Plea for a little extra time at startup before MBAE times out

[hake]

If I don't wait until the disk activity light on the front of my 18 year-old PC completely stops flickering before logging onto Windows XP, MBAE can fail to start.  MBAE announces this by showing a message box stating that it is taking too long to start and instructing me to restart the system.

Would it do any harm if the timer in the next update of MBAE 1.13 is allowed at least another 30 seconds (60 seconds would be even nicer) before timing out?  Except for this issue, MBAE 1.13.1.164 works great on XP with its pre-SSE2 AMD Athlon XP 3000+ processor.

MBAE 1.12.1.109 seems not to be susceptible to the startup timeout problem.  Is there a larger timeout margin in this version?

Edited April 25, 2020 by hake

[nukecad]

I also get that message occasionally with Windows 10, so it's not just an 'old Windows' issue.

Although now I think about it I've not seen it for a month or two.

[hake]

I've tweaked startup a bit.  Serves me right for using 18 year-old hardware.  Some versions of MBAE start better than others.  Version 1.12.1.109 clearly gets out of the starting blocks quicker than 1.13.1.164.  It also co-operates with a bat file I use to restart it on the rare occasions that it fails and version 1.13.1.164 is definitely not amenable to that.  Sometimes impatience encourages me to logon too quickly.

Now then.  Whose round is it?  Mine's a pint of best disinfectant.  I tried the bleach and didn't like it.

Edited April 25, 2020 by hake

[nukecad]

20 hours ago, hake said:

Whose round is it?  Mine's a pint of best disinfectant.  I tried the bleach and didn't like it.

Ah yes, I remember that the beer in Wigan tastes like that.

[hake]

The beer I drank in Wigan was brewed in Bolton.  Magees stopped brewing about 50 years ago.

I concede defeat.  MBAE 1.12.1.109 starts reliably and Firefox 45.9ESR feels livelier than with MBAE 1.13.1.164.

Pass the bleach.

Edited April 27, 2020 by hake

[nukecad]

16 hours ago, hake said:

The beer I drank in Wigan was brewed in Bolton.  Magees stopped brewing about 50 years ago.

 I'm an ex-Boltonian, I vaguely remember Magees Brewery on Derby st. but only after it was closed. (Used to pass it on the bus to Wigan via Ca'yed city).

Greenalls bought it 1959 and closed it in 1970.

[hake]

A greaaat place is Bowton and greaaat people in it.  There's a photo essay book by photographer Humphrey Spendor about Bolton life in 1937 called 'Worktown People'.  I became aware of it when Fred Dibnah showed a few pages from it on TV in about 1995.  One of those pages was Page 60 and I jumped out my chair because my maternal gran (born 1890) was in it along with her dad (born 1859) at the Drill Hall in Silverwell Street.  She and him used to go shopping in Bolton on Wednesdays.  Her brother was a Wigan copper who was on duty at Burnden Park on 9 March 1946.  The horrors of that day finished him off and he retired.  I like the Lanky twang of Bolton.  Lindsey Hoyle will do nicely for me as Speaker.

The next time you need a haircut and are in Bolton, seek out Prof. H. Fryer N.H.C.S., self-proclaimed Working Man's Hair Specialist and preventer of allopecia, ringworm, scruff and dandruff.  You can find him on Page 61 of Worktown People or perhaps at his laboratories at 72 Gordon Street, Manchester.  I don't think he ever used MBAE.

Have a look at this:  https://www.martinparrfoundation.org/product/worktown-people/ (click the right arrow head three times to see pages 60 and 61) and this https://www.communityarchives.org.uk/content/organisation/bolton-worktown-collection (find enlargeable pic of the learned Professor at work).  You can find the album going for around 15quid.  Wigan in the early 1950s wasn't much different.  Oh to be back on Gidlow Lane and Beech Hill at that time.

Fred Dibnah: wonderful man.  You've got to like a man who re-created a coalmine in his back yard.  R.I.P. Fred.  He's been gone 16 years and I miss him more and more.  I saw him driving his steamroller towing two caravans on several occasions.  On one occasion he had five or six friends crammed onto the roller with him while he was busy holding forth and sinking pints down his throat between Wilmslow and the Manchester Airport tunnel.  Drinking and driving laws didn't apply to steam rollers I guess.  God bless him.

Edited April 28, 2020 by hake

[hake]

Perseverance pays.  I tried again with MBAE 1.13.1.164 and just let it settle down without 'startup tweaks'.  It feels as if there is some learning by MBAE as the startup difficulties have retreated.  My old XP system runs better than it ever previously has.  Why is XP deemed unsafe when I live this malware free charmed life?  I just do not receive malware attacks or suffer the ill effects.

