Purchased MBAM, bootup doesn't complete

[twl845]

Hi twl845,

I will have a good look at your AutoRuns.arn file and get back to you as soon as I can.

OK great! Thanks!

[marktreg]

Hi twl845,

I have still not managed to re-create the problem you are having. Using exactly the same versions of NOD32 and MBAM that you have, on the same version of Windows that you have, I have now rebooted 50 times with no problems on my test machine. So I don't think the problem is a due to a specific conflict between NOD32 and MBAM. There are several reasons why I think this. Firstly, I cannot re-create the problem. And, if there was a DIRECT conflict between NOD32 and MBAM, I should be able to re-create it - consistently. Secondly, you say that your problem happens about four out of five times on reboot. If it was a direct conflict it would happen all the time, not most of the time. And thirdly, NOD32 is a well known antivirus program so there must be (at least) hundreds of people using NOD32 & MBAM realtime protection at startup, and you and Wonkabear are the only people I know of who are having problems with it. As you can see here in Sections E, F and H, there are known conflicts with several antivirus programs, and they have all been solved. So I'm pretty sure that, due to NOD32's popularity, if it was causing any kind of specific conflict with MBAM, the developers would have heard of it by now.

I have looked at your AutoRuns.arn file. And, whilst there is nothing obvious that I can see, there are a few things you could investigate further.

This is what is loading at Logon on my test computer:

And this is what is loading at Logon on your computer:

So, as you can see, even though you don't have many system tray icons, there is a heck of a lot trying to load at Logon on your computer. You also have 'Shadow Defender Native Application' and 'PerfectDisk Boot Time Defragmentation' loading at Boot Execute, whereas I have no third party applications at all loading at Boot Execute on my test computer. All these programs are trying to 'grab' CPU usage either at Logon or at Boot Execute. And, without going into any detail of how it actually happens, this can sometimes cause applications not to load properly. In Vista and Windows 7 the MBAM service is loaded as 'Automatic (Delayed Start)' in order to prevent possible problems with other programs trying to load at the same time as MBAM. But Windows XP does not have the 'Automatic (Delayed Start)' feature, so you can get a load of programs trying to load at the same time on startup.

There are a couple of things you could try and see if they solve your problem. The first one is to cut down the number of things that are trying to run on startup. And the second one is to manually delay the MBAM service from starting, similar to what happens in Vista and Windows 7. You can do this with a FREE program called Startup Delay which is available here. The 'Automatic (Delayed Start)' feature in vista and Windows 7 can be around two minutes, but with Startup Delay you could try delaying the MBAM service for different lengths of time to see what works best for you.

I'm sorry that I couldn't solve your specific problem for you, but I hope I have given you some information which may enable you to work on the problem yourself. Please post back your results.

All the best.

~Mark.

[twl845]

Hi twl845,

I have still not managed to re-create the problem you are having. Using exactly the same versions of NOD32 and MBAM that you have, on the same version of Windows that you have, I have now rebooted 50 times with no problems on my test machine. So I don't think the problem is a due to a specific conflict between NOD32 and MBAM. There are several reasons why I think this. Firstly, I cannot re-create the problem. And, if there was a DIRECT conflict between NOD32 and MBAM, I should be able to re-create it - consistently. Secondly, you say that your problem happens about four out of five times on reboot. If it was a direct conflict it would happen all the time, not most of the time. And thirdly, NOD32 is a well known antivirus program so there must be (at least) hundreds of people using NOD32 & MBAM realtime protection at startup, and you and Wonkabear are the only people I know of who are having problems with it. As you can see here in Sections E, F and H, there are known conflicts with several antivirus programs, and they have all been solved. So I'm pretty sure that, due to NOD32's popularity, if it was causing any kind of specific conflict with MBAM, the developers would have heard of it by now.

I have looked at your AutoRuns.arn file. And, whilst there is nothing obvious that I can see, there are a few things you could investigate further.

