mail scanner Add New Hardware

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I thought I would try it to see what all the fuss is about, you know, AVG v.s. Avast, and now, when I reboot the Found New Hardware wizard activates, and in Other Devices of Device manager, Avast mail scanner is listed with that obnoxious yellow warning mark…
I get thismessage when I use the Found New Hardware Wizard…‘The hardware was not installed because the wizard cannot find the software.’
Okay, I’m getting VERY frustrated.

I have uninstalled Avast, executed RegSeeker, just to be sure all files are gone, then reinstalled.
I turned off ZA, and AVG prior to installation.
Using the wizard, I tried finding the files in the avast folder, ini file…not there.
According to the avast site, with this newer version of avast, 4.665. or whatever it is, with Xp, no special configuration is needed, and upon looking at On-Access Protection Control, mail scanner appears to be running, however, OutLook/Exchange is waiting for the subsystem to start,which I understand is normal, I don’t have Outlook.
I should note that I have tried to disable the device in Device Manager, but it comes back at every reboot.
So, if anyone can help figure this out, that’d be great, because I have a sledge hammer that’s just dying to break something…
Pc spec’s
Xp Home, Spybot S&D, Spyware Blaster, Spyware Guard, avast ( running ) AVG disbaled, Zone Alarm, and Ad-Aware SE
Have updated and run all spyware, virus protection, etc.
Avast seems to be running fine, nonetheless.

2

You don’t have to disable ZA but you have to uninstall AVG (it’s not enough only disabling it).

Ok, it will only be active (as it is a plugin) when the main program (MS Outlook) is running.

3

Thanks for your quick reply.
Can you explain in a little more detail why uninstalling AVG is the solution? I’m not second quessing you, it’s just that I like to have as much information about what I’m doing to my computer as I can, I’d like to learn, not just do, and I have found that by just following directions, but not understanding why, I don’t learn much.

And, as for OUTLOOK, as I stated, I don’t have it, so would it be okay to terminate that option?
I’ll have to come back tomorrow for a llok at your post, I’m off to work.

4

Welcome to avast forum! 8)

The behavior is indeed strange. I had, in the past, AVG installed without the residents (not disabled, but more, not even installed) and then install avast.
In a XP system, I only get problems since the first week of June 2005. But I’m just guessing why a driver is being recognized as hardware ::slight_smile: ???
I’m trying to have just one problem at once. You’ll have trouble with AVG + avast. Uninstalling AVG and we can see what we get.

You can let it enabled (won’t take resources of your system…), you can terminate it, you can uninstall it (just this provider itself).

5

well, I uninstalled both AVG, and Avast, ran RegSeeker, rebooted, then reinstalled Avast, and still the same error.
Any more ideas?

6

lvee,

perhaps we might get some idea while looking the the CurrentControlSet\Enum registry key. Do you think you could export and mail this registry key and subkeys?

  • Open regedit
  • find the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum
  • right click on the Enum entry a choose export
  • name the file and send it to me by email

I must admit currently I have no idea, but this info might give us some clues.

Thanks.
Lukas.

7

Hi! I just sent off the enum info via email.
Thanks.

8

Well, I uninstalled everything, again, and now, I guess I’ll install AVG…tired of the avast error. Thanks, though.

9

That’s unfortunate. But I don’t know what else can I suggest. In the exported registry (and that should be the hardware list for windows), there seems nothing to be wrong. In fact “Mail Scanner” is not even listed there anywhere. We were unable to reproduce the error either. I’m sorry.

10

I’m not sure, but I think that there was a conflict with my All-In-One printer, a Lexmark P6250.
I found that some of it’s files & drivers were corrup, so after I had unistalled Avast
(again ) I downloaded a driver from their site, rebooted, then reinstalled Avast, rebooted and all seems fine.

What was happening with the printer was, there were two of them listed in MY Computer, Lexmark series 6200, and Lexmark series 6200 #2.
I tried the fix recommended from Lexmark, it didn’t work, so I tried my own fix, which did.
Anyway, once I got that resolved, I reinstalled Avast, and have since rebooted and so far, no ‘New Hardware’ message.

Thank you so much for the time you put into this, I appreciate it.
lv

11

lvee, do you have any info about the “driver” corruption and your fix?

We have had a few (maybe 3?) similar reports recently - avast! mail scanner showing as “new hardware”. However, it’s something hard to believe… I mean, we were really stunned when we saw it for the first time, it looked like a joke. avast! has certainly nothing to do with hardware and we really cannot imagine any crazy thing that may lead Windows to behave like that. So, if you could shed any light on this thing, you are certainly welcome.

