system
8
-uninstalled Comodo
-uninstalled MBAM
-deactivated windows defender (no more installed security programs)
-uninstalled a few ‘disc related driver’ programs for the hell of it (sandboxie, shadow defender, intel rapid storage technology)
-ran McAfee Labs Stinger (nothing found)
-ran removal tool again from safe mode
-reinstalled
-same issue as before
-tried repair install
-tried disabling deep scan, reputation services, software updater, and shields then rebooting
-still same issue… avastui.exe will load but apparently gets ‘stuck’ somehow when initializing… killing the process with ProcessHacker and then reloading it (if AvastSVC.exe doesn’t do it automatically) gets everything up and running normally (as far as I can tell).