Today, my brother bought a 3 computer 2 year license. he managed to get it installed properly on his computer, but mine is a different story.
Basically, everything boots up properly until it hit the logon screen. After the logon screen, all i see is a black screen with no interface. The only thing i could do was to ctrl-alt-del to being up task manager.
What i can see is that the process “SYSTEM” is constantly using 30% of CPU and that only a small handful(around or less than 10) of system processes were started. To even post this here, I had to run CMD from task manager and start firefox with it.
I know that it is specificly AIS 7’s problem since this did not happen when i was using the free Edition. Uninstalled AIS 7 and my system managed to boot properly. Re-installed it again and then same problem occurs.
Any help would be welcome.
System Specs:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
8GB DDR3 RAM
Avast Internet Security 7.0.1426.0 (<- taken from version number running under the “SYSTEM” process in Task Manager)
I got rid of AIS 7 using awsclear.exe and now my system starts up fine again.
After looking through Event Viewer in the control panel, I noticed this Error entry, followed by many others, when the computer starts with AIS installed.
Log Name: System
Source: Service Control Manager
Date: 12/5/2012 6:05:42 PM
Event ID: 7026
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: DAIYOUSEI-MAIN
Description:
The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:
aswKbd
aswSnx
aswSP
aswTdi
discache
spldr
Wanarpv6
Event Xml:
Uninstalled Microsoft Security Essentials that I had put temporarily in place to replace AIS 7
Restarted in Safe Mode
Ran ASWClear.exe and removed non existent files.
restarted back to normal mode.
Installed AIS 7 from the downloaded installer.
Did not restart on prompt (otherwise the system will mess up and I can’t apply the patch)
Started Avast to get to the UI, Turned off self-protection module.
Applied and replaced 64-bit patch to these directories [C:\windows\system32\drivers, C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Setup\INF, C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Setup\INF\x64]
Restarted Computer
problem occurs again where PID-4 “SYSTEM” rans at constant 30% CPU and most of the system process not loaded. Windows UI completely missing, Avast modules loaded into SYSTEM process but services and main program offline.
modified the steps mentioned above. Still doesn’t work. In fact I took so long to get back this time round is because when I force restarted the system, it messed up the TCP/IP stack so I couldn’t get online. had to reset it.
The reason why I force restart everytime that problem occurs is because there’s no way to shut down the system properly. Even “shutdown -r” in CMD doesn’t work.
There’s no application to close in the first place. The problem I’m experiencing is that When AIS 7 is installed, It causes only a partial boot of the system and has even less functionality than Safe Mode.
No matter how you try to shut the system down, all it does is to get stuck at “Shutting Down…” for hours.
My new “upgraded version” (w/ cd backup) never installed and I was asked to register for the free one, tried all night to get the installer to work…no dice, so I gave up and installed the free one again, to avoid being without virus scanning (I got a Trojan under the first free one)…I have no desire to mess with computers, so I paid someone else to do it…apparently not…I cannot log into support and submit a ticket as I cannot register…what do I do now, or should I call my credit card and cancel that $39.99 and go with another company entirely?
Ok. I somehow fixed it. Don’t know which of the following I did which actually solved it though. But what I know is that I did not even need to apply the patch.
Removed ESET Online Scanner left on the computer from a malware removal session with the help of people from a forum (www.bleepingcomputer.com) a few months ago. Didn’t realize it was still there.
Forcing Windows Firewall and Windows Defender off before installing.
Copied the license file to desktop and install it from there rather than running it from the thumbdrive which my brother used to to put the license file.
Removed “avast! Firewall NDIS Filter” that somehow got stuck on my network adaptor from the past few botched installations, also the reason why my internet broke just now.
This is just one restart though. Will need to take a few more to see if it fixed the problem. Would you mind leaving this open for the next 2 days? If there is any more trouble I will post here. After that you can close this thread.
I have never had any system or avast! related problems with ESET On-line Scanner. As I recall when you run it you can uninstall it at the very end before closing the GUI
Of course that does not mean that it was not causing your problem
Back again. Seems like that one success was a fluke. After shutting down the computer for the day and turning it back on later the problem starts up again.
Another Note: Seems like it is something within the Avast FireWall component that causes it.
I reinstalled AIS 7, Chose “Custom Install” and installed without the firewall. have rebooted the system repeatedly and have yet to experience any problems.
Though due to the damage done by all the hard restarts I’m going to reformat my computer.
EDIT: Computer reformatted. AIS 7 now installs and works properly. May close.