12

Ya, it’s the wierdest thing.
I rally am not sure, but it seems that it has something to do with my Lexmark, a file for the lxbu device.
Anyway…what I did, now I wish I had written the steps that I took down, becaue I have trieds so many tings that I will probobly get mixed up.
Okay, I uninstalled everything to do with Avast.
I used RegSeeker to find and delete any files that were left behind, and there were a ton of them. I did the same for AVG.
Then, I rebooted and completely removed all aspects of my all-in-one, first removing the usb connection, via safely remove hardware, the the software, etc using the same metod as the other items…

I also did not use the same setup/install file that I had originally used when I first downloaded AVAST. I went to The Major Geeks, and chose a different download site, which I’m sure has nothing to do with it, but that’s what I did.
Then, I reinstalled AVAST…Again…sheesh…got the same warning about the conflict with Zone Alarm, and once again followed the recommended option to turn off the WebSHield proxy…I think that’s what it was called.
Now, Avast seems to be okay, but my Lexmark now has ‘Found New Hardware’ at startup. So, what I’m going to do, is follow the recommended fix, which does work, sort of…I end up with th eprinter listed in MY COmputer twice…6200 series, and 6200 series # 2…I swear, that’s how they are listed…
But, when that happens, that’s when I get the avast error…I think. So, I am going to try to duplicate the error…and …well, what I’m getting at, it seems that if I fix the Lexmark error, I have Avast problems, and if I fix the Avast, I have Lexmark errors…so I’m going to do some more investigating, and I’ll post back.

The odd thing is, no matter which errors I get, both things, the all-in-one, and Avast, seem to work with no problems.

13

Now, I have resolved the Lexmark issue, and I no longer have the Avast warning in Device Manager.
So, I don’t know what more I can add, or tell you.
I don’t understand it myself.

Looking through my event viewer, these are some things that stand out… At one point during all of this, I remember seeing something that made me think that something was making my computer think it was a ‘server’…,

this is the event viewer description, and the following is the Help & Support article,

The process winlogon.exe has initiated the restart of LAURA for the following reason: No title for this reason could be found
Minor Reason: 0x2
Shutdown Type: reboot
Comment: avast! Setup requires Windows to be restarted.

The following is from the category Antivirus in the event viewer,
Function setifaceUpdatePackages() has failed. Return code is 0x2000001D, dwRes is 2000001D

and this…
An error has occurred while attempting to update. Please check the logs…

Product: Windows Operating System
ID: 1074
Source: USER32
Version: 5.2
Symbolic Name: STATUS_SHUTDOWN_CLEAN
Message: The process %1 has initiated the %5 of computer %2 on behalf of user %7 for the following reason: %3
Reason Code: %4
Shutdown Type: %5
Comment: %6

Explanation
This event is written when an application causes the system to restart, or when the user initiates a restart or shutdown by clicking Start or pressing CTRL+ALT+DELETE, and then clicking Shut Down. This event is written to the system log only when the Shutdown Event Tracker group policy setting is enabled or not configured on a computer running a Windows Server 2003 operating system.

A system state data file is written during every unplanned restart or shutdown. This file contains information about programs that were running just before the shutdown and information about the system and hardware. It might be useful to IT professionals in determining the cause for frequent, unplanned shutdowns.

To enable this feature on a computer running a Windows Server 2003 operating system, you can leave the System State Data group policy setting not configured, or you can enable it. This feature is not included in Windows XP Professional.

The system state data file is stored in the %windir%\system32\LogFiles\Shutdown\ directory, and only members of the Administrators security group can view it. The first such user who logs on to the computer after an unplanned shutdown might see a dialog notification reading “The system has been restarted after an unplanned shutdown. A log of this event has been created.” From this dialog box, the user can navigate to a more detailed description of the data file, its contents, and Microsoft’s privacy policy for data collection on the Web. The administrator can choose whether to send the system state data file to Microsoft by clicking either the Send Error Report button or the Don’t Send button.

If you have the appropriate group memberships or privileges, you can enable Corporate Error Reporting by setting a path for uploading data to a central location on your network. You can also customize the error reporting dialogs. To learn more about Corporate Error Reporting, see Help and Support.

14

I guess it’s time to add more confusion to this mess. I reimaged one of my machines and installed AVAST yesterday. I also am getting the Add New Hardware wizard to install the Avast Mail Scanner (Suspect it’s finding some orphan driver someplace). I do not have any printers defined to this machine. I do not use Outlook. Actuall there is very little on this machine.
The error goes away after letting XP Pro/with SP2 try and fail to install the device. It shows up in the hardware definitions as an Unknow device “?”. I removed and reinstalled Avast and got the same error. In the Device Manager, I found ‘ROOT\LEGACY_AVAST!_MAIL_SCANNER\0000’.
I also have AVAST installed on another machine and it’s been installed since last year and have not had this problem with it. I suspect something has changed in the last few months that may be causing this problem.