BleepingComputer.com: XP will not boot into normal mode after Avast! update

Hey, it's me again.

Here's the story. I got the blue Avast! notification telling me to update my version, so I did. It downloaded, and asked me to restart my computer to finish the update. I clicked yes, and everything closed and shut down as normal. Though the trouble started as Windows was booting up again. I saw a black screen telling me Windows couldn't boot up, and gave me the list of boot modes to try. I was reading, so it just tried to start normally again, leading to a blue screen. It went away quite fast, so I couldn't catch what it said. I let Windows try again, and it led me back to the black screen. I hit enter to go into normal mode, but it led to a blue screen again. This time, I caught "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL", or if not that, something very close. Next, I tried booting into safe mode with networking, which is where I am now. I don't know what to do, as I want to get into normal mode, but I don't want to just waste my time booting around.

(by the way, the update seems to have worked, as I see Avast! WebRep in my Firefox header)

I would appreciate any help with this.

If an update to your AV triggered the problem...my guess would be that your AV is providing the problem drivers.

If possible, I would uninstall it...reinstall it and then update/scan.

Louis

I uninstalled Avast!, had it reboot, and the PC booted into normal mode with no issues. I reinstalled it, had to restart, and I'm getting the blue screen again, so I'm back into safe mode... not sure what to do now.

I would uninstall Avast...and use a different AV, such as Avira (my choice) or MSE.

If the blue screens continue with a different AV, then we know which way NOT to focus .

Louis

Ok, I uninstalled Avast!, installed Avira, and everything is working smoothly. Thanks! I'm hoping Avast! will fix the update sometime.

Makes me wonder, if it were truly an AVAST update ? This morning I also received an update notice for AVAST, but looking at it, something just did not look right, so I did not install it.

If it weren't an Avast update...it would logically still be impacting system performance, IMO.

Malware does not tend to target a given application, from what I know...the effects are multiple and targeted at system performance and key system files.

Louis

i've had problems with avast updating also, but not bsod. that's why i switched to avira.