This is what is loading at Logon on my test computer:

And this is what is loading at Logon on your computer:

So, as you can see, even though you don't have many system tray icons, there is a heck of a lot trying to load at Logon on your computer. You also have 'Shadow Defender Native Application' and 'PerfectDisk Boot Time Defragmentation' loading at Boot Execute, whereas I have no third party applications at all loading at Boot Execute on my test computer. All these programs are trying to 'grab' CPU usage either at Logon or at Boot Execute. And, without going into any detail of how it actually happens, this can sometimes cause applications not to load properly. In Vista and Windows 7 the MBAM service is loaded as 'Automatic (Delayed Start)' in order to prevent possible problems with other programs trying to load at the same time as MBAM. But Windows XP does not have the 'Automatic (Delayed Start)' feature, so you can get a load of programs trying to load at the same time on startup.

There are a couple of things you could try and see if they solve your problem. The first one is to cut down the number of things that are trying to run on startup. And the second one is to manually delay the MBAM service from starting, similar to what happens in Vista and Windows 7. You can do this with a FREE program called Startup Delay which is available here. The 'Automatic (Delayed Start)' feature in vista and Windows 7 can be around two minutes, but with Startup Delay you could try delaying the MBAM service for different lengths of time to see what works best for you.

I'm sorry that I couldn't solve your specific problem for you, but I hope I have given you some information which may enable you to work on the problem yourself. Please post back your results.

All the best.

~Mark.

Hi Marktreg, I want to thank you for the extraordinary effort on your part to solve this problem. I'm sure that some where in your suggestions is the answer. I will narrow it down little by little and hopefully find the culprit. It may take some time, but if I do I'll be sure to pass it on to you so if someone else has this problem, they can fix it quickly.

Tom

[marktreg]

No problem, Tom. I quite enjoy trying to solve tricky computer problems. But, with the number of different programs trying to run at Logon, it was just a bit too tricky for me. However, if exile360, one of the Experts here, happens to look at this thread, he may well spot something that I could have missed. exile's knowledge of 'fixes' is absolutely enormous.

The only thing I really managed to do is establish that there are no specific 'conflicts' between NOD32 and MBAM's realtime protection module running at startup. At least that's something, I suppose.

[exile360]

Please try excluding/trusting all of the following files from Online Armour:

For Windows XP:

• C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\mbam.exe
  
• C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\mbamgui.exe
  
• C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\mbamservice.exe
  
• C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\zlib.dll
  
• C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\mbam.dll
  
• C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\mbamext.dll
  
• C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\rules.ref
  
• C:\Windows\System32\drivers\mbam.sys
  
• C:\Windows\System32\drivers\mbamswissarmy.sys
  

If that doesn't fix it let me know and we'll dig a little deeper.

edit: Sorry, I meant Outpost, not Online Armour . Thanks marktreg for pointing out my error.

[twl845]

No problem, Tom. I quite enjoy trying to solve tricky computer problems. But, with the number of different programs trying to run at Logon, it was just a bit too tricky for me. However, if exile360, one of the Experts here, happens to look at this thread, he may well spot something that I could have missed. exile's knowledge of 'fixes' is absolutely enormous.

The only thing I really managed to do is establish that there are no specific 'conflicts' between NOD32 and MBAM's realtime protection module running at startup. At least that's something, I suppose.

Hi Marktreg, OK for the benefit of the readers of this thread, I took your advice and unchecked 3 apps in Autorun to lighten the load at bootup, thus allowing MBAM to complete startup and avoiding the hang.

PerfectDisk in the Boot Execute tab, iTunes Helper in the Logon tab, and Sandboxie in the Logon tab.

I enabled "Start with Windows" in MBAM and successfully did 8 bootups or restarts, so I'm going to say cautiously that the problem is fixed. Thanks again Marktreg for all your help.

[twl845]

Please try excluding/trusting all of the following files from Online Armour:

For Windows XP:

• C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\mbam.exe
  
• C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\mbamgui.exe
  
• C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\mbamservice.exe
  
• C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\zlib.dll
  
• C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\mbam.dll
  
• C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\mbamext.dll
  
• C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\rules.ref
  
• C:\Windows\System32\drivers\mbam.sys
  
• C:\Windows\System32\drivers\mbamswissarmy.sys
  

If that doesn't fix it let me know and we'll dig a little deeper.

edit: Sorry, I meant Outpost, not Online Armour . Thanks marktreg for pointing out my error.

