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Windows Live Mail locks up with Malwarebytes running

Tdrake
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Tdrake

Tdrake

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In the last couple of weeks, my windows 7 computer will lock up if Malwarebytes is running and I try to use Windows Live Mail.  If an email opens Chrome, the computer locks up. I have to power it off to restart it.  If I disable Malwarebytes and do the same thing, there is no lockup.  Microsoft Security Essentials (MSC) is also active.  I have uninstalled MSE and reinstalled it.  The same with Chrome. I have run complete scans with both Malwarebytes and MSC and found nothing.  I ran a boot CD with MSC autorun and no issues found.  I did a memory check and ran chkdisk on reboot.

I have two computers running the paid lifetime versions of Malwarebytes.  The second computer will lock up while running a dBase program that prints to a network printer.  If I disable Malwarebytes on that computer, there are no lockup problems.  

Both computers have to be powered off to stop the lockup.  This leaves files open and there is no way to do a proper shutdown.

I have been using Malwarebytes for years and this problem just started within the last couple of weeks.

Thanks

Tom

 

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bashbish

bashbish

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I thought the issue was solved but last night I had my first freeze in  a week (while I was sleeping.)  I have had this happen randomly over the past couple of weeks. I am told the MWB Staff is working on it.

Most of my freeze issues have been when PC was idle. Your issues happened when doing specific tasks. That might be good information for MWB Staff to have.

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johnhouriedavidson

johnhouriedavidson

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Same thing has been happening to me for around two weeks, when exiting Windows Live Mail in Windows 7 Ultimate.

I have been running Malwarebytes and MS Security Essentials in tandem. Windows completely freezes on clicking the X to exit WLM. It doesn't happen every time though. I think that if I leave some time between sending/receiving emails and exiting WLM, the problem is less likely to occur.

Online sources say that the same thing is happening with MS Security Essentials. So I stopped using MS-SE, and the problem happened less frequently, but still happened. If I close down Malwarebytes before exiting WLM, I have yet to have the problem. Malwarebytes did once freeze the computer when I tried to open a Word *.docx file direct by clicking the attachment. Otherwise, I have only ever experienced the problem when exiting WLM by clicking the X.

I first repaired and then reloaded WLM from an old copy of the installation file (MS no longer support WLM), but the problem persisted. It is odd that (at least) two antivirus programs should simultaneously develop the same problem with the same software - which has not been changed. Maybe there is a newish virus out there that both MS-SE and Malwarebytes are both detecting, but are at the same time also misidentifying some aspect of WLM with the virus.

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dcollins

dcollins

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Thanks @johnhouriedavidson. Any chance you can also provide the logs mentioned below as well, which should help us be able to more closely replicate your setup:

  1. Download and run the Malwarebytes Support Tool
  2. Do not click on Start Repair
  3. Click Advanced on the left side and then click Gather Logs
  4. Once the process finishes, attach mbst-grab-results.zip from your desktop in your reply
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johnhouriedavidson

johnhouriedavidson

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No problem. Here it is. And as a special New Year's treat I managed to freeze my computer by sending an email in WLM and then almost immediately exiting WLM by clicking the X. After about 10 or 15 secs,  I heard the fan (=CPU) power up and everything froze (including the Windows key function) except for the mouse pointer. So that should be almost the last thing on the log before the forced power down and restart. BTW, I could still move the pointer around with the mouse, but nothing responded to any clicks. When running Malwarebytes alongside MS-SE, even the mouse pointer freezes. The freeze would seem to have some element of timing in it because it doesn't always happen, and if I leave several minutes between sending/receiving emails, the likelihood of a freeze is less. Temporarily quitting Malwarebytes is the only safe way to exit WLM at the moment. Presently, MS-SE is permanently disabled.

Thanks

mbst-grab-results.zip

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Tdrake

Tdrake

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21 hours ago, dcollins said:

Thanks @johnhouriedavidson. Any chance you can also provide the logs mentioned below as well, which should help us be able to more closely replicate your setup:

  1. Download and run the Malwarebytes Support Tool
  2. Do not click on Start Repair
  3. Click Advanced on the left side and then click Gather Logs
  4. Once the process finishes, attach mbst-grab-results.zip from your desktop in your reply

mbst-grab-results.zip

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johnhouriedavidson

johnhouriedavidson

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Just sent some emails and then inadvertently (by habit) exited WLM, and everything froze. Even the mouse pointer. I was running Chrome and MS-Office at the time. I ran your log collection program, which is attached.

In the process, WLM also lost all my emails. On startup, WLM said something like "Recovering your emails", but it didn't. Fortunately I had done a backup on Dec 28th, so not too much has been lost, and you get another log out of it for investigation.

 

mbst-grab-results.zip

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Tdrake

Tdrake

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23 hours ago, dcollins said:

Thanks @Tdrake, can you also answer the question above about your configuration inside of Windows Live Mail?

I have one email account in WLM.  It is a POP3 incoming account and SMTP outgoing.

With all of the other "Me Too's"  that are having lockup issues with WLM, MBam, and Windows Security Essentials, it can't be my computer.

