NOD32 V4 Renders Thinkpad T41 Useless

Installation of NOD32 V4 renders a Thinkpad T41 (Vista Ultimate SP1, 4 GB ram, 120 GB disk) useless - the machine either hangs on the user log in window or during user start-up. Specifically, the mouse pointer moves but the Start button does not respond nor is the task manager accessible (Ctrl+Alt+Delete). The mouse pointer changes to the "working" circle when positioned over the task bar. The machine does show intermittent disk activity. The machine worked without issue with NOD32 V3.0.642.0 installed.

-- I did not perform the initial installation. I subsequently uninstalled V4 in Safe Mode (via the program group icon) and reinstalled it (process repeated twice). Both subsequent installs performed using the Windows Administrator id.
-- I have disable logging (the setting prior to the first installation) in the ThinkVantage AccessConnections manager.
-- I have not performed a manual uninstall of NOD32. Any such process which carries the warning "this process will cause all network settings (static IP, default gateway, subnet mask, wireless settings, etc.) to be lost" should be considered an embarrassment to the author(s).
-- I have not attempted the diagnostic steps -- msconfig, disable start-up processes one-at-a-time, reboot after each change -- to determine where a conflict might exist. If one is found, what will be Eset's response, "unistall the conflicting program"? I would find such a response unacceptable.

I run NOD32 on 3 machines, 2 others have already been upgraded to V4 (neither running Vista). Luckily I had a current image and data backups so nothing was lost except 5 hours of diagnostic and restore time. If I cannot resolve this issue I will be forced to pursue a refund and find another antivirus solution.

Does anyone have any ideas or guidance?

 

Hello,

Was there another anti-virus program previously installed on the IBM ThinkPad T41? If so, did you verify all traces of it had been removed before installing ESET NOD32 Antivirus?

Just to verify, the following files were excluded from being scanned, correct?

C:\Program Files\ThinkPad\ConnectUtilities\AclpConfig.DAT
C:\Program Files\ThinkPad\ConnectUtilities\Archive_AccConnAdvanced.html
C:\Program Files\ThinkPad\ConnectUtilities\AccConnAdvanced.html​

Also, is there a reason SP2 hasn't been installed on the system yet?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

 

agoretsky,

Thank you for your kind response.

The machine was new in 08/2007. Perhaps Norton was there initially, I don't remember. If so, I have enough experience with their garbage to know to use the removal tool to clean out a machine. I indicated that NOD32 V3.0.264.0 has been running without problem and continues to do so. Anything which might have been installed when the machine was received was replaced with NOD32 before it was placed into service in 08/2007.

No exclusions were specified at the time V4 was installed, nor have any ever been defined for V3. I had no reason to know or believe any exclusions were required on this particular hardware platform.

There is no reason for the absence of SP2, other than I was not aware it was available.

 

Hello,

Perhaps there is another program on the IBM ThinkPad T41 which is incompatible with ESET NOD32 Antivirus v4. If so, you can try using ESET SysInspector, the diagnostic tool, to generate a log file of installed and running software.

You can download a copy of the program from this page on ESET's web site.

Once you have created a log file, we can being looking through it to see what might be present that is causing this behavior.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

 

Aryeh,

Once again, thank you for your attention. ... I have run SysInspector and generated 2 logs -- 1 with V4 installed and before a reboot, a second after the system was restored when the V4 installation once again disabled the computer. Which SysInspector log would you like to see and how do you suggest I submit the XML file?

I was not aware SysInspector was a stand-alone program unrelated to the execution of NOD32. Therefore, I waited until I could gain access to the machine for a period long enough to: image backup / uninstall V3 / install V4 / run SysInspector / restore image. The computer is used by a distance-learning University student in her final semester and is not readily available for testing and troubleshooting.

Finally, I have mistakenly labeled the Thinkpad as a model T41, it is actually a T61.

Regards.

 

Hello,

Private message sent.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

 

I am seeing the same problem on a T61 as well. Is there a resolution in the private message that can be shared?

 

Did someone not mention awile ago that if they had a wireless connection, that because nod was set to update at user logon it would hang waiting for the wireless connection to init ?

