My Avast! 4 Home is badly broken

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Windows XP/SP2 with all updates.

When starting my computer I get a red box message:
“An error occurred while attempting to update” “Click here for additional information”

When I click in the red box I get a message:
“Last encountered error: Can’t select any server for downloading (from 0).”

I can’t reinstall Avast!, I get an error:
“This setup does not contain all the necessary components. Uninstall the current version and run the setup again, please.”

I can’t uninstall the current version. When I click Change/Remove in add/remove programs, windows blinks once then nothing happens.

All other aspects of Windows function normally, including Add/Remove programs for other modules.
A boot-time scan detects no viruses.
Ad Aware gives a clean bill of health as does Spybot Search & Destroy.

Please advise as how to proceed.

Thanks in advance.

2

Try the removal tools here

http://avast.com/eng/avast-uninstall-utility.html

reboot, then reinstall

Welcome to the forum and please post back your result.

hth

3

You can download servers.def from here: http://download1.avast.com/iavs4x/servers.def
Save it to C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\setup folder
Start the update again.

Do you use any other antivirus in your computer?
Can you try to repair your installation?
Go to Control Panel > Add/Remove programs > avast! antivirus > Remove. Then choose Repair function in the popup window (Repair). You must be connected to the internet while repairing. If this does not help, can you uninstall / boot / install / boot again?

4

Thanks Oldman your solution worked splendidly. Avast! is back up and running fine.

Tech: There was no way possible to do anything at all with Avast! in Add/Remove programs. It was totally unresponsive.

I wonder why I was unable to find any info on the Avast! uninstall program on the Avast! home page? 'Tis a really useful program.

Thanks to all, ypu’ve been extremely helpful … and a friendly lot at that, unlike some other forums.

5

If you can’t uninstall avast from Control Panel then you should use Avast Uninstall for complete uninstallation (read http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_uninstall_util.html).

6

You are welcome. Glad it worked out for you and welcome to the forum.