View Full Version : Temporary system freeze on program shutdown
kentlowt
2008-10-02, 17:49
I have noticed after the last major update that when I shutdown the program the system freezes for what can be 10 seconds or more depending on the computer speed. During this time you can't click on anything and no shortcut keys work like <alt>tab. This happens on all three of the machines I have it installed on. All three are Window xp and running a different antivirus program on each machine. Any ideas on what is causing this?
kentlowt
2008-10-03, 16:21
Just to make things more confusing the cpu usage goes to 0 during this time.
After the program shuts down things return to normal and cpu useage goes back up to normal levels. This happens on both dual core and single core cpus of the AMD variety(don't have any intels).
drragostea
2008-10-05, 04:22
Are you referring to... Spybot-Search&Destroy's Resident Shield [TeaTimer], during shutdown?
I have noticed after the last major update that when I shutdown the program the system freezes for what can be 10 seconds or more depending on the computer speed. During this time you can't click on anything and no shortcut keys work like <alt>tab. This happens on all three of the machines I have it installed on. All three are Window xp and running a different antivirus program on each machine. Any ideas on what is causing this?
What major update are you talking about, Windows, Spybot, Teatimer, SDhelper, something else altogether?. It would be helpful if you were specific about "from what - to what" and also if you were to say exactly what operating system is involved.
When you say "the cpu usage goes to 0 during this time", what are you using to determine this, task manager or a utility program like Process Monitor.
kentlowt
2008-10-06, 17:08
I realize now I put too little information to be of help.
What major update are you talking about
The 1.6 update of spybot is the one I am refering to. I don't believe I have made any other updates recently besides this one.
Are you referring to... Spybot-Search&Destroy's Resident Shield [TeaTimer], during shutdown?
No.
What is happening is after I get done scanning or whatever I am doing in the main spybot program. I then try to shut down the spybot main program(not tea timer which I love the update to it's great) which results in an up to 2 minute hang of the os during which time I can't do anything.
what are you using to determine this
The only cpu measuring I can do is with the windows task manager as it is the only one I have on hand at the moment. Uninstalling cleaning the registry and re installing does not fix this issue.
if you were to say exactly what operating system is involved.
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254)
There are two other machines one with xp home sp3 and another xp pro with sp3
with memory amounds from 1gig to 2.
Hope I have answered all the questions.
kentlowt
2008-10-07, 18:09
Still having issues any suggestions?
kentlowt,
I have Spybot 1.6.0.30 on 3 XP computers, one XP-Home SP2, one XP-Home SP3, one XP-Pro SP3. When it is idle, whether I click on the red cross at the top right of the main Spybot screen, or use File/exit to shut down the program the result is an instant return to the desk top. For comparison purposes all three have Avast Home Edition 4.8.1229 antivirus and Zone Alarm 7.0.483.000 Free Firewall.
I also look after a number of other home networks where individual computers have 1.6.0.30 or 31 and I have not seen the problem you describe before.
In case you have not already tried this, please clean out your browser cache and cookie stores, also clean up your temporary files. I would use Windows XP Disk Cleanup - Start->All Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Cleanup.
If that doesn't overcome the problem, then my next suggestion is to completely uninstall Spybot (particularly if your update to this version was installed over the top of a previous version) and then reinstall from a fresh download from one of the sites at http://www.spybot.info/en/mirrors/index.html
If you do this, I would also recommending using "This very small fix" from http://www.spybot.info/en/howto/uninstall.html before installing the new version. During the installation you are offered some options, I would recommend NOT getting the updates during the installation, and NOT activating either Teatimer or SD Helper during the installation. These can all be done later. Once the new program has been installed, reboot, then start Spybot and exit again without doing anything else. See if the problem is still there. If not start it again and get the updates via the "Search for Updates" button in Spybot. Immunise, then exit again and see whether the problem occurs. If it doesn't start Spybot again, do a scan, fix any items in red (those in green are just user tracks so fixing (deleting) them is optional). Again once that's done, exit and see whether the problem occurs.
If it doesn't, start Spybot again, put it into Advanced mode, then goto Tools, then Resident and tick the SD Helper box. Exit the program - if the problem still isn't present, start Internet Explorer, check that the SDHelper add on is present, exit the browser. Start Spybot and exit. If it is still OK and you want to use Teatimer, start Spybot, goto Tools->Resident and tick the Teatimer box.
I know this has been rather long winded, but if you take it step by step even if the reinstallation doesn't overcome the problem, it may give an indication as to what is causing it.
The other alternative is using a utility like Process Monitor to identify what is happening during the delay period, but the success of that would depend on your level of expertise.
Please post back and let us know your progress.
kentlowt
2008-10-08, 23:40
Thanks for the reply.
I have cleared all the cookies, temporary files and temporary internet files. No change.
I have uninstalled using the uninstall program and then deleted the folder in application data. Reboot was performed. Ran registry mechanic cleaned registry. I then compacted the registry (mandatory reboot). Then I installed Spybot again without checking tea timer and the SD helper and without updating. Results before updating 30 seconds of a frozen (Unresponsive might be a better word) computer. After exiting the program a look at the processes sorted by CPU reveals System Idle Process goes to 99 everything else drops to 0 until Spybot closes. Everything returns to normal after the program terminates. I then updated Spybot and enabled SD Helper and Tea timer Immunized and ran a check on system internals (nothing found). Results same…. Are there any other ideas I could try?
kentlowt,
Possibly one thing you could try (offline) would be to disable or uninstall (preferably the latter) AV software and see if it makes any difference.
Aside from that and trying Process Monitor to see if it can shed some light on the matter, I haven't any other ideas at the moment.
If you want to try Process monitor see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx
There is a bit of a learning curve involved.
kentlowt,
supplementary:
My intention in the previous post was a temporary uninstall of your AV whilst off line only for long enough to test whether it made any difference to the Spybot exit, then reinstall it.
Additional Questions:
How many user accounts are there on your PC?
How many browsers are being recognised by Spybot on the PC?
There is a reasonable amount of things that occur when the Spybot program is closed. Amongst these are that it updates its configuration files configuration.ini and Immunization.ini in c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Spybot - Search & Destroy
It also updates Bots.sbe, Cookies.sbe, FileExt.sbe, Single.sbe, SystemInternals.sbe and WaitFor.sbe in c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Spybot - Search & Destroy\Excludes.
The PC I had a quick look at in terms of what processes are occurring at program close only has a single browser (IE7) and a single (admin) account, so yours might be different.
There are also some references to cookie and temporary internet browser files and network references that I have not yet looked into and of course many reference to registry keys.
kentlowt,
supplementary 2:
One of the side issues I forgot to mention was that the PC I used for the test has Avast antivirus installed. If the Avast Standard shield is set to High, then it scans the files that Spybot is updating during its close down, which does lengthen the time period, but only very marginally. If the shield is set to Normal then it doesn't scan them.
kentlowt
2008-10-09, 17:05
Bingo when I shut down ZoneAlarm security suite. It shut down immediately so something is going on there. So now what?
kentlowt
2008-10-09, 17:52
Just got back from Zone Labs website it seems there are issues with the current version of ZoneAlarm doing this. They are recomending either to downgrade to the previous version or upgrade to a beta they have posted in their forums.
Just got back from Zone Labs website it seems there are issues with the current version of ZoneAlarm doing this. They are recomending either to downgrade to the previous version or upgrade to a beta they have posted in their forums.
I think I would be downgrading to the previous version until they get the new series stabilised.