AVG not running, locked out of related services

hi, everyone. longtime virus-scanner, first-time caller.

using AVG free. it appears to have updated in the past 24 hours, but it does so on its own schedule and generally when i'm not around; came downstairs this morning and could tell the PC had rebooted. in addition, i had a new AVG shortcut on my desktop, which indicates an update. this evening, i downloaded a file from the internet and tried to tried to scan it as i always do (right-click, "scan selected items for viruses"). i got the following message in a dialogue box:

"AVG UI process (AVGUI.exe) is currently not running. Please run the application before starting a scan."

double-clicking the shortcut to start AVG did nothing; i got the hourglass indicating it was trying to start, and then it just stopped trying to start. going directly to the executable and double-click it: same result. just…nothing.

in Task Manager (BTW, this is Windows 7 Home Premium, version 6.1, build 7601, SP1), i see five services listed which appear to be related to AVG. four are stopped, one is running, and i can't change the status of any of them. i get a dialogue box titled "Unable to Start Service" with the message "The operation could not be completed. Access is denied."

screen shots of all of this are (hopefully) attached. the screen shot of the task manager services in particular has more information in it.

is this an infection of some kind? is it simply a problem with the latest update? i'm aware that typical early steps in fixing issues like this include rebooting the PC and uninstalling/reinstalling AVG, but so far i've been hesitant to try either for fear of aggravating any existing infection.

any advice would be most welcome.

edit: apparently i can't upload photos from my PC to append them to this message, so screen shots are out, at least for the moment. i suppose i could upload them to a blog and link to them there, but i'm hesitant to sign into anything on this PC at the moment. paranoid? i wish i knew.


Hi Justin,

We regret for the inconvenience caused.

We will help you to resolve the issue.

Please try to repair the program from the control panel and check for the issue again.

Refer this article for repairing the program https://support.avg.com/SupportArticleView?urlname=Repair-AVG-Antivirus

If the issue persist, please restart the services of AVG.

Please follow the steps in this article for restarting the AVG services https://support.avg.com/SupportArticleView?urlname=Troubleshoot-AVG-Antivirus-UI-Failed-load

You can post the screenshot here in your topic. Click on "Answer" & then click on the "Image" [mountain symbol] & follow the instructions.

Let us know the status of the issue.

Hi Justin,

We regret for the inconvenience caused.

We will help you to resolve the issue.

Please try to repair the program from the control panel and check for the issue again.

Refer this article for repairing the program https://support.avg.com/SupportArticleView?urlname=Repair-AVG-Antivirus

If the issue persist, please restart the services of AVG.

Please follow the steps in this article for restarting the AVG services https://support.avg.com/SupportArticleView?urlname=Troubleshoot-AVG-Antivirus-UI-Failed-load

You can post the screenshot here in your topic. Click on "Answer" & then click on the "Image" [mountain symbol] & follow the instructions.

Let us know the status of the issue.

the situation's changed, but i'm not sure if all is well or not.

first, here's the screen shot of the services i found in task manager:

AVG-related services running (or not) in Task Manager

i've only just managed to get back to my PC again (sleep, work, etc.). the first thing i noticed was another PC reboot happened sometime today, and judging by the new AVG icon, another update has taken place. and just like that i can scan items again, same as ever. meanwhile, though, i'm still getting the same result if i try to start or stop any of the services listed in task manager: "the operation could not be completed. access is denied." so, on the one hand, i seem to be okay again. but i'm not clear on why i'm unable to affect any of these services since i have full admin privileges on the PC. i'm wondering if that points to a continued problem of some kind. 

since i'm now unexpectedly able to scan for viruses again, i've held off on implementing your suggestions, but i can still try the repair and service restart if you think it's warranted.

Thank you for explaining & sharing us the screenshots, Justin.
We appreciate your efforts in working towards fixing the issue.
As this isn't the usual behavior of AVG, please try repairing the program & let us know the outcome.
However, we'll not be able to modify the services that are already running/stopped. To do so, we need to go to the services window. (Press windows logo key & R key together to get runline command - Type services.msc & hit enter)