Malwarebytes Causing Extreme Lag / Stuttering

[Burzghash]

Hello,

As of a little over a week now, running qBittorrent for a while causes my computer to eventually begin stuttering, lagging, and becoming non-usable necessitating a restart. Since this was only happening after opening qBittorrent, I incorrectly placed the blame on that app. After coming across several other users on their forums running into similar issues,  the common trend turned out to be that everyone was also using Malwarebytes; when Malwarebytes is turned off, the issue immediately resolves itself (without even necessitating a reboot, which was previously the only way to stop the lagging/stuttering). 

For reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/qBittorrent/comments/g9dlto/pc_lagging_recently_and_you_think_it_is_qb_do_you/

Sad to see yet another once-good app become unusable due to feature bloat. 

[Malwarebytes]

***This is an automated reply***

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[Porthos]

9 minutes ago, Burzghash said:

Sad to see yet another once-good app become unusable due to feature bloat. 

There are a couple of outstanding bugs for some setups.

You do not have to turn it completely off. Turing off Web protection is usually enough.

I have also found with some users, that turning off all scheduled scans and restarting and not running any scans also works. IF you feel the need to run a can of any type be sure to restart the computer right after the scan.

We need to get information from this machine in order to have the proper detail to help you forward.
 NOTE: The tools and the information obtained is safe and not harmful to your privacy or your computer, please allow the programs to run if blocked by your system.

    Download Malwarebytes Support Tool
    
    
    Once the file is downloaded, open your Downloads folder/location of the downloaded file
    Double-click mb-support xxx.xx.exe to run the report
        You may be prompted by User Account Control (UAC) to allow changes to be made to your computer. Click Yes to consent.
        
    Place a checkmark next to Accept License Agreement and click Next
    You will be presented with a page stating, "Get Started!"

    Do NOT use the button “Start repair” !
    Click the Advanced tab on the left column
    
    Click the Gather Logs button
    
    A progress bar will appear and the program will proceed with getting logs from your computer
   
    Upon completion, click a file named mbst-grab-results.zip will be saved to your Desktop. Click OK
    Please attach the ZIP file in your next reply.

[Burzghash]

Zip file attached.

mbst-grab-results.zip

[AdvancedSetup]

Hello @Burzghash

The logs show that you're using Avast antivirus. They too may now have a Web blocking feature as does Malwarebytes. If so you'd probably need to choose one or the other and disable the other one.

I see that you're on one of the original releases. What I would recommend is two fold or more depending on how much time you wanted to invest in trying to fix this.

 

Possible quick fix: Go to Settings, and enable Beta. Then click on check for updates, once installed reboot, then check for updates again after the reboot.

Release non beta: Malwarebytes 4.1.0.56 version 1.0.875 component update
Beta build:       Malwarebytes 4.1.0.56 version 1.0.889 component update

If that does not help let me know

 

 

 

[Burzghash]

@AdvancedSetup - Thank you, I installed the beta and attempted disabling my Avast web protection; while the issue took longer to manifest after starting qBittorrent and was slightly less noticeable than before, it did eventually occur again and persisted until I disabled the the Malwarebytes web protection. 

[exile360]

Please try excluding your torrent application's executables/processes from the Web Protection component in Malwarebytes using the method described under the Allow an application to connect to the Internet section of this support article then restart your system and test to see if the problem is resolved.

Please let us know how it goes.

Thanks

[Burzghash]

@exile360 - I had excluded my torrent application via the Allow an application to connect to the internet section long in advance of encountering this issue, I double checked and it is still excluded at this time.

[exile360]

I see, that is unfortunate.  I was hoping that might provide a workaround.  Are there any other processes/services/.exe files belonging to your Bittorrent client/application that you could exclude?

[Burzghash]

Nope, just that one process running whenever qBittorrent is active.

[exile360]

It might help to install the latest beta as some users have reported that issues they had with Malwarebytes were corrected by installing it.  To do so, please open Malwarebytes and go to settings by clicking the small gear icon in the upper right, then scroll down to the bottom of the General tab and enable the option for beta updates, then select the About tab and click the Check for updates link located there and allow Malwarebytes to install any updates and then restart your computer once it completes, then verify that you have the beta installed which you may compare with the image below:

Please let us know if that fixes the issues or not.

Thanks

[exile360]

1 hour ago, Fatcap said:

Same problem for me.. sometimes host issue and ping over high (600) in fiber , and ping up too when dowloading.. Web protection disabled and no hots and ping issue..

I believe the issue you are experiencing only occurs after running a scan, is that correct?  If so, the issue in this topic is actually completely different as it is related to Web Protection and in particular what appears to be a problem with QBittorrent.

[Burzghash]

@exile360 Confirm MB version 4.1.0.56, installed as per earlier in the thread. No change, issue still occurring. Note that I've never initiated a scan at any point when this issue flares up; it happens solely based on my opening and running qBitorrent for an indeterminate period of time.

[Porthos]

2 minutes ago, Burzghash said:

Note that I've never initiated a scan at any point when this issue flares up

There is an automated default scan schedule.

