cannot uninstall or repair avast

[system]

??? avast fails.

there is a red dot in the avast blue ball.

i have done everything suggested to get avast repaired or uninstalled. it will not repair or uninstall. (havent run the avast uninstall utility i just found)

i am running vista; AMDAthlon 64x2 TES7 1.90 MHz; 2.0 gig ram

VPS is not there to get a date from;

am running zonealarm as firewall but avast still doesnt run when zonalarm is not active

when i tried to load VPS i got the following:
VER. 4.8.1335
SI:ox2000001
ST:0xffffffff
LE:0x00000000

hope there is help available.

ken

p.s.

i cannot get to http://support.avast.com/index.php to post a ticket.

and, yes, i did clear all cookies. i am using firefox, do i need to use ie?

k

doesn’t work on IE either. once i provide my login info it goes to blank screen.

gonna use the utility now. successfully uninstalled using the utility. ;D

dont think i’ll install this piece of junk again unless someone can tell me (not guess and blame me for not following instructions) what went wrong.

[DavidR]

Do you mean a Red circle with a bar through it (like no entry) over the top of the avast ‘a’ icon ?

Do you also get AAVM/RPC error if you click on the icon ?

This is commonly caused by having another AV installed or remnants still on your system.
Have (or did) you another AV installed in this system, if so what was it and how did you get rid of it ?

[system]

all previous av’s uninstalled through program uninstall.

when i originally downloaded avast it worked just fine. heave not installed another AV since so that isn’t the prob.

[system]

@pastorsellers post:1

dont think i’ll install this piece of junk again unless someone can tell me what went wrong.

Using that tone won’t get you very far will it :

Download these two programs,install, update and run quick scans.

http://filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/

http://filehippo.com/download_superantispyware/

Also use HJT, open,choose scan and save a logfile.
Copy/paste the results from all three logs

http://filehippo.com/download_hijackthis/

[DavidR]

@pastorsellers post:3

all previous av’s uninstalled through program uninstall.

The question was what AVs did you have because several are notoriously difficult to remove, leaving remnants even after an uninstall. This can cause a clash and there is no guarantee as to when the clash could occur.

The reason we ask for the AV name is because we have a number of links to specific uninstall tools for many of those difficult to remove AVs.

[system]

@micky77 post:4

Using that tone won’t get you very far will it :

dont suppose it will. however, the first notice i see of this problem on this forum is early 2007. seems avast could have made changes to account for the problems you are suggesting between now and then.

i am running the three programs you advised. malwarebyte would not update but is running.

will keep you up to date.

[system]

@DavidR post:5

The question was what AVs did you have because several are notoriously difficult to remove, leaving remnants even after an uninstall. This can cause a clash and there is no guarantee as to when the clash could occur.

The reason we ask for the AV name is because we have a number of links to specific uninstall tools for many of those difficult to remove AVs.

i regret that i actually cannot recall the various AV’s that have failed and been removed. tell me what uninstalls are available and maybe i will recognize which ones i’ve used.

however, it occurs to me that, if there are already specific tools for uninstalling previous AV hangers-on, avast would have the tech knowledge necessary to keep them from interferring with the operation of their product.

[DavidR]

Common AVs that we see leaving remnants, Norton, McAfee, AVG8, probably occur most.

avast doesn’t make the removal tools, these tools come from the AV company of the programs.

[system]

@DavidR post:8

Common AVs that we see leaving remnants, Norton, McAfee, AVG8, probably occur most.

avast doesn’t make the removal tools, these tools come from the AV company of the programs.

norton and avg, i think.

[system]

@micky77 post:4

Download these two programs,install, update and run quick scans.

http://filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/

everything clean

@micky77 post:4

http://filehippo.com/download_superantispyware/

9 cookies removed

@micky77 post:4

Also use HJT, open,choose scan and save a logfile.
Copy/paste the results from all three logs

http://filehippo.com/download_hijackthis/

5 fixes - 2 hangovers from norton, 3 no files assoc.

have run all three.

it occurs odd to me that i am running spyware to determine why another spyware pgmwont run. if these three pgms can detect items causing problems for avast, why can’t avast detect them? seems strange to me, but i am not as savy with this stuff as others.

[DavidR]

@pastorsellers post:9

@DavidR post:8

Common AVs that we see leaving remnants, Norton, McAfee, AVG8, probably occur most.

avast doesn’t make the removal tools, these tools come from the AV company of the programs.

norton and avg, i think.

