Virus signature update server problem?

NOD32 5.2.9.1
Database 7609 20121020
Win XP SP3

Since yesterday evening (about 12 hours ago), virus signature update starts but runs continuously without ever completing or downloading anything. The system tray icon is rotating without stopping. CPU usage for EKRN.exe is stuck at 50% - it is a hyperthreading Pentium 4 Prescott so 50% is one core.

If I open the NOD32 GUI and go into Update, it is at 0% and the update icon is rotating. Pressing "abort" does not do anything. The only way of stopping the update (which is set for "repeatedly" at 120mins) is to restart the PC - but update immediately starts again and gets stuck.

I have not changed any settings at all. Connection to the internet is working properly - I am using the same connection to make this post. I have not suddenly started using a proxy or anything. As I say, I have not changed anything.

So now, in order to be able to continue using the PC, I have just changed the update schedule to daily at 0800. This stops NOD32 attempting to update until that time tomorrow and allows me to work and gives some time for someone to check if there is an update server problem.

Is anybody aware of a problem?

Additional info added 3 hours later:

I think I may have to uninstall and reinstall NOD32. It is now stopping me downloading any zip files. Left clicking a zip link in Firefox or Chrome just sticks the browser at "loading" and EKRN.exe goes to 50% CPU. Right click and save sets EKRN.exe to 50% CPU and nothing else happens. If I disable protection, I can download the zip with no problem. But I notice other threads about EKRN.exe CPU so I might wait a bit as I have some work to do and cannot spend half a day uninstalling and reinstalling right now.

 

start by restarting the computer - then try to update again - if it fails again, follow these steps:

http://kb.eset.cz/esetkb/index?page=content&id=SOLN2875&actp=search&viewlocale=en_US

 

I have now solved this by setting a Process Monitor log for ekrn. ekrn.exe was failing on creating temporary files in Windows/temp. I clear temporary files regularly but the environment variable points to the temp folder in Local Settings so that is what gets cleared by the standard Windows Disk Cleanup, not Windows/Temp.

When I investigated Windows/Temp, I found that a process has been creating empty .tmp files every 20 minutes for the last two years. There were over 64000 of them! I got rid of those and NOD32 now updates properly.

This also cured the problem of not being to download zip files.

Thank you to webyourbusiness for trying to help.

The fact that nobody was having a problem prompted me to investigate the actual cause. Past experience has taught me that 99% of sudden new problems are caused by ISP errors and software updates. This error was one of the other 1%.

 

glad you got fixed - out of curiousity - how do you clear temp files - using a tools like ccleaner?

 

I cleared the temp folder by using FastCopy to move the files from temp into another folder. FastCopy has a filter so I set it to move only files between a range of dates and only ones containing the string that was common to all 64000 of the files created by the offending program! (Which is the Windows Service for my UPS)

This method has the advantage that it would be easy to reinstate the files if it caused any other problem. I can simply delete the new folder if all is well in a month.

I am sure there are other files I could delete and it should be safe to delete anything not used for over a week. But I would not delete temp files that were created when Windows was installed.

For clearing the temp files on previous occasions, I merely used Windows Disk Cleanup. Unfortunately, this does not even look at Windows/temp

It is a long time since I used ccleaner. I tend to avoid such tools unless I have an actual problem.

 

ccleaner will clear out windows temp folder - quickly and easily... it is also free and can help with add/remove programs... it is an indispensable piece of free software that I install on every single machine I have (and that count is large).