Another Windows 7 x64 freeze after the 1.0.508 update

[ffwfire]

Someone mentioned about Windows 10.  I run Windows 10 Pro and no freezing here.  It is just my brother's Windows 7 computer.  He said he think it does it when updates.

[belsnerd]

I have a Win 7 PC and two WIn 10 PCs.   The win 10 PCs have never  locked up like this.  That was part of the reason it was so difficult identifying the cause of my  intermittent freezes/lockups on the Win 7 PC.

 

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[magnetman]

2 hours ago, belsnerd said:

I have a Win 7 PC and two WIn 10 PCs.   The win 10 PCs have never  locked up like this.  That was part of the reason it was so difficult identifying the cause of my  intermittent freezes/lockups on the Win 7 PC.

 

+

 

What's your opinion of Win 10 vs Win 7?

[belsnerd]

Win 7 Pro does everything I need.  I operate a few family PCs and devices in a home network environment .  Win 10 makes more work for me as administrator of all the equipment. 

In the home environment I don't need the permission controls and restrictions needed in Business, or Office environments.  Firewall Controls, Malwarebytes and a few other tools give me the security I need.   

And, after 38 years (I come from the DOS  Version  1.1 on floppy disk days) I don't need an OS to tell me how to organize my directory structures, or storage on my systems, I prefer to do that myself, my way. 

[BummerMan]

On 1/14/2019 at 2:30 PM, Fuzzy2084 said:

Very well said.  You would have expected some communication from the company about this.

We have 4 W7 PCs, and 3 of those were affected - one only crashed this week, the others before Christmas.

Like pretty much everyone else here, I've disabled 'web protection' and 'ransomware protection' on all 4 machines - thus negating the purpose of having the software installed in the first place.

Totally agreed over here. It's not that I've spent countless hours on re-installing all software and drivers I could think of, stress-testing the system, basically going to the brink of losing my sanity, sending one report + bundle of log files one after another to MBAM, and all that's just the quality time / hours spent, if you value it at $0/hr ... In addition, I've bought a new PSU, a new SSD, new controller interface cards and what the F*** not. And still, I'm stuck with the same issue. How many months have gone by now?

I am running Malwarebytes Premium on Win7 / 64bit Ultimate. The setup has all the bells and whistles I can think of, as well as no remnants of old drivers or software hanging around no more.

And yeah, none of the workarounds that have been offered to me from MBAM did work, either.

... Well, the exception that being to quit using MBAM completely and just use whatever antivirus software you have for the time being.

I'd like MBAM to put a bit more effort and pressure on this issue, honestly. And that's putting my opinion mildly. I appreciate all the effort put into this issue thus far, but the reality is that MBAM is unusable as for now, in my case at least, and I think the same goes for many other users as well.

[Porthos]

19 minutes ago, BummerMan said:

How many months have gone by now?

Let's see...Mid December when it started and it is now Mid January.

19 minutes ago, BummerMan said:

And yeah, none of the workarounds that have been offered to me from MBAM did work, either.

Have you reverted to the version before 508? It does not have the issue. https://malwarebytes.box.com/s/xq78v2de2k893g1h41upzbtqmsc6t375

Edited January 16 by Porthos

[1PW]

Hello @BummerMan:

Reference Sticky: Malwarebytes for Windows and Windows 7 Freeze/Lock-up

Is the Known Workarounds #2 viable for your situation?

Edited January 16 by 1PW

[LiquidTension]

13 hours ago, BillJohnson said:

I have Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit, running on a high end PC with dual 8 core processors at 2.4Ghz.  After the recent update of Malwarebytes, my computer has been continually hanging up, and freezing with no end in sight.  Today I uninstalled Malwarebytes completely, and am going to have to rely on the Microsoft Security Essentials until they fix this problem.  After the uninstall, my computer runs perfectly with zero issues....    Very frustrating, as I don't want to rely on Microsoft's firewall alone to protect my PC.  Can someone at Malwarebytes notify me when there is an update that fixes this freezing up problem?   Thanks in advance.  

Please refer to the workarounds listed in the following topic: https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/241223-malwarebytes-for-windows-and-windows-7-freezelock-up/?tab=comments#comment-1291076

The second workaround will allow you to keep Malwarebytes installed, only with an earlier components package version.
 

1 hour ago, BummerMan said:

And yeah, none of the workarounds that have been offered to me from MBAM did work, either.

To confirm, do you continue to experience complete system freezes with Web Protection disabled or after reverting to the previous components package version? Please refer to the topic linked above.