A link worth looking at, which is a program removal tool that can remove the remnants of a number of different Norton Programs:
Removing your Norton program using SymNRT

AVG8 Remover, download tool from here, http://www.grisoft.com/ww.download-tools there is a 32bit and 64 bit windows version, ensure you use the correct one.

[system]

---

@pastorsellers post:10

@micky77 post:4

Download these two programs,install, update and run quick scans.

http://filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/

everything clean

@micky77 post:4

http://filehippo.com/download_superantispyware/

9 cookies removed

@micky77 post:4

Also use HJT, open,choose scan and save a logfile.
Copy/paste the results from all three logs

http://filehippo.com/download_hijackthis/

5 fixes - 2 hangovers from norton, 3 no files assoc.

have run all three.

it occurs odd to me that i am running spyware to determine why another spyware pgmwont run. if these three pgms can detect items causing problems for avast, why can’t avast detect them? seems strange to me, but i am not as savy with this stuff as others.

Because, like humans, no program is perfect.

MBAM & SAS are specialized tools that search for malware. They are not spyware.

HJT is a tool for reading a computer’s registry and reporting what is found. It also is not spyware.

These 3 are just a few of the many tools available when malware invades a computer. Depending on the symptoms, we advise various tools to be used. When the 3 tools above do not work, then we dig deeper and use other tools to discover and attempt to fix the problem(s).

avast is an anti-virus/anti-spyware program. While it is highly regarded in it’s field and does a very good job, it is also not perfect. This is also true of other notable anti-virus/anti-spyware programs.

There are malware programs that specifically target certain anti-virus, anti-spyware, and other anti-malware programs. So, other programs/tools must be used in the effort to fix what has gone wrong.

---

[system]

@CharleyO post:12

MBAM & SAS are specialized tools that search for malware. They are not spyware.

HJT is a tool for reading a computer’s registry and reporting what is found. It also is not spyware.

These 3 are just a few of the many tools available when malware invades a computer. Depending on the symptoms, we advise various tools to be used. When the 3 tools above do not work, then we dig deeper and use other tools to discover and attempt to fix the problem(s).

avast is an anti-virus/anti-spyware program.

i think you are parsing terms.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd632948.aspx is a link to microsoft technet that defines malware as

"Q: What are malware, viruses, spyware, and cookies, and what differentiates them?

A: Let us take the easy one first. “Malware” is short for malicious software and is typically used as a catch-all term to refer to any software designed to cause damage to a single computer, server, or computer network, whether it’s a virus, spyware, et al."

it seems to me that the definition of AVAST and MBAM and SAS, provided by you, make them primarily the same.

at the outset i provided a very specific error message. i had hoped it woujld mean something to someone.

thanks for your attempt to help.

[system]

@DavidR post:11

A link worth looking at, which is a program removal tool that can remove the remnants of a number of different Norton Programs:
Removing your Norton program using SymNRT

AVG8 Remover, download tool from here, http://www.grisoft.com/ww.download-tools there is a 32bit and 64 bit windows version, ensure you use the correct one.

done but no help.

i’ve spent way too much time on this.

thanks for trying to help but you are defending a dead horse (avast)

[Lisandro]

Last resource, I suggest an installation from the scratch:

1. Uninstall avast from Control Panel first.
2. Boot.
3. Download the latest version of Avast Uninstall and use it for complete uninstallation.
4. Boot.
5. Install again the latest avast! version.
6. Boot.
7. Check and post the results.

[system]

@Tech post:15

Last resource, I suggest an installation from the scratch:

1. Uninstall avast from Control Panel first.
2. Boot.
3. Download the latest version of Avast Uninstall and use it for complete uninstallation.
4. Boot.
5. Install again the latest avast! version.
6. Boot.
7. Check and post the results.

pardon me for being a pessimist. i don’t think i can trust even a new installation. again, pardon me for my pessimism, the 1st mention of this problem was in early 2007 and i am encountering the same error as then. if you folks in this forum can find solutions, then why hasn’t avast corrected the problems? if people like you are helping many people with problems through this forum (and it seem that is so) then i can probably expect other problems and will have to return here for new answers. id doesn’t make sense to me. why do you keep using it if you see so many errors through this forum?

[Lisandro]

@pastorsellers post:16

why hasn’t avast corrected the problems?

Computering is not static. New problems could arrive with the same solution. Not all the problems could be addressed by avast side. A lot of computers are working fine with avast and not all of them are the same. Old problems could arise due to computer configuration, user interaction. If you have a better solution form RPC error then repairing/reinstalling (removing old antivirus installations), so, please, post.