46 replies to this topic

[gkovacs]

I have upgraded to Ad-Aware 10 Free (from version 9) on both of my computers, both computers became unusable after reboot.

1. On the desktop (Core i5, Windows 7 x64), boot took 1-2 hour, everything started extremely slow.
System restore did not work. Finally I was able to uninstall from Control Panel, problems gone.

2. On the laptop (Core 2, Windows 7 x32), boot resulted in BSOD (NO MORE IRP STACK LOCATIONS).
In safe mode I could not uninstall (Windows Installer does not work in Safe Mode), but I was able to delete the Ad-Aware program directory.
I also disabled the Ad-Aware services.

Since then the system boots without BSOD, but everything is broken and extremely slow, I can not uninstall or do anything.

I reckon there must be something else that is starting, maybe a driver. Can someone tell me the name of the driver (.sys) that Ad-Aware 10 is using, so I could remove that from the safe mode command line?

Edited by gkovacs, 25 April 2012 - 05:24 PM.

[gbnoethen]

I uninstalled it and now cannot access the internet, the computer worked just fine before the install and uninstall.
Luckly my computer doesn't have the problem your having, but it seems from other post, that it doesn't like to be uninstalled. Cause all kinds of problems.
Hope Lavasoft pay attention to customer and has a fix.

[CeciliaB]

Hi gkovacs,

Do you have other antivirus or similar programs installed in the computers?

There are several drivers and if you delete all of them, you might lose the internet connection. That happened to me when I tried. Have you tried a system restore in computer 2, maybe from Safe mode?
The easiest way to find the drivers is to start Device Manager, select to show hidden drivers in the menu and then search for all drivers with Lavasoft, Ad-Aware and Sunbelt in their names.

[gkovacs]

Hi gkovacs, Do you have other antivirus or similar programs installed in the computers?

No, only Ad-Aware.

There are several drivers and if you delete all of them, you might lose the internet connection. That happened to me when I tried. Have you tried a system restore in computer 2, maybe from Safe mode? The easiest way to find the drivers is to start Device Manager, select to show hidden drivers in the menu and then search for all drivers with Lavasoft, Ad-Aware and Sunbelt in their names.

1. The desktop - even after successfully uninstalling Ad-Aware - was still unable to sleep / wake up. Removing the Sunbelt drivers one by one fixed the problem. Lavasoft should fix their uninstaller, it is absolutely unacceptable to leave running drivers on a system.

2. The laptop is completely destroyed since I manually deleted the Ad-Aware folder. I uninstalled the Sunbelt drivers from Device Manager, but the system is still totally unworkable, I cannot uninstall or reinstall anything, let alone use the PC. Control Panel does not work, Explorer does not work, System Restore does not work.

Any ideas apart from reinstalling Windows?

[CeciliaB]

Did you have Ad-Aware 9.6 before or an earlier version of Ad-Aware?
According to the information I have, Ad-Aware 10 installation program only uninstalls 9.6.

1. Do you mean that Windows couldn't enter sleep mode? What happens instead?
Did you uninstall as described in the FAQ including exit Ad-Aware first? http://www.lavasoft....t=653&category=

2. What happens when you try to use System Restore? Have you tried it in "Safe mode with command prompt"?
Do you want me to ask Lavasoft if they have the time to connect to your computer (if possible) and investigate what has happened?

I think Lavasoft needs to develop a special removal/clean-up program as most other antivirus manufactures have done.
Most of the BSODs are supposed to disappear in version 10.1.

[LS Sharon]

Hi gkovacs,

Please run the file below while in safe mode. I have sent you this attachment as a text file. Therefore, you will need to save the file and change the extension to ‘’ .zip’’ in order for the file to de-zip correctly.
If you do not see the folder extensions, please open the start menu (Located at the bottom left corner of your screen), then click on ‘’Control Panel’’. Once in the control panel, click on ‘’Folder options’’. When the folder options are open, click on ‘’View’’ and then uncheck the ‘’Hide extension for known file types’’. Then, click on ‘’Apply’’ and ‘’ok’’ and you may exit the window.
Once you see the file extensions, please change the extension from ‘’ .txt ’’ to ‘’ .zip’’.
Only then, you will be able to run the software in order to uninstall Ad-Aware 10.  
You can un-install the program, by going to:
Start -> Programs -> Lavasoft -> Ad-Aware  -> and click on Uninstall Ad-Aware
This should resolve the issue and have Ad-Aware 10 uninstalled.

Sincerely,
Sharon - Lavasoft support


Edit: Note that this file should only be used by persons that cannot start Windows in Normal mode and need to uninstall Ad-Aware in Safe mode.

Attached Files

•  SafeMode.txt   249bytes   604 downloads

Edited by CeciliaB, 11 May 2012 - 11:37 AM.
Added note

[gkovacs]

Did you have Ad-Aware 9.6 before or an earlier version of Ad-Aware?
According to the information I have, Ad-Aware 10 installation program only uninstalls 9.6.

I think I had 9.6 before, but I'm not sure. Given the weird manual updating of Ad-Aware Free, it's a glaring oversight to not uninstall all previous versions.

