Avast Pro refuses Resident Protection Status

Hi Guys. I have bought the Pro edition of Avast after a few months of the free home edition. Recently I had a nasty infection which I thought I had cleared - and Avast never finds anything but after a hell of a job installing the software on my laptop, I have managed to download the updates etc but I cannot get the icon to appear in the tray and it won’t retain it’s resident protection status. If I set it and then close the prog, it reverts back to disabled. Can anyone help please? It is such a great programme usually and it works perfectly on my desktop but on the laptop, I am assuming it isn’t actually doing ANYTHING. It is so frustrating! Cheers.

What do you mean by, “it won’t retain it’s resident protection status” and “If I set it and then close the prog, it reverts back to disabled.”

  • How are you setting this ?

  • What avast processes are running in Task Manager, they begin with ash or asw, see image ?

  • Have (or did) you another AV installed in this system, if so what was it and how did you get rid of it ?

avast! icon missing - As a temporary measure until this is resolved you can create a desktop shortcut for this file C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashDisp.exe (the avast icon and interface to the providers). Right click on the file and select Send To, Desktop (create shortcut). You will need to run this after each boot until the problem is resolved.

What other security based software do you have that might block new startup entries, e.g. Spybot S&D (TeaTimer), AdAware (AdWatch), SpySweeper, Spyware Doctor (StartUpGuard or OnGuard), PrevX, WinPatrol, ProcessGuard, etc. ?

Besides answering David’s questions, can you, please, post the last 300-350 lines of avast log: C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\log\Setup.log

Hi there. thanks for getting on the case for me.

I cannot actually set it to run the resident protection whichever way I attempt to do so. I am assuming, as it says in the documentation, that it starts up automatically on reboot and places the little icon in the tray. I have a startup icon on my desktop.

all I have in the Task Manager is ashSimple.exe. None of the others. I know what to look for as it is running so well on my desktop.

I had erased all other AV software off my system, XP Pro, and all I have on there really now, is Zone Alarm, using just the firewall and the anti virus switched off - again, exactly like it is on my desktop. I deleted Spyware Doctor Exterminate It!, Eset NOD32 and MalwareBytes using uninstall proceedures either on the Start button or using Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. I had been using them before I discovered Avast (Thank God I did).

I have attached the Setup Log as requested, as a text file:

Thanks again for your help. I really appreciate it.

Your log seems ok. Maybe, maybe, it’s something different:

10:51:14 vrb/fil SetExistingFilesBitmap: Setting group av_pro_sysx because of existing file C:\WINDOWS\system32\OleAcc.dll

Can you try an installation from the scratch?

  1. Uninstall avast from Control Panel first.
  2. Boot.
  3. Download the latest version of Avast Uninstall and use it for complete uninstallation. If, for any reason, you can’t run it, try booting in Safe Mode and doing it from there.
  4. Boot.
  5. Download, save and install the latest avast! version. It will be good to accept the boot time scanning on next boot.
  6. Boot.
  7. Check and post the results.

Hi there again.

Did all of that and the problem persists. I have sent the setup log with this as requested.
I have also noticed that if I open the Virus Chest I get the following messages:

Initialization of Chest files
Action was completed with errors!

Initialization of Chest files

Program will try to load all Chest files from the following server: (null)

Action was completed with errors!

Avast doesn’t seem to be finding viruses properly at the moment.

I had in infestation this morning: U.exe. I have jad others too.
I believe, from having read stuff on the net, that there is a file somewhere on my system that creates these files.
I cannot find it. I have run a scheduled boot up scan and it doesn’t find anything.

Thanks again for your help,

Maybe uninstalling ZA, repairing avast installation, install ZA again…
Seems a problem downloading and connecting to servers.def file necessary to update avast.

The Chest problems are related to remain of other antivirus… ::slight_smile:

I have also been experiencing the exact same problems although for me this started after the regestration ran out and avast turned its self off as i rarely turn off my PC i didn’t notice and so my computer had no protection for a few days. When i registered again and when avast restarted i had the problems. I’m running avast home 4.8 on a vista PC and avast is the only antivirus that has ever been running on this PC. I have also been experiencing very slow internet recently i don’t now id this is linked.

Difficult to say, but can you follow David’s advices?