For the last couple of days, whenever I run AVAST, it proceeds to a point somewhere in the C drive scanning progam files and then the PC clicks once or twice, followed by a restart. It then gives a message on reboot that a system disk must be entered. If I power off for a few seconds and then back on, it reboots normally. I tried this morning using McAfee online virus scan and, besides finding a couple of virus indications not found by AVAST, it did exactly the same thing.
Anyone have any ideas, or suggestions, as to what this may be and how to kill it, considering it won’t even allow itself to be reported???
What settings did you use? (quick/standard/thorough scan, archives on/off?)
Try to update to the last build and VPS (virus database),
If the problem still persists… well, it will be necessary to find the particular file/folder which is causing the problem. You can, for instance, turn on the creation of the report file (check all the items there, including “OK files”) and run the scan again. After the freeze, check the end of the report file - the real file is likely to be close to the end of the file.
I was using thorough scan with archives on and, as far as I know, my build/db was up to date. As I mentioned, it did exactly the same thing using an online virus scan from McAffee. I will check the report file and see if it gives any hints. It is kind of hard to scan for virus’ when something restarts the comp every time.
To add to the fun, I just went to run AVAST again with the report file on and the memory check pops up Win32:MailBot[Trj], which wasn’t there the last time I scanned and I haven’t opened anything but Explorer on Yahoo.com. Fun.
Well, I rebooted and scanned, as suggested by the AVAST program, and it doscovered Win32:Trojano-2950 & 2951 plus a couple of more MailBot infected files. Most were in the restore files. I then re-scanned using a thorough scan including archives which didn’t end up in a system restart. However, there are a lot of files it reports it cannot scan. The report says they are password protected and every one is associated to SpyBot search and destroy recovery. I am assuming this is normal. It appears that whatever was causing my system to restart during scans was caught and eliminated during the boot scan. Thanks for your assistance.
However, there are a lot of files it reports it cannot scan. The report says they are password protected and every one is associated to SpyBot search and destroy recovery. I am assuming this is normal. It appears that whatever was causing my system to restart during scans was caught and eliminated during the boot scan.
Yes it is normal.
Many programs (usually security based ones) password protect their files for legitimate reasons such as AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy, there are others (and avast doesn’t know the password or have any way of using it even if it did know it).
When you run scans with the above programs and you delete harmful entries that they detect, a copy is kept (in quarantine/restore/backup) in case you need to reverse what you did. These are usually password protected, you should do some housekeeping and delete old backup/recovery/quarantine entries (older than two weeks or so), this will reduce the numbers of files that can’t be scanned.
By examining 1) the reason given by avast! for not being able to scan the files, 2) the location of the files, you can get an idea of what program they relate to.
Files that can’t be scanned are just that (nothing to worry about), not an indication they are suspicious/infected, just unable to be scanned.