1. Do you mean that Windows couldn't enter sleep mode? What happens instead?
Did you uninstall as described in the FAQ including exit Ad-Aware first? http://www.lavasoft....t=653&category=

The sleep mode problem first started happening after installing Ad-Aware 10. After pressing sleep, the computer went down, but lost the sleep state and powered off, therefore when waking up a full unclean reboot happened every time.

When uninstalling, I think I simply pressed Change from Control Panel, chose Remove then rebooted. This left the Sunbelt drivers on the system, which seemingly have caused the sleep issue.

2. What happens when you try to use System Restore? Have you tried it in "Safe mode with command prompt"?
Do you want me to ask Lavasoft if they have the time to connect to your computer (if possible) and investigate what has happened?

I have managed to finally run System restore in Safe Mode and get to a semi-working state (it was unsuccessful several times).

The only way I was able to uninstall Ad-Aware from Windows was to set the Sunbelt drivers to Disabled in safe mode, this way they did not load on boot or when the uninstaller started. (I tried to uninstall the Sunbelt drivers in safe mode to prevent the BSOD, but they somehow appeared again in full boot, probably the uninstaller started them when validating, hence the need for leaving them there and disabling them.)

I think Lavasoft needs to develop a special removal/clean-up program as most other antivirus manufactures have done.
Most of the BSODs are supposed to disappear in version 10.1.

I agree. Unfortunately, I will not be upgrading, the ordeals of today convinced me to use MSE from now on.
Still I have to thank you for all your help.

Edited by gkovacs, 26 April 2012 - 01:38 AM.

[CeciliaB]

You are welcome, gkovacs

Thanks for all your information. I understand your decision, even if I hope that you will try to use Ad-Aware at some other time. It is still possible to use Ad-Aware 9.6, if you want to have better protection than only MSE, and you can download it from FileHippo.

You certainly have a great computer knowledge!
Are there any remaining issues now or have you been able to solve them all now?

[gkovacs]

Are there any remaining issues now or have you been able to solve them all now?

Well two of the (non plug and play) Sunbelt drivers (SbFw and SbTis) have reappeared on my desktop computer, yet again messing with it's ability to go to sleep. Upon further examination I have found a lot of other Sunbelt drivers in the Network Adapters section:



How can i get rid of all these? I don't want to lose access to the internet, and disabling any of these disconnects the corresponding network adapter.

Edited by gkovacs, 26 April 2012 - 02:39 PM.

[CeciliaB]

I have now received the information that the VClean program should remove all Sunbelt's drivers and network adapters used in Ad-Aware 10.0 (not 10.1) in a proper way.
http://sunbelt-softw...t/vc/VClean.exe

[davet1]

A lifesaver! Did the trick in getting a computer out of the safe mode and the continual BSOD.
Thanks!

[gkovacs]

I have now received the information that the VClean program should remove all Sunbelt's drivers and network adapters used in Ad-Aware 10.0 (not 10.1) in a proper way. http://sunbelt-softw...t/vc/VClean.exe

Cecilia, thanks for the tip. Running VClean.exe did in fact restore the computer's ability to sleep.

Unfortunately, the Sunbelt (Firewall miniport) drivers are still present under Network Adapters, and disabling them disconnects the network as before.

[CeciliaB]

You are welcome, gkovacs

I will ask for more information tomorrow when Lavasoft staff is back in the office. On https://getsatisfact...nt_uninstall_it there is a link to a program from Sunbelt that should do a firewall clean up and I will ask if that could be used for Ad-Aware.

One thing you can try is to open "Network connections", see http://www.howtogeek...-windows-vista/ , right-click one of the connections and select Properties (or maybe it is Configuration in English). You should then be able to disable Sunbelt ... Filter. Repeat this for each network connection before restarting the computer. Check that the network connections are working.

[CeciliaB]

My contact person at Lavasoft has checked that SPFClean removes the drivers and network adapters without destroying the network connection. This seems to be the best solution in your case.
http://www.sunbelt-s...PF/spfclean.exe

[gkovacs]

My contact person at Lavasoft has checked that SPFClean removes the drivers and network adapters without destroying the network connection. This seems to be the best solution in your case. http://www.sunbelt-s...PF/spfclean.exe

Unfortunately, that is not the case. When running SPFClean (without removing the Sunbelt filters first) results in a BSOD (IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL). Upon rebooting the Sunbelt filter drivers are gone from Device Manager, but none of the network connections work - I guess they still try to use the filters.

The solution is to remove all network adapters from Device Manager (which effectively deletes all network connections), then scan for and re-add the network adapters. The newly created network connections will all be clean, but all settings, wireless stations and passwords will be gone.

Edited by gkovacs, 28 April 2012 - 02:50 PM.

[CeciliaB]

Sorry that my suggestion didn't work as well in your computer as it did in Lavasoft's test.

I'm glad that you found a solution and thanks for sharing it!

[erpguy6]

How can i get rid of all these? I don't want to lose access to the internet, and disabling any of these disconnects the corresponding network adapter.

remove the Sunbelt Firewall NDIS miniport drivers through Network Connection Properties, NOT through Device Manager.

