This is my first post so as to basically introduce myself and but mainly to ask for a bit of advice re Security, so I hope I am in the right place!
I am now a retired Mechanical/Electronics Engineer plus I was a Professional Driving Instructor for 12 years just before retirement and hopefully still have most of my ‘marbles’!! My home is Essex G.B., too near London for comfort re traffic and parking problems!
I have joined this forum as I am having problems with Avast on my self built 7 years ago P.C… Briefly I have built a few PC’s over the years mainly for my own and family use. I started off in the early 80’s with Windows 95 progressing through each Windows upgrade to what I am using currently Windows XP Home Service Pack 3. I am not into programming by the way. My present PC is 7 years of age and consists of an Abit NF7 vs. 2 Motherboard, 1.5Gb Ram, Radeon 9200 series graphics, one on board 500Gb (C) h/d, plus one onboard 250Gb (D) h/d, two USB drives consisting of a 1T/byte My Book and an 8Gb key, yes I am very aware this is a very basic machine by today’s standards, but it does everything, (so far) of what I need from a computer.
I have for some time been using mainly trouble free and up to date versions of Super Antispyware, Comodo Firewall and Avast Antivirus. A couple of weeks ago Avast suddenly informed me that my system was/is still ‘Unsecured’ and ever since apparently refuses to Update both Engine and Virus Definitions. The Avast ‘FIX NOW’ button ignores the request; also there is a red cross on the Avast tray icon. However in Control Panel/Security Centre, Comodo Firewall is ‘On’ and ‘Avast Antivirus is also ‘On’ and is reported as ‘up to date and virus scanning is on’, as it always was! So can anyone throw any light on why for the past two or so weeks I have been plagued with confusing messages? The P.C. in general appears to be running OK. Many thanks for any advice
For a repair of avast. Windows, Add Remove programs, select ‘avast! Anti-Virus,’ click the Change/Remove button from the pop-up window, scroll down to Repair, click next and follow.
did that change anything ?
did you only install comodo firewall…without the antivirus?
also…what antivirus did you have before installing avast?
did you uninstall it before installing avast?
did you run a removal tool to clear any leftover files that may conflict?
Many thanks Pondus for reply, I should have mentioned that Avast 7 never did show in Add/Remove programs list; when searched for there are many mentions of the software and associated files going back to Avast 5, so in effect have never been able to properly uninstal any of it. It is listed in Programs but there is no Uninstall facility there either, as there normally is with other programs. I have been using for some years Advanced Uninstaller (now Pro), Avast is not listed in its Program List either.
I believe I had Zone Alarm at some time in the past, but the C drive was formatted last about 4 years ago, post Z A., so nothing to do with that.
I only installed Comodo Firewall not its other facilities.
As I have already mentioned the P.C. appears to be working as well as ever, not slowing up etc., but it has crashed on rare occasions with the dreaded blue screen, with white text that can’t be read as it only shows for a split second. I have also had on rare ocassions a Windows message re ‘your disc needs to be checked for consistency’; which it does and no problems found there. I fitted a new 500Gb hard drive (C) last year, but have had the disc check message again once since then. After formatting the new disc I used a Ghost 9 back up so any info from old C drive would have been transferred of course. I suspect there is by now a lot of ‘crud’ left over on the C drive, but I am a bit reluctant to format all and start over again as I know I will lose a couple of my old programs that I use every day plus all the hassle of course! In the end I may have to do that anyway!
The bottom line of course in all this is I have this nagging Security problem, (or have I), which I would like to solve as I don’t like mysteries!