Boot Scan Fails: "The IOCTL call made by the application program is not correct"

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I have Internet Security. Yesterday and today I tried to run a boot-time scan, and the message was “Unable to start scan. The IOCTL call made by the application program is not correct.” Neither google nor the search on here seem to know what’s going on, and I’m not in a position to reinstall :confused: From the Windows side (I use 7), they recommended running a system scan which I did, it’s all clear there. Any advice welcome, thanks. The only other protection software I run is MalwareBytes.

eta: this is likely unrelated, but I get the ‘welcome to avast’ message every time I boot my laptop despite installing ages ago. Don’t know how to make that go away.

2

see instructions https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=53253.0 scroll down to Farbar Recovery San Tool …run it and attach logs

then a log expert will take a look tomorrow

3

I have attached the MalwareBytes log, the Farbar log, and the antirootkit log. Don’t know if this means anything, but I got bluescreened the first time I tried to run the antirootkit.

4

Could you run a repair on Avast initially

Go to control panel > programmes and features
Select Avast and then on the left of the dialogue that opens is the repair option
Select that and reboot on completion

Then try again

5

Did this, it didn’t help. Still getting the same message.

6

I have alerted the mods to this as I was under the impression that IOCtl is a hardware call. Hopefully they will be able to provide an answer

7

Thank you, I hope so too.

8

Having the same problem here. What should I do? Help please

9

Same error here, on multiple machines. Any response on this yet? Thanks!

10

I am also getting this error message. What is going on here? Getting tired of Avast and am 1 day away from removing it forever.

11

Has this been solved yet? If so please update. I am having the same problem as of a couple days ago. I have no idea what to do to fix it, short of uninstalling Avast and installing another anti-virus program.

12

I too, am having this same problem on a DELL XPSm1530, Windows 8.1.

Same ‘Welcome to Avast’ on every boot up, same IOCTL error msg when attempting to scan.

13

Please attach the file
C:\ProgramData\AVAST Software\Avast\log\aswBoot.log

14

I got it to work on Windows 8.1 by logging in as local administrator but trying to setup a scan as a user who is part of the local administrators group, but not ‘Administrator’ still brings up the above error.

Here’s the log content.


CmdLine - quick
aswBoot.exe /A:"C:" /A:"*STARTUP" /A:"*" /L:"1033" /heur:100 /RA:ask /pup /archives /IA:0 /KBD:2 /wow /dir:"C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast"
CmdLine end
SafeBoot: 0
CreateKbThread
new CKbBuffer
CKbBuffer::Init
CKbBuffer::Init end
NtCreateEvent(g_hStopEvent)
dep_osBeginThread - KbThread
CreateKbThread end
NtInitializeRegistry
KbThread start
ReadRegistry
DATA=C:\ProgramData\AVAST Software\Avast
PROG=C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast
BUILD=2208
Windows 8.1 Pro
SystemRoot=C:\Windows
TEMP=C:\Windows\TEMP
TMP=C:\Windows\TEMP
ReadRegistry end
CreateTemp
CreateTemp end
aswcmnbDllMain
cmnbInit
aswEnginDllMain(DLL_PROCESS_ATTACH)
InitLog
InitLog end
CmdLine - full
aswBoot.exe /A:"C:" /A:"*STARTUP" /A:"*" /L:"1033" /heur:100 /RA:ask /pup /archives /IA:0 /KBD:2 /wow /dir:"C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast"
CmdLine end
Program folder: C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast
Engine folder: C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\defs\14111700
Base addr: 712f0000
TimeStamp: 545ba1f5
Unschedule
61,00,75,00,74,00,6F,00,63,00,68,00,65,00,63,00,
6B,00,20,00,61,00,75,00,74,00,6F,00,63,00,68,00,
6B,00,20,00,2A,00,00,00,61,00,73,00,77,00,42,00,
6F,00,6F,00,74,00,2E,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,20,00,
2F,00,41,00,3A,00,22,00,43,00,3A,00,22,00,20,00,
2F,00,41,00,3A,00,22,00,2A,00,53,00,54,00,41,00,
52,00,54,00,55,00,50,00,22,00,20,00,2F,00,41,00,
3A,00,22,00,2A,00,22,00,20,00,2F,00,4C,00,3A,00,
22,00,31,00,30,00,33,00,33,00,22,00,20,00,2F,00,
68,00,65,00,75,00,72,00,3A,00,31,00,30,00,30,00,
20,00,2F,00,52,00,41,00,3A,00,61,00,73,00,6B,00,
20,00,2F,00,70,00,75,00,70,00,20,00,2F,00,61,00,
72,00,63,00,68,00,69,00,76,00,65,00,73,00,20,00,
2F,00,49,00,41,00,3A,00,30,00,20,00,2F,00,4B,00,
42,00,44,00,3A,00,32,00,20,00,2F,00,77,00,6F,00,
77,00,20,00,2F,00,64,00,69,00,72,00,3A,00,22,00,
43,00,3A,00,5C,00,50,00,72,00,6F,00,67,00,72,00,
61,00,6D,00,20,00,46,00,69,00,6C,00,65,00,73,00,
5C,00,41,00,56,00,41,00,53,00,54,00,20,00,53,00,
6F,00,66,00,74,00,77,00,61,00,72,00,65,00,5C,00,
41,00,76,00,61,00,73,00,74,00,22,00,00,00,00,00,