I attempted to remove the Sunbelt Firewall drivers thru Device Manager in WinXP and on Win7 several weeks ago and I made things worse.
ended up reformatting and reinstalling my WinXP machine (which was quite extreme) and not installing Ad-aware 10 on there but on Win7 I didn't have to do that.

Do as CeciliaB suggested and open Network Connections List page from the web site. After right-clicking on any of the connections (like Local Area Network Connection or Wireless Network Connection) and selecting Properties, look for anything on the items in the section that says "This connection uses the following items:" that references Sunbelt, highlight the Sunbelt NDIS Filter component and then click the Uninstall button. that should remove it cleanly instead of doing it through Device Manager.

REMEMBER folks! To get rid of the Sunbelt NDIS firewall filter drivers properly, you must do it through Network Connection Properties and not in Device Manager.

I'll just keep using Ad-aware 9.6 on my WinXP computer since I won't deal with the headaches of Ad-aware 10.
Though on the other hand, my family Win7 machine will have Ad-aware 10 but without the Sunbelt NDIS filter drivers installed.

Edited by erpguy6, 03 May 2012 - 04:03 AM.

[erpguy6]

see my attached pictures below as to where to remove the Sunbelt Firewall NDIS filter driver.
proof is in the pictures.





I have Sunbelt Software Firewall NDIS IM Filter driver and Ad-aware 10 installed on my brother's Sony VAIO laptop using a Marvell 88E8059 LAN adapter and Intel Wifi 1000 BGN WLAN adapter on Windows 7. In the Local Area Network Connection properties or Wireless Network Connection properties dialog box, the Sunbelt filter driver is listed there. I have it highlighted so that the Uninstall button will be enabled so that I can uninstall it here (and NOT thru Device Manager). This is where users should remove the Sunbelt NDIS filter driver and it will remove it properly. Click the Uninstall button and click Yes to remove the Sunbelt NDIS filter driver for all network connections - all in one shot.


Best to remove the Sunbelt driver through here first, and then uninstall Ad-aware 10.

Edited by erpguy6, 03 May 2012 - 06:31 PM.

[erpguy6]

OR better yet, type this command in the Run dialog box from the Start Menu (Windows Vista and Windows 7 users must enable the Run dialog box from the Customize Start Menu properties box by selecting the "Run command" option) before uninstalling Ad-aware 10:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Ad-Aware Antivirus\Engine\SBSetupDrivers.exe" /uninstall /ARVA /HIPS /AP /FW

that should also remove the Sunbelt NDIS Filter drivers properly. no need to use Device Manager to remove the Sunbelt NDIS drivers.

The creators of Ad-aware 10 should program that specific command in their MSI file during the un-install process in future versions of Ad-aware 10.
that command should be executed before Windows Installer removes the Ad-aware 10 program files.

Edited by erpguy6, 04 May 2012 - 04:35 PM.

[chasji]

First of all, thanks to everyone who has posted here. This forum thread has helped me considerably in getting rid of the remnants of Sunbelt Firewall (SbFw). The symptoms I was having were not as extreme as other users have reported here (no BSOD, no sluggish performance, etc.) and I did not notice anything wrong immediately after I uninstalled AdAware 10. But several days later, I was trying to set up a Homegroup on a Win 7 network of 4 computers, and although 3 of the computers were able to join the Homegroup without problems, the 4th one (which previously had AdAware 10 on it) would not recognize the Homegroup, nor would it recognize the other 3 in the Network window or with the Network mapping tool.

I spent 2 hours running the Network troubleshooters, testing all my Ethernet cables, rebooting the router, replacing network switches, searching Microsoft forums for clues to the problem--in short, everything I could think of, but nothing helped. I finally gave up and paid $99 for Microsoft's Answer Desk service. It took another 3 hours and an escalation to a Level 3 technician before they noticed the SbFw network adapter entry and disabled it, at which point, the network problems immediately went away.

Now I'm faced with the issue of getting rid of all remnants of SbFw. Following erpguy6's recommendation above, I uninstalled the SbFw NDIS IM Filter from the network adapters. Doing this successfully removed all SbFw entries from the Network Adapters list in Device Manager. However, in the Non-Plug and Play Drivers section of Device Manager, there are still at least 4 entries that are related to Sunbelt: SbFw, sbhips, SBRE, and SbTis.

So my questions now:

1. Can I safely uninstall SbFw, sbhips, SBRE, and SbTis drivers from Device Manager? Remember, I've already uninstalled AdAware 10, so the using the command line string from erpguy6 won't help me--the AdAware directory and everything in it are already gone.

2. There are many registry entries still showing up from Sunbelt Firewall. What's the safest way to locate all of these and get rid of them? Has anybody at Lavasoft made a list of these?

3. Is there anywhere else on my system where I should look for remnants of SbFw? If so, how to get rid of these, too?

To Lavasoft: please be a lot more careful about your software releases. Your poor testing in this case has cost me around $300 in lost time, effort, and paid professional services. I was a paying customer of Lavasoft Pro, and I think you owe it to me and other users in this situation to provide thorough and accurate instructions for getting rid of the remnants of Sunbelt Firewall from my PC.