Exile360, Thanks for responding. I already had excluded those files in OP, but thanks for the suggestion. As I said in a reply to Marktreg, I believe the problem is now fixed. I hope the fix helps someone else who has the same problem.

[marktreg]

Excellent news. Glad I could help.

[exile360]

Would you be willing to recheck the items for startup 1 by 1 so that we could possibly narrow down exactly which application was causing the problem? I know it isn't iTunes as many MBAM users have that starting up, but Perfect Disk and Sandboxie are both likely candidates because they both likely use low-level drivers that may conflict with MBAM. Should such a conflict exist I am certain that MBAM's developers would be eager to be made aware of it so that they can make any changes necessary to eliminate the conflict in the future.

Thanks

[twl845]

Would you be willing to recheck the items for startup 1 by 1 so that we could possibly narrow down exactly which application was causing the problem? I know it isn't iTunes as many MBAM users have that starting up, but Perfect Disk and Sandboxie are both likely candidates because they both likely use low-level drivers that may conflict with MBAM. Should such a conflict exist I am certain that MBAM's developers would be eager to be made aware of it so that they can make any changes necessary to eliminate the conflict in the future.

Thanks

Sure. I have to say that I only guessed when I selected Sbie and PD. I'll post back later today. I'll try SBie first because I didn't like the way it loaded it's system tray icon.

[twl845]

Sure. I have to say that I only guessed when I selected Sbie and PD. I'll post back later today. I'll try SBie first because I didn't like the way it loaded it's system tray icon.

Exile 360, Perfect Disk is the culprit. I hope that helps you.

[exile360]

It does, thank you very much for checking back in and testing it out, I'll let Doug know so that he can look into it.

Thanks again

[exile360]

An update:

I got some input from one of the developers and he suggested a possible fix for this if you'd like to let PerfectDisk startup still:

• Click on Start and select Run
  
• In the Run box type regedit and press Enter or click on OK
  
• Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and click once on the Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware folder to highlight it
  
• Right-click in the white space on the right and highlight New and select DWORD Value
  
• Name the value delayguistart and then press Enter
  
• Double-click on the delayguistart entry you just created and click the circle next to Decimal and type 60 for the value
  
• That will cause MBAM to delay itself 60 seconds before starting, thus hopefully allowing PerfectDisk and your other programs to complete their startup process and avoid lockups or conflicts
  

Please let me know how it goes.

Thanks

[twl845]

An update:

I got some input from one of the developers and he suggested a possible fix for this if you'd like to let PerfectDisk startup still:

• Click on Start and select Run
  
• In the Run box type regedit and press Enter or click on OK
  
• Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and click once on the Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware folder to highlight it
  
• Right-click in the white space on the right and highlight New and select DWORD Value
  
• Name the value delayguistart and then press Enter
  
• Double-click on the delayguistart entry you just created and click the circle next to Decimal and type 60 for the value
  
• That will cause MBAM to delay itself 60 seconds before starting, thus hopefully allowing PerfectDisk and your other programs to complete their startup process and avoid lockups or conflicts
  

Please let me know how it goes.

Thanks

Hi exile 360, Thanks for that suggestion. Marktreg had suggested this free app that will delay MBAM or anything else. http://www.r2.com.au/software.php?page=2&show=startdelay

After I last had contact with you, I plugged in my scanner as my computer was booting and the problem returned. I guess the scanner software booting at the same time as the computer was too much with MBAM protection activated. I have never done that before. The scanner usually gets turned on after I've been on for a while. I installed the free Delay app and set MBAM to start 45 seconds after booting starts, and MBAM starts to load just as everything else is done. I can always make it longer if I have to, but all is well. How many megabits of RAM does MBAM paid require? I couldn't find a reference to it. My computer has 1 GB RAM with almost 500mb available, so I'm wondering if MBAM's RAM is pushing it.

[exile360]

Generally MBAM paid itself requires somewhere between 35Mb-85Mb, depending on how large its database is. The reason I suggested delaying MBAM the way I did was because it delays the service from starting as well, which is the part that uses the most ram, and also the part that loads the driver, which is likely where the conflict is coming from. It sounds like as long as you slow MBAM from starting long enough everything should load up just fine .

