2 more scenarios that can lead to slow resolving host and potential freezes

[pal1000]

Both these scenarios assume Malwarebytes has real-time protection enabled.

Scenario A: Firefox uninstall

Steps to reproduce:

1. Backup whatever you want to keep from Firefox profile(s);

2. Run Firefox with -p command line argument to open profile manager;

3. Remove all profiles including their files;

4. Uninstall Firefox

Uninstaller may hang close to end. Apparently Malwarebytes malware protection hangs too. There is a symptom that hints to this. See next paragraph.

This leads to: slow resolving host in any program that is launched after issue takes hold and makes network connections; Windows Security app takes abnormally long to display its content if Malwarebytes is set to register with it, indicating a anti-malware provider detection time out; potential freezes when logging out, resuming from hibernation and fast startup; Farbar recovery scan tool hangs during other areas scanning. I don't know anything about what putting to sleep in this case leads to. I prefer to disable sleep.

Logs for this scenario are attached. FRST logs may be incomplete for reason mentioned above.

Problem goes away on reboot. I know this issue trigger existed for months but other more common and frequent triggers took priority.

Scenario B: Disable start with Windows

Steps to reproduce:

1. From Malwarebytes UI disable start with Windows;

2 Reboot;

3. Log in wait for system to become idle;

4. Launch Malwarebytes using shortcut from Start.

You'll experience same symptoms from scenario A with the exception of Windows security app glitch. I  don't know how FRST behaves in this scenario as I didn't collect logs for it. sorry. In this case anti-malware protection is unlikely to be the component responsible. Malwarebytes appears in Windows Security app as anti-malware provider if registered with this trigger in effect.

Re-enabling start with Windows and rebooting makes the problem go away on next boot.

mbst-grab-results.zip

[Malwarebytes]

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[exile360]

Greetings,

Thank you for reporting these issues.  I notice your logs indicate that fast startup is enabled in Windows.  If you disable that, does it have any impact on these issues?  To do so, please refer to the instructions found here as well as here.

In the meantime, I will report your findings to the QA and Product teams for analysis.

Thanks

[pal1000]

I haven't tested these without fast startup, but I will with next opportunity, next Firefox point release or next component update, whichever happens first.

UPDATE: I already spotted a new beta, component 1003 announced. I'll thoroughly test scenario B, tomorrow. It's 22:18, here. Scenario A will wait for better timing.

[exile360]

Thank you for doing all of this testing, we appreciate it.

[pal1000]

Scenario B - Disable start with Windows is reproducible without fast startup too. We'll see about scenario A - Firefox uninstall at some point.

I also gathered logs for scenario B.

mbst-grab-results.zip

[pal1000]

On 7/30/2020 at 12:43 PM, pal1000 said:

Scenario B - Disable start with Windows is reproducible without fast startup too.

Tests I made clearly indicate that one of the tweaks I made to my system was responsible for this one. See https://github.com/pal1000/pal1000.github.io/commit/9ba400c0521a949ece3da93cfea9f0bb26832363

I then found batcmd.com website which has a very comprehensive catalog with information about Windows services all the way from XP to Windows 10 Version 2004, including default startup type, the exact kind of information to recover from this kind of problem.

[pal1000]

Scenario A, just like B is also caused by disabling these services:

- iphlpsvc

- dmwappushservice

- SSDPSRV

- fdPHost

- LanmanWorkstation