FSIS 2007 Manual Scanning Problem

I have one last issue to resolve with F-Secure IS 2007, and that is this ongoing manual scanning problem. Whenever I try to run a Full System Scan, the scan stalls at roughly the same point each time, either on one of a couple of C:\Windows files, or, strangely, or G:\, which doesn't exist on my system. If I do a Scan Hard Drives scan, everything is fine, but if I do a Quick Spyware Scan, or a Full System Scan, it stalls. I can only guess that this must be something to do with the spyware scanning engine, and that it must be conflicting with something else on my machine, even though I have uninstalled all other spyware apps, and even tried to run the scan in selective startup mode, with no other programs running, other than Windows services. One thing I haven't tried is a scan in safe mode, but I noticed something this evening when I was looking at the Exclusions list. The scan seems to ignore this list, and still tried to scan files in the list, which are supposed to be excluded, and thus stalls on those files, but looking at the F-Secure Help pages, it seems that the number of files skipped during a scan is supposed to be displayed on the scan interface. As far as I can see, the number of skipped files should appear above the number of scanned files, but this seems to be missing on mine (see pic below).

I'm now wondering if there's something wrong with the skipping or exclusions process, which could be causing the scans to stall? Can anyone confirm whether they have the number of skipped files displayed on the scanner interface? Any other comments or suggestions would also be appreciated.

 

Anyone...?

 

What is your Drive G. And does it really need to scan it.

 

That's the thing, there's isn't a Drive G. Well, not a fixed one, anyway. Drive G only appears when I use my Digital Camera via USB, but it's not connected during scans, and putting it in the Exclusions list has no effect.

 

Is the cord still connected though.

 

No.

I am just trying another spyware scan. I did have a desktop shortcut to G:\, which I have now removed, in case it was that which was confusing it, but I don't think it will help. In fact, possibly another issue, but the Exclusions list is being totally ignored. I deliberately put C:\WINDOWS in the list, as a test, and it's still merrily scanning it regardless. I am expecting it to stall at any moment now.

 

Yup, just had to reboot again. Stalled on C:\WINDOWS\twain_32\escndv\escndv.exe which is my Epson Printer / Scanner. The scan stalls, I press Stop, then the whole things crashes, CPU shoots up to 98% and a cold reboot is the only escape.

 

i cant belive you are having all those problems with scanning and still keeping the program.
i mean cmon there is nod32,antivir,avast,drweb etc etc to try and see if they work on your pc
lodore

 

simon have you emailed f-secure and made one of those fsdiag and sent it to them?
the fs-diag is information about your current system to aid the f-secure support
technicians. its found in the f-secure folder in program files and creates a fsdiag file in the same folder im sure f-secure can help you make one of those
lodore

 

just for curiousity,

is the drive a fat32 drive?

also, id recommend some registry software to fix and clean it, i know lavasoft in the past has had problems scanning certain registry files, is this what it stops on, if so, id recommend a good registry cleaner/fixer.

 

You have a point, and a good one. I guess it's because I like the suite, and it's become something of a challenge to get it all to work properly, and I'm not one to give up easily. It's not really "all those problems", because the other issues I had have now been sorted, and the Hard Drives Scan works fine (for viruses), as does the Root Kit Scan. It's only the Spyware Scan that doesn't work, and this obviously affects the Full System Scan. I can use Super Anti-Spyware for occasional spyware scans, and I assume that the FSIS real time monitor is working, so there shouldn't be a security problem. It's probably disagreeing with something else on my PC (or something that used to be on my PC), and I expect a format and re-installation of Windows would do the trick, and is, in fact, long overdue, but it's finding the time to do it.

 

Yes, done that, Lodore, and they have yet to respond. I actually sent a follow up fsdiag immediately after a failed scan, so hopefully they might be able to spot something.

Are you referring to the non-existant 'G' drive? Umm... I don't know, it's an external drive for a Digital Camera, so isn't there unless the camera is connected. If you mean my main hard drives, no, they are NTFS.

 

Simon6776, try this as a possible temporary fix. Create a folder with any name, preferably on your root drive, say C:\Stuff. Bring up your command prompt cmd.exe. Type this: subst G: C:\Stuff, and hit enter. Try scanning now. After you scan, you can delete the virtual drive g by bringing up your command prompt, and typing this: subst G: /D. This may work. If there is a sharing violation between your software and the creation of a virtual drive G, then Windows shall not allow you to create a virtual drive. You may wish to see if your camera's support page has a better quick fix for this issue.

Best of luck.

Dave

 

Thanks Dave, I'll try that, but I'm being called to carve the Sunday joint at the moment, so it will have to wait until after lunch, or F-Secure will be the least of my problems!

 

with f-secure if you have any other security program on your pc and you tell them about it they will say uninstall it f-secure is all you need.
that is the point when i got rid of f-secure because i want to choose my own security programs thank you very much

 

Yes, and that's one of the two reasons I dumped FS2006, along with the more annoying problem that it wouldn't let me turn off the PC. I made sure I uninstalled all my other security software before I sent them the fsdiag, as it makes no difference to the scanning problem whether they are installed or not, but I knew they would just use those as a reason for FS not working properly. If they find traces of uninstalled programs, that's another thing, and hopefully they might be able to pinpoint which program has left something behind which is causing the stalling scans.

 

OK, I did as per instructions, although I'm still not really sure exactly what I did. The results were interesting, in that this time, the scan stuck on 'F:\'. Now, I do have an F Drive - it's my second hard drive, but to be honest, I don't think it was actually the 'F' drive it stuck on, because it had only scanned 6164 files on 'C' drive, which is nowhere near complete. I wonder if it's relevant that it always seems to stick at roughly the same number of scanned files? 6153 in example above, 6164 this time, and it's always around this number of files when it stalls.

 

I would recommend you running a Memtest86+ test, because I'm beginning to doubt your RAM.

 

Can I ask what your reasoning behind that is? Everything else works fine, it's only F-Secure I have a problem with. All other suites scan completely without any trouble.

 

Since your problem always shows up after scanning around 6100 files. Memory can be 'loaded' in different ways, and in that way only can show up during certain situations. I'm not saying that you have bad memory, but it might be good to test it and rule it out.

 

OK, I'll give it a go.

 

Gulp! Well, I let it run for an hour and a half, and it did 3 and a bit passes...

... 1532 errors!!

Not really sure where to go from here. Everything else on my system seems to work fine. I usually get no lock ups, blue screens, or any other problems. I guess if this is what's causing the scanning problems, I'll either have to live with it, or ditch F-Secure again. Funny though, how this never happened with 2006, and it only happens with the spyware scan.

 

maybe you will have to get new ram your not meant to have even one error in a ram module.
i learnt that from the ram guy
lodore

 

I have ordered a new RAM stick from http://www.crucial.com/uk, which I can use for testing, and if necessary, I can order a second one to replace both of my current RAM modules. This may seem an extreme measure, just to get F-Secure to work, but thinking about it, for some time now, I have been getting random desktop freezes, usually after closing some applications, such as Sea Monkey or Paint Shop. I guess I must have got used to it, and as such, don't really notice, and didn't connect it at first, but it could be another indicator of bad RAM.