[thund3rbolt]

As an IT supporting small companies in my area and after waiting for several weeks with no ETA on a fix I have pulled the plug on Malwarebytes and installed Webroot as a replacement for several of my clients. Some are okay with long delay in providing a fix... other's are not okay with it and I'm the one taking the heat with the dissatisfied clients.  

I'm very disappointed at the way this has been handled. Firstly, at the way Windows 7 clients have been not notified, secondly with the amount of time it's taken to provide a permanent solution, and lastly offering zero compensation to clients who paid for a "total protection" package and are receiving a faulty product with a bandaid solution.

I have had to provide daily support calls to clients, on site installations, and apologies with no charge. This is business and customers have a right to demand a product that was promised to them not excuses, long delay and... I certainly have better things to do than work for free.

/rant

[torus_ot]

Two days now running

• Web protection OFF
• Ransomware protection ON

No freezes so far... Before that I run for weeks without freezes with both protections OFF.

[exile360]

I switched back to my previous configuration since I get less performance issues that way (not to mention faster startup and fewer/no errors) so I've got Web Protection on again, Ransomware Protection off and self-protection off (though I don't think that module is related to the issues, I just see no point in it since I don't expect to get infected).

[BillJohnson]

The best solution is to just uninstall Malwarebytes completely.  Works for me, and my PC runs like new again.

 

Until there is a proven fix, I'll just visit only known secure sites on my PC, and do any other web usage that might take me to a possibly dangerous site on my phone instead.

[arbrich]

Just trying to add more data to help this along.

We had 3 different machines today (all Windows 7) that as soon as you clicked on Devices and Printers the machines froze up right away and had to be restarted.

This is the 4th machine I have seen do exactly this same thing.

We are rolling back to Prior Component Update until this gets resolved.

 

 

[exile360]

You can also install the Malwarebytes browser extension if you use Chrome (or another Chromium based browser like SRWare Iron or Vivaldi) or Mozilla Firefox.  It contains the same block database as the Web Protection component in Malwarebytes 3 and also includes some additional functions such as ad blocking, anti-phishing, clickbait site blocking as well as behavioral blocking for certain common threats like tech support scam sites and fake/PUP browser plugin sites.  It's compatible with Malwarebytes 3 so once this issue is resolved you can continue using it.  Its only limitation is that it only guards your browser rather than your entire system the way that Malwarebytes 3 does.  You can find out more and download it at the following links:

Chrome
Firefox

[BillJohnson]

I'm just relieved to know that we know what the problem is.  There is nothing more frustrating than to have your PC that you use to run your business with, that is irreplaceable for many of us, and to have it rendered virtually useless and frozen is beyond infuriating.   For people like me that use our PCs to edit photos as photographers, without them we are essentially out of business.   I was getting ready to throw my computer out the window and buy a new one, it was that bad.  I feel like a boulder has been lifted off my shoulders after uninstalling Malwarebytes. 

 

The Malwarebytes staff needs to make future changes to the software ONLY after thorough beta testing, instead of just throwing this out there and letting us be the guinea pigs.    Please think about this a little more, as you often have people's livelihoods in the balance here.  

[Davidtoo]

Just in case this helps...something I noticed about my computer....  I have a Win 7 64 Pro myself...no freezes at all.  

I just looked at my Kaspersky Report which I do once a week or so, and Kaspersky routinely blocks Malwarebytes from using memory processes...even though I have excluded Malwarebytes in Kaspersky  and exlcuded kaspersky in Malwarebytes settings.

Perhaps therefore the memory processes which are not allowed to operate on my computer have something to do with this Freezing.

Just speculating here....but could be I suppose.

[mkaz]

I received Component Package Version 1.0.519 1-2 days ago.  Can someone shed some light into the changes made from 1.0.508 to 1.0.519?  Thanks.

[exile360]

7 minutes ago, mkaz said:

I received Component Package Version 1.0.519 1-2 days ago.  Can someone shed some light into the changes made from 1.0.508 to 1.0.519?  Thanks.

It was a minor update to address an issue with licensing.  You can find the details in this post.

[mkaz]

15 minutes ago, exile360 said:

It was a minor update to address an issue with licensing.  You can find the details in this post.

Thx!

[belsnerd]

6 hours ago, BillJohnson said:

 For people like me that use our PCs to edit photos as photographers, without them we are essentially out of business.   I was getting ready to throw my computer out the window and buy a new one, it was that bad.  I feel like a boulder has been lifted off my shoulders after uninstalling Malwarebytes. 

My lockups occurred in the home environment.  If I had these problems while operating my business and found out that MB had known about such a potentially serious bug affecting Windows 7 users, several weeks before I found out,  I would have been incensed.