Unschedule end
LoadResources
LoadResources end
InitReport
InitReport end
New global exclusions: 
NtSetEvent(g_hInitEvent) - 1
CPU: Phys(2), Log(2), Aff(2), Feat(1000003f)
InitKeyboard
FreeMemory: 3739037696g_dwKbdNum: 2

avworkInitialize
s_dwKbdClassCnt: 2
InitKeyboard end
NtSetEvent(g_hInitEvent) - 2
GetKey
FreeMemory: 3703959552
CKbBuffer::Wait
CKbBuffer::Get
CKbBuffer::Get end
CKbBuffer::Wait end
ProcessArea
avfilesScanAdd *MBR0
avfilesScanAdd *BOOTC:
Loading raw access support
avfilesScanAdd *RAW:C:\  [Fs: 03e700ff, NTFS; Dev: 07, 00020020]
avfilesScanAdd *BOOTD:
avfilesScanAdd *RAW:D:\  [Fs: 03e700ff, NTFS; Dev: 07, 00020020]
avfilesScanAdd *BOOTVolume{98be2bbc-f292-11e3-8250-806e6f6e6963}
avfilesScanAdd *RAW:Volume{98be2bbc-f292-11e3-8250-806e6f6e6963}\  [Fs: 03e700ff, NTFS; Dev: 07, 00020020]
avfilesScanRealMulti begin
GetErrorText
GetErrorText
GetErrorText
GetErrorText
GetErrorText
GetErrorText
GetErrorText
GetErrorText
GetErrorText
GetErrorText
GetErrorText
avfilesScanRealMulti finished
Runtime: 15421888ms
avworkClose
TerminateKbThread
GetKey end (?/00)
CloseKeyboard
CloseKeyboard end
KbThread stop
CKbBuffer::~CKbBuffer
CKbBuffer::~CKbBuffer end
aswEnginDllMain(DLL_PROCESS_DETACH)
cmnbFree
FreeResources
CloseReport
CloseLog
15

Wait a second… are you saying that the user account under which the boot-time scan is scheduled affects whether the mentioned error will be shown during the actual boot-time scan afterwards?
Of when exactly is this error message shown?

16

This is shown when scheduling the boot time scan, or any other scan in fact. When I log in, under my user account, which is a domain user, and a part of the local machine administrators group, then try to do ANY scan, I get this error. If I go to Scan > Scan for viruses > Boot Time Scan > Start. I get this error. Selecting any other scan type (ie: Quick or Full) gives me the same error.

17

I got the same message … is there any solution ?

18

Hello everybody

Sadly, we are unable to reproduce this issue. If you are still experiencing this problem, please use the Support tool, which will help us to find out what the issue might be.

To generate support package:

  1. download the Support tool here http://public.avast.com/supp/util/avastsupport.exe
  2. run it and fill in your email address and description of your problem
  3. when the package is generated, please send me a package ID

Thanks

19

Hi, I’ve been having this problem as well. It looks like custom scans still work, though I’m not sure if that’s just because I excluded my mostly unused HDD from the drives scanned.

20

I had the same problem, but I solved it installing new SATA drivers. Before that, I got tired trying all kind of sollutions: format Hard Disk, install windows 7 again, take off the video board PCI Express, install another antivirus, etc, etc. But the drivers was the magic sollution. Good Luck!!!