is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files (cache, temporary Internet files, etc.) from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner.

Check to see if any Symantec registry error come up…if so you can delete them.

Now defrag your machine, then reboot.

This should get rid of the nasties that this product leaves deeply embedded in your machine.