A fix to a problem with upgrading AVG 8!

First of all, if this belongs elsewhere please feel free to move it.

This is not a rant or a jeer, and no, I do not have email issues with AVG and Firefox.

I use Free AVG and recently upgraded to Free AVG 8. I soon found out I had less free time than I thought I would for the holiday. Why? For about a week I was getting consistent prompts to reboot and notifications that AVG was not protecting my computer. Now, please remember that there is no tech support for Free AVG (and I understand and agree with that). Worse, there is almost no information on the Web about this.

As for a little bit of background, I have used Free AVG for awhile and like it (I have had issues with Symantec and won't go back to them). I scan, update, and search for upgrades daily, if not more often. I have a bit of experience with the software and have been using PC's since people would say, "640K!?! Why would you need anymore than that ever?" and I even used IBM 360's before that. Anyway, I'd say that I have a little experience with computers.

Rebooting did not solve the problem. Downloading and reinstalling did not help either. It would not uninstall and add/remove did not work because I kept getting internal error messages ("Dialog with id Avg4EsDlg was not found in the setup"). I tried downloading and reinstalling four or five times over the coarse of a few days. I checked my settings. No joy no matter what I did. You cannot RT(*)M, 'cause there ain't one.

So, if this sounds familiar to you here is what I did (and it seems to be working so far)...

If you have recently downloaded and installed Free AVG 8 and are getting the same reboot prompts consistently (or even constantly), it seems that they have issued a fix, so download once again, but when you are given the options to install, only select "repair," and NOT any other option. When that is done you will have to search for any other AVG upgrades and updates to the anti-virus database. You might even want to use the wizard they provide (I know, I know...). You will then need to reboot and when that is done be sure to check the schedules for scans, updates, and upgrades, since those might have changed.

Yes, it still takes as long as several hours for AVG to scan the whole system but it works fairly well and has caught more than other software I have used (well, at east that's my experience), and the free version is within my budget.

I hope this makes life easier for someone else.

Try Avast. When I dropped Symantec I tried both AVG and Avast ended up staying with AVG because I liked the UI better. Heres a link to the free version
http://vvww-avast.com/?t=AVAST1U and to the home page
http://www.avast.com/ I have the feeling that theres more going on with your system than just a anti virus problem hope I`m wrong, but it should not take several hours to run a scan.

I too have switched from AVG to AVAST. I was a long time AVG user but Avast is just more hassle free.

I've had no issues w/AVG8. Maybe I installed after the fix. Or maybe it understands that I'm just barely computer literate and is taking pity.

I will look at Avast but I am happy enough with AVG.

No other problems with the system other than it's old. I run other software to keep things safe and to double check. Also there are lots of folks with far, far longer run times on full scans than what I have. That said, using the "fast scan" setting does run faster but is not quite as thorough. Finally, I do often use the system for other tasks while it is running in the background.

I have used AVG and agree it is a good product.
I repair from 2 to 4 systems a week and also build 1 or 2 a month and I only put free sw on these systems.

I can't tell you how many times I have removed N-av or McK-and installed one of the free AV programs to find as many as 40 or 50 virus that the others neglected to find. Not to mention the 2 big boys totally take over your system resources so much that a P4 will run like a slow 486. Next to plugging in a free A*L CD that came in the mail, the 2 afore mentioned will almost kill a system.

Hey, I know 2 yrs ago nort-tools was rocking and they still have a few utils that are pretty good, but for the most part they buy up great SW, repackage it dbl the cost and make sure it hounds you for reg payments and drop any support or R&D on the product. Ok, I'll stop ranting.. but really!! Grrr

As was mentioned Avast is also a nice AV package and doesn't dun you as much as AVG does as of late.

Every sys we build gets one of the above AVG/Avast and also SpyBoy S&D, be careful there are lots of clones, and also AdAware/LavaSoft. All of which are free, but you need to keep them updated and that's easy. Also be sure that you have your Win updates on and current.

Check your task list often and watch for any strange new processes, or better yet get Process Explorer and do the same.

People always ask, how often should I backup and I reply how much do you mind loosing. It's not a matter of if, but rather when is your system ging to fail. At the price of flash drives today, get a cpl and keep anything important copied to your flash drive. I saw Fry's had 32gig flash drives on sale for 100 bucks. That large enough to backup most small businesses today. lol
Oh, and don't use the "backup" command but rather copy the files and or directories so you have easy access from another system if needed.

Anywho,sorry for going off..
Hope it may sever someone well.
I'm easy to contact on any IM which I keep online Not with the IM apps but again with a totally free "NO ADS" application called Pidgin, previously known as Gaim. It handles any IM you may use and a lot you have never heard of.

Thanks
X/BillyD..

The last software update (last week) killed the performance on my two computers, both of which were fine before then. I ended up re-installing 7.5, which I heard is now being supported until December 2008.

chmsam, thanks for the head's up. I installed AVG 8.0 last week and I had a couple of reboot requests (one tonight in fact) but, knock on wood, I have not had any issues with error messages and I just ran a full scan about 3 hours ago.

