My wife just registered her home version of Avast! and (without talking to me first) upped the security level to high pre-reboot. Now the laptop (AMD Sempron 2800+ with 1gb RAM) which normally booted in under 2 minutes (very few start-up programs by design) has been sitting at the desktop (without system tray icons), apparently completely idle (meaning, the processor doesn’t seem to be running the load-up sequence but every now and again, the hourglass icon will pop-up for about 5 or 10 seconds) for the past 30 minutes. I’ve tried to reboot into safe-mode… it didn’t even make it past the loading drivers screen.
Forgive my frustration, but what the hell is going on and how do I fix it or how do I get to a point where I can boot without starting Avast? Please keep in mind that I can not, as of yet, get to a point where I can open any programs or even the start bar!!!
Thanks for any help you can provide… I’m at a complete loss.
Oh and, there is no other AV on the computer and no software firewall. We are just using a router (which MY desktop shares). Also, Avast is working (and has been working for the last couple years) fine on my computer, so this only adds to my confusion…
after much ado - i managed to get the computer started in safe mode and successfully uninstalled Avast. i’m very afraid of reinstalling and that saddens me after so many years of using Avast and telling everyone i know about it… any thoughts about reinstalling a “safer” version?
What I’d suggest is downloading and running the http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-uninstall-utility.html
Was there at any stage another av on the computer? Some of them are famous for leaving stuff behind. Norton, for example, also has a removal tool which should be run following an uninstall. (they don’t tell you this, you have to find it yourself, in my experience.) So too, I believe, does MacAfee.
If that is applicable, try running the relevant tool. Personally, I would try reinstalling Avast (with the default settings) and let it do its “newly installed software bedding in” dance before changing anything, but the best I can offer is a sincere apology if that doesn’t work. (The suggestion is based on my own experience, ie I’m not sure if it will solve the problems, but I think it’s worth a crack.)
Any other security related software on board?
Surely the best option would have been to reset the sensitivity of the Standard Shield (after completion of the normal boot) back to Normal and reboot.
Booting into safe mode and having issues is very strange as avast doesn’t run in safe mode, you have to start it, so it would appear that there is something else going on on your wife’s system.
What OS is your Wife using ?
Does she have any other security software, if so what ?
There are a couple of other things that could be tried, but that obviously can’t be done if avast isn’t installed.
Was the Start Bar visible the whole time or did it disappear and reappear?
You’ve said there are “very few start-up programs” but are of the following starting with windows.
drivers for devices not present/connected
WinPatrol
printer/scanner auto updater
ProcessExplorer (unlikely I know)
It’s a long shot but I’ve seen interactions between these and Avast cause the XP boot process to pause for 90 seconds or more, CPU idle, GUI unresponsive, then suddenly everythings normal. In each case removing one of the items and leaving Avast installed solved it, but this may not suit you.
hi gang. thanks for all the replies. let me see if i can answer them all.
-i used the avast uninstall utility last night… so far so good.
-we did indeed have norton on here (i absolutely DESPISE norton). i had no idea it needed a removal utility. thanks for that. i will run it, asap.
-there isn’t, to my knowledge, any other security software present now or before.
-unfortunately, i couldn’t get to the sensitivity settings as the computer wouldn’t load past the desktop/startbar (no icons). also, interesting to note, 45 minutes later after initial boot, the computer clock hadn’t advanced. (it was reading 8pm at 845pm just before reboot to safe mode)
-i have a feeling the first time we tried to boot to safe mode, we just didn’t wait long enough. the second time i booted to safe mode, it worked without a hitch.
-she’s running XP home, sp2
-start bar was visible but no system icons and the clock wasn’t advancing.
-perhaps a driver for the printer that wasn’t connected, but that would be it as everything else that’s usually connected, was. no winpatrol, no updater and no processexplorer as far as i am aware.
i’m going to try to find the norton uninstall utility and then reinstall the latest avast exe and see what happens.