Thursday, December 2, 2010

AVG Massive Fail is a GO!

Thousands of people woke up this morning to a beautiful BSOD.  Anyone who ran the AVG update last night on their Windows XP or Vista computer woke up to a non functioning computer.

BSOD_c0000135_MSVCR80_DLL

The important parts of the message I got (what you need to Google) were:

stop: c0000135 msvcr80.dll

The problem I found (after hours of my day wasted) was that an AVG update is hosing people’s computers.  Here’s the fix:

    1. Get thee to a command prompt (easiest way is using your Windows Install CD).
    2. c: (or whatever your boot drive is)
    3. cd program files (x86)
    4. cd avg
    5. cd avg10
    6. ren avgrsa.exe x_avgrsa.exe
    7. ren avgchsva.exe x_avgchsva.exe

Yes, I know you can get all the way to the final “avg10” directory by typing in the full, direct file path, but I like going this route to be sure I’m not overlooking another directory.  Your location of AVG could vary, depending upon where it’s installed (for instance, not “AVG10”).  You just need to be sure you’re finding your active install of AVG, and then finding the avgrsa and avgchsva files.

Alternatively to renaming the above files, you can also just delete avgrsa.exe and avgchsva.exe, but I like to leave things intact to make restoration easier.  Many of the “solutions” I found suggested renaming the whole AVG directory (or even simply removing it), but just renaming the two files above will allow you to continue to download AVG updates in the off chance that they fix this mess (they haven’t as of 1pm today) .

Once my machine was back up and running (booted without issue once the above steps were completed), I was still able to run an AVG update using the tray icon.  The update found definition updates, etc., so we’ll see if AVG is on it enough to correct the problem with this morning’s update.  If not, I’m finding a new anti-virus software.

3 comments:

AVG Technologies said...

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

The Invisible said...

I suppose that's all well and good, but the updates STILL haven't fixed this problem. I've enabled the two files twice today, and both times I still received the BSOD and the same error.

And the machine is Vista (64bit), not Windows 7.

Free technical support doesn't really matter much if the problem is inherent with the build.

Also, how would people know they have this option if they can't even boot their computers... and furthermore probably wouldn't realize the software that's supposed to be protecting them is what is preventing them from booting their machines in the first place?

This is just wildly irresponsible. Do you not test your updates on the major platforms it is being used with? It's not like Windows 7 64bit is some obscure OS.

Anas said...

Use another antivirus is more better. hehehe