Malwarebytes Premium 3.7.1 doesn't start after booting my PC

[MariuxReloaded]

Hi everyone 😊

As the title says, every morning, when I turn my PC on, Malwarebytes Premium 3.7.1 doesn't start and I have to open it manually every time, with mixed results (sometimes it starts, sometimes not, until I restart my laptop many times, repeating this procedure).

I'm using Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2019, but, of course, I've added all the exclusions for Malwarebytes you've suggested (link at the end of this post), but nothing has changed 😟

What else can I do? 😕
Thank you very much in advance 😉

[Malwarebytes]

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[exile360]

Greetings,

Please try reinstalling the latest version over the top of your existing installation to see if it corrects the issue.  It can be downloaded from here.

Once that's done, if the issue still persists then it could be due to the fast startup feature in Windows.  This feature is known to cause problems with Malwarebytes and many other programs and drivers.  You'll find information on how to check and disable fast startup here and here.

Please let us know how it goes and if the issue is resolved or not.

Thanks

[MariuxReloaded]

8 minutes ago, exile360 said:

Greetings,

Please try reinstalling the latest version over the top of your existing installation to see if it corrects the issue.  It can be downloaded from here.

Once that's done, if the issue still persists then it could be due to the fast startup feature in Windows.  This feature is known to cause problems with Malwarebytes and many other programs and drivers.  You'll find information on how to check and disable fast startup here and here.

Please let us know how it goes and if the issue is resolved or not.

Thanks

Ok, I don't need to reinstall Malwarebytes, because the second option is the right one: the problem is the Fast Startup by Windows, since, on my desktop PC, which uses the same programs as my laptop, Malwarebytes opens immediately after booting, because my desktop is 6 years old, with an obsolete hardware, compared to my laptop, the Huawei Matebook X Pro.

I was suspecting that this could be the reason, but I was hoping for another origin. Now I don't know what to do, because Fast Startup is very useful and comfortable for my needs 😕

[exile360]

It's up to you, however unfortunately because of Microsoft's implementation of Fast Startup it tends to cause problems with a lot of programs and hardware drivers.  The issue is in how they retain some components in memory (RAM) when the system is in its 'off' state vs shutting them down properly.  This is how it saves time on bootup, but it also has the unfortunate side effect of not initiating the full startup process for those components and other startups that are related to them normally.  This means that, because it keeps Malwarebytes' service and drivers stored in memory but terminates Malwarebytes' UI/tray process, once the system is started up again, the service never tries to start the tray/UI because the service itself is already running.  Normally the service loads, which loads the drivers and then loads the tray.  But because the service is already running uninterrupted (at least from the service's point of view this is how it appears), the service believes that it is already well past the initial startup process so it doesn't try to start the tray as it normally would.

Basically, Microsoft made a nice new feature but implemented it badly.  They didn't follow standard OS/service functions and APIs and selectively suspend certain components in memory to try and save on boot times.  It does save time, but it can lead to programs and system components behaving badly or even becoming corrupt.  In fact, if you have any software that for example has any kind of memory leak that would normally reset when the system is restarted, it will not do so if Fast Startup is enabled because the software just keeps running and consuming memory as though it had been active uninterrupted the entire time.  Obviously memory leaks are bad and technically a bug, but they do exist in some programs and drivers, and that's just one of the possible issues this feature can make worse.

Honestly, if you have a decently fast SSD then Fast Startup is unnecessary.  My Windows 7 system starts in a matter of just a few seconds, though I do have a decently fast CPU and a fast NVMe PCIe SSD (7th gen i7-7700K @4.6GHz and a Samsung 960 Pro 1TB) and 32GB of RAM.  For systems with slower CPUs, slower drives and less RAM where they have to use the paging file a lot it can definitely slow down boot times.  The irony is that Microsoft implemented this feature during a time when fast SSDs have pretty much become standard and relatively inexpensive as standard mechanical HDDs are on the decline, and over time this will render the Fast Startup feature obsolete.  It would have been far more useful during the Windows Vista and early Windows 7 era before SSDs became affordable for most consumers and before most system manufacturers started to offer most of their systems with SSDs for their OS/boot drives.  RAM is obviously still faster than an SSD so there is still some difference, but in real-world use the difference is quite negligible and the distinction in boot times is virtually unnoticeable under most circumstances.  That said, if you are using a mechanical HDD then I totally understand why you would want to keep this feature enabled.  Unfortunately it simply means you're going to have to deal with issues like this from time to time with software and drivers that aren't compatible/don't function properly with this feature.  You may be able to work around it by placing a shortcut to mbamtray.exe or mbam.exe in your Startup folder in the START menu or by creating an entry in one of the RUN keys in the registry for it but I'm not positive that would work either, but it might be worth a try.

