1

Hello,
Please bear with me, as I’m a complete novice.
I have the free version of Avast on Windows XP, my PC keeps going into CHKDSK on startup and I noticed today I have a red x on the avast icon. Can’t turn Avast on, tried uninstalling with Add/remove software and the Avast tool, but get the message
The stub cannot run installer/updater executable C:/programfiles\Alwilsoftware\Avast5\setup\sfx\instup.exe (code 0x3)

Can anyone help me sort this out please? (in terms for an idiot)

Thanks.

I’m off to work now, so won’t be able to reply for a few hours.

2
  1. Sounds like your HDD might break soon…
    • XP…? (32/64 Bit…? - which SP…?)
  • Other security related software installed…?
  • Which AV(s) did you use before Avast…?
3
The stub cannot run installer/updater
This message is normally a indication that a other av is also installed or not properly removed.
4

Hi, sorry for the slow reply. I’m back home now.
I have 32bit XP SP3

The other security related software I use is, MalwareBytes, Spybot S&D and CCleaner.
I’ve had the PC for years, had Avast as my AV for as long as I can remember, and I run the other programs (Malwarebytes etc) about once a month. Never had any issues in the past really.

5

First, be sure to get rid of Spybot…!!

Then:

  1. Download Avast Free Antivirus: https://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_free_antivirus_setup.exe
  2. Follow instructions: https://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility (Run this tool for all prior installed Avast versions…!!)
  3. Reinstall Avast with the downloaded installer from point 1.
  4. Reboot.