www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

My 83 year old mum was telling me that she has been trying to renew her AVG free 2013 version and it keeps falling over. Had a look at it today and it seems there is an underlying problem with Windows or Vista. I tried to turn the Windows Firewall off to allow AVG to have a clear run at loading but it kept coming up with an error message along saying 'An unidentified problem caused the process to fail'. The same happened when I tried to clear the History and Cookies.

When AVG tries to load if falls over with an error message about the AVG driver failing.

Any ideas what I could try? I will have to try to get her to do simple things over the phone as she is 30 miles away from me and it will be 10 days or so before I get to see her again.

Thanks

DWD

Keep the older version, or use windows roll back to get it back.
Seems that AVG 2013 has a problem that AVG don't admit to. Its been happening since AVG 2013 was released back in October,

Its said that if you do the following it works, but its not the cure.


"Solution:- Restart PC into 'safe mode', Select 'Run' and type in "Services.Msc". Find entry "AVGIDSAgent" 'right click' select properties and amend "startup type" to "Disabled". Reboot the PC and all appears fine.

Can she get on tinterweb DWD?

If yes, then direct her to the following website (you do the same).....

http://www.teamviewer.com

Both click on the big DOWNLOAD button on the homepage and choose RUN (you don't need to install it, you can just run it.) Accept warnings and whatnot....couple of clicks and you end up with this each.....
She gives you HER ID and PASSWORD, which you enter into the box "Control Remote Computer" and then you get full screen sharing and remote control, enabling you to fix at your leisure.

If it's frequent, then you can setup an account and single click her whenever you need.



totally free for personal use and legit - good software and very handy!

BG

Ahhh thanks, that would explain things a bit. She has AVG 2012 running perfectly well and it is updating daily etc. Would an aborted AVG13 loading have caused the other issues I mentioned about not being able to clear the TIF's and open/close the Windows Firewall?

DWD

That looks a good tool Billy, I will have a go at that when I have an idea what to look for. Yes, she is able to get on the internet and all is working okay apart from the problems with Windows I mentioned.

DWD

dewaltdisney wrote:Ahhh thanks, that would explain things a bit. She has AVG 2012 running perfectly well and it is updating daily etc. Would an aborted AVG13 loading have caused the other issues I mentioned about not being able to clear the TIF's and open/close the Windows Firewall?

DWD

What she's getting is a "prompt" from AVG which is a "POP up" box asking her to update to 2013... a Paid for version...

I get this every couple of weeks, one of the benefits of "Free" software...AVG 2012 (free version) will still be working away in the background...just tellher to ignore the pop up and to continue updating the free version...

I ditched AVG some time ago, caused more issues than is solved. I now use Microsoft security essentials, it is free and not had a problem with it.

dandan wrote:I ditched AVG some time ago, caused more issues than is solved. I now use Microsoft security essentials, it is free and not had a problem with it.

I use that on all my own personal machines. Updates are handled by the Windows Update service, so it pretty much looks after itself. Also, MSE doesn't suffer verbal diarrhoea that many free packages do.....

OOHHH OOOH OOOH LOOK LOOKKKKKKKK I'M DOING WHAT I'm MEANT TOO, i'M PROTECTING YOU!!!!!! LOOK LOOK LOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOOK AT MEEEEEE

They basically have to tell you ALL of the inane details they are doing so you think "wow, it's REALLY protecting me.....it must be great, I'm at such risk".

MSE just gets on with the job in hand and uses a traffic light system, which most people understand:

Green - good
Amber - needs attention/updates
Red - Problem

BG.

same here, MSE on my machines, less resource hungry and flashy as the other free ones

wow, it's REALLY protecting me.....it must be great, I'm at such risk

Sounds like the government...Sorry chaps, off topic but couldn't resist

I was running MSE quite happily - after previously having problems with Avast and AVG.
Then it started hogging the CPU on my Samsung Netbook runinng W7 Starter and after weeks of trying to resolve it with MS I gave up and switched to Kapersky - only because I get a free licence for that and A.N.Other (McAfee or Norton I forget which but don't want to use either) I might add.
I have not used Kapersky before but it has resolved my MSE CPU issue.
The downside is it seems to have an issue with CodeBlocks generated C++ executables (false positive) that they folks at Kapersky don't seem to be responsive too.

Steve O.