Why Spyware Doctor With Antivirus Update Fails and How to Fix It

Why Spyware Doctor With Antivirus Update Fails and How to Fix It
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Updating Spyware Doctor with Antivirus Fails

PC Tools’ antivirus program includes a Smart Update utility to check, download and install the virus database and program updates. If you can’t update Spyware Doctor with Antivirus, you should try to check the firewall protection, conflicting programs and your connection to the servers. If none of these is the cause of update failure for Spyware Doctor, you can troubleshoot the problem. Below are the possible solutions to succeed in updating the antivirus program.

Permission, Antivirus Settings and Firewall Solutions

In a previous article about Spyware Doctor update failure, I described some solutions to fix updating issues for the antivirus program by PC Tools:

  • Check the connection settings of Spyware Doctor. Make sure that you are using “Direct Connection” and not using a proxy server.
  • Review IE settings: Internet Options > Connections tab > LAN settings. Uncheck all boxes under Local Area Network settings.
  • Make sure that the firewall software in Windows is not blocking the processes from Spyware Doctor.
  • Login to Windows using an administrator account to run Smart Update. Standard user accounts can still update Spyware Doctor, but it is automatic which means you cannot push for a manual update.
  • Remove remnants of other antivirus program e.g. use Norton Removal tool, McAfee Consumer Product Removal tool, AVG Remover etc., that can also conflict with the features or components of Spyware Doctor.
  • Remove incompatible software: NVIDIA firewall is not compatible with the Spyware Doctor program.

If none of the above solution has helped when your Spyware Doctor with Antivirus update fails, you should try to troubleshoot.

Troubleshooting Spyware Doctor Update Failures

To start troubleshooting your Spyware Doctor program update failures, try to do the following steps:

Troubleshooting Guide 1:

  • Check the connection from Internet Explorer to the PC Tools server. Visit https://www.pctools.com. Did the browser load the page? If yes, proceed to download Spyware Doctor Database. If the browser did not load the page, skip the next steps and proceed to troubleshooting guide #2.

  • Download Spyware Doctor virus database from the following links (download the appropriate version for your program):

  • Follow the guide in this article to manually install Spyware Doctor virus database update.

  • Scan the computer when you’re done installing the update for Spyware Doctor.

  • Test the updater from Spyware Doctor another time to check if it will now download and install new virus database definitions.

Troubleshooting Guide 2:

  • If the website of PC Tools did not load using Internet Explorer, you need to try resetting the hosts file in Windows, and also Internet Explorer. Download and use the Fix It tools by Microsoft:
  • Reboot the computer and then try visiting https://www.pctools.com again. If the page is displayed, proceed to using the rest of the steps in troubleshooting #1.

Spyware Doctor Program is Not Updated

If your problem is not just with the virus database update, but the general Spyware Doctor with Antivirus update failing to download or provide the new build of the program, you may need to download the new build manually. It’s not a problem in the updater of Spyware Doctor, but by design. The PC Tools servers often does not push or offer the new build of the program via Smart Update unless it is an important or urgent fix or improvement for the product.

You can get the latest installation file of Spyware Doctor with Antivirus at https://www.pctools.com/mirror/sdasetup.exe

References

Source: Author Experience

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