2nd Harddrive problem

[GrahamE]

I made the registry change, and I'm afraid it didn't work.

[GrahamE]

 

I've got it to work (Avast scanning, that is)!! 

I deleted the new HDD partition and reformatted it as a Dynamic Disk Simple Volume (rather than a Basic Volume).

I've now run a standard scan (no archive), just in order to do it quickly, and it went all the way through, with no freezing!!

I'll try a thorough scan with achive tomorrow, but it's looking good. I'm also able to context menu-scan the new HDD with no problem.


I just hope I don't come back tomorrow with my tail between my legs.......

[GrahamE]

Sorry if I've been a long time, but it's taken a while to dry the tears and to make an attempt to remove the article that's wedged itself between my legs....

As I said earlier, I deleted the new harddrive volume and reformatted it, this time as a Dynamic Simple Volume. I then rebooted and used the context menu to scan the new drive. It scanned it in about 2 seconds, as one would expect with nothing in it.

I ran a standard scan which completed with no problems. I then ran 2 thorough scans, one with archive scanning enabled, and both completed fine.

I then shut down the PC.

This morning all the old problems are back (both context menu and standard scan freeze).

Any thoughts?

[igor]

Thinking about it, there might be a simple workaround: go to avast! settings and enter the following path into the list of exclusions:
C:\System Volume Information\tracking.log

It won't tell us where the problem is, so it's hard to say whether the same problem appears with another file... but it might solve this particular problem (I hope?)

[GrahamE]

Thanks for your continued help, Igor.

I entered the path into the exclusion list and it stuck somewhere else this time (image 1). I shut down, restarted and ran 2 more scans, with it freezing both times I'm afraid (images 2 & 3).

[GrahamE]

Having got a bit fed up, I've now completely wiped the 2nd drive using Killdisk. It doesn't show up in My Computer, and shows up in Disk Management as 'not allocated' and 'not initialized'. When I open Disk management, the 'Initialize and Convert Wizard' opens.

With it in this state, Avast works perfectly.

Since my last post, I have also found that AdAware SE also freezes during scanning - it shows up in Task Manager as 'not responding' and then starts again, freezes again, and finally gets through the scan. I ran Kaspersky online scan, and this also froze! All other scanners work, I've run them all, and I've tried pretty-well every other program on the PC and nothing else seems affected.

Since wiping the drive has solved all the problems, I can only think that I'm doing something wrong when installing the HDD.

Any help anyone can give would be very much appreciated. I know this isn't a general knowledge Forum, but I would very much like the 2nd drive, and certainly don't want to be without Avast!

Thanks,

Graham.

[martosurf]

Hello again and sorry for the delay.

IRQ and DMAs are commonly referred as "interruptions" and they're the 'bridge' used by the operating system and software to directly 'speak' to hardware components installed in your PC.

For example, you may have a super fast DVD unit or Hard Drive, but if DMA is not activated -by these days that's activated by default- you'll never get the maximum performance from those devices because instead 'talking' directly to them, OS must use a walkaround thus making the whole process really slow. DMA stands for Direct Memory Address.

I tell you a little story to graphic this:
Some days ago I finally setted up my sister computer and until I finally managed to activate DMA support for the DVD recorder, uploading data to its HD was a painfull process. Every DVD took about 30 minutes or more (damn!!) to dump it's data -pictures, music, videos- to the hard disk. When I finally managed to activate DMA support it took no more than 10 -often less- minutes to copy all the files. As you see, having a well tweaked PC really makes the difference.

For more info just check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_memory_access and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRQ

Best!

[GrahamE]

Hi martosurf,

Thanks for replying.

I did try to read up on DMA's and IRQ's after your last posting, but it was a bit beyond me I'm afraid. In the link you posted about IRQ's it says that this is no longer a common problem, so I guess out of the two, a DMA issue is more likely. How do you activate DMA support?

[GrahamE]

By way of an update to this thread, Igor and Vlk have been helping me with this problem through 'My Messages'.

They enabled me to crash the PC and create a full dump, which once analysed, pointed to a conflict being caused by

C:\WINDOWS\System32\Drivers\Klif

which is a Kaspersky driver.

I've never installed Kaspersky (just run the online scan which apparently uses ActiveX, not drivers). Further investigation by Igor and Vlk revealed that this entry, and others relating to Klif come from ZoneAlarm, which it would seem, use the Kaspersky drivers.

I've started a new thread http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=31607.0 asking if anyone using ZA could possibly check their system to see if they have similar entries.

Why these drivers caused Avast (as well as AdAware and Counterspy in the end) to freeze during scans if I had the 2nd HDD installed, but caused no problem if I disabled it first, I do not know!

I would however like to take this opportunity to thank everyone on here who has helped with this, but in particular Igor and Vlk, who have put in an incredible amount of work in order to rectify this problem. I'm still a bit lost for words every time I think about it. I've been helped a lot on these Forums before, but this time it's just been amazing. I really can't believe the level of commitment.....I'm serious, what do I say?

Thank you. 

[Lisandro]

I've never installed Kaspersky (just run the online scan which apparently uses ActiveX, not drivers).

The on-line scanning uses files here:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\Kaspersky Lab\Kaspersky Online Scanner

[GrahamE]

Hi (again!) Tech,

Yeah, originally it was thought that the 'Klif' had been installed by Kaspersky itself, that is, left behind from a previous install of the full AV, but I'd never done that. I'd uninstalled the online scanner, and removed the file you mention. It took a while before ZoneAlarm was found to be a possible suspect!

[Lisandro]

It took a while before ZoneAlarm was found to be a possible suspect!

Well, by the path of the files I will say that ZA IS guilty here, not only suspect 

[GrahamE]

  Yes, it's obvious now they've all been found! The analysis of the memory dump revealed that the problem was with C:\WINDOWS\..Klif, and so ZA wasn't immediately apparent. Because it was a Kaspersky driver, there was a more obvious suspect! Having deleted this entry, and run a search for "Klif", the others came to light, and ZA was in the frame!