ESS and Delayed Start

Running Vista Ultimate 32 bit SP1 on Dell XPS M1530 notebook

Since purchasing ESS I have had continued problems with it killing the the loading of the desktop. Every time I get a new MS security update, after login, the desktop will not load, I would just get a blank screen. If I reboot into Safe mode and kill the ESS service, it loads fine AND ESS loads fine manually at that point.

I tried disabling all Non-MS services and startup items to no avail so there seems to be a conflict with a MS service- and I'm not going there.

In the past reinstalling ESS would cure this problem. After the most recent MS updates though, reinstalling ESS did not help and I could not get ESS to load normally.

After much trial and error, I changed the ESS service 'ekrn.exe' to 'Delayed Start' and the desktop now loads normally with ESS loading last.

Does loading last compromise the ESS anti-virus protection?

 

I'm curious, are you using default settings?

 

Yes although I tried disabling stealth but that did not help

 

Are you using the latest version 3.0.672? If you have the firewall set to interactive mode, does switching to automatic mode make a difference?

 

Yes, I am using version 3.0.672. I tried both FW modes with no difference.

After a few successful reboots with the delayed start it is back to killing the desktop. I had disabled all startup items except for MS items and still would not load the desktop. Unfortunately tech support was not much help and just said that they had never seen the specific problem before.

After spending an enormous amount of time on this, I finally gave up and removed ESS from my system. I am going with the Windows Firewall and the free AVG AV for now. I had purchased a 2 year ESS subscription so I guess I will wait for 4.0 and see if that has better Vista support.

 

I wish I could help you further, but if using the ESS v4 beta doesn't work, just get a refund. The only thing I can think of is wiping the machine, but that's somewhat drastic.

Have you tried following the tweak Vista guide http://www.tweakhound.com/vista/tweakguide/index.htm ? If not I recommend following the entire guide, especially the part about services, and see if NOD32 still acts up.

 

Does the problem persist with v4 beta? Does disabling automatic real-time protection start or disabling the firewall completely make a difference? (Personal firewall -> System integration -> Personal firewall is completely disabled)

 

I have not tried the beta and frankly was afraid of installing a security beta on a production machine. I also did not try disabling the FW completely. I did try disabling RTP to no avail.

Thank you very much for the Vista tweaks, I was not aware of them. On of my big regrets in life was purchasing Vista so anything that will make it run better will be most welcome.

I just don't have the time right now to continue debugging this. I will have some time over the holidays to get back into it and will report back my results.

Thank you all very much for your quick and very helpful suggestions. Quite frankly you have been better support than the ESET tech support!

 

Hello,

A new build of ESET Smart Security v3.0, v3.0.684.0, is now available. Can you try installing a copy of that to see if it makes a difference?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky