NOD32 extremely slow on startup

Discussion in 'NOD32 version 2 Forum' started by ja5983, Jul 23, 2006.

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  1. pcaca

    pcaca Registered Member

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    Maybe Bootvis can give some light on the booting process. With help of Bootvis we can identify the application which is causing the startup slowdowns. Trace your booting process with Bootvis and you will see how much time is consumed by every process during the startup. Don't touch anything until the logging process has finished.
    More info at Microsoft and download here
     
  2. ja5983

    ja5983 Registered Member

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    startup items isnt gonna help since this has been happening since windows and nod were the only things installed...im gonna try bootvis
     
  3. Blackspear

    Blackspear Global Moderator

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    Hi ja5983, could you please take a look at post number 25 and comment as to the suggestions.

    Cheers :D
     
  4. Cat-21

    Cat-21 Registered Member

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    Just to add, I also have the problem on select computers as well. I'm not sure what occurs but the end result is that NOD32 takes about 1 minute for the Tray Icon to appear and for NOD32 to start. There are no software conflicts and I have done all of the above fixes before (Reinstall, LSP, Settings changes, etc.)

    If anyone figures this one out let me know. I even reinstalled previous versions with the same outcome so it's not the build or version that at issue. My guess is that one of NOD32's processes can become easily corrupted under day-to-day usage.
     
  5. Blackspear

    Blackspear Global Moderator

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    I would disagree with you on this guess, from experience over a great deal of installs I would suggest that it is a software conflict, as to what software I couldn’t tell you…

    Cheers :D
     
  6. Cat-21

    Cat-21 Registered Member

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    Some more details about the slowdown:

    1. I have found removing imon.dll from the LSP stack does speed things up a little bit but not enough to warrant this to be done.
    2. I have always noticed that NOD32 has always waited on the splash screen for about 15-30 seconds on your first startup of the day. Once the build and definition info displays in the splash area NOD32 starts no problem. This time around the holdup is a little longer, sometimes about a minute.
    3. NOD is about 5 seconds to start on subsequent logoff and logon to different accounts, my problems only show themselves on a reboot or startup.

    Some Guesses on what is holding things up:


    -NOD32 Kernal Service that launches at startup

    -NOD32 starts before my network card acquires an IP Address so maybe NOD32 needs to communicate over the internet\network before it can start. Since the network has not started, NOD32 waits for it's arrival making a slow startup. Funny part is I disabled all the startup scans and updating and still will pause on the splash screen regardless.


    I love NOD32 and think it's a great product, we should all take a deep breath on this one as nothing is perfect, even NOD32. Other than that, I have no problems with NOD32 and love the program.
     
  7. Blackspear

    Blackspear Global Moderator

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    Do you have a wireless connection?

    Cheers :D
     
  8. Cat-21

    Cat-21 Registered Member

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    I don't have a wireless connection on this computer. I wish it were that simple. I see other users with the issue so maybe it can be cleared up in a future release. I repeat again, no problems otherwise. I can also add that it usually effects the first login after my initial boot. If I log in as another user the subsequent user doesn't have the issue and startup is quick. It basically must have something to do with one of more of these:

    1. Windows Services not yet started that are needed by NOD32 to start so NOD waits for their startup.
    2. Internet connection is not yet established. NOD32 gets held up waiting for viable connection.
    3. Something that occurs on a computer's startup that doesn't occur on subsequent log-ins.

    Hopefully sometime soon you guys will come up with a fix on this one as it is a minor annoyance to have a P4 3.4Ghz w/2 GB RAM to have a close to 2 minute startup time due to NOD32. Without the NOD32 delay I am ready to go in less than 10 seconds as I have a streamlined setup tweeked for speed. It makes me sick to see my friend with McAfee crapware starting up before my NOD32...............................
     
  9. Metalmurphy

    Metalmurphy Registered Member

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    I would like to add that i'm having the same problem as well. I do have an wireless connection and an ADSL connection to the internet, already set NOD32 to use Dial-Up connection, and already tried disabling and enabling (even in the bios) the wireless connection but still same thing happens. Takes about 3 minutes to load. Gonna try using BootVis now
     
  10. Metalmurphy

    Metalmurphy Registered Member

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    Well that didn't help. Bootvis shows up even before NOD32 finishes booting. :S


    Any ideas what i should do?
     
  11. beenthereb4

    beenthereb4 Registered Member

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    I believe that this problem may be linked to specific network cards and their drivers. For example, in the past I have associated this with Dlink gigabit cards. The latest drivers seem to have fixed it. YMMV (By the way, it usually results in an error in event viewer stating that nod32 kernel service hung on startup --- however eventually the service does restart itself -- thus the long delay)
     
  12. Metalmurphy

    Metalmurphy Registered Member

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    But if i disabled the card (and even in the bios) then it should have worked :S yet it didnt
     
  13. Cat-21

    Cat-21 Registered Member

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    I think I found the cause everyone. If you check out the registry entry in HKLM\Run a startup reference exists for NOD32 called "nod32kui"

    If you open the string to modify you'll notice this path:
    "C:\Program Files\Eset\nod32kui.exe" /WAITSERVICE

    Basically the /WAITSERVICE switch is what's holding up the loading of
    NOD32's tray application as well as the NOD splash screen hanging on your desktop for ages. If you remove the /WAITSERVICE reference from your registry entry NOD is golden.................

    Registry Path for nod32kui reference:
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]

    Try it............
     
