unfortunately I’m having a severe problem on Windows XP which seems to be caused by avast. Yesterday evening I updated the virus database and the program files but didn’t restart the computer.
When I did this this morning I got a bluescreen at startup phase (when the desktop was already there) and only after a second or so Windows XP shut down to restart. This happened again and again.
In the short time the bluescreen was there I was just able to read that there is a hardware problem which seems to be caused by aavmker4.sys
First I was able to start Windows in protected mode but now I can’t start Windows at all. I read the information in http://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=2%3Baction=display%3Bthreadid=1165 but from the Linux partition I was able to verify that the system files in /setup/inf and in /system32/drivers are the same.
Did anyone else have this problem? What can I do to fix the problem?
Thomas, have you search the board for the aavmker4.sys keyword? Maybe you find something.
Do you have any other security program that could ‘conflict’ with avast?
Maybe you can boot Windows in Safe Mode and uninstall avast and then, after further investigation, try a good installation…
Thanks a lot for the help! I had actually tried to start it in safe mode again but as it took veeeeeeery long to do this I thought it crashed halfway through. After getting your feedback I was a bit more patient and finally managed to uninstall avast and to start Windows properly.
As Vlk wrote, and results from aavmker4.sys crashes from microsoft statistics attest, it’s not driver’s fault but a problem with your hardware - please test your memory or other components.