PG3 - WinXP Lock Up???

Hi there

Just recently, after using all the beta versions on my PC (including the latest since it was released), I have come across a complete lock up of WinXP that has been getting more and more frequent.

It occurs when logging in. A couple of icons will load into the system tray (usually the 'safely Remove USB' one and the one for my ADSL modem)..............and then nothing. The disk activity lights goes on and off indicating that something is happening but no further start up programs load.........nothing. And to make matters worse I cannot even call up the Task Manager check on what is actually running or not, or to initiate a restart. I have to reboot using the reset button.

Initially I was baffled, especially when I have been using PG3 for so long. Then I disabled PG3 protection, logged in and out of the the three accounts that I have set up, restarted the PC several times, logging in after restart.......with no ill effects. I then reenable PG3 protection, logged off and logged in again.........and the prpblem re-manifested itself.

Has anyone come across such behaviour before, and if so could they advise what action to take to reolve the problem? If not I may just have to install this version of the beta and await the next release.

Many thanks in advance.

Best regards



Baldrick

PS. I have all my screensavers defined to PG3, inlcuding the default one so I do not think that this has anything to do with the issue.

 

Hi Baldrick,

My problems (under Win2000) may be completely different, but maybe not. I could log in as admin, but logging in with my "user" account, would hang the system.

I got past it by disabling "Execution Protection" (Main Tab). Since then, I've had no more problems, and I still get the more unique benefits of Process Guard. It might be worth a try. Also, if you're comfortable rearranging startup programs, you could try disabling non-essential startups, then try to isolate a program or threshhold that brings the problem back.

Good Luck,,
Mike


PS: In my case, I think the significant difference was "many startup programs in the non-admin account". It may be related to earlier post , where a sudden crash was the result of several programs starting in a flurry while procguard.exe (PG-interface) was not running. Jason assured me it is a known problem that has been fixed in the "private" beta.

 

I have been working on fixes for these sorts of issues. The current public BETA 2 ProcessGuard has some issues with multiple accounts at the same time and multiple desktops. I could verify what one user said was a bug (logging into an account which you didn't install PG from, then fast user switching to the other one) and have fixed that issue.

So hopefully in the final release these execution protection issues will be gone, but as Earth suggested for the time being you can disable that feature.

 

Hi Earth/Jason

Many thanks for the responses. Will give them a try and see if that helps. If it doesn't work I will just have to be patient and wait for the final release.

Best regards



Baldrick

 

Please tell me what happens , how is ProcessGuard suppose to act in multiple user accounts like in XP Professional? I have two admin accounts and one poweruser account; ProcessGuard does not initialize in the power user account. Does it have to run in all accounts to protect?

 

The GUI part of ProcessGuard should only load in the account you installed ProcessGuard into. You should still get execution requests in other accounts however (which is handled by pgaccount.exe).

 

Thank you; I thought that I had done something wrong. Which specific progoms need access to physical memory and which should never?

 

Hi satin, Usually access to physical memory is determined in learning mode once you have the general tabs enabled.
My preferred method of ensuring this occurrs is run all my security & Internet enabled programs then reboot, enable the four general tabs run the programs again then reboot - disable learning mode. ProcessGuard should have added the correct allows to your protection list. Note that most of your System processes should have been picked up during learning mode.

You can experiment with these allows after you are out of learning mode as you can see in this thread:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=56024

You should spend some time reading the help file and these forums for more in depth information or ask for specific information regarding the programs you are concerned about.

HTH Pilli

 

Apart from that, GAMES will often want PhysicalMemory access. This is the most likely type of program to need to access PhysicalMemory.

It would be easiest if the game EXE was manually added to the protection list and given access to PhysicalMemory, since some will hang at a black screen for some time when they cant get access. It seems like most will exit to the desktop after a few seconds even if blocked, and you can adjust the privileges and restart it