I used AVG 7.5 prior to this and I liked the UI as well as the fact it spotted a virus hiding on my USB HD that Norton AV missed. So far, no real issues with AVG but I think I may try Avast as others have suggested.

As for your point of indicating 'repair' when installing the update, I find sometimes that I am more successful with uninstalling the old prior to installing the new. For example, I currently have issues with Ad-aware 2008 when I installed it as an upgrade over my existing 2007 version. It will no longer perform a Full scan and locks.

I hope your issues are all sorted out.

As for uninstalling, I had posted before that it wouldn't let me do that. Even using Add/Remove wouldn't work. It was slightly more than a minor PITA for me but would have driven an awful lot of people right up the wall.

As for checking the tasks list, I do that often as well as a host of other little maintenance tasks that I perform, but thanks anyway. That's always good advice.

Way too many folks assume that their system is fine and are unaware of the number of adware, malware, etc. that are hidden. Just like flashlights, one a.v. program is none and two is one, and so on. Another simple tip is to run the scans and updates when the system is not being used (overnight for business, during the day while everyone is at school or work). Run the scans and run the updates/upgrades more than just once in awhile -- at least once a day is what I do.

To the OP, THANKS! I'm the official tech support for my mother who lives several hundred miles away. She has been having the exact same problem and I just couldn't figure it out over the phone. Will have to call her when I get off work.

Hahah, funny what you can learn on a flashlight forum....

I and others I know have had similar experiences to Siriuslite. I have since switched to using Antivir and a-squared.

I still don't understand why I have to repeatedly reboot my computer thanks to AVG8. I never had that problem / issue with 7.5 or any of the other free A/V software.

Stereodude said:

I still don't understand why I have to repeatedly reboot my computer thanks to AVG8. I never had that problem / issue with 7.5 or any of the other free A/V software.

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Same here...

I think I spoke too soon in my prior response... just today, my AVG 8 prompted me to reboot... AGAIN! That was the last straw as I thought that, since I just installed it last weekend that it was adding some major patches. But, now, it's just annoying. I uninstalled AVG but I can still see remnants of it all over the place... :scowl::duh2:. I'm going to have to spend some time cleaning it up but, at least, my Norton AV is still available. Maybe I will try Avast afterall...

Strange everyone is having problems with the new AVG8. I've installed it and have had no problems with rebooting.

Now before I installed v8 I obviously had v7.5 and almost every single update was making me reboot there.

I'm on XP so I dunno if the vista version (if there is one?) is making people reboot.

I am also using XP with SP3, so it is not a Vista-only problem. Looks like AVG got quirky with ver. 8.

While it is not unusual for upgrades to require a reboot, this was going on constantly. Like I posted above, the apparent cure is to re-download, but when doing the install, select the repair option and not the other two choices. You will have to search for updates and will have to reboot after that but it seems to work. Like I said, most upgrades will still request that you restart the computer, but nothing like the original problem.

This is free software and you do tend to get what you pay for, but I hope this info helps.

I tried to install AVG 8.0 on this back up computer (XP) last night and it's a total disaster.

Based on previous posts, I uninstalled it and installed Avast. Working fine. Maybe because this is an old machine with not too much memory. And it's always been kinda quirky.

I uninstalled AVG8 and left them some scathing feedback in their web form. It seemed clear from AVG8's behavior over the last few days that it wanted to reboot after every update (even a virus definition update), and this was after one of the updates that made me reboot like 4 times in a row. It also seemed like a bit more of a performance hog than before also.

Now it's gone and I put Avira Antivir back on this computer and am happily running it instead.

K A said:

Strange everyone is having problems with the new AVG8. I've installed it and have had no problems with rebooting.

Now before I installed v8 I obviously had v7.5 and almost every single update was making me reboot there.

I'm on XP so I dunno if the vista version (if there is one?) is making people reboot.

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Curious. I've got win2k sp4 and am still running AVG Free 7.5. No problems, no reboots. Hope they support it for a long time.

chmsam said:

I will look at Avast but I am happy enough with AVG.

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Just mind the speaker volume with Avast. If a virus tries to infect your PC while surfing or if one is detected during a scan, you'll know it - nice and loud alarm.

Thanks for the advice! I don't need more adrenaline pumping -- I get enough of that every time I look at my retirement fund.

By the way, just to make sure everyone is on the same page, I am using the FREE version of AVG 8, and it seems to be doing OK now. They might do better with one of the other versions, and they will offer tech support for those, but I'm too broke and/or too cheap.

Also, it is not unusual for a reboot prompt to follow a software upgrade, and software upgrades might come up at the same time as a database update, so that would not be an unusual time for a reboot either since that pretty much would be the same thing. A reboot prompt after a simple update would probably be a little strange however. Just wanted to make sure that everyone understood the difference between upgrade and update.