[MariuxReloaded]

6 minutes ago, exile360 said:

It's up to you, however unfortunately because of Microsoft's implementation of Fast Startup it tends to cause problems with a lot of programs and hardware drivers.  The issue is in how they retain some components in memory (RAM) when the system is in its 'off' state vs shutting them down properly.  This is how it saves time on bootup, but it also has the unfortunate side effect of not initiating the full startup process for those components and other startups that are related to them normally.  This means that, because it keeps Malwarebytes' service and drivers stored in memory but terminates Malwarebytes' UI/tray process, once the system is started up again, the service never tries to start the tray/UI because the service itself is already running.  Normally the service loads, which loads the drivers and then loads the tray.  But because the service is already running uninterrupted (at least from the service's point of view this is how it appears), the service believes that it is already well past the initial startup process so it doesn't try to start the tray as it normally would.

Basically, Microsoft made a nice new feature but implemented it badly.  They didn't follow standard OS/service functions and APIs and selectively suspend certain components in memory to try and save on boot times.  It does save time, but it can lead to programs and system components behaving badly or even becoming corrupt.  In fact, if you have any software that for example has any kind of memory leak that would normally reset when the system is restarted, it will not do so if Fast Startup is enabled because the software just keeps running and consuming memory as though it had been active uninterrupted the entire time.  Obviously memory leaks are bad and technically a bug, but they do exist in some programs and drivers, and that's just one of the possible issues this feature can make worse.

Honestly, if you have a decently fast SSD then Fast Startup is unnecessary.  My Windows 7 system starts in a matter of just a few seconds, though I do have a decently fast CPU and a fast NVMe PCIe SSD (7th gen i7-7700K @4.6GHz and a Samsung 960 Pro 1TB) and 32GB of RAM.  For systems with slower CPUs, slower drives and less RAM where they have to use the paging file a lot it can definitely slow down boot times.  The irony is that Microsoft implemented this feature during a time when fast SSDs have pretty much become standard and relatively inexpensive as standard mechanical HDDs are on the decline, and over time this will render the Fast Startup feature obsolete.  It would have been far more useful during the Windows Vista and early Windows 7 era before SSDs became affordable for most consumers and before most system manufacturers started to offer most of their systems with SSDs for their OS/boot drives.  RAM is obviously still faster than an SSD so there is still some difference, but in real-world use the difference is quite negligible and the distinction in boot times is virtually unnoticeable under most circumstances.  That said, if you are using a mechanical HDD then I totally understand why you would want to keep this feature enabled.  Unfortunately it simply means you're going to have to deal with issues like this from time to time with software and drivers that aren't compatible/don't function properly with this feature.  You may be able to work around it by placing a shortcut to mbamtray.exe or mbam.exe in your Startup folder in the START menu or by creating an entry in one of the RUN keys in the registry for it but I'm not positive that would work either, but it might be worth a try.

Thank you very, very much, Exile, you've been really exhaustive 😁

My Matebook X Pro mounts a Samsung SSD, because it's a laptop realised in 2018, so, after your explanation, I'll try disabling Fast Startup and I'll let you know 😊

[MariuxReloaded]

Ok @exile360, nevermind: I've disabled Fast Startup, I've turned my laptop off, I've waited some minutes before turning it back on, I've passed the login process through my fingerprint, as usual, and the problem is still there 😓

What I've noticed is that the only active Malwarebytes process after booting is "Malwarebytes Service".

Only after double-clicking on Malwarebytes icon to open it, all the other processes appear and the program starts running (this happens both with Fast Startup enabled and disabled)

[exile360]

Then again I'd suggest trying a reinstall over the top with a fresh copy of Malwarebytes.  It may be that one of the startup components or drivers isn't installed/working properly for some reason and hopefully that will resolve it.

If it does not, then please do the following so that we may take a look at your installation to troubleshoot the issue further:

1. Download and run the Malwarebytes Support Tool
2. Accept the EULA and click Advanced tab on the left (not Start Repair)
3. Click the Gather Logs button, and once it completes, attach the zip file it creates on your desktop to your next reply
   

[MariuxReloaded]

57 minutes ago, exile360 said:

Then again I'd suggest trying a reinstall over the top with a fresh copy of Malwarebytes.  It may be that one of the startup components or drivers isn't installed/working properly for some reason and hopefully that will resolve it.

If it does not, then please do the following so that we may take a look at your installation to troubleshoot the issue further:

 

1. Download and run the Malwarebytes Support Tool
2. Accept the EULA and click Advanced tab on the left (not Start Repair)
3. Click the Gather Logs button, and once it completes, attach the zip file it creates on your desktop to your next reply

 

Ok, I've performed the reinstallation over the preexisting program and now, even with the Fast Startup enabled, it seems that everything works well again 😊

However, I'll continue keeping an eye on it in the next days.

Thank you very much, Exile 😉

[exile360]

Excellent, I'm glad that it helped

Yes, please let us know if you have any more trouble, but hopefully that takes care of it.

[MariuxReloaded]

12 hours ago, exile360 said:

Excellent, I'm glad that it helped

Yes, please let us know if you have any more trouble, but hopefully that takes care of it.

Sure, but now that I've turned my laptop on, Malwarebytes has started without any problems, thanks 😁

[exile360]

Very good, hopefully it remains that way