Stuck on "checking for updates"

[giomach]

In the thread https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/189065-malwarebytes-anti-malware-stuck-on-checking-for-updates/#comment-1065431

this advice was given:

"The logs indicate that someone has installed changes to the host file designed to pirate or steal our software. Please remove the settings from the hosts file and the updates should work again."

As I'm having the same problem, can you tell me where to find the hosts file, and what it should contain.

Thanks.

[Malwarebytes]

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[dcollins]

If you can provide the logs requested above, we can provide more information on how to make sure this is the correct fix.

[giomach]

Thanks dcollins.  Things are working again today — this problem of sticking on checking for updates comes and goes.

When it recurs, I'll apply your suggestions.

 

[giomach]

Hi, my problem with scan getting stuck on "checking for updates" is back.

A scan is scheduled to run every 24 hours.  The two attached screen shots, made at the same time, show that a scan has now been running for 43 hours, and has not got past "checking for updates".

(BTW, to say "Last scan: 1 day ago" implies to me that the scan completed, whereas it seems to be really referring to the scan which is stuck.  It would be more useful to know when the last completed scan was made.)

Zipped logs attached.

Thanks for your attention.

mbst-grab-results.zip

[dcollins]

It looks like you may have a failing hard drive, which is causing an issue when trying to save the updates we download. This is called out in the logs, specifically shown below. I would recommend running a hard drive diagnostic to confirm.

Error: (06/19/2018 04:26:08 PM) (Source: disk) (EventID: 7) (User: )
Description: The device, \Device\Harddisk0\DR0, has a bad block.

Error: (06/19/2018 04:26:08 PM) (Source: nvstor32) (EventID: 3) (User: )
Description: Data error on device.



Device: \Device\RaidPort0

Model: Hitachi HDS5C3020BLE630

Firmware Version: MZ4O

Serial Number:       MCE7215P0TNKWW

Port: 0

 

[giomach]

Thank you.

I did "chkdsk c:" which reported no problem.

Then I did "chkdsk c: /r" on restarting Windows, it took 4–5 hours, and the results disappeared off-screen before I could read them, so I don't know what it fixed, if anything.

Was this what you had in mind by "hard disk diagnostic", or is there a better one?

After that, a new scan still got stuck on checking for updates, until I closed mbam.exe and reloaded it.  Then a new scan succeeded in getting the updates.  We'll see if the problem recurs.

(While it wouldn't solve any problems, I think it would be good if MWB would do something when it becomes obvious that the updates are not going to be found, like telling the user and giving a menu of feasible actions.)

Thanks again for your help.

[dcollins]

Checkdisk doesn't do an actual hard drive diagnostic, it just looks for issues in the filesystem itself. It looks like you have a Hitachi hard drive, so you'll want to run the WinDFT diagnostic tool: https://www.hgst.com/support/hard-drive-support/downloads

[giomach]

Thanks again.  My intermittent problem with getting stuck on updates is not happening at present.  But it looks as if my hard disk is OK.

WinDFT couldn't see my disk, and WD support advised using DLGDIAG instead ( https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?ID=940 ). This scanned my disk and gave it a clean bill of health.

(Just for general info, to minimize the risk of interfering with my internal drive, I cloned it to an external drive, and booted from that for the purposes of testing the internal one.)

The problem could have something to do with my internet connection, as I have had occasional delays on other such operations, which however generally work when retried.