Spyware Doctor causing Freezing a while after I'm in IE

[BOSTONVRS]

First, I'm not a technical person... I loaded this Spyware Doctor last week and paid for the version with Antivirus -- and every day it will lockup my entire PC after I've been in Internet Explorer for a while. Only way out is to pull the power cord and start from scratch. WHy is it doing this and how do I get it too unfreeze??

It's a Dell PC that has worked for years, running XP and mainly MS Office stuff.

Thanks,
Bruce VanRemortel
Needham, MA

[AChen]

Hi Bruce,

What other security software do you have installed? How long does it take for IE to lock up? Also could you check if kernel mode has been enabled (settings-> Enable kernel compatibility mode-> tick checkbox).

[InvisibleMan]

I have been using my PC for many years, too. I have some upgrades. But, my CPU is 800MHz with 356MB SD RAM, max possible. The experience of some of us with well-working older PCs is that SD5.5 is too demanding an application (resource-wise) for some old PCs. I have tried SD5, but everything slows to the speed of a moving glacier. Subsequently, I use SD4.1 for now.

Would this apply to your situation? Best wishes....

[tom.tdw]

in my opinion windows is to demanding for older PC's (or new ones for that matter, a clean install of vista on my laptop with 2.6Ghz duel core CPU and 2Gb RAM just feels slow)

these days you can upgrade your RAM for the cost of a newspaper so it is definetly worth it

you could also switch from Internet Explorer to a better browser such as Firefox or Safari, that will run much faster

[IMZ14U2NV]

First, I'm not a technical person... I loaded this Spyware Doctor last week and paid for the version with Antivirus -- and every day it will lockup my entire PC after I've been in Internet Explorer for a while. Only way out is to pull the power cord and start from scratch. WHy is it doing this and how do I get it too unfreeze??

It's a Dell PC that has worked for years, running XP and mainly MS Office stuff.

Thanks,
Bruce VanRemortel
Needham, MA

First I would like to say that you are not alone with this problem you are experiencing.

My machine is a HP DV8000t
2.2Ghz Dual Core
2GB Ram
240GB 7200 RPM Harddrive
Windows Vista Ultimate Edition


My Computer is not Old and Slow by any standard and I have the same issue.

I will say that this issue didn’t start to occur until the latest updates and low and behold I get the exact behavior that you just described:

I Re-boot the PC, I open Internet Explorer and work in it for a short period and then it all starts to hang.

I have disabled Spyware Doctor and the machine works perfectly, I must say that this is the first time that I am really disappointed with Spyware Doctor, I have recommended this to almost everyone that I know and now it is letting me down hard.

[BOSTONVRS]

Yes, the Enable Kernal is "checkmarked." It varies on how long it takes to lockup, maybe 15-30 minutes? I uninstalled all the MacFee AV programs from "uninstall programs" under settings menu minutes after buying this Spyware Doctor last week.

What's next. My wife had her laptop (18 month old basic $600 Dell with XP)lock up in the middle of a Master's Thesis "save" and lost some of her work -- I'm toast if I don't get this figured out!!

Help please!

Bruce VanRemortel
Needham, MA

[Reodor]

I uninstalled all the MacFee AV programs from "uninstall programs" under settings menu minutes after buying this Spyware Doctor last week.



McAfee is a devil when it comes to leaving garbage left that may cause problems to other apps, but at least they have a cleaner program available. Have a look at this link:
http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=107083&lc=4105&partner

[IMZ14U2NV]

McAfee is a devil when it comes to leaving garbage left that may cause problems to other apps, but at least they have a cleaner program available. Have a look at this link:
http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=107083&lc=4105&partner

I dont use McAfee and I get the same issue.

[AChen]

IMZ14U2NV - what other software do you have installed?

BOSTONVRS - do you have any other software besides McAfee?

Have you guys tried temporarily disabling Site Guard to see if this helps? I've spoken to the QA department and they have tried recreating this issue, but have been unsuccessful. If you could provide the above information, this will assist us with investigating this further.

[Reodor]

I dont use McAfee and I get the same issue.

Note that it is not always a question of what You are using at the moment, but what You have been using in the past! Unfortunately no uninstaller does a good enough job cleaning out everything. Some leaves more, some leaves less. Different security apps seems to be the worst. McAfee at least has a program that claims to remove the most AFTER normal uninstall.
Wish PC Tools had one as well. ;)
There are free programs like C Cleaner, Eusing, Free Reg Cleaner and others, but still things seems to remain. Even the paid license programs have too big failing rate in my opinion and hardly worth the money.

The company that comes up with a program that scans and cleanes from 'bottom to top' including dir will for sure have a winner!

[IMZ14U2NV]

IMZ14U2NV - what other software do you have installed?

