garioch7

@Bonecrusher I don't really have any new ideas. It is known that McAfee as well interferes with Dell SupportAssist. If you have that installed, you should add exceptions in that application, though I would recommend that you not have more than one anti-virus installed providing real-time protection. That can cause all kinds of system issues and conflicts. I use Bitdefender 2020 Total Security on both of my Dell computers (laptop and desktop). I uninstalled the McAfee trial products when I took delivery of my Dell computers. There is no need to add exceptions to the Bitdefender program. You should make sure that you are running the latest version of SupportAssist (Version 3.4.5.366). It is possible that uninstalling the program, rebooting, and then reinstalling it might resolve your problem. It is available for download here. I hope this helps. Good luck and have a great day. Regards, -Phil

@exile360 User has a malware removal topic already open at G2G. Have a great day. Regards, -Phil

@AdvancedSetup As always, Ron, you are most welcome. It was your influence that led me to join the Bleeping Computer Study Hall so many years ago, one of the best decisions of my life. Thank you. I will keep monitoring my SupportAssist Scan Hardware topic daily over at the Dell Forums and I will keep you apprised of anything noteworthy that might affect your team. Keep up the great work, Ron. Have a great day. Regards, -Phil

@AdvancedSetup I just saw this post in my topic over at the Dell Community Forums. Apparently, PC Doctor, who make the Dell SupportAssist program, are working on a solution to the MBP detection of their hardware scan. You might want to make sure that your developers touch base to avoid duplication of effort. Have a great day. Regards, -Phil

@Cavehomme You are most welcome for the information. I am really happy that you solved your problem. It would seem that if you are running McAfee LiveSafe and Malwarebytes Premium, you have to deal with those TWO software programs not liking the Dell SupportAssist program and consequently, as an interim solution, you have to exempt/whitelist the Dell SupportAssist folder(s) in both programs. Hopefully, the companies involved will get together and find a solution for those members of the Dell user community whot like to occasionally scan our hardware components using the Dell SupportAssist program. Have a great day. Regards, -Phil

@BLWalker I think that your issue might also be related to McAfee LiveSafe. According to a Moderator (jbilinski), in the Dell SupportAssist Forum, in reply to my topic there, he stated: Try also disabling or whitelisting the Dell SupportAssist program folders in McAfee. I don't use McAfee; my AV is Bitdefender. I hope this helps. Please let us know. Have a great day. Regards, -Phil

@AdvancedSetup Ron, jbilinski, a Moderator in the Dell Forums, just reached out to me in my topic there and also via PM, wanting to know the Service Tag of my Dell XPS 8930 SE, and also all of the version information of my copy of Malwarebytes Premium. I have provided him with the requested information, and advised him that as far as I understood, Malwarebytes was handling this a software defect that needed to be corrected, and not a Dell SupportAssist program issue, per se. If I am mistaken, you, or a member of team, should communicate with him, since he seems to be the Dell SupportAssist program lead on this at the Dell end of things. Thank you and have a great day. Regards, -Phil

@AdvancedSetup Ron, for sure I will update this topic when I see any updates from Dell posted in my topic there. I visit the Dell Community Forums daily. Nothing new there today. Have a great day. Regards, -Phil

@LiquidTension Thank you for the update. Dell is also investigating. See my topic over at the Dell Community SupportAssist Forum. They have possibly identified the cause. Have a great day. Regards, -Phil

@LiquidTension Will do. According to a contributor over at the Dell SupportAssist Community Forum, it is only necessary to "Allow" the C:\Program Files\Dell\SupportAssistAgent folder. I can confirm his finding and I am keeping that folder on the "Allow List" until the issue is resolved. Thank you and have a great day. Regards, -Phil

@exile360 You are most welcome, and thank you for sharing your theory as to what is happening, as well as for your prompt response, on a Sunday no less! I will be interested to learn the outcome of the investigation. Have a great day. Regards, -Phil

@exile360 I have done as you requested and the zipped log folder is attached. Happy hunting! Have a great day. Regards, -Phil Logs.zip

@exile360 Thank you for your reply. I have done as you asked. 1. Exclude the two folders from detection as ransomware only: SupportAssist no longer just runs to completion in two seconds, with the History entry that the Manual Scan Hardware test was not started. Instead, it just hangs at "Preparing" and nothing happens. 2. Exclude the two folders from detection as malware or potentially unwanted program only: the scan runs normally. 3. Exclude the two folders from all detections: the scan runs normally. Not sure of what all of that means, but I suspect that perhaps the PUP sub-component of Malware Protection component is responsible. SupportAssist does have a system optimizer and a clean up utility and one or both of them does mess with the registry and/or files and delete legitimate entries/files; e.g., the games statistics for Windows 7 Games for Windows 10 by Winaero. In that case, it is the statistics files that are being deleted. I don't run those SupportAssist components any more for that reason. I complained about that on the SupportAssist Forum on the Dell Community Forums, but my post never got posted. Censorship? It was my first post there. Right now, I just use SupportAssist for driver and other downloads and for the occasional hardware scan. Dell does not seem to appreciate any criticisms on their Forums, so I have just let that matter drop. What disappoints me about this is that if Malwarebytes is blocking the SupportAssist "Scan Hardware" component from running properly, it should notify the user. My MBP "Detection History" is blank. MBP does not interfere with the SupportAssist "Driver and other downloads" component. That works just fine. I don't use the other components so I cannot say if they work now. This problem only started a few weeks ago, so some change was made to MBP in the last month that has crippled the SupportAssist "Scan Hardware" component. Thank you and have a great day. Regards, -Phil

I am running a Dell XPS 8930 Special Edition, purchased in October 2019, with Windows 10 Pro, x64, Build 1909, fully updated, including February Windows 10 updates. Several weeks ago, the Dell SupportAssist program would no longer run the "Scan Hardware" test nor could I see any of my hardware components under the "TroubleShooting" tab (test a specific piece of hardware" The Dell SupportAssist program had been working just fine until a few weeks ago, and other components, like driver updating continued to work fine, but I could not get the "Scan Hardware" component to work. The test would just run to completion in a few seconds and state "No Issues Found", but the "History" reported that the scan never started. Normally the scan takes about ten minutes. I opened a topic on the Dell SupportAssist Forum, which can be found here. I was intrigued by boheap's reply in this other topic there complaining of a very similar issue because I also run Malwarebytes Premium 4.04 (fully updated). Malwarebytes was not throwing any errors when I tried to run "Scan Hardware" test with SupportAssist 3.4.1.49, nor was the SupportAssist program itself. Rather than disable my Malwarebytes Premium (MBP) as suggested by boheap, I decided to add the following folders to the MBP "Allow List" before testing whether disabling MBP had any effect. I "allowed" the following folders to be exempt from any MBP protection: C:\Program Files\Dell\SARemediation C:\Program Files\Dell\SupportAssistAgent I rebooted my computer, and now Scan Hardware works just fine and passed. Also, under Troubleshoot, I can now see my hardware components, whereas before no hardware components would show even after I clicked on "Refresh". I hope that Dell and Malwarebytes will get together and address this issue, since users have no way of knowing that Malwarebytes is apparently preventing certain components of Dell SupportAssist from working properly, since no errors and/or "blocking" are reported by MBP. I hope that this helps someone else, and I extend my gratitude to boheap for his reply which got me motivated to do some testing with MBP. Have a great day. Regards, -Phil

@gicahagi I am running 2020 Bitdefender Total Security and Malwarebytes Premium. I have not had any Internet speed issues. Have you added the recommended MBP file exclusions to Bitdefender? Please see this link for more details. I hope this helps. Have a great day. Regards, -Phil