NOD 32 5.0.93.0 & 5.0.94.0:PC freezes when USB HD is connected

Re: New fix that has worked (so far).

I'm guessing it only works under certain conditions. The Fix page now says this:

"Important!
This article was created as a temporary fix that is to be performed only when advised by an ESET Customer Care agent. In some cases, the steps below may not resolve this issue. If you have not reached this page by the guidance of ESET, we recommend contacting ESET Customer Care before attempting this fix."​

I don't recall that warning being there when I found the page a few days ago. Anyway, I'm glad it's working for me.

 

Re: New fix that has worked (so far).

Bummer, I find Smart Security 5 to be a lot more faster than v4.

 

Just wanted to add another confirmation - three XP machines here, all freeze when external disks are plugged in. Disabling checking of removable media did not resolve the issue.

 

Just joined the forum, and sad that this has to be my first post. I've been using versions of NOD32 for about 8 years, and this is the first major problem I've encountered.

Just upgraded 3 machines to Version 5.0.94.0.

On one XP PRO SP3 machine, plugging in my external USB HD, I get the total lockup problem. The same HD is recognized without problems when the machine is re-booted with Ubuntu Live CD.

On the other XP PRO SP3 machine and on the Win7 machine, I have not yet tried external USB HD. (I don't like having to do hard shut downs.)

Can't revert to ver 4 without great effort.

Will be contacting Customer Support for hotfix.

I appreciate the contributions of others that enabled me to identify the cause of the problem and save what little hair remains on my head...

 

I have been envolved in various support calls these days with the USB-Hang issue. I received a 5.0.95 version which runs fine on one machine ( except some things now run incredibly slow ( opening folders )). One machine hasn't had problems since ( XP Home SP3), another (not so busy) XP Mediacenter SP3 appears to run smoothly, a third (XP Prof SP3) still sucks ( booting with USB-Drives attached is OK), also a reboot into safe mode cures the problem in most cases. Dumps are with Eset, but not a final solution yet.

 

I have tried the hotfix on both my installations of NOD32 5.x on Windows XP computers. Both machines still hang up after inserting a USB hard disk.

 

I would believe, ESET would highly appreciate a full memory dump ( e.g. how-to in German http://www.feldstudie.net/2010/09/2...d-unter-windows-gehasst-verdammt-vergoettert/
As I know from my case it appears that they are heavily working on this, but did not find a solution yet. One of my PCs appears to be silent since I run on 95, one other still hangs up once in a while ( could well be that 'good' situation survives 3 reboots, but suddenly and unexpectedly the han situation reappears ). This for sure makes it difficult to analyse and solve...........
So for me at least: patience. I know how to overcome: plug in USB-drives before starting the PC, at least that never failed with me.

 

Did you install version 5.0.95 using Live Installer, offline installer, or uninstall/reinstal?

Can you try installing v5.0.95 again using the specific instructions in the following ESET Knowledgebase article and see if that resolves it:

• System freezes when external hard drive is connected

 

At least for me this has been done. I am in direct daily contact with datsec...........

 

Yes I followed the instructions to the letter.
Note that the behavior of 95 seems to be slightly different from 94. The computer does not freeze immediately, but it takes some time before it freezes completely.

 

Today I see that Eset has publicly released v5.0.95.0. I downloaded and installed it....

Eureka!.. It woiks!... It's been about 3 months now, but for me, it looks like Eset has finally fixed the problem of hangs on XP systems, and my Vista machine.

I can now use my 16GB USB 2.0 flashdrive as well as my 1TB external USB drive. HOWEVER, i can NOT use my old 250mb FAT32 flashdrive. I guess v5.0.95.0 doesn't like FAT32, at least on my systems. I don't mind losing the FAT32 drive, though, so for me, the problems are solved.

 

Hello,

I just received my e-mail today to get version 5. I also was sent an e-mail for 4 and I am glad I never updated. I am elderly and do not know enough to do it.
So today I took the chance and installed 5 on Windows XP sp2. I did a clean install. I uninstalled version 3, rebooted and installed version 5.
Now when I went to plug my external hard drive in, it would not come up and the computer froze. I had to do a hard shut down every time I tried it. Can I uninstall it and go back to version 3. Where would I download it? Would it be back the way it was working just fine with version 3? Would I have to do a system restore if I uninstalled it? I have 4 other external hard drives that I don't keep plugged in. I just use them for backing up my files, but I use them everyday and need to access them. Can someone help me.
Where can I download an earlier version like version 3, I still have the last version downloaded that you sent and I never installed it. It does not give the version it says Eset spool s.r.o. is this version 4? Where can I get a fresh version 3, that I had before and everything worked. Please Help.

Darlene

 

@Darlene123

Beeing elder than the others should be not reason to stick with XP SP2. SP3 is out long ago and is a definite 'must' als <50 updates rely on that platform, not only for security reasons. If it is not presented automatically during Windows update, pls. have a try to start Windows update manually, SP3 will be presentet there.
Installation may require some time but is worth it. If you feel unsecure about if and how, I am sure you are able to get further assistance in the neigbourhood.
I would also take a chance for other programs which are not up-to-date.
Follow the instructions on this page ( sorry this is in German):
http://www.heise.de/security/dienste/Der-Scan-1106674.html

 

I have XPSP2 and was experiencing the freeze-after-boot issue as well. I did a clean uninstall, rebooted, and installed 5.0.95.0. It still freezes.

I have a USB 2.0 combo floppy drive / SD cardreader; when I unplugged it from my motherboard and turned the machine back on, NOD32 5.0 worked fine and there was no freeze. This is the first time in about 4 days that I've been able to use my XP box. Sounds like you have another test case you need to cover, and also I agree that your QA department should probably add this test case (and the external USB HDD test case) to your suite. I know XP is an ancient platform and it's not sexy to be testing on it, but it's still very widely used. We have similar challenges at the software company where I work.

