SpyWare Blaster will not run

[wbhendrickson]

New user. Just downloaded SWB and when I went to start program, i received a box stating that SWB had performed an illegal operation and the computer will be shutdown. I did a restart and same thing.

So, figuring a corrupted download, I removed the SWB program and downloaded it again from a different site. Same results. It will not run. I get no other messages. I also downloaded the two "missing files" to see if that would help. No luck.

Any ideas? Thanks.

[snapdragin]

Hi wbhendrickson, and welcome to the forum.

Could you give us a bit more information please, for example what is your operating system, do you have all critical updates installed, what other security programs you have installed (firewall, antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-popups, etc.) and were they also running at the time this error message came up.

Also, have you scanned for any infections with an antivirus and/or anti-spyware program?

Regards,

snap

[wbhendrickson]

Yes. It's a Windows 98 system, internet explorer version 5.5, SP1. That is a bit dated, but it is an older setup.

McAfee VirusScan up to date. Full scan run yesterday. Nothing found. Even if I disable VirusScan, SWB will not run.

Spybot S & D also full scan yesterday and all problems found were "fixed."

Lavasoft AdAware also run yesterday and all critical items quarantined.

Also did a scandisk, disc cleanup, and defrag yesterday. No problems and a nice clean machine prior to spyblaster installation.

I use a Westell modem for my DSL service, and that is the only firewall protection I use. It is set to low; setting it to medium or higher interferes with other program internet connections. My Linksys 54G router has the firewall disabled. The computer is a hard ethernet wire from the modem to the router to the hard drive.

Hope that helps. Thanks.

WB

[Phant0m]

Have you tried running SpywareBlaster in Safe-Mode?

[snapdragin]

Hi Phant0m, I was just doing some checking on the "Illegal Operation" errors and came up with this Microsoft KB:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/175703/EN-US/

Now I am not sure about Win98's settings since in the link above it mentions Win98SE and not Win98. On my Win98SE, my "File System" line says 32-bit.

wbhendrickson, could you check your File System line in the System Properties and tell us what it says there? For example, does it just say 32-bit, or does it say "Some drives are using MS-DOS compatibility mode" ?

Also, since left-over files in the Temp folder can cause some problems while installing a program, could you clean out your Temp folder, then try reinstalling SpywareBlaster again...making sure you have turned off all other programs so they do not interfer with the install either.

Regards,

snap

[Phant0m]

This problem is known to happen on systems with small amount of memory and using much memory, I figure Safe-Mode not loading up a bunch could confirm the problem.

Is there an Issue Installing SpywareBlaster or launching SpywareBlaster after Install completion?

[wbhendrickson]

System Properies, Performance tab, file system says "32-bit"

Have not tried running it in safe mode.

Just yesterday, I did a full disc cleanup, scandisk, and defrag so my system should be pretty clean. No other programs were running during installation. I have downloaded and installed the program twice 9two different sites). No help thus far.

I will try safe mode and report back.

Thanks.
***********************************

SWB ran OK in safe mode. I created a restore point and enabled all protection. Looked OK. I restarted normally, attempted to run SWB again, and still get the "illegal operation" warning.

Regarding memory, 73% of RAM is free. Also I have 3.74 GB free of 9.74 GB total.

So there you go. Any ideas?

Thanks again.

[Bubba]

{QUOTE-> SWB ran OK in safe mode. I created a restore point and enabled all protection. <-QUOTE}You created a restore point in Win 98 or SpywareBlaster ?

[Phant0m]

Is there "Details" button on the error Dialogs?

[javacool]

{QUOTE->
SWB ran OK in safe mode. I created a restore point and enabled all protection. Looked OK. I restarted normally, attempted to run SWB again, and still get the "illegal operation" warning.
<-QUOTE}

Thanks for the information. :)

This is a rather rare issue I'm hoping to have fixed for the next version of SpywareBlaster (only a very small number of Windows 98/ME machines exhibit the problem).

I'm glad it worked for you in Safe Mode, though. Keep an eye out for the next version of SpywareBlaster. 8)

Best regards,

-Javacool

[wbhendrickson]

Bubba, the restore point was created in SWB.

Phantom, I am not familiar with "error dialogs". Fill me in and I'll see.

Javacool, thanks for the response. Sounds like I'm in a small minority, but not the only one with this problem. When do you anticipate a new version of SWB? BTW, SWB runs fine on my Gateway Windows XP SP2 laptop and I didn't do anything differently between the two computers. I assume, once having run SWB in safe mode on the W98 desktop, that I now have the protection I had hoped to establish on that computer.

Thanks all, WB

[Phant0m]

On the "Illegal Operation" box, were there “Details” button? For extended Information about the problem, may not be needed by the developer (Javacool) since he is already aware of this anomaly.

You having ran SpywareBlaster in Safe-Mode and had applied all protections, but what about updates? You may need to do some copying...

[javacool]

{QUOTE->
Javacool, thanks for the response. Sounds like I'm in a small minority, but not the only one with this problem. When do you anticipate a new version of SWB? BTW, SWB runs fine on my Gateway Windows XP SP2 laptop and I didn't do anything differently between the two computers. I assume, once having run SWB in safe mode on the W98 desktop, that I now have the protection I had hoped to establish on that computer.

Thanks all, WB <-QUOTE}

Unfortunately I can't give any estimated release date yet, but I am working on completing it as quickly as is possible. :)

And yes, protection should now be enabled for your computer (having run it in Safe Mode).

Best regards,

-Javacool

[wbhendrickson]

Phantom & JavaCool,

Ah, that details box.... Here it is...

SPYWAREBLASTER caused an invalid page fault in
module KERNEL32.DLL at 015f:bff886b6.
Registers:
EAX=c00300f0 CS=015f EIP=bff886b6 EFLGS=00010216
EBX=bff7684d SS=0167 ESP=007ffffc EBP=00800008
ECX=8175f72c DS=0167 ESI=81783ad0 FS=116f
EDX=008001f0 ES=0167 EDI=0080017c GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
53 56 8b 0d d8 9c fc bf 57 33 f6 8b 38 8b 19 89
Stack dump:

And yes, updates were inhibited in safe mode with no internet connection. My non-working desktop version is 3.02. My working laptop version is 3.2. So the desktop is a tad behind for now.

WB

[Phant0m]

I were not in reference to the application version, what you retrieve off of the update server is what’s important, being there were quantity of updates since this here latest SpywareBlaster version, you should not hesitate to contact Javacool for details on updating offline.

[Phant0m]

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=12266

{QUOTE-> SpywareBlaster Tips:


(1) "I would like to perform manual updates - is there a way I can do so?"

Yes there is - simply download the following five files and overwrite the ones currently in your SpywareBlaster directory (C:\Program Files\SpywareBlaster by default):

http://www.spywareblaster.net/spywa.../sbdatabase.dtb
http://www.spywareblaster.net/spywa...sbdatabase2.dtb
http://www.spywareblaster.net/spywa...er31/sbinfo.dtb
http://www.spywareblaster.net/spywa.../ckdatabase.dtb
http://www.spywareblaster.net/spywa.../rsdatabase.dtb <-QUOTE}

;D