[twl845]

Generally MBAM paid itself requires somewhere between 35Mb-85Mb, depending on how large its database is. The reason I suggested delaying MBAM the way I did was because it delays the service from starting as well, which is the part that uses the most ram, and also the part that loads the driver, which is likely where the conflict is coming from. It sounds like as long as you slow MBAM from starting long enough everything should load up just fine .

Thanks for the response. From what you said about your suggestion, do you think I should forgo the Delay app I installed and use your instructions, or do you think I can leave it as is?

[whatmeworry?]

@twl845 --

FWIW, I might note that when I upgraded to MBAM 1.43, the 1-minute delay I had set for MBAM at startup no longer worked, and the boot process kept hanging. Finally, I set the delay to 2 minutes, and that solved the problem. (However, I've now decided that it's just as easy for me to start MBAM manually, so I've now taken it out of the startup menu, at least for now.)

I mention this just in case you or anyone else continues to have boot problems with MBAM.

[twl845]

@twl845 --

FWIW, I might note that when I upgraded to MBAM 1.43, the 1-minute delay I had set for MBAM at startup no longer worked, and the boot process kept hanging. Finally, I set the delay to 2 minutes, and that solved the problem. (However, I've now decided that it's just as easy for me to start MBAM manually, so I've now taken it out of the startup menu, at least for now.)

I mention this just in case you or anyone else continues to have boot problems with MBAM.

Whatmeworry, I should mention as noted in an earlier post, that I actually solved the problem by removing PerfectDisk defragger from the startup on logon in Autoruns. I only added the delete app to make it start 50 seconds later as insurance, because I had started my scanner software while my computer was still booting up which made the problem return.

[exile360]

Thanks for the response. From what you said about your suggestion, do you think I should forgo the Delay app I installed and use your instructions, or do you think I can leave it as is?

Yes, I'd recommend using the method I posted as it will delay the service, which delays the driver, which in turn also delays the tray app (mbamgui.exe). That will make sure no component of MBAM is loaded until the set amount of time has passed.

[twl845]

Yes, I'd recommend using the method I posted as it will delay the service, which delays the driver, which in turn also delays the tray app (mbamgui.exe). That will make sure no component of MBAM is loaded until the set amount of time has passed.

OK will do. Thanks again.

[exile360]

You're welcome

Hopefully this will fix the problem once and for all and allow you to use all of your software in tandem. Please keep us updated.

Thanks

[nlk10010]

Sorry for the bump but I just licensed 2 copies of MalwareBytes (1.70.0.1100) and am having a problem with my Windows 7 Pro computer "hanging" on startup. I also have Eset NOD32 AV 4.0.437.0 installed, and when MBAM is set to start with Windows what happens is I will get to the login screen, type my password, then I'll get the spinning "Welcome" message. 4 times out of 5 I go no further: perhaps on the 5th try I'll get to my Desktop. I then disabled MBAM's auto startup and I haven't had a problem logging in. My strategy is to then start MBAM manually but I frequently forget, so I'd really like to be able to set MBAM to start automatically. The funny thing is that I have the same configuration on my Laptop (also runs Windows 7 Pro but ESET AV6 instead of 4) and have no problem with them co-existing even with MBAM on auto startup.

Does anyone who uses MBAM and ESET have any info about how to troubleshoot this issue or know some programs that might be interfering?

Thanks in advance.

[daledoc1]

Hi, nlk10010:

Welcome.

Sorry you're having issues with booting after installing 1.70.

This is a terribly stale, old topic.

Although the problem sounds "the same", each computer is unique.

Please do the following: start a new topic >>HERE<<, and we'll give you further recommendations on how to proceed with getting expert help with this, so that MBAM runs properly on your computers.

Alternatively, since you are a paid user of MBAM PRO, you may wish to open a ticket at the help desk for direct, one-on-one assistance via email.

The helpdesk can be contacted here: http://www.malwareby...ontact_consumer

Please include the link to this post when you create your ticket:

http://forums.malwarebytes.org/index.php?showtopic=34503&view=findpost&p=645855

Thanks!

daledoc1