Serious problem - cannot start Nod32 (or ESS) AV.

It appears I've managed to resolve this by (a) doing a system restore to long before any of this started; (b) using the unofficial KISKAV7Remove script so kindly put together by lucianbara over at the Kaspersky beta forum; and (c) uninstalling/reinstalling ESS.

Leaving this unedited for the sake of anyone that finds it after me.

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... or firewalls, for that matter.

What I've tried:

System Restore
Winsock fix for the fw issue

No go. Nod32 is unable to start AMON, and when sysrestoring to a time where ESS was installed, I'm getting "Virus Scanner Initialization Failed," with further text saying that the rest of the modules will likely be unavailable, as well.

This weirdness started mostly after attempting to install KIS 7 beta. It was a fight just to uninstall that, and ... now I'm left with a mess.

No other reason to suspect viral infection, and a-squared is finding nothing.

AMD 3500+ w/ 1gb.

Help.