Back to the past and to Wigan in 1948.  Joe Egan was in his pomp playing hooker for Wigan at Central Park.  How did we manage without MBAE in those halcyon days?

[nukecad]

Well having said I'd not seen it for a month or two on Win 10 it just happened again.
It's not a problem just a niggle, it's easy enough to start MBAE manually without going to the trouble of rebooting.

[hake]

Starting MBAE 1.13.1.164 with Windows XP is iffy whereas with MBAE 1.12.1.109 it seems reliable.  Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 all seem immune to the issue on my ancient to obsolete (that's the best I can do for recent) hardware.  In fact I cannot recall any difficult with Windows 8.1 or 10. Of my PCs, two use Intel Core Duo, two use Intel i3 and my wife has a laptop blessed with Intel i5.  All have at leat 4GB of RAM and use SSDs.

[exile360]

I don't know if this is relevant or not, but the product lifecycle page found here indicates the following (though it refers primarily to the main Malwarebytes product, not MBAE directly):

‡ Malwarebytes for Windows 3.5.1 will be the last version available to users on Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems. There will be no updates for these operating systems, this includes additional product enhancements or features. In order to get access to any protection updates utilizing updated detection technologies or techniques in newer versions, users will need to upgrade to a newer operating system.

Please note, we do not intend to declare End of Maintenance of v3.5.1 immediately upon the release of the next version, but will make such declaration at a later date. We may release bug fixes, stability improvements, and other upgrades for the XP and Vista platforms on an as needed basis. Users on these operating systems will continue to receive any available protection updates that are supported in v3.5.1 until its respective End of Maintenance date.

[nukecad]

TBH I don't believe that it's anything that can be fixed in MBAE anyway.

The error message is from Windows not MBAE, so it's Windows that has timed it out.

It's intermittent and doesn't happen that often (for me anyway).

I don't have much set to launch on startup anyway, so it's obviously something internal to Windows (or possibly Adobe) that occasionally hogs the startup process so that MBAE can't start and Windows times it out.

[exile360]

You may be correct, however they might be able to avoid the issue somehow perhaps by extending the timeout if possible.  I'll report it to the Product team either way so that they may investigate further.

Thanks for reporting this guys, and while we wait, if you would please do the following it may help to investigate the issue:

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
   

[nukecad]

No problem, but I'm not sure if will be of any use in solving the issue.

mbst-grab-results.zip

[exile360]

You're probably correct but I just want to gather the info/logs just in case the Devs find them useful (it's more likely they will simply need to analyze the startup process on XP and work from there to build the fix).

[nukecad]

6 hours ago, exile360 said:

 (it's more likely they will simply need to analyze the startup process on XP and work from there to build the fix).

Mm, it happens (occasionally) to me on Win 10 not XP.

[exile360]

Apologies, I thought the issue was exclusive to XP.  Do you have fast startup enabled on 10?  If so, please try disabling it to see if that helps.  Details on doing so may be found here as well as here.

[nukecad]

Fast startup is off.

As I say it's not a real problem, just an occasional oddity.
That screenshot I posted above was the first time it's happened to me for 3 or 4 months.
So there is no real way to test if anything you do will make a difference or not.

[exile360]

I see.  Yes, such intermittent issues can be impossible to isolate and track down sadly.  If you notice any details you think might be relevant please let us know.

Thanks

[hake]

I do not use fast startup with Windows 10.  I have yet to notice MBAE failing to start properly.  MBAE has a history of uncertain starting on my two XP systems.  I can say MBAE 1.12.1.109 started properly every time wheras 1.12.1.90 had the odd hiccup but there is no definite pattern of behaviour.  At the moment MBAE 1.13.1.164 seems to be enjoying a purple patch.  I have a vague hunch that the use of Agnitum Outpost Firewall Pro 9.3 might affect things but who uses that nowadays apart from me and probably very few others.

[exile360]

You could try a tool such as Startup Delayer to see if changing the startup order/timing has any impact, just for experimental purposes if you seek a workaround.

[hake]

On 5/4/2020 at 9:01 PM, exile360 said:

You could try a tool such as Startup Delayer to see if changing the startup order/timing has any impact, just for experimental purposes if you seek a workaround.

Thanks very much.  No need.  MBAE 1.13.1.164 seems to have settled down and is starting well consistently.  Perhaps this is an example of Windows' alleged ability to tune itself.  It's nice to have the latest anti-exploit protection.  I do allow about a minute following the logon prompt before clicking the button to set everything rolling.

[exile360]

Excellent, I'm glad it is working well now.  I hope that it continues to do so but please let us know if it does not.