  14. Tommy

    Tommy Registered Member

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    IMHO this parameter is necessary, because the GUI has to wait until the nodkrn32.exe service is loaded completly. If not, the start of the GUI will result in a error message that it can't connect with the kernel service.

    So that could mean that the service itself has a slow startup.
     
  15. nameless

    nameless Registered Member

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    I have the same sort of issue on my desktop, running NOD32 2.51.26. Sometimes, the NOD32 tray icon doesn't appear for some time after logon. I've never timed it, and I don't think it's a full 3-minute delay, but it's at least a minute or so.

    Go in the Scheduler/Planner and disable every item there. Then see if the issue remains. This should be the first step in diagnosing this problem.

    For me, I think the issue has to do with the scheduled scan of startup objects that occurs at logon. The problem may have to do with that, or with updating at user logon. Either way, disabling the schedules--temporarily--will tell you. To me, you shouldn't go screwing around with update settings if you don't know that it's a problem with the update process in the first place.

    Also, check the event log. I have, many, many times seen the follow error message appear there:

    I never bothered to ask Eset what would be the cause of this, but every shred of experience I have tells me that asking would be a complete waste of time (mainly due to the nature of the problem).
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2006
  16. Redduck

    Redduck Registered Member

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    I am having much the same issue and have tried all the suggestions made in this forum to no avail. I am experiencing the same slow startup issues, with my machine sometimes taking more than 5 minutes between logon and when it has returned control to the user. One additional thing that I have noticed is that during the entire time that I am waiting for the NOD32 splash screen to disappear, the hard drive is under constant activity. Is it possible that NOD is scanning all the files on the drive and that is what is causing the slowdown?

    EDIT:
    Some additional information. If I uninstall NOD32 the problem goes away completely, leading me to believe that the problem is entirely a product of NOD32. After re-install, the problem is back. Disabling all networking on the machine has no effect, so it does not appear to be a problem with an attempted update or network connection issue.
     
    Last edited: Oct 24, 2006
  17. Blackspear

    Blackspear Global Moderator

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    Hi Redduck, welcome to Wilders.

    What previous antivirus was installed on your system?

    Cheers :D
     
  18. Redduck

    Redduck Registered Member

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    Thanks for the welcome, and I must say that on my other PC NOD is working great. On this machine there had not been a previous antivirus product, it is a fresh install of WinXP Pro. At this point though I have loaded SAV CE 10 since I needed *some* antivirus protection while I figured out the NOD issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated since I would much rather have NOD than SAV.

    Thanks!
     
  19. nameless

    nameless Registered Member

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    Yes, the problem really, truly can be due to NOD32, and not some other AM product, or the weather, or the alignment of the stars...
     
  20. Blackspear

    Blackspear Global Moderator

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    How about trying Process Explorer from Sysinternals to see if this sheds any light on what is going on.

    Do you have a wireless connection?

    Cheers :D
     
  21. Blackspear

    Blackspear Global Moderator

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    It's just having installed NOD32 on close to 1000 machines, I have never, and I mean NEVER seen this issue, so I'm wondering what is localized to that particular machine in order for this issue to occur.

    Cheers :D
     
  22. Redduck

    Redduck Registered Member

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    UPDATE:

    Following Blackspear's request, I restored the system back to a clean install and loaded NOD32 again with the same results. The system will start to load, the NOD splash screen will appear and the hard drive will go to constant access (hard drive light constantly on with only split-second flashes of non-activity). After about 5 minutes the hard drive will stop access, the splash screen will go away and the system will be back to normal. I loaded Process Explorer and set it to load at startup and restarted the machine again. The results were the same with the extremely slow startup and hard drive activity, the Process Explorer would load after the hard drive activity stopped.

    The problem is that once the hard drive activity starts, and this looks very much like a full scan, nothing else can be accessed, not Process Explorer, not Task Manager, nothing! This makes it very difficult to see what is accessing the hard drive. The thing that makes it appear that it is a NOD problem is that the problem starts when I load NOD and goes away when I uninstall it. The problem does not appear with other antivirus programs (tried SAV and KAV without the problem appearing).

    Again, I would certainly like to resolve this problem, since I like using NOD on my other machine and it is working well, but I am starting to think that there may be no solution. Any help or direction in where else to look would be appreciated.
     
  23. alglove

    alglove Registered Member

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    What happens if you disable AMON and then reboot?

    Also, what about NOD32 System Tools --> Scheduler/Planner --> uncheck "System startup file check" at user logon?

    These are troubleshooting tips, by the way, not final solutions.
     
  24. NOD32 user

    NOD32 user Registered Member

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    Nice tip, be interesting to see if that helps :thumb:

    Blackspear has given you some very good advice to help you troubleshoot this. Please download and install Startup Delayer from r2 Studios and then set process explorer to load first, at least a couple of seconds before any other thing and then hopefully you might be able to better see what is going on during startup.

    Usually when I have seen this it is because the NOD32 Kernel is waiting for the network drivers or similar to load fully before it can start up. I also had a tip from a colleague earlier who suggested similarly.

    Cheers :)
     
  25. Redduck

    Redduck Registered Member

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    I agree, it has been excellent advice, just not successful as of yet.

    Great idea! I will be downloading that now and seeing what I find.

    I has seen the previous suggestion about the network drivers, so I disabled all the network devices. The problem persisted, and the constant hard drive activity suggests, rather graphically, that the slowdown is in the disk subsystem, not networking, although I am sure it is a possibility.

    Thanks for all the great ideas, I am off to do some more testing.
     
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