Windows 8 ESS 6 strange random freezes

Hello,

I have a super bizarre issue with transient Windows 8 desktop freezes. I was getting desperate and finally uninstalled ESS 6 and voila - they went away!

Unfortunately it's quite difficult to reproduce as these only happen when I am folding (see folding at home) on my GPU. Yes, I know doesn't make any sense! Though the FAH control software communicates with the back-end (called FAH core over TCP localhost so it could be the net filtering...).

What happens is that all of a sudden the Windows will freeze (meaning literally everything will freeze) for about 1-2 minutes. Then things will continue as before... until X minutes later.

Specs:

ESET Smart Security 6.0.316.0

Windows 8 Pro x64 / i3770k @4.6Ghz / ASUS Sabertooth Z77 1908 BIOS / 8GB DDR3 1600 CL7 / nVidia GTX 670 @1267Mhz Core Driver: 314.22 / PSU Corsair AX1200 / OCZ Vertex 3 SSD, HDDs in RAID

Before you ask - yes, I'm 100% stable, temps are fine, there are no crashes or freezes in any other application, all BIOS/drivers/chipset/etc software is latest. All Windows Update Hfs are applied. Yes, it does happen at stock clocks on the CPU/GPU.

I can't get a dump as the system is totally not responsive when this happens and there are NO errors or warnings in Windows' event log. I am sticking to Windows Defender for now, but - HELP!

 

Hi there Br3ach

A guess from me, but have you tried to uninstall the software that you install from the , flash-installer 7.3.6_x86.exe, that is nessesary to start folding? It could be, that Eset and the software from Folding, colliding somehow?

Regards, Janus

 

If possible, first narrow it down to the particular module as follows. After each step, try to reproduce the issue:
- set firewall integration to "Only scan application protocols" + restart the computer
- set firewall integration to "Personal firewall is completely disabled" + restart the computer
- disable HIPS + restart the computer
- disable automatic real-time protection startup + restart the computer

Let us know if any of the above made a difference.

 

@Janus - I reinstalled FAH several times, no issues at install time.

@Marcos - OK - will start testing and will update.

 

So:

- set firewall integration to "Only scan application protocols" + restart the computer

-> Done - freeze occurred.

- set firewall integration to "Personal firewall is completely disabled" + restart the computer

-> Done - no freezes.

How would I troubleshoot this further? Thanks.

[Edit]
By the way here are the net properties of the FAH processes - one or more of the other ones communicates with Fah_Core15.exe which is the process which when running together with ESET firewall causes the freezes:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28406605/ess.png

 

It seems this wasn't caused by ESS after all - sorry about that.

 

Hey Br3ach

Just out of curiosity, did you become any wiser (or found a solution), on what the reason were to your issue, regarding to why Windows 8 desktop freezes?

Regards, Janus

 

Yeah, I did... kind of. I updated my video card's BIOS (EVGA 670 FTW) to the latest one (80.04.5C) and moved to the nVidia 320.00 beta drivers and along the way the issue's fixed ;-) So nothing to do with ESS it seems.

 

Hi

Thanks Br3ach for posting back,

Regards, Janus