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OmegaPhase

OmegaPhase

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Hi All,

I discovered that if I launched WLM immediately after boot, it loaded successfully, and I discovered why. I checked my MWB Settings and noticed that I had a 60 second delay set for "Delay Real-Time Protection when MalwareBytes starts." However, if I launch WLM AFTER MWB Real-Time Protection is active, crash! I routinely open and close WLM all day long, so this has become a huge inconvenience.

My work-around: disable MWB Real-Time Protection, launch WLM, then re-enable MWB Real-Time Protection.

I've attached my log file from the support tool. However, MWB protection disabled).

I hope you guys come up with a solution soon.

Thank you,
Andy

 

mbst-grab-results.zip

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Tdrake

Tdrake

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I started this conversation.  One of the most important things for MWB company to understand is that we all bought their products to protect our computers.  Having to power off the computer because MWB locks up the computer can cause you to lose files or have the computer not boot at all.  Most programs open files when they open.  When you close a program it closes the files and sets the "end of file marker".  If you have to power off the computer, those end file markers are still open an can get cross-linked.  
Cross-linked files = scrambled files.  Scrambled files = lost files.  That is exactly what anti-malware software is supposed to prevent. 

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Tdrake

Tdrake

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On 1/1/2019 at 7:03 PM, dcollins said:

Thanks @Tdrake, can you also answer the question above about your configuration inside of Windows Live Mail?

Today I had to finally uninstall the "PAID LIFETIME" version of Malwarebytes.  No more lockups and power button shutdowns.  When you get a version that works with Windows 7, Windows Live Mail and Microsoft Security Essentials without constant lockups and forced power off shutdowns, let me know.

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johnhouriedavidson

johnhouriedavidson

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To DCollins and MalwareBytes Support. Can you let us know if you are still working on this issue. On my laptop, it only manifests if MalwareBytes is running when I exit WLM, so I have to remember to exit MalwareBytes before exiting WLM, and then to restart Malwarebytes afterwards. That's a nuisance, but sometimes I forget and on about a third of those occasions, when rebooting, my computer runs CHKDISK, finding numerous broken bits of files. That is dangerous as well as disruptive to work, and I too am wondering what to use in place of my paid-for Malwarebytes Premium.

At least you guys at support could give us some kind of an update on what's happening at your end to fix the problem.

Does anyone know whether MS-Security Essentials also causes the lock-up problem with WLM when Malwarebytes is not running, or is the issue a lock-up between Malwarebytes and MS-Security Essentials.

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exile360

exile360

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I did see where a member of Support posted recently that at least some (though hopefully all) of the current known issues would be addressed in the upcoming 3.7 version, however he didn't have an ETA on when it would be available.

As for MSE, I haven't heard of any freezes/issues with it and Malwarebytes.  I'm running the two of them together here and the only freezes I've had were when I had Ransomware Protection enabled (which I normally keep disabled for performance reasons, though typically it doesn't cause any freezes/issues, although it appears it does for the latest version of Malwarebytes); I assume you guys would be able to alleviate your issues by doing the same (keeping Ransomware Protection disabled and leaving the other protection modules in Malwarebytes active).

I also don't think it's an issue with MSE and that its presence is just a coincidence because several users who weren't running MSE have reported the same problems (slow performance, lag/hanging during shutdown, occasional or frequent system lockups/freezes) on Windows 7 x64 (though the 32 bit version may be susceptible as well, I'm not sure).  It may accelerate it some how as you suggested where it happens less frequently when MSE is disabled, but that could just be because the Ransomware Protection component is less 'busy' when it is disabled and therefore doesn't cause the issue as quickly or frequently.

Honestly, I keep Ransomware Protection disabled anyway as it's by far the least proactive protection component in Malwarebytes and also the most resource intensive since it monitors all processes/threads in memory for ransomware behavior and only looks for threats that are already present/active on the system, and since virtually all ransomware attacks begin with other attack vectors (mostly exploits) to infect systems in the first place, the other more proactive modules should detect and stop any such threats before the attack gets to that final stage of downloading and executing any ransomware on the system.  I'm not saying that you should just accept that and be content with it disabled forever going forward, only that if you did decide to do so, at least until this issue is resolved, I don't believe you'd really be missing out on much in the way of protection.

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  • 2 weeks later...
exile360

exile360

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Excellent, thank you for letting us know.  It is likely that when they fixed the recently discovered freeze issue with Windows 7 that emerged in build 508 it corrected your issue as well.  It was a fix for an architectural issue dealing with improper multithreading in the Web Protection component, so it may have far reaching implications on correcting previously undiagnosed performance issues with Malwarebytes under many conditions across many systems.

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johnhouriedavidson

johnhouriedavidson

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So far so good ... Haven't restarted running MSE simultaneously with MalwareBytes yet. Wonder if it really adds any additional security. (BTW, a friend had a severe ransomware attack a few years back using just MSE on its own. After 10 days of angst and trying everything, he got out of it using Shadow Explorer to restore shadow copies - a useful tip.)

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