Scheduled Scan Doesn't Run...but odd log entry

Discussion in 'ESET NOD32 Antivirus' started by Ardmore, Apr 8, 2009.

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  1. Ardmore

    Ardmore Registered Member

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    I scheduled a full system scan to run every Tuesday at 7:30pm. If the pc is off, the rule is that it should run as soon as possible. I've only had NOD32 a few weeks, and the first time my pc was off at the scheduled time, the scan did indeed run the next time I booted up.

    But this time, the result was very different. The pc was off last night at 7:30, so I expected the scan to take place this morning, but it didn't.

    What makes this even stranger is that the log shows a scan but with zero items scanned. And it is stuck with an "in progress" status, even though nothing is (or was) being scanned. If I double-click on that entry, the scan log box is empty.

    Further confusing the issue, if I go to the Computer Scan section in the advanced view, it correctly lists my actual previous scan (an ad-hoc one) as the lastest. I suppose it is ignoring the one that (falsely) says "in-progress" in the log.

    Any ideas on what might be happening? At first I thought the scheduler was just failing to follow the rule , but this "in-progress-but nothing-is-happening" phantom scan makes it even more perplexing. Either way I'd like to solve this. It's a little worrisome since I need to depend on the program to operate properly.

    Thanks.
     
  2. tomi

    tomi Registered Member

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    Hi,

    one essential thing, scanning takes several minutes, and the progress bar is in "Computer scan", when you click on log file during scanning, it is in status "in progress" and number of scanned objects is 0. The log file will refresh right after scanning is completed.
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2009
  3. NOD32 user

    NOD32 user Registered Member

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    When a scan is launched a log entry is recorded. Once the scan completes it is updated with further datails but if the scan is terminated unexpectedly (e.g. PC is restarted during scan) then that never happens and the 'In Progress' entry remains.
    That would only happen if you have set 'Run the task as soon as possible' under 'If the task did not run'- have you?
    :thumb:

    Cheers :)
     
  4. Ardmore

    Ardmore Registered Member

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    Well, somehow, I’ve gone from one extreme to the other. To experiment, I have been creating scheduled scans (with instruction to scan as soon as possible if missed, as I did have before), and the feature is not only working, but it is starting up DOUBLE scans. Example: The pc is off at 10:15, when the scan is scheduled to run. I power up at 10:20, and the scan begins. Then less than a minute later it begins again, and the two run simultaneously. Interestingly, the scan that starts up a minute later reports scanning about 800 more items than the first. (If I instead leave the pc on until the scheduled scan time, there is just one scan, not a duplicate.)

    I guess I can live with that, since at least the pc is being scanned. This result may have something to do with the fact that that NOD32 always seems to perform a newly-scheduled scan after the first reboot, regardless of what day/time the scan was scheduled for (at least if I have the “scan as soon as possible if missed” option selected -- I haven’t tested without it). If that’s true, in the future maybe I will no longer get the duplicate scans.

    Backing up a little to address some of the points both of you raised: It’s quite possible that there was indeed an interruption during the (delayed) scheduled scan, namely a pc shutdown. But it’s kind of confusing and misleading to have the logs “forever” list that scan as “in progress,” with a blank log. Instead, shouldn’t it (most importantly) change to “interrupted” or “aborted” instead of "in progress," and also list the scan-exceptions and infections detected for as long as the can *was* running? I.e., similar to the behavior you see when a manually-started scan is stopped by clicking the stop button? Or does unexpected system interruption perhaps make proper logging impossible?
     
  5. NOD32 user

    NOD32 user Registered Member

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    That sounds like the cause - when we schedule weekly scans for example we set them to run straight away only if they have not been run for 400 hours which so we have no problem with that. If it were a daily schedule then I would choose 50 or 55 hours.

    Cheers :)
     
  6. Ardmore

    Ardmore Registered Member

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    My scheduler is really possessed.

    I can live with getting two simultaneous scans (start about a minute apart) on the first reboot after scheduling the new scan. But unfortunately when the actual scheduled scan time rolls around and the pc is powered off, the scan fails to run after the pc is restarted (despite including that instruction in the rule for the scan).

    And for two of the scans I scheduled, they failed to run at the scheduled time even when the pc was ON. Never ran after that, either. I'd actually rather see them ALL fail in this way, because an intermittent failure will be harder to solve (or at least work around).

    Upon searching I come up with no evidence of anyone else reporting these kinds of scheduled-scan problems. While there are certainly worse problems to have, this is frustrating. It should be so straightforward, a simple set-it-and-forget-it kind of feature. :( Never had any issues like this with my previous AV's, or any other task scheduler. (Once the BitDefender Scheduler had a bug where a weekly scan would run an hour earlier every week, but when I wrote support they said they were already aware of the issue, and it was soon fixed in an update.)
     
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