I installed Avast on my computer [OS Windows XP] in January, 2009. The reliable anti-virus protection Avast has provided is evidenced by the fact that I’m close to full-panic mode now that I’m not able to re-install Avast after uninstalling it on Sunday. Friday night, I was online at camel.com [the official website for Camel cigarettes], and received notification that Avast had detected a Trojan Horse. The recommended action from Avast was to remove it to the Virus Chest, which I did. Returning to my desktop, I noticed an Avast message [in a form I was not familiar with] that appeared in the start-up tray–I did not notice if the Avast icon that normally appears upon start-up was still in the tray at that time. As noted, the form of the message did not look like anything I had received from Avast in the past. I am unable to provide more information about the message because it flashed for a second and then disappeared before I could read it–the only reason I noticed it at all was because it was not something normally in the tray and was in bright, bold letters.
At that point, I set Avast to run a thorough virus scan–it started out okay but, after checking on the scan’s progress approximately 30 minutes later, it didn’t appear to be running any longer. The Avast interface showed that over 2,200 files had been scanned, but the progress indicator reflected 0% of the scan had been completed. I tried to click on the interface to determine if the scan was still running, but I couldn’t–my cursor had started jumping all over the screen, disappearing and then reappearing sporadically. When it appeared on the screen, I didn’t have any control over it with the mouse. I decided to restart the computer–I was unable to shut windows down normally, so I tried to power it off, but the power button did not shut it down either–I had to turn off the switch on the back of the computer.
Upon restarting Windows, the Avast! icon normally appearing in the start-up tray was no longer there, AND I received the following message: “ash.DISP.exe - Unable to Locate Component - This application has failed to start because Aavm4h.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem”. I clicked on the Avast! shortcut on the desktop and received this message: “Unknown Error - Avast simple user interface cannot load library from the C:\ProgramFiles\AlwilSoftware\Avast4\Aavm4h.dll”.
Everything I did from that point forward did nothing to help the situation–I should have posted to the forum at that time but, instead, did something I rarely do–I proceeded as if I knew what I was doing. I decided to try System Restore, using a date two days before the problem occurred as the restore point. I had only used System Restore on one other occasion–it was a perfect resolution for that particular issue–not for this one. I received a message that System Restore was “Incomplete”–the system was unable to be restored to the requested date because no changes had been made to the computer.
I then decided to uninstall Avast, and then download and install it again. Nice idea in theory, but not in practice–nothing happened when I tried to uninstall Avast via Add/Remove Programs–absolutely nothing. I then used Revo Uninstaller, selecting a level setting that would allow Avast’s uninstaller to remove it–after Avast was uninstalled, Revo Uninstaller would locate and delete any leftover files. It appeared that Revo was successful in uninstalling Avast [I think], but there were still approximately 285 leftover files and 50+ items in the registry that I needed to tell Rrevo Uninstaller how to handle. [I think I’d rather mess with a mountain lion than mess with the registry–so I had Revo delete the leftover files and left the items in the registry alone.] Even without addressing the items left in the registry, it took Revo almost an hour and three restarts of the computer to delete the remaining files.
Having uninstalled Avast, I decided to give System Restore one more try before downloading and re-installing Avast. I thought it might work this time since I had uninstalled Avast and an automatic update had also been downloaded and installed since my first System Restore attempt–I figured those items would qualify as “changes” to my computer. System Restore did not work this time either–I received the same “Incomplete” message with the same explanation as before–no changes had been made to the computer.
I finally went to CNET and downloaded Avast again. I then ran setup from the desktop–it ran for about six or seven seconds, then stopped, displaying the following message: “An ERROR 3 (00000003) has occurred - last performed operation was: spawning”. I attempted running setup again from CNET without downloading it to my desktop–I got the same result, with the same error message.
The last thing I did was to delete the Avast setup file that I had just downloaded from my computer since it wouldn’t install–I was already very confused and thought having it wasn’t necesssary.
Final note: Even though I had uninstalled Avast, on start-up I continue to receive the message regarding the inability to locate ash.DISP.exe component, the application’s failure to start due to missing Aavm4h.dll and advising re-installing application to fix the problem.
I apologize for the length of this post, but I didn’t want to leave anything out. I don’t know what possessed me to try to fix something when I know I don’t have the expertise necessary to do so. All I succeeded in doing was to put my computer in a vulnerable state, where it will remain until I’m able to find out what it is I need to do. Until then, someone needs to remove ME to the Virus Chest! HELP!!
Slim
