MBAM 'not responding' on W2K

[JohnDavid]

Configuration:

W2K SP4

MBAM 1.30

AVG AV Free edition, ver 8

Installed MBAM on specified machine last night; unable to complete a scan. When attempt to run 'quick scan', MBAM runs for 2-3 minutes, then freezes and has to be forced to close via Task Mgr. The file being analyzed, as indicated by the MBAM interface, varies from attempt to attempt, but is sometimes the same one. Given the 'quick scan' problem, have not attempted to run complete scan.

The only other anti-spyware app installed was Spybot, which always showed a clean machine. Note that this machine is behind a hardware firewall; that AV anti anti-spyware scans are run on a regular basis; no apparent problems or infections on this system.

The point of installing MBAM was to move to a more current anti-spyware app, as Spybot is seeming kind of old-school. Have had nothing but good experiences with MBAM on my 2 Vista machines.

No relevant events are logged by Windows. The MBAM log is always empty, since the app never completes.

Here's how I attempted to remedy the situation:

[*]AVG Resident Shield disabled when installed MBAM

[*]Uninstalled Spybot; uninstalled MBAM

[*]Re-installed MBAM

[*]Attempted to run quick scan with AVG resident shield still disabled

[*]Changed the MBAM settings; still freezes.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

JohnDavid

[JeanInMontana]

Hi JohnDavid and welcome to Malwarebytes. Are you getting any error messages? If so please let us know what they are exactly. Try unchecking one scan area at a time in settings and scanning, begin with memory first. If that allows a full scan please tell us, go through the list of scan options unchecking each one and trying a quick scan, no need to full scan.

[Swandog46]

JohnDavid, a question: are you running ZoneAlarm?

[JohnDavid]

Thanks for quick response, JeaninMontana.

No messages of any kind; MBAM just stops responding. And nothing gets written to the MBAM log file.

I have tried some of what you recommend: in General Settings I removed all checks except "....display logfile...." and "Always scan memory objects".

Since that resulted in probably my first 'freeze', I stopped there.

I am willing to attempt scans with just one of the scan objects selected at a time, but without an error msg I fear limited understanding, even if a scan does complete.

[JohnDavid]

And thanks to Swandog46 also, for your quick reply.

I AM running ZoneAlarm. Didn't think to indicate that since the scan did begin and Zone Alarm did not prompt me for permission.

Sounds like you may be aware of some ZoneAlarm impact, though.

What are you thinking??

JohnDavid, a question: are you running ZoneAlarm?

[Swandog46]

We think there may be some interference with ZoneAlarm. As a test, could you please uninstall ZA, reboot completely, remove all ZA files/services/drivers/etc., and then try running the scan again? Naturally you can reinstall ZA after we ascertain whether it is the cause of the problem.

[JohnDavid]

A response to both JeanInMontana & Swandog46:

I followed up on suggestions you both made.

* Uninstalled ZoneAlarm; rebooted; made sure that all components of ZA were gone and that the True Vector service was no longer running.

* Ran MBAM with all scan items still selected (the default)

* MBAM froze again; after 13 seconds and 1992 objects scanned.

* Forced MBAM closed.

* Started MBAM; in settings, unchecked "Always scan memory objects"; ran MBAM quick scan.

* The scan ran to completion.

Interesting; but what does that mean?

Presumably, I can reinstall ZA.

Must Malwarebytes always be run without scanning memory objects? If so, doesn't that create a potential security hole?

Is there anything to be done to allow MBAM to run successfully while scanning memory objects?

Thanks again for your assistance,

JohnDavid

We think there may be some interference with ZoneAlarm. As a test, could you please uninstall ZA, reboot completely, remove all ZA files/services/drivers/etc., and then try running the scan again? Naturally you can reinstall ZA after we ascertain whether it is the cause of the problem.

[Swandog46]

JohnDavid, I am very sorry: I am not sure how I missed your reply. Hopefully you are still monitoring this topic. In any event, this is helpful information; thank you. We're still looking into it!

EDIT: Yes, you can reinstall ZoneAlarm.

Edited December 5, 2008 by Swandog46