Stupid, Stupid ESET 'driver' problem in Vista

ESET is causing me some trouble.

I have a similar problem to a previous thread - https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=207120 - but that thread is too old to allow a reply be posted.

I'm constantly getting an error from Vista (attached image) and I've tried uninstalling and re-installing ESS, but each time I try to reinstall, it tells me that ESET Personal firewall initialization failed. (... most likely due to it's installation being corrupt).

On the other thread, the person solved their problem by running a batch file and doing some registry editing, both of which are a bit too advanced for me (but I could follow clear instructions).

Does anyone know how I can get out of this loop of frustration, please?

thanks

 

Following on from what other people are suggesting in that thread, I had a look at the Device Manager and it is completely full of ESET things....

(I tried to uninstall just one of them, and I could... but there are probably about a hundred! As well as the same number of 'unknown devices' in the same category)

What has ESS done to my machine...!?!!

 

So far, I've uninstalled ESS - but the damn pop up keeps coming up about the unknown device needing a driver.

I followed the advice in Post 13 of the thread that I linked to above, which was to remove the Eset Personal Firewall from the LAN connection properties.

And then set about trying to delete the unknown devices from the Device Manager.

Strangely - these seem to 'respawn', I counted how many there were (55), uninstalled about 20 as per the picture below, and there are still the same number. So, something somewhere is making them and I have to figure that out! Any tips, please?

 

By that screenshot I would say your well protected by about 100 firewall drivers.

Unfortunately your going to have to uninstall everyone of them or System restore back to before Eset.

 

That's what I'm worried about too!! Any idea why they might be respawning and not uninstalling when I uninstall them? What could possibly be reinstalling them, since ESET is uninstalled?

 

Could be a issue in the registry something got fooked up. My best advice is if you cant get rid of them would be to roll back on a system restore.

 

Thanks. There are some other changes that have been made to the system which system restore would wipe out - so I'd rather avoid the system restore if possible.

Are there any other options?

And does anyone know how to go about getting a refund from ESET for all this trouble?!!

 

Blame your operating system for this behavior, not Eset.On a healthy system this would never happen, you had outstanding issues going on elsewhere that caused this problem for you.

 

Or a bad install of Eset there is a million things that "Could" of happened. I would just want to get it fixed and leave the blame game for later.

 

It's entirely possible that something somewhere in Vista is broken, but it's also possible that ESET messed something up.

I'll try a system restore and see how that goes.

Do you think there is any way for me to find out why the installation of ESET is causing such annoying problems? If I just want the malware protection, can I use my license to download a version of ESET without the firewall?

 

Yes, If you have a Eset Smart Security License its backwards compatible. If you want you can try just the AV.

 

So, unfortunately, the system restore option is no longer available. I didn't realise that there would be a limited amount of restore points available and all of the available restore points are after the install of ESS, so I'm just going to have to battle through.

Any ideas on how to get rid of all of these kooky Eset firewall miniport drivers from the device manager?

Is there any Eset software that removes all installed ESS things? There is a page on the ESET site of removers for almost every other security software, but none that I can find for ESET products.

I'd welcome any suggestions, please.

 

totally agree and if you want to solve your own self induced issues then just do a clean reinstall. I do them all the time and love them.

But for the future when needing support as you rightfully did, calling a thread,
"Stupid, Stupid ESET 'driver' problem in Vista," before you even know what the issue or cause is, is really inappropriate and unfair to the vendor.

 

Perhaps. If I'm wrong I'd admit it.

But it is a clean install, updated from the windows site and the only software of any significance on it is Open Office, a 3G modem software and that was working fine until I installed Eset Smart Security.

As you can see from the screenshots, I have an annoying driver problem. Related to ESET. I've installed thousands of softwares over the years and never had a problem like this before, nor one that's so blatantly related to a particular software.

I don't mean any offense to the ESET developers, they're doing a better job than I could do when it comes to developing anti-malware, just I'm frustrated with the lack of any helpful response from the support that I'm paying for and thought maybe someone on the community would have come across this problem before. Which they did, as per the link in the first post.

Apologies for the offense that the thread title might have caused, and thanks to those that have contributed all replies.

 

you dont need to apologize, but you have a issue that needs assistance with and really, only Marcos or Agoretsky are going to have to help you with. I just installed ESS on a clean snapshot and the following is what I get. Hang in there, a cure will come. But to me it seems it is a issue with your network adaptor. My ESS settings for the firewall are default.

 

Hello,

First off, please run Microsoft Windows Update to verify the computer has all of the hot fixes and patches necessary for it. Also, please visit the support web site(s) for the manufacturer(s) of your network interface card(s) and download and install the latest device drivers from their web site. These are typically newer than what is provided by Microsoft or the computer manufacturer.

Next, download ESET Smart Security v4.0.474.0 (latest build) onto the computer, but do not install it yet.

Visit ESET's knowledgebase and view article # 2289, "How do I manually uninstall my ESET security product?" and download the ESET manual uninstall tool in the article.

Run the ESET manual uninstall tool per the instructions in the article.

Lastly, go ahead and install the copy of ESET Smart Security you just downloaded.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

 

I recently been having this same issue in Windows 7 Ultimate and Smart Security 4.0.467.0. Every single time I boot up Windows 7 finds another miniport and wants drivers for it. Only difference is I can't seem to uninstall these drivers.

If edanto is having this problem on Vista and I'm having this exact same problem on Windows 7 and others are reporting it in other versions of Windows it's not just a Microsoft problem but a shared problem.

Seriously speaking, the programmers need to investigate this issue and get it fixed. I've been an eset user for nearly 9 years now and don't want to see these problems ignored.

 

Aryeh's answer worked for me, too. Just as well, because a client had the same problem and was getting ready to tell me where I could shove Eset ESS...