Also, you have to have some idea to know what your doing, Eset does not do the best at thinking users of their software know what their doing, so they have to change the default settings out of the box to work with everything, and then advanced users can add things and tweak as they go along.

out of the box NOD should be set to update once a day, not at user logon ever ! it will cause some problems for certain people.Also quick scan after update setting should be removed from an out of the box installation.

another thing, nothing is saying the default setting out of the box will work for you, you may need to change some things.You have I think 4 options in the scheduled startup scan, and which files get scanned before or after logon ETC.

Set it to scan files after user logon, if its not set like that allready.And have it update every 60 minutes if your paranoid, but not scheduled to run during user logon.

Also if 3.0 worked better on your hardware, just install 3.0 the latest version, unless 4.0 added something you specifically needed.

There are too many things going on allready at user logon, user profiles being loaded, which may have a large size, and other things going on in the background, plus you may allready have on top of that 10 programs set to start with windows weather you realize it or not.So on your particular machine and with your setup, you just have too much going on to have NOD set with default settings and may need to change some things.

 

I disagree with this strongly, any good antivirus these days should seek to update as soon as the computer boots up. This way the AV will be protected with the latest defs before the user begins to do anything, like go online, check e-mail, etc.

I have an IBM Thinkpad T60P, I've had NOD 2,7, 3.0, and 4.0 on it...I often run on wireless or just stand alone, it's perfectly fine for NOD to load and check for update upon logon, if no internet connection is available after 10 seconds or so, it unloads the updater and minimizes in the systray.

Moving towards the OPs problem here, I would suspect that NOD version 4 has some conflict with one of Lenovos proprietary drivers. I rebuild my laptops from scratch, not the factory loaded over bloated image packed with 88 trillion Lenovo branded apps and drivers. The first place I'd look if I was the OP is Thinkpads Access Connections network management driver.

 

This is completely ignorant, you can see out of the box with default settings it doesn't work well for all systems.You yourself said you strip off the OS and reinstall an OS without all the vendor installed software for the thinkpad, well most people don't bother to do that and expect the antivirus to still work, because their ignorant about these kind of things.Not everyone who uses a computer is specially trained and has a computer science degree.But they still expect their antivirus to work as normal, no matter how the pc or laptop comes configed.

they all have proprietary apps, toshiba, IBM, DELL.... so when the user decides to remove the antivirus that came with their laptop and puts NOD32 on, their going to expect it to work, when it doesn't their going to come here and complain of course.

 

No AV works well for "all systems"..there are bound to be a few out there. But many of my SMB clients run Thinkpad laptops, I probably have over a hundred out there of various models. How many are you in charge of and have experience with? Most of them with 2.7 and 3.0, but I one large nursing agency client with about 20 X series tablets that I've updated to 4.0...but I have an up to date Access Connections on them. And they work fine. The T41 is a rather old model, so perhaps his Access Connections is an old version. And not to mention many many other brands of laptops that I have NOD on which work fine on bootup and login.

When you're dealing with older model that may have original driver versions that it came with...it's not just antivirus that can have issues, there are lots of other areas to worry about compatiblity issues with.

 

If it was the T41 I would understand the slowdown, but he made correction to his mistake of model #

 

These are managed laptops ! I have no idea how you have them configed if your " in charge " of them and if you wiped out the OS and all the proprietary apps or not or manually updated them such as the access connections program.I'm talking about the average home user who manages their own hardware, when it doesn't work and they just put Eset on there and they blame that, it ends in a support call or ticket, or a complaint here.

So what your saying is that ottavik possibly just needs to update that access connection manager app.

 

No, nothing specific to a resolution in the private message. If/when any sort of solution is identified it will be posted in this thread.

 

you need to exclude the following folders on a Thinkpad

c:\program files\ThinkVanatage\*.*
c:\program files\Thinkpad\*.*

Access connection and security solutions with a thinkpad messes this up.

 

Take a look at this http://forum.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkVantage-Technologies/NOD32-and-Rescue-and-Recovery/td-p/193256;jsessionid=AE87A0699C14AEDCF12B0697168EE050 if you see any A, B, C, D ... empty folders in your root you probably have this problem.