Unable to scan for viruses - Avast Interface doesn't open after Memory Test

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

My name is Lissa and I have recently been having problems with Avast. I have noticed a few other posters having a similar issue. I use Avast 4.8 Home Edition, running on Windows XP, Service Pack 3. I don’t use any other AV programs though I do use a program called WinPatrol.

My Current Problem:
When I double-click the avast icon with the intention of starting Avast Antivirus to do a scan, it goes through the memory test, completes that, opens a task in the task bar, but the interface does not appear on screen. Of course I am unable to do anything with it and therefore, doing a scan is out of the question.

Background:
I have recently had some issues with viruses on this machine causing slowdowns, internet redirects to different websites, problems running prompts such as regedit.exe. When the virus infection was at its worst I woke up one morning to find that Windows was warning me that my virus definitions might be out of date. I tried to update and it kept saying the package was broken and couldn’t update. It created a log at that time, but I won’t paste it here since the situation on this machine has changed since then.

Well, I uninstalled and reinstalled Avast, did its full scan as recommended by the software, waited hours for it to finish, restarted windows, logged on and found that avast was still broken and could not be updated.

I ended up reverting to an old restore point and found that avast was still having issues, however it was at least prompting me with a red avast pop-up that there was a problem. I tried to uninstalled but it would not work and so I had to use the uninstall download from Allwill to get rid of avast. That worked well though and once done I re-installed it again and this time, the program seemed to update and start working perfectly. I have even had updates since then! Victory?

With the help of a tech support guru I believe we have been able to remove most of the virus issues on this machine and with them, hopefully the virus(es) that caused them. In the process of the repair method, I was asked to use kaspersky online scanner, rsit, combofix.exe etc. to create logs and whatnot that could be used to diagnose the problems. Since then however I have done the complete uninstall/re-install so even if those programs interfered, we should be back with a good, clean copy of avast, no?

2

You say that you don’t use any other A/V programs, but you haven’t stated whether or not you have HAD other A/V programs on your computer before.

Usually the biggest problem that I’ve seen on here is old A/V programs causing problems with Avast because they weren’t removed correctly.

Firewalls could be preventing the Avast update, or your hosts file could be hijacked, so you can’t get updates from Avast.

Let us know if you’ve had other A/V software installed on this computer, and if you know how, check your hosts file for malicious entries.

If not, let us know, and we’ll help out the best we can…

3

Yes, there has been another AV program installed on here. We bought the computer from my room-mates brother but he says it came from Dell with McAfee’s on it. He says he pretty much immediately uninstalled that and installed Avast and has only used that since.

Most recently when all the virus problems were occuring and avast seemed to be broken, I did uninstall it and attempt to install AVG afterwards because I suspected avast was being targeted by this virus. AVG didn’t successfully install, which at the time wasn’t too much of a surprise because of all the other issues I was having with the machine. It uninstalled what parts of itself had been put on, and I checked to see if I could find any left-overs but didn’t see anything.

This was just prior to doing system restore.

Also, I noticed when I do a memory test there is a comment about “Are you ready for April 1” which was supposedly up on March 28th in the avast memory test dialog window. Should I still be seeing this or is it a clue to a problem? Thought maybe the virus definitions got screwy when I went back to restore point from early march.

EDIT: Just looking through registry to see if any signs of AVG and I noticed that avast’s default is set to “C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashSimpl.exe” “%1” is that right? Seems suspect? (then again I’m extremely paranoid at the moment!!!)

4

People, don’t lose time. It’s spamming.

5

???

What’s spamming? (I know what spamming is, but what are you saying is spamming right now?) If my machine is spamming then please tell me. When I went to post this it told me I had made a post before that within 20 seconds which is weird since I haven’t been on in a couple of days. Makes me worry that my machine is being used for something I’m not aware of.

6

The spammers posts have been removed by the moderators.

Essentially they comment in a post, usually totally unrelated to the subject and pop in a couple of links to commercial sites trying to advertise the site and hope some mug visits it. This is link spamming, unauthorised advertising and is against the forums rules.

There is also the possibility that you might find something on the other end of the link that is objectionable or even malicious.

7

Is it because I put a local file path in my post? I didn’t realize that could be a problem. :o I was just curious if that path was altered or not.

8

I don’t believe it was anything to do with your post, as I said someone else posted in this topic linking to other commercial sites and his post was removed, it was that post which Tech was referring to.

9

Please pardon the intrusion, I’ll only step in for a moment. I’ve been working with Lissa and her malware issues over at techsupportforum.

As WinPatrol alerts can be confusing, it’s possible that reg changes/internet access have inadvertently been denied.

I’ve advised her to uninstall WinPatrol and reboot, then try Avast again.

If you wish to have a link to the thread for review, I’ll be happy to post it for you.

10

Sorry, I missed the spam posts and assumed my computer was doing something haywire and I was going to be kicked off the boards or something! ;D

I uninstalled WinPatrol and it warned me that some elements could not be removed as they were in use and would be removed on restart. I re-booted and tried to start an avast scan by right-clicking the avast icon and selecting “Start avast! Antivirus”. Or course the avast AV monitor is running as soon as the computer starts, but you need to right-click the icon to open the scan interface.

As was the case before, avast goes through the memory test and then an avast simple interface instance appears on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, but the interface does not appear on the desktop.

Lissa’s random, potentially irrelevant thought of the day: :wink: When my room-mate first bought this computer from her brother a few months back she had two monitors with it. She got rid of one and I remember having problems with another program doing this…essentially it was trying to open the interface on the monitor on the right since the interface was last dragged to that part of the desktop. Because it’s not there anymore, it can’t be accessed. With the other program I had to wait for a fix that took care of it. Sadly, it is quite possible that is has been that long since we did a virus scan and noticed it while we are having virus problems because we are having virus problems if you know what I mean. Thoughts?

Could it be the missing monitor?

11

Okay, more to mention here. I went into avasts directory and tried to launch ashSimpl.exe directly from there and it did the same thing. I did however notice a program file in the avast directory called ashSimp2.exe which opens fine, centered right in the middle of my desktop. I have never run that .exe before which is possibly why it opens where you would expect it to and the other one doesn’t.

12

This is commonly associated with having another AV installed or remnants on your system as scythe944 was getting at.

Now WinPatrol isn’t an AV and shouldn’t have been an issue though it could have had something to say about registry changes, etc. So having uninstalled it then that shouldn’t be the issue.

Since you have mentioned two previous AVs I will give you some links to their uninstall tools, to see if that can clean up.

McAfee has an uninstall tool that you could run to ensure any possible remnants are removed.
http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/VSCleanupTool.exe Or http://majorgeeks.com/McAfee_Consumer_Product_Removal_Tool_d5420.html

2007 version - http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/MCPR.exe

Also see - How do I uninstall SecurityCenter? http://ts.mcafeehelp.com/faq3.asp?docid=71525

AVG8 Remover, download tool from here, http://www.grisoft.com/ww.download-tools there is a 32bit and 64 bit windows version, ensure you use the correct one.

13

It’s the skinless interface.

After you clean your computer from McAfee, I suggest an installation from the scratch:

  1. Uninstall avast from Control Panel first.
  2. Boot.
  3. Download the latest version of Avast Uninstall and use it for complete uninstallation.
  4. Boot.
  5. Install again the latest avast! version.
  6. Boot.
  7. Check and post the results.
14

Awesome. That worked! ;D

Looking at both log files that were created when I used those removal tools, there were left overs from each of those that needed to be cleared out. Thanks so much guys!

15

You’re welcome.

16

nautilus_project, feel free to come back any time you need help or just to change experiences 8)