Thanks,
-Jeff

 

Thanks Wolliballa,

The instructions they sent me were too complicated and I figured I would just uninstall and install v3. I know I don't have some Microsoft patches, but was having trouble installing some, they would make other programs I have not work.
So I moved to FireFox and have not been having any problems until now. Every time one of them wants to update, I go into panic mode, because of past experiences. I am running SuperAntiSpyware in the background and scan my computer with Malewarebytes every night. I also clean my files with CCleaner and so far everything has been fine. The v3 of NodAntiVirus has worked and now I can see my hard drives. Thank you for taking the time to try to help.
I just hope they will continue to support v3 for those of us that just needs the virus signatures.
Merry Christmas and I hope I don't have to see this forum again.
Darlene

 

CORRECTION!!! CORRECTION!!.. My bad!.. I did one of those ASSume things again.

I double-checked my 16GB USB 2.0 flashdrive and it is, in fact, FAT32. Ergo, v5.0.95.0 does NOT have a problem with FAT32.

Further, I checked my old 256MB USB flashdrive that doesn't work with v5.0.95.0. It turns out that it is FAT which I assume means that it's FAT16.

Sooo.. Apologies for the bad report. v5.0.95.0 works fine for me on FAT32. It apparently doesn't like FAT16 (another assumption).

 

tested the new release, and still no fix on my end.

back on 4.2.71.2

 

not fixed 5.0.95.. freeze again

 

Yes. The same problem.
The last version 5.0.95.0 - problem with connecting my external USB hard drive on 640Gb. And I check the version if NOD32 - the main version is 5.0.95.0 but version of exe files is 5.0.94.0.

 

Never once since v3 release had eset come out with a stable enough release for daily use when they are newly launched. It took months of revisions each and every time for eset to work out the problems.

This particular problem with mounting an external hd or truecrypt volume had eset scratching their heads for months. Or had we been bamboozled by a reputable company into thinking they are seriously working out a solution, but that they actually don't know the solution to the problem unless they rewrite the whole thing which wouldn't be feasible for them ?

It puzzles me as to why they released a fix that is not effective and risked further hd failure should the users test it on their home pc.

Maybe its time we think of a quicker solution and move to other vendors.

 

@GreenWhite
Sorry I cannot share your experiences (also running NOD32 since 2.x). The USB-issue is the first I am stumbling over ( and this only on 1 out 5 PCs PC and only under certain OS Conditions ( XP SP3 )).
Believe it or not, I still stick with NOD32 and still recommend this piece to my customers ( and sell them more than once in a while ).
I as a customer would give all assistance I can to help them fix the problem rather than complaining.

 

Move to other vendors? No, thanks.
I worked with many other antivirus softwares and NOD32 is the best from paid antivirus. I better return to previous version than install other vendors.

 

I had thought 5.0.95 had fixed my problem when I first installed it last month, but I suspect it is still giving me intermittent similar problems.
My system is occasionally freezing up during startup. Most times it freezes just about the time the system would be ready to use (towards the end of startup). Once it froze up after clicking the login screen.
It seems to have gotton worse after installing a bunch of Windows updates last week.

I do also have TrueCrypt running at startup and think their may be some issues with the combination of NOD32 5.0.95 and TrueCrypt and XPsp3. I was getting the intermittent freezes right after entering my encryption code into TrueCrypt at startup if I entered it right away (while the startup process was still going). So I started waiting another minute or so before entering the encryption code, and so far I haven't had a freeze. None of my startup stuff is dependent on the TrueCrypt volume.

I can't say for certain this is NOD32, but its very high on my suspect list since the system freeze is very similar to what I was experiencing with the ext hd drive issue last month. Since the problem is intermittent, it would be tricky to troubleshoot so I'm not investing any time in it at this point.

 

he he! let's see how long it takes them to fix this issue. Its been 3 months since this issue has been reported.

As for the other chap "wolliballa" who said of only complaining? No, I have done what is supposed to. So don't jump into conclusions.

 

I just thought I'd add to this, that I've also encountered this issue. One was my XP Pro x64 SP2 machine, which I use for scanning/backing up customers HDDs (I actually formatted and reloaded, before I discovered that it was due to NOD32). The other was a customers XP Pro SP3 machine, which I had just transferred from one mobo to another. At first, I thought it was due to the transfer not taking properly, until I realized it was only when I plugged in his second HDD. After some diagnosing of the issue, I finally traced it back to NOD32. Note, that was not a USB HDD, but his second internal drive.

This was all using the 5.0.94.0 version. After downgrading him to the 5.0.93.0 version, there were no further issues. I have not attempted to roll back to 5.0.93.0 yet on my x64 system. Now that 5.0.95.0 is out, I'm going to try that, and see if I still have issues. I will post back and let you know. If it works on my system, I'll probably suggest that my customer upgrade his version to 5.0.95.0 as well.

*EDIT*
Just to update, I installed 5.0.95.0 back on my XP x64 machine, and it did NOT resolve the problem. The system began locking up as soon as I plugged in a customers HDD. After disabling auto-scanning of removable media (which isn't an issue for me, as I only ever manually scan drives anyway), it stopped the lockup in Windows; however, NOD32 itself began freezing while manually scanning the drive. That may or may not be related, as it's possible this HDD may have issues. I'm currently scanning it with Ontrack Disk Diagnostics.

*EDIT2*
Ok, it looks like NOD32's hangup may be related to the HDD being bad, so the primary issue (Windows locking up on attaching an external HDD) has been worked around. I say worked around, not fixed, because this is just a temporary solution. The ultimate goal is to have Eset fix this permanently.