Avast won't run anymore

Hello all! I’ve been using aVast for a while now and I must say I’ve been very happy with it. However, I’ve recently been having a problem and I’m hoping someone can help. Randomly when I boot into Windows I get the following screen (image in the first attachment). Steps I’ve followed:

  1. If I click close Avast doesn’t load and I get the Windows error message that I don’t have an AV installed. When I try to open the program itself I get the same screen, so I can’t actually open avast (at least in the beginning).

  2. I checked the services and they are all running and started.

  3. If I reboot\keep trying I can eventually get into Avast but receive the prompt for the license key, which was already present and valid, but which I input again. Avast says it’s successful and seems to start but there’s no tray icon. If I restart Avast I get the middle error about news and on the next reboot it then crashes with an RPC error.

  4. I’m not running any other AV or apps that would interfere with it and I even updated the license file in case that was the problem, but it was not.

  5. I’ve tried a repair from Add\Remove Programs but that didn’t help. All that did was cause me to be unable to un-install Avast.

Any ideas? Only success I’ve had against this is re-imaging the machine with an older image, which will do the same thing but at random times. Any suggestions would be welcome! Thanks!

Oh, Avast v4.7.871 on WinXP.

Did you change your HDD system file from FAT32 to NTFS?
Did you restore a backup of your HDD?

This message, generally, comes from avast antipiracy feature.
You need to unistall, boot, install again or, if you’re lucky, just run C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashdisp.exe, right click the icon and choose the About dialog.
Add a new registration key.

Oh, maybe your system date/time are incorrect, maybe you just need to register again (remember, avast key works 14 months only, then you have to register again).

I’d recommend uninstall and then reinstall the product.
To completely uninstall, you can use this tool: http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-uninstall-utility.html

Thanks,
Vlk

  1. No
  2. Yes. I use Acronis TrueImage to make snapshots of my HD so that I can restore it in case of a problem (like with this).

I’ll try uninstalling\reinstalling and let you know what happens.

Ok… this will happen when you restore a ‘full’ backup of the HD.
Like Vlk said, reinstalling will be good :wink:

P.S. Acronis: the very best backup program 8)