Help - Vista stuck on black screen at boot up

Viruses and worms
1

Hello -
I’ve suddenly experienced an issue starting my Vista system.

When the system boot normally I get the progress bar, eventually the screen goes black,
the HDD light goes out, nothing further happens.

If start in safemode, I get the list of drivers loading, the last one I see is aswrvrt.sys.
Then it goes no further. This time the HDD light stays on; after about 30 seconds it reboots itself.

This Vista system (32 bit) has avast installed, version 9.0.2121.
I can access the HDD Vista partition through Linux or XP; the box is multi-boot.

I have seen other suggestions and incidents like this. I did try “last know good configuration”
from the startup menu (but it didn’t help); I’ve refrained from doing anything further.

Appreciate any assistance.

2

A in-place-repair of Vista should solve it, but you will have to recreate the multiboot.

3

yes but what caused it?
Here’s the FRST log in case there’s something suspicious -

http://www.mediafire.com/download/9nzu83s30slcjcl/FRST(2).7z

4

One of the things that caused it is that you didn’t updated avast.

And if you want someone to have a look at the Farbar logs, attach them.

5

OK thanks - Here’s my log:

6

This will remove all Avast drivers from the startup, but I do not believe it to be the problem

Save the attached fixlist.txt, in the same location as FRST.exe

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73555776/FRSTfix.JPG

Run FRST and press Fix
On completion a log will be generated please post that

7

Good news - after running your fix, Vista is starting normally, and appears none the worse for wear
except avast is obviously inactive. Thanks essexboy.

This avast has been running in the system fine for many months. Why all of sudden this happens?
Here’s the fixlist result.

8

The only thing I can think of is that a file became corrupted for some reason or other

To reinstall Avast I would recommend a complete uninstall first

Download Avast Uninstall Utility to your Desktop.
Download the correct version of Avast
Avast Free
Avast Pro
Avast Internet Security
Avast Premier
Disconnect from the net
Uninstall Avast via control panel

[]Run the uninstall tool and accept the reboot to safe mode
[]Once complete reboot your system
[*]Reinstall Avast

9

I guess a corrupt something or other is possible… what happens if the OS is restarted while avast is in the middle of an update?
Does it handle it “gracefully” ?

Do you recommend both uninstall from the control panel (programs and features/uininstall) AND the avastclear utility?

I have used the avastclear tool before, but I’ve usually had to initiate safemode (F8 at boot time) myself then run it.
Starting it in normal mode and the tool attempting to restart in safemode has never worked on my box -
something to do with the fact I have the multi-boot system?

10

It should not affect avast but if for some reason avast writes to a dirty sector on the disc then this may occur
The uninstall utility is best run from safe mode (no matter how you get there) after uninstalling via control panel

11

OK, following your steps.

Thanks again!