ekern.exe stuck at 50% CPU usage

every now and then I come back to my PC and I have NO internet access at all. I then look in task manager and see that ekern.exe *32 is stuck at 50% cpu usage (on a dual core so thats a whole core it's locked up). I have left this for half an hour with NO change. The ONLY way to get it back to normal is to restart the PC. Anybody got any idea what going on or even how to fix this ?

Thanks

here's some of my specs if that helps
Windows7 X64 Enterprise (a present from work)
E6600
4 gig memory

 

When it is doing this, open the GUI and change the display mode to "Advanced mode" in the lower left corner if it is not already, then under Protection status click on Statistics. It will show you what system files/URL/other object is being scanned at the time of the conflict and might point you in the right direction.

 

I've change it to advanced and I'll just wait for it to get stuck at 50% again and report back, THANKS

 

I'm seeing this too on my XP SP3 Pro main machine. ESET icon said startup scan but it's been a few days since I started the machine. Tried terminating the ekern process but access denied. Only way was to reboot to cure it.

Also I had a problem upgrading from 4.2.58 to 4.2.64.12 When I rebooted after a couple of seconds the mouse and keyboard would lockup so I couldn't log on to XP. To cure this I had to do a fresh install of 4.2.64, other machines were unaffected.

 

Further investigation shows that it seems to happen after updating to 5384 the update scan goes on forever. :|

 

Mine is also after an update from a previous version.

 

Does that mean that the ESET icon is spinning forever, indicating a running startup scan ? If so, please check under Protection status -> Statistics if the number of scanned files is actually rising and post here the information about installed modules (Help -> About).

 

It has done it again after another update, Icon is spinning forever and it says startup scan. Number of scanned files wasn't rising.

Heres my details

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=1734685#post1734685

 

Mine doesn't say startup scan it just sits there eating up 50% CPU and locking out the internet. It's not donw it for the last 2 days so fingers crossed that it was a small blip.

 

Have run the ESET Uninstaller in safe mode and done a fresh install now to wait for updates to see if the problem re-occurs. One thing to note is that the screen saver was active when the update that caused the forever scanning to happen, not sure if it's linked.

 

well it's happend AGAIN.
here's a screen shot
http://imagehost.org.uk/view-20Nod32.jpg

and in the stats page it's just checking through random files on my hard drive.

 

I'm also having this problem. While I have an Internet connection, I'm unable to browse using either Firefox or IE. I remoted to another PC to post this message.

Any idea on how to fix this would be much appreciated.

Virus signature database: 5419 (20100902)
Update module: 1031 (20091029)
Antivirus and antispyware scanner module: 1285 (20100820)
Advanced heuristics module: 1114 (20100827)
Archive support module: 1122 (20100826)
Cleaner module: 1048 (20091123)
Anti-Stealth support module: 1021 (20100811)
SysInspector module: 1216 (20100517)
Self-defense support module : 1016 (20100404)
Real-time file system protection module: 1004 (20100727)

Windows XP Professional SP3 32-bit.

 

Could you confirm or deny that restarting the computer make a difference? When did the problem start exhibiting?

 

and happened again TWICE today. Getting a bit annoyed with this now.

 

Hi, I'm having a similar problem: after downloading very large files (>6GB, .mkv/.avi) from another computer at home network, the ekrn process starts consuming 50% of CPU on my Core2Duo system. It sometimes even starts to load 100% the CPU (i.e. loads both cores making the system almost non-responsive). The problem goes away after restarting the computer, but if I start copying files again, it will start using the CPU again.

My system:
Core 2 Duo E8500, 4GB RAM,
Windows Vista Home Premium x64

The problem appeared after upgrading to version 4.2 from 4.0. Currently I've upgraded to the most recent release, but the problem still persists.

 

Avi files should not be scanned internally at all so scanning them should be very quick. If you have a link to such files, please provide it to me.

 

I have also manually excluded those extensions from scanning using options, but never the less, the ekrn.exe cpu usage goes high somewhere in the middle of the copy operation and then never goes down (seems like its stuck in an endless loop) until I reboot the computer.
Unfortunately the files are on my home computer and I cannot give a link to them as they're large (>6GB). Today the cpu usage went high after copying 2 large mkv video files >9GB each, the copy operation has completed already 1,5 hours ago, but cpu usage stays 50% and doesn't go down. The "Protection status" statistics doesn't show a file being scanned to be the file that was copied.

Can the problem be connected to the fact that the file is being constantly written (appended) for a long period?

 

BTW., even if I disable real-time scanner in eset systray menu, the ekrn.exe process keeps 50% cpu usage until the reboot (once it started its "endless loop").

 

Does disabling any of the following makes a difference?
- automatic real-time protection startup (+restart)
- http checking in the main setup
- startup scan tasks
- Anti-stealth / Self-defense (+restart)

You can also try renaming the driver C:\Windows\System32\drivers\epfwwfp.sys in safe mode.

 

Let me help. By any chance is this happening when screensaver is running? MSE has a bad habit of running when certain Microsoft Screensavers are enabled and some it doesnt bother. I know of a few other AVs that also have this trait. Eset has never shown it though and doesnt for me. Might not be the answer but just trying to help.

 

For me I NEVER EVERY use a screen saver (Just don't see the point of them)

 

The issue doesn't happen if I switch the file system real time protection on startup and restart the computer. I've been testing for a day copying large movies to another computer and back on LAN and I haven't had any problems as long as I don't turn on the real-time protection.
What could it be?
Is it possible to get a previous version of ESET, e.g. 4.0? Maybe this is an issue specific to 4.2 version?

 

Oops, I was wrong: now again 50% cpu usage from ekrn.exe. Since previous post I haven't switched it on/off or done anything else except copying another file from the network drive.

 

Update: Some weeks ago I've switched back to version 4.0 and since that time for more than two weeks I haven't experienced any of the problems listed above. So it really looks like something was broken for me in 4.1.

Maybe that helps someone else.

 

is there a place to get the older WORKING version 4.0 from ?
As I would so much prefer an older out of date version that WORKS than a newer version that doesn't