Resolved Avast Antivirus keeps re-booting my computer after update!

Hi I am a bit of a newbie so non technical worded help appreciated.

I have been using Avast Free Antivirus for years without any problems but Avast flagged up that my Virus definitions were out of date, so I clicked the button to update them.

Then all hell broke loose, as my Windows XP Pro started rebooting over and over again.

I thought I had got a blaster worm but it turned out that I hadn't as this caused the same problem some years ago.

As I have swappable hard drives, I put another hard drive in that I hadn't used for some time and these virus definitions were also out of date, so when I hit the button to update them the same thing happened!

Continuous booting over and over again!

Hard drive (1) is used for surfing only, so I did a slow reformat lasting 2 hours and just put firefox on.

No problem everything OK

Then I downloaded Free Anti Virus from Avast and guess what!!!!
same problem, Continuous re-booting over and over again!

Everything works A-OK until I put on Avast Free Anti Virus.

One of those hard drives that keeps re-booting has unreplacable data on it and I have spent 2 days and nights trying to sort this out without success.

I have done 2 X Full reformats and clean installs on another hard drive but as soon as I load Avast it all goes wrong.

I built my own Computer so would like to fix it with help from you guys.

I don't have any idea what to do, as I can't log on or stop the Computer re-booting.

Any help needs to be explained in non technical jargon and talked through ABC style.

I have seen a similar posting on here about the very same problem but somehow the user fixed it but don't know how it was done.

Please can you help I am desparate!

 

Hi Peter Thank you for your reply

Hi Peter

Thank you for your reply.

I'm not much of a 'Techie' so you would need to guide me through this one step at a time.

I have no idea how to start up in Safe Mode but am 'guessing' it might be f8?
In the event that it might be, I do not know what you do next.

I've used f8 when I've been doing clean installs, it takes you to one or two commands but I wouldn't know which one to choose to fix this problem.

I do not have a boot disc (don't know if I would need one?) but I could probably down load one using this computer.

Please assume my technical knowledge is zero when dealing with this.

Never had a problem when using Avast before it always worked great but too late I read somewhere that it had a bug and advised you to turn off automatic updates.

I am 99% sure that this possibly new version of Avast is the cause of the problem, as I have done Two full reformats and Two clean installs.

No software loaded just firefox but put on Avast and it all goes horribly wrong so hope you can help.

Many Thanks

 

Hi Peter done a little experiment

Hi Peter

Just to give you an update Hit f8 as the Computer started to continuously re-boot and got a choice of Floppy or HD or CD or Lan

None of those worked and it didn't show any option for getting into safe mode.

I do however have the XP pro installation disc (which I use for clean installs) but don't know where to go from there.

Hope you can help.

 

Genius or what! Well done! Peter it works!

Hi Peter

Genius or what! Thanks to you, all my hard drives are working and all my precious data has been restored!

I asked this question on loads of Forums and no one knew the answer except you.

As soon as I took Avast off, everything worked A1.

Once again Many Thanks

Well done!

 

Need more help

I am having the same problem as this person and i cant boot up in safe mode, PeteC had mentioned that he had ideas if that were the case. PeteC are you out there or can anyone else help me.