My initial subscription expired. I re-registered and installed the key but the icon in my system tray is gone and my Norton Security System is telling me that I have no anti-virus protection. Avast just completed a full system scan so it is working but where is my icon and why am I showing as not having any protection?
Also, why is it that any files I have with keygen’s are being flagged as trojan horses?
...my Norton Security System is telling me that I have no anti-virus protection...
Do you mean Norton or Windows? what components of Norton do you have installed?
Also, why is it that any files I have with keygen's are being flagged as trojan horses?
Probably because the keygens are Trojan horses.
Its Norton Personal Firewall and it is telling me that Avast is turned off leaving me with no protection.
If you go to start>Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs and click on avast!, you should get an option to repair the program. Maybe that will help.
What avast processes are running in Task Manager, they begin with ash or asw, see image ?
The actual avast icon isn’t an absolutely essential part of avast the protection could be running even with that missing.
avast! icon missing - As a temporary measure until this is resolved you can create a desktop shortcut for this file C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashDisp.exe (the avast icon and interface to the providers). Right click on the file and select Send To, Desktop (create shortcut). You will need to run this after each boot until the problem is resolved.
What other security based software do you have that might block new startup entries, e.g. Spybot S&D (TeaTimer), AdAware (AdWatch), SpySweeper, Spyware Doctor (StartUpGuard or OnGuard), PrevX, WinPatrol, ProcessGuard, etc. ?
The only options I have there are change/remove. Nothing about repair. :-[
Click change/remove and scroll down to Repair.
RPC errors are often associated with having another AV or remnants left behind, which in your case is strange as you have had avast for a year without this problem. But I will ask the question anyway. Have (or did) you another AV installed in this system, if so what was it and how did you get rid of it ?
You are at risk as the essential elements are not running, ashServ.exe, the main scanning engine.
from the Windows Start button, click Run and type services.msc, from the services interface pop-up find the avast! Antivirus service, it should be running but probably not, it should also be set to Automatic, change that and click Start to start the service, see image.
Have you been keeping the program up to date ?
The latest version is 4.8.1229 and that has a self-defence module that should stop other applications deleting avast files or registry entries, etc.
You need to launch ashDisp.exe as I outlined above, from the avast icon right click and select about avast and let me know what program version number you have ?
In S&D disable the resident protection (Tea Timer) if you have it enabled.
Thank you for that tip. I did that, got the “repair was successful” result but nothing has changed. I’m still showing that I do not have protection. 
Ahh, here may lie the problem. I have not had avast for a year. I’ve only had it for the 30 day trial. But it worked fine during that time. Prior to installing Avast I had AVG for several years, which I loved until their most recent upgrade. Then it slowed me down to a crawl while it was scanning. Prior to that I had Norton. I used the uninstall option from the add/remove programs for both. What I don’t understand is if there was going to be a conflict with remnants from the other programs then how did avast manage to run just fine for the first 30 days? I’m confused. LOL Also, I am not a techno wiz when it comes to pc’s so there are a lot of things I just don’t understand. I wont do anything else that you mentioned until after I hear back from you.
So you do as I suggested try to set the avast antivirus service to automatic and start it.
If that doesn’t work you are looking at a) running the Norton removal tool and b) a clean reinstall.
Remove Norton:
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
Or ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/removal_tools/Norton_Removal_Tool.exe
Clean reinstall of avast:
Download the latest version of avast http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html and save it to your HDD, somewhere you can find it again. Use that when you reinstall.
Download the avast! Uninstall Utility, find it here and save it to your HDD.
- Now uninstall (using add remove programs, if you can’t do that start from the next step), reboot.
- run the avast! Uninstall Utility, reboot.
- install the latest version, reboot.
Thank you. I will give this a shot after I try and get rid of this headache I’ve developed. I’ll post back with any results. 
You’re welcome, later.