Quote

Scheduled Scan List Settings:
    Last Triggered:        2020-04-28 02:12:27
    Original Schedule:     2019-03-04 02:12:27
    Recovery Enabled:      ON
    Recover if missed by:  -1 hours
    Occurs every:          1 days

 

[Burzghash]

Yeah, but the issue occurs even after a fresh reboot, and at times outside of the once-a-day automatic scan in the AM.

[AdvancedSetup]

Before we make any other drastic changes @Burzghash I've asked one of our other Techs to review your logs. We may end up needing to force a BSOD and get a Full memory dump to see what our driver is doing.

 

Edited April 29, 2020 by AdvancedSetup
updated information

[LiquidTension]

Thanks for reporting the issue. We have a defect filed and are attempting to reproduce this behaviour.

When the issue occurs, do you have a VPN or any other network filtering software enabled (besides Malwarebytes)?
Does this issue consistently present itself when Web Protection is enabled?
Does the issue occur when you are not using qBittorrent?

We're in need of additional information to help narrow down the cause of this issue.
Part of this process will involve manually triggering a crash to obtain a memory dump, which will hopefully show what the Web Protection driver is doing to cause this issue. You can read more about this process here.

• Enable debug logging in Malwarebytes (Settings -> General -> Event log data).
• Quit Malwarebytes using the notification area icon.
• Download and double-click the following .reg file: https://malwarebytes.box.com/s/21gdrmaj74xbeiazf6km7tfube246eid
• Download and double-click the following .reg file: https://malwarebytes.box.com/s/c323ski2qkrdvwds615z00j3hg75fn0y
• Restart the computer.
• Launch Malwarebytes and ensure Web Protection is enabled.
• Reproduce the issue.

Once you've reproduced the issue are are actively experiencing it, force a crash by pressing the following keys at the same time: Left Ctrl+Left Alt+U+U.

After the machine has rebooted, you should find a memory dump named MEMORY.dmp in C:\Windows. Please zip this up and provide it to us.
Please rerun the Malwarebytes Support Tool as well and gather logs once more.

[Burzghash]

@LiquidTension - No other VPN or connection service on at the time. The issue seems to always present so long as web protection is enabled and qBittorrent is active, though there doesn't seem to be a fixed amount of time before the issue presents itself. The issue does not occur when qBittorrent has not active for some time. Also, once the issue has started it does not go away if I close qBittorrent, only disabling web protection or restarting the computer appears to fix it.

Memory dump linked:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1U4KcKYzFkj4zsix59p9ePkNR7Xpa7hyW

[Burzghash]

Exact same symptoms - whole pc will intermittently lock up for half a second or so, mouse becomes laggy/jumpy, audio stutters.

As a test I left nothing but qBittorrent open overnight with web protection on, and when I returned in the morning computer was completely unusable, so whatever it is keeps continually compounding.

[Porthos]

39 minutes ago, Burzghash said:

As a test I left nothing but qBittorrent open overnight with web protection on, and when I returned in the morning computer was completely unusable, so whatever it is keeps continually compounding.

Since you posted you memory dump, Thanks. The problem wont be fixed overnight since they have not been able to reproduce it.

Your only options are to keep web protection off or revert to an older build that does not have the issue.

Please do the following Uninstall and reinstall using the Malwarebytes Support Tool

Please have lots of patience with the tool.  The first phase is a cleanup and does require a Windows Restart.
After the Restart, it may take 2 - 3 - 4 minutes till the Support tool screen shows up.   Please be patient and have faith.  Wait for it, whatever it takes.
The 2nd phase is where it offers to do a new Install.

You also have the option of reverting to an earlier component package version, which will allow you to keep Web Protection enabled.
You can download this from here: https://malwarebytes.box.com/s/z6cravnwptrzx5tyjw36jq6zt6c7apsx

Once installed, you will need to disable the two update options found in Settings -> General -> Application updates to prevent the product from updating back to the affected version.

I suggest using the above clean install guide posted above if you want to go this route.

Edited May 3, 2020 by Porthos

[Burzghash]

Other people have been posting the same issues, yet for some reason their posts aren't showing; Someone with similar issues:

 

Quote

Just wanted to chip in that I have been experiencing the same issue, both with qBittorrent and Transmission. I've been getting spikes in latency causing mouse and audio stuttering which seems to get worse over time. Turning off Web Protection instantly solves the problem. In my case, it has been happening since at least late January's update.

I have 300-350 Linux ISOs seeding, not sure if the large number could be a contributing factor.

 

[Burzghash]

Clearly, there's an issue here. Why Malwarebytes can't seem to pin it down or replicate the issue for their paid subscription product is beyond me.

[Porthos]

8 minutes ago, Burzghash said:

Clearly, there's an issue here. Why Malwarebytes can't seem to pin it down or replicate the issue for their paid subscription product is beyond me.

Yes there is an issue. And you are correct it is eluding the developers thus all the requests for logs as the test systems set up are not having the issue.

I offered you the instructions to revert to an earlier version (post #20) that does not have the issue. That way you can keep the protection fully enabled.

[fue]

Any update for this..?

[Porthos]

12 minutes ago, fue said:

Any update for this..?

You never followed up with your topic here. We want to work with you.