Pensacola Computer Help Technoblog

I am pretty ticked of at AVG at the moment, for a number of years I have recommeded AVG free anti-virus to many home users because it has been one of the best free Antivirus solutions that I have found and is good at protecting most home users. It seems that a recent AVG update from yesterday is now causing quite a few computers to experience Blue Screens and endless restarts, not allowing people to get into Windows at all, even through Safe-mode. When safemode doesn’t work, that is a real problem because then the only option is to boot from some kind of recovery medium (your install CD, bootable USB, or bootable cd). So far I have seen this on both Vista and Windows 7 Machines but there is a fix, albeit not an easy one.

If you are currently running AVG and Windows Vista/Windows 7 you may want to uninstall AVG until this issue is addressed (that is if you can boot into Windows).

To fix this issue, you need to boot your computer using either: your original Vista DVD, a bootable USB or CD with portable XP or DOS that has NTFS read/write abilities, a Windows 7 DVD will also work. If using the Vista or Windows 7 DVD, once the initial setup screens have loaded, you will want to select the repair options (look at the bottom left of the dialog box) you will then need to go to a DOS prompt. From the DOS prompt you will need to navigate to the Program Files (x86) directory and rename the entire AVG folder to something else. Reboot your machine and you should then be able to get into Windows.

Once in Windows you will need to remove AVG (at least until they get this mess sorted out – maybe for good if this issue is any indication). I recommend running one of the AVG removal tools here: http://www.avg.com/us-en/download-tools

Make sure to install some kind of antivirus – there are a number of other good free ones, such as Microsoft Security Essentials: http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/ , Avira Free antivirus: http://www.avira.com/en/avira-free-antivirus , or Avast Free: http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

Hopefully AVG will come out with a fix ASAP and I’m personally thinking that they should offer their paid for version free to anyone who was hit by this bug.

If you need help with this issue in Pensacola, please visit Pensacola Computers and give me a call.

1. lambsauce says:

   December 2, 2010 at 1:06 pm

   I can confirm that XP 64-bit is also affected by this problem. Immediately after the AVG update on the December 1st, I rebooted and bsod’s ensued.
2. AVG Technologies says:

   December 2, 2010 at 8:51 pm

   We’re very sorry for the inconvenience. Over the past 24 hours, AVG has had two update issues. The problems affected Windows 7 users on 64-bit products. As soon as we were first notified about these issues, we immediately began fixing the problems. AVG is taking swift action on this matter. We remain committed to our customers, and, as such, we are taking the following actions:
   1-Updates have been issued for both of these issues and are currently being propagated to the broad AVG user base.
   2-For the next 48 hours, we are offering free technical support to our entire user base; anyone who has been affected by either of these issues.

   PAID CUSTOMERS: Support for System crash after the recent AVG 2011 update 3292 (BSOD)
   If you have encountered the abovementioned issue with the latest AVG update and FAQ 4079 didn’t help you, please contact our English support team by dialing the following numbers:
   1-Home and Free customers: 24/7 support +1-877-367-9933
   2-Business customers: 9:30am-6:30pm EST +1-828-459-5436 or skype:avg-nc
   You can also email us at: updateissuehelp@avg.com.

   FREE CUSTOMERS: Support for System crash after the recent AVG 2011 update 3292 (BSOD)
   1-If you have encountered the abovementioned issue with the latest AVG update and FAQ 4080 didn’t help you, please contact our English support team by dialing the following number:
   2-24/7 support: +1-877-367-9933
   You can also email us at: updateissuehelp@avg.com

   Video tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fam3-KSfA3A
3. PensacolaComputers says:

   February 8, 2011 at 7:36 pm

   Thanks for the reply from AVG on this glad to see that you are doing what you can to mitigate this problem.