New avast user with a question

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi

I have just installed Avast 4.8 home edition, My operating system is Win ME and I am also running Zone Alarm.When I first installed Avast all appeared to be Ok however now there is a small red circle over the blue ball, when I try to start a resident provider I get a window telling me the resident task could was not found, operation could not be completed.
I have looked through the FAq’s and even with zone alarm privacy control off I cannot start any of the 6 listed resident providers

What have I done wrong?

2

Have (or did) you another AV installed in this system, if so what was it and how did you get rid of it ?

Another AV present or remnants of a previous AV are a common cause of this problem.

3

Yes I used to run AVG but they no longer support ME, Couldn’t uninstall that for some reason so just deleted all the files manually,maybe I have still got some lurking in the background somewhere, Any ideas on how I can find all of them and get rid of them?

4

@david r

may be you were right. :slight_smile:

@scoop,

get the right(32 bit or 64 bit) uninstaller from here : http://www.avg.com/download-tools

reboot in to safe mode
run the tool
reboot to normal mode.
repair avast install.

come back and post the result.

5

@ nmb
The problem being if scoop doesn’t have AVG version 8 (or above) then the uninstall tool doesn’t work. This is highly likely as I can’t recall if avg8 worked on winME.

@ Scoop
If you had the avg8 then try the suggested uninstaller, it will be the 32bit verssion as there was no 64bit version of winME.

If you had an older version than avg8 we will have to try something else, let is know the avg version you had.

6

hmmmm…

@david r
oops! no 64 bit… overlooked win ME…

@scoop

what was the version of avg you used?

7

@nmb
Tried the uninstaller route and got nowhere, then the PC rebooted in safe mode, taken me untill now to get it back to normal

@DavidR
Your right I was using an early version of AVG 5.7 I think. that explains why the uninstall option didn’t work from the application first time around.

What I don’t understand is Avast seemed to be working fine for a short time then this red circle appeared.
Just tried the restore option but got a message telling me nothing has changed so can’t restore.

8

5.7?

think of it again…

may be 7.5?

9

That was the one,

10

okay.

you can do this.(I would do this.)

get avast installer from here: http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html do not use universal installer or the cnet one. use the full installation file(get the right language).

get avg 7.5 installer here : http://www.filehippo.com/download_avg_antivirus/4029/

remove avast using this: http://files.avast.com/files/eng/aswclear.exe (boot in to safe mode, run the tool and restart to normal).

install avg 7.5 again.

reboot.

uninstall using add/remove (i don’t know whether it is add/remove in win ME)

reboot.

use the avast installer you downloaded to install.

reboot.

should be okay now.

if you find this job tedious, wait, let see if others have a better idea.

11

You can try this (I don’t know if it supports winME, but you are no doubt finding this al lot) and let us know the outcome - REVO Uninstaller freeware http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/revo-uninstaller/revouninstaller.html.

There is no set time frame if there might or might not be any conflict due to remnants of another AV.

12

revo uninstaller does not work on win ME : http://www.revouninstaller.com/

13

@nmb
Sounds logical to me,
Think I will spend some time backing up a few things first just in case it all goes belly up.

maybe a few days before all that happens though (work commitments)

thanks for all the advice, I will do as you suggested and let you know how it goes unless as you say someone has a better idea

Many thanks

14

Looks like you may have to use HiJackThis or a registry cleaner to remove redundant entries.

Download and run HJT and post the contents of the log file (cut and paste or attach the log file) into this topic, you may need to split it over two or more posts depending on how large it is.

15

good move.

please come back later.

as I said, wait for others to post… and we got one!

16

@DavidR
Blimey that looks complicated, I will take the tutorial tour and if I am feeling brave maybe have a stab at that. As youve no doubt realised i’m no expert when it comes to computers.
I will let you know how I get on, probably be next week.

Thanks all for your help

17

hey scoop,

if the tutorial is tedious, better do a scan and post the log here. someone will help you here(when you post). don’t change anything until you are asked to do so from anyone here.

you are welcome to the forums.

foot note : time is precious

18

A big thankyou to all who took the time to help me, after a tough week this is the first chance I’ve had to look at it again.
nmb
Did the uninstall/reinstall process and so far so good, avast is currently up and running and all is well.

DavidR
I thought long and hard about the hijack program but decided to try the above first as it seemed the safer option to me.

Thanks again

scoop

19

It really isn’t that complicated, the tutorial however gives a lot of information which can be overwhelming.

The program isn’t dangerous, it is safe as it doesn’t actually do anything other than tell you (us) what is going on on your system (up to a point) and we would advise what action to take when you post your logs contents.