My problem is still there. When I try to update the program I get the reply (translated from Swedish) “An error accured when the product configuration was changed.”
And when I try to use the Avast Uninstall Utility I get the following message “The Avast! self protection module is enabled. For this reason, the operation cannot be completed.”
I cannot start the program at all! I’m stuck… Any idea what to do?!
To temporarily disable the avast self defense module:
Uninstall avast, boot, use the uninstall tool, boot, install again.
You should boot into safe mode and run the uninstall utility from there, the error I though the error should have suggested that.
But Techs suggestion would avoid a boot into safe mode.
As far as I can see uninstalling the program initially must have gone wrong. The startup message I get is the following: “ashDisp.ex Cannot find the start address. Cannot find procedure start address dep_strFreeString in the DLL-file aswCmnOS.dll”
Bah!
I don’t have an A icon in the tray, and the Avast! program refuses to start in any way.
I tried to start in safe mode, but I don’t know if I actually got there. Anyhow I still couldn’t start the uninstallation.
You would know, because very little is loaded in safe mod including graphics drivers your resolution would be 800x600 and 256 colours, so I think you would know.
avast doesn’t start in safe mode which is why we suggest using the uninstall utility from there.
You can check the Task Manager and there should be no avast processes, they begin with ash or asw.
Booting into safe mode http://www.pchell.com/support/safemode.shtml
Thank you! This helped me to get the problems out of the way! ;D
You’re welcome.
Two days ago Vlk said:
BTW there will be yet another avast program update tonight so you may actually hold fire till tomorrow.
Hmm … but why say it will be … not deliver … and stay silent? Surely a “ooops … not quite yet” might be in order?
Those of us on the western side of the Atlantic (in the United States …yes I know it is not the whole western side of the Atlantic - sorry Tech) will (most likely) be too busy consuming the remains of many turkeys in the coming day and, full of good will and bonhomie, will probably not pursue this prediction - but I think we will still be looking for a response.
Ok, so now that version 4.8.1296 is uploaded, I tried a complete reinstall. First I ran the uninstall program (aswclear.exe) from Safe Mode, rebooted, and then ran the install program, only to receive an installation error. The log reports (among other things):
30.11.2008 03:21:12 file: Extract: tried to extract ‘LangMai.dll’ from pkg ‘av_pro_dll409’ but failed miserably. Error code 0x00000057
I also got numerous lines such as:
30.11.2008 03:20:57 package: IsFullOkay: vpsm-8112700.vpu - not okay (doesn’t exist)
Several days before I tried to reinstall an earlier version (avast4.8.1229.80923) which I was able to install before, and got the following errors:
26.11.2008 10:30:15 file: Extract: tried to extract ‘aswRdr.sys’ from pkg ‘av_pro_core’ but failed miserably. Error code 0x00000057
26.11.2008 10:30:16 system: Error copying driver file E:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\aswSP.sys (0x00000002)
I tried to install again and got yet another error:
26.11.2008 12:09:10 file: Extract: tried to extract ‘aswCmnOS.dll’ from pkg ‘avscan’ but failed miserably. Error code 0x00000057
Ok, so it appears that due to randomly varying errors, I can no longer install Avast at all… anyone got any ideas what is going on here?
Hi, I also ran into the same problem. I tried to uninstall avast as suggested. It seems to be OK, however when I want to reinstall I get the message “an error 5 (00000005) has occurred.Last performed operation was: spawning.” I even tried to disable simple file sharing in Win XP SP3. What could have remained from the installation ? I also made subsequent registry cleaning. Please help with ideas.
It was my avast blocking installation. Don’t know why. Now it’s OK.
Hy, I have this problem too and I couldn’t solve. I didn’t even find a related topic beside this one…
There are still NO SOLUTION of this problem after a month?? What can we do? Did anybody succeed? Or there is only one solution left: XP reinstall?
Folks,
I managed to solve this issue after a lot of pain on Windows Vista… I was unable to start the avast control panel, and running the latest installer to repair / reinstall / remove did not work. I tried to download and run the aswClear.exe utility, but it told me that self protection had been enabled… run in Safe mode. Unfortunately, Safe mode did not work for me (it blue screens… another issues…) Here’s what I wound up doing in order to reinstall the latest version:
Download and install Revo Uninstaller: http://www.revouninstaller.com/
Run Revo Uninstaller and uninstall Avast using the “Advanced uninstall mode”. This runs the avast uninstaller, then lets you choose which registry keys to remove (choose all), and then lets you choose which files to remove (again, choose all)…
Ran aswClear.exe – and unfortunately got the same error. This led me to suspect that there was still something lurking in the registry… Ran regedit, and there were. If you search around, you’ll see keys for self protection mode and other settings. Unfortunately, I was not able to remove these keys.
Download and install ccleaner: http://www.ccleaner.com/ (perhaps another registry cleaner would work)
Run ccleaner (3 times – it finds more entries every time…) Though I didn’t see any entries related to avast being fixed or removed…
Download and install latest version of avast – and for whatever reason it worked!
It wasn’t my computer, and the OS was installed in a language that I don’t understand… I don’t really know why it was able to install despite (theoretically) that self protection registry key still existing… and yet it worked.
Hope this helps…