Someone with authority at MB needs to set up prompt notification policies to prevent this ever happening again. 

Malwarebytes have an excellent product with a great reputation and a very effective support base.  

Don't jeopardize  the existence of your product with such a negligent response to a serious problem potentially affecting thousand of your longest term users. 

I'll forgive you once but if it ever happens again, I'll be off like a flash and take most of my former clients and people I introduced to your product, with me.

[DoTheMath]

I'd like to share my experience with this issue:

I work for a small IT company.  We are a full service IT company, including break/fix.  We are also a Malwarebytes partner (authorized reseller).  We have sold hundreds of Malwarebytes licenses to our customers (regular customers) over the past couple of years.  My primary function is break/fix and I can assert that we have not had a single computer come in for this issue, nor have we fielded a single call about it.  I became aware of this issue when one of my two home computers, running Windows 7 Home Premium, fell prey to this problem.  I have already posted the requested logs for that computer; however, I was wondering if it would benefit Malwarebytes' techs if I posted the logs of the Windows 7 Home Premium computer unaffected by this issue.  Let me know if it will help and I'll gladly post them.

[magnetman]

For me personally, this is not been that much of a hardship but more of an annoyance. I have 4 separate PCs, two laptops and two desktops that seem to freeze up only after they go unattended for a longer period of time. Mostly when I return to my office the following day and a system is frozen. On a few occasions a system has locked up during use but really not that often. Until there is a fix, I’m just being more careful to save all work more often. This is still not a problem you would expect from a security software developer. I can't imagine how many people must be having this issue and have no idea what's going on and thinking they have deeper issues maybe hardware related.

[MikeK]

I'm having the same problem of my Windows 7 Pro simply Freezing within a few minutes of start up.

The only way my system would not freeze was to disable Ransomware Protection as well as Exploit Protection in Malwarebytes Premium.

I have just now downloaded and restored to the previous version of Malwarebytes Premium and system seems fine, read does not freeze, for now !

Below is my mbst-grab-results along with msinfo32 file within the Zip file for your review.

Please let me know what to do next.

Perhaps,  Ron - AdvancedSetup can help me as he's done in the past on different issues ?

Thank you.

Mike

mbst-grab-results.zip

[LighteningSam]

I think I identified the problem... it's the Russians! Yeah, either that or global warming. But I'm not ruling out sunspots. You know how this works... a Forbes technical writer picks up on this freezing then all the news feeds carry the article with their spin. In a few days, millions are having freezing problems... and some will even have Malwarebytes installed. 

I think the MWB staff should adopt how QuickBooks rolls out their solutions. I just installed a patch on about 20 workstations. After patching a few, I ran it on one workstation and no "Install" or "Cancel" button... OK, I'll come back to that workstation later... Then a few more workstations and again, no Install button. Yeah, I clicked where it should have been and even hit the enter and Alt key with no success. After a Google search found one of their support threads. They said it was because the display was not set at 96DPI??? Two solutions... either change the DPI or hit the "space bar". Makes perfect sense, space bar. Now get this... this was from a thread in 2015. So the patch, that just came out a few days before, worked flawlessly by hitting the space bar. It also warned me that after the patch it might have to reboot, but out of 20 workstations, only one rebooted. IOW, don't apply logic and don't ask why. And that is the very reason global warming causes freezing. 

[magnetman]

1 hour ago, LighteningSam said:

I think I identified the problem... it's the Russians! Yeah, either that or global warming. But I'm not ruling out sunspots. You know how this works... a Forbes technical writer picks up on this freezing then all the news feeds carry the article with their spin. In a few days, millions are having freezing problems... and some will even have Malwarebytes installed. 

I think the MWB staff should adopt how QuickBooks rolls out their solutions. I just installed a patch on about 20 workstations. After patching a few, I ran it on one workstation and no "Install" or "Cancel" button... OK, I'll come back to that workstation later... Then a few more workstations and again, no Install button. Yeah, I clicked where it should have been and even hit the enter and Alt key with no success. After a Google search found one of their support threads. They said it was because the display was not set at 96DPI??? Two solutions... either change the DPI or hit the "space bar". Makes perfect sense, space bar. Now get this... this was from a thread in 2015. So the patch, that just came out a few days before, worked flawlessly by hitting the space bar. It also warned me that after the patch it might have to reboot, but out of 20 workstations, only one rebooted. IOW, don't apply logic and don't ask why. And that is the very reason global warming causes freezing. 

Honestly... I think it's Bushes fault