Avast scanners failing to start

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Apologies if this has been posted - this is a BUSY forum!

A couple days ago I booted my Windows 7 system, and the Avast icon (Avast Pro, v5.1.889) had a warning icon (yellow triangle with exclamation).

When I opened it, several of my scanners were not enabled, and it cautioned me I was not protected. I rebooted, and got the same warning, but when I opened the application, it said all scanners were running and my system was secure.

Then today, I noticed the same icon on my wife’s machine (same version) which is running Windows XP. As a precaution I rebooted and did a full boot scan, and again, it came up fine.

I’ve never seen scanners fail to start before. I’m wondering what is causing this, and if anyone else is experiencing it.

It worries me, because I’ve been hearing recently about new viruses that are deactivating virus scanners.

I added a password on my system as a precaution, and I’m grateful that Avast let me know there was a problem, but I’d very much like to figure out what is causing this on two different systems running two different O/S’.

Thanks for your help!

Jim

2

It’s not clear a you talking about Web Shield and Mail Shield been off after reboot
If yes then there are some other users including myself that where facing the same thing after upgrade

3

No pretence at expertise but I’ve had this happen a few times because Avast wants online soon as system boots and router hasn’t kicked in yet. Avast complains as described, but soon as it sniffs the open web it settles down. 8)

4

Actually, I just booted up, and it happened again - the web shield was off, according to the “summary” tab in the app.

But when I went to the web shield tab in the “Real Time Shields” section, it said it was on, and sure enough, the summary page updated to “Secured” moments later.

I guess I won’t worry about it, but I hope that whatever causes it gets corrected sometime, because there’s always this nervous moment of surprise when I see that warning message.

Also, I hope it’s a delay in noticing that the shield is down, rather than a delay in the shield starting up.

Also, note that this topic… http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=69617.msg584466#msg584466 appears to be about the same issue.

5

Did you try the Avast Repair as suggested in the link you posted?

  • Go to Control Panel > Add/Remove programs > Avast Antivirus.
  • Scroll down and choose Repair function in the pop-up window.
  • Reboot.

Let us know if this fixes your problem. Thank you.

6

I’ll try that.

It didn’t happen tonight, even after I restarted, so I’ll wait to see if it happens again, then I’ll try the repair.

Thanks!