Today, I was using my PC normaly, when an avast window poped up asking to do a boot scan on next restart, as I had time, I pressed ok. It started working and I went away from PC, 2h later when I came back, it was still on 13%… and as I needed the PC I just pressed ESC.
PC booted up normally, then I open the browser and I can’t open any page. As it’s normal on my provider, I went directly to troubleshoot network problems… but everything was ok. I could ping GW, I could ping ISP, I could ping and resolve names normally… only Firefox wasn’t working. So I tried Chrome, IE, Opera…same result.
I decided to disable avast services, when I noticed that it was complaining that services were disabled, while under Real-Time Shields, all of them were running.
After some uninstalling with Avast Cleaner, I reinstalled Beta version and now it manifests same symptoms + Avast can’t communicate to update/activate trial even.
Uninstall avast from Control Panel (if possible). If, for any reason, you can’t run it, try booting in Safe Mode and doing it from there. Anyway, boot after that.
Run the avast! Uninstall Utility saved on 1. If, for any reason, you can’t run it, try booting in Safe Mode and doing it from there. Anyway, boot after you’ve run it.
Install avast! using the setup saved on 2. Boot.
Register your free copy or add the license key for Pro. Or even upgrade your key from old versions.
Check and post the results. If, for any reason, you did not solve, try doing the step 3 in Safe Mode anyway.
Do you even have a valid connection before installing Avast?
Can you reset the firewall?
If you happen to clean again Avast (with its removal utility from http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility), then please do it using Windows Safe Mode. If you used to have previous versions (like Avast 5.x before Avast 6.x), then please run the removal utility twice, once for 6.x and one for 5.x (all under Windows Safe Mode).
I would suggest skipping the “Add/Remove Programs” altogether, and running the removal utility directly, and from Windows Safe Mode directly (NOT trying first normal mode).
Then reset the Windows Firewall (there is an option to do it with a simple click).
When downloading Avast setup, please re-download anew and from the official site only. Use the latest stable version.
Before installing Avast, test you connection, so we can narrow down the problem.
Please double check you have all Windows Updates installed. Then reboot and check again for new Windows updates, and repeat until no new Windows updates are offered.
Some Windows updates will not be offered until Windows is validated. Double check it is (since in some situation a re-validation is needed and the user haven’t noticed it), reboot and test Windows updates again.
So, you have connection, but not being able to use any web browser? If that’s the case, maybe you couold try removing them, or at least one, reboot and install the latest stable version of it? After install please reboot again.
netsh winsock show catalog would be one way of viewing the Winsock Catalog. Running that before you reset it probably isn’t a bad idea. IIRC, Layered Service Providers (LSPs) are daisy chained and so either an improper functioning one or one that wasn’t removed properly can lead to symptoms which are similar to those you described.
I don’t see signs of avast inserting an LSP on this box, which is equipped with the free version. Other configs could differ.
