Hi - completely new poster - in desperation of my current plight I stumbled on this site. I would like to share my experience and perhaps even seek advice on fixing a problem.
Yesterday evening using my personal laptop at home I reacted to a prompt from my machine concerning Avast updates - I have in the past used the free service but I have also previously purchased the ‘improved’ and more singing and dancing version(s) of Avast. In a moment of weakness I decided to invest my money and downloaded the Avast Premium.
It promised to improve the performance of my machine by sending to sleep programs that it considered where infrequently used - or at least that’s what I thought it said. I pressed the buttons and allowed it to weave its magic; I recall it advised that anything in sleep mode -whenever I clicked on these programs in future they would awake. Seemed very sensible. A clock like a rev counter on a performance car showed my 'performance improved from 58 into the 80’s when it was done. I thought that’s awesome!
Unfortunately when I had finished and actually wanted to use my laptop for something else nothing would work.
I restarted there times, waited and nothing improved: clicking on any program would do nothing anymore - I saw dialogue boxes with menus where before the program just worked with one click - but of course selecting anything from these menu’s did not work either. I managed to open a document, but I could do nothing with it and it would not close. Even trying to close the machine - I had to press and hold the on off switch for it to all die.
Rev counter - the wheels have come off my computer! But like a fool, it took me until this morning to realize what Avast had done - I really never would have believed I manged to get by with a free version of Avast I invest in the Premium version and it bites me in the ass…
I’m not a computer techie person but searching during my lunchbreak at work, for why this was happening - as soon as I mentioned Avast in my searches I noticed bits of threads from 12 months ago - with people experiencing exactly my problem.
The sad thing is the replies from Avast on these forums show that although Avast know about this problem a year has past and not only have they not been able to fix it, they are still selling it with the same problem!!
Avast if you are there - advise on how I can fix this and then how I can get a refund. FYI I can open my machine as normal I can even open the avast program but that’s as far as it will go - clicking on the speed up icon or anything else as no effect. Same goes for everything else anything that responds will take you in perhaps two or three levels when it comes to clicking on the button that will actually get something to start is not possible. I have pressed F8 when booting up and this fails to work, (trying to start in safe mode). Task Manger same - not responding.
Appreciate your reply Asyn - but as I explained in my original post although I can open the avast user interface, clicking on any of the buttons there has no affect. Nothing works.
…I have been contacted by avast customer services, to reboot in safe mode and uninstall avsat cleanup. As my machine is not with me today tis will have to wait until this evening. Lets see if it works. I will report back…
Avast support got back to me for a second time the other day and suggested that as I was using Windows 10, I might like to boot in safe mode using the methods appropriate to that operating system… …yes that might be the way to go I thought - (…didn’t I already advise you I was running windows 10…)
They sent me a link to a site called ‘digital citizen’ and this included a number of ways to boot windows 10 into safe mode - (and included a video which was very helpful). So far so good. I thought I would run through each method, from the top don. The second method suggested, where you power up your machine by pressing the power on button and then power it down again before it can reach the sign in page - (you do this three times) and the fourth time it entered safe mode. You are presented with various options for progressing further - and this is where the video came into its own - and on the second attempt this worked and I got to my desk top in safe mode.
perhaps I am missing something here - but how can I download an app, (i.e. connect to the internet and download) or use the avast uninstall wizard when nothing on my computer works…!?
This is what avast are advising me to do.
When i boot in safe mode - I can open a folder but once in there the computer is almost completely unresponsive: for instance I can get to settings and click on apps and features and in the dialogue box search for avast - and nothing happens or I can click on the windows logo (extreme left bottom corner of screen) avast cleanup premium is shown there, I click it, a dialogue box appears gives me options to install or run as administrator - these take me back to settings where nothing works.
Really - what would a real computer techie do now - remove my personal data from my computer and wipe what remained and then rebuild from scratch? That’s not something I have the skill to do. If that is indeed the way forward do I have an case for a claim for this - at the end of the day the program I bought does’t work - avast knew it a year ago and they are still selling it.
Avast advised me to download the avast un-installer program to a pen drive, (via a second laptop). I booted the broken laptop in safe mode and managed to run the uninstaller from the pen drive. It worked! I was much relieved. Thank you to Avast support.
But - Avast shouldn’t be selling a program that had these faults - brought to their attention a year or more ago, (on this very forum…). Caused me a heck of lot of grief which was unnecessary. My association with avast is now ended.
Without knowing exactly what caused the problem, it isn’t really fair to blame Avast.
It could have been as simple as a faulty download. One of the reasons I never use the online installer.
Lots of help available in my signature.
Thank you for your advise - I really appreciate your help. But I don’t believe I should need to spend the time I did, solving problems lwhen I buy an off the shelf product like this. I learnt a valuable lesson: before I buy anything else which I bring onto my computer, something that I need to rely on - I will do my homework first.
Trying to prove your point by posting to a link that has absolutely nothing to do with the problem you seem to have encountered,
just makes no sense. If you want to try before you buy, that’s easy enough to do except for the free version.
As originally stated, knowing what caused the problem is the only way to lay blame on the true offender.
Without that fact, all we have are assumptions which are never something one should rely on.
Your computer, your choice.
Trying to prove my point by posting to a link that has absolutely nothing to do with the problem - you say: well 800 plus persons seem to have taken an interest in reading this - and you responded more than once: you got shares in this company or something - Bob…
Your post presupposes everyone who uses a computer is knowledgeable in maintaining these things, knows where to go and whom to ask when things go wrong - its like expecting everyone who runs a car has more than a passing knowledge other than where the air goes, where to put gas and check the oil… Perhaps they should but… not all do.
And lets get this straight. It didn’t happen to you - and, I AM BLAMING AVAST… if its alright with you Bob ;D and i will continue to assume that because until I responded to a dialogue box which popped up from AVAST promising to speed up my computer for 20 bucks and I pressed the buttons, everything was just fine. I remove avast - all good. Bad download you say - perhaps but do you think I’m goin’ risk it again…?!
My computer that’s correct, and my choice thank you Bob.
Thanks again for your help - and fyi i searched on other forums with this same question and I was ridiculed by geeks.