BOSTONVRS - do you have any other software besides McAfee?

Have you guys tried temporarily disabling Site Guard to see if this helps? I've spoken to the QA department and they have tried recreating this issue, but have been unsuccessful. If you could provide the above information, this will assist us with investigating this further.

At this point I have completely disabled Spyware Doctor.

At first I just shut Spyware Doctor Down, but that didn’t do the trick as I still had the hang issue.
I then re-booted the machine, disabled On Guard and shut down Spyware Doctor and that did the trick as my PC has been trouble free ever since.
As far as other Software, as I have stated I have never used McAfee on this machine, but I do have Windows Live OneCare running on it.

[c_edge]

To help fix this, check your virtual memory settings:

You could also try the following to increase the virtual memory by going to - control panel > system > advanced > performance settings > advanced > virtual memory change > would suggest changing it to whats recommended by windows.

And probably best to remove all registry entries from previous security programs as Reodor suggested.

I'm currently running SD+AV on a few machines and have not come across the IE lockups and I have another machine with SD and Norton running with no similar problems.

c_edge

[Air1]

Just updated to SD 5.5, with AV option. It has slowed down or stop my computers running 3-WinXPsp2 and 2-Vista Home & Business. The biggest problem I see is when I'm in IE7 and close, it locks up the computer. I tend to run IE7 and MS Oulook at the same time, also use MS Live One Care. Is there a fix or should I uninstall PCTools SD/AV?

[BOSTONVRS]

Hi, I've only got the MS office suite pretty much and my kid's iTunes. I did run that program suggested above to clean up spare parts of Mcafee. I also changed the virtual memory as suggested elsewhere (and now above too).

It has improved to only happenning once in the last 3 days.

I'm sure my PC will get a workout with the kids on it all weekend, but I'm incouraged it's working better. I'll report back if it happens again!

Thanks,
Bruce VanRemortel
Needham, MA 22 degrees :(

[BOSTONVRS]

Sunday Evening 12 Feb 08. It is better but both locked up today, once each (desktop and laptop), not even same time or anything... Better than every 15-30 minutes before I increased virtual memorey and cleaned up remnents of McAfee AV...
Hum...
Any other ideas?
Regards,
Bruce VanRemortel
Needham, MA

[Reodor]

I still think You might hit some 'limits'.
Please download Ccleaner from here:
http://www.ccleaner.com/download
And do a complete clean of both files and registry.

Have You tried to run Firefox and not IE?
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

Would be interesting If You could report back how much Ccleaner gets rid of?

[BOSTONVRS]

Ouch,

Tonight it is back to a lockup (completely locked up where I can't close IE or open any programs) every 30 minutes. Pulling the power cord is the only way out and then it comes back up fine and IE unaffected! This is killing me when I have another document I can't save!!

Help!

I have no other AV programs or anything weird other than MS office suite. As I said before I removed McAfee and then ran the other cited clean up program from last week. I haven't done what "REODOR" has said because I don't know if he is "Official" or not.

Thanks,
Bruce VanRemortel
Needham, MA

[Crunge]

I'm having the same problem on three different machines. All three run Vista (two with Ultimate, one with Home Premium.) The machines are all new; two Dell desktops with 4GB RAM and an IBM Thinkpad with 4GB RAM.

After a time, attempting to close IE causes it to freeze; you can click on the some things but nothing will load. The only recourse is to pull the power cord (or its equivalent.) I'm going to try to go back to an earlier version of SD, as I didn't have this problem then.

[Reodor]

I'm not 'official' in the way of being on PC Tools staff, and this will go for about everyone on the board except A Chen.
However I have managed to 'survive' SD 5 and 5,5, and lately PCTIS on a minimum of resources.
Balancing on 'the edge' has learned me quite some tricks how to make it work within (my) acceptance.
But it is all Your choice. :)

[c_edge]

I'm having the same problem on three different machines. All three run Vista (two with Ultimate, one with Home Premium.) The machines are all new; two Dell desktops with 4GB RAM and an IBM Thinkpad with 4GB RAM.

After a time, attempting to close IE causes it to freeze; you can click on the some things but nothing will load. The only recourse is to pull the power cord (or its equivalent.) I'm going to try to go back to an earlier version of SD, as I didn't have this problem then.

Are you using the SD or SD+AV? Although I haven't had problems with SD+AV with IE issues, it could be related to Site Guard. Try disabling this and see if resolves the issue. Also do you have any other security programs running?

c_edge :D

[Crunge]

Are you using the SD or SD+AV? Although I haven't had problems with SD+AV with IE issues, it could be related to Site Guard. Try disabling this and see if resolves the issue. Also do you have any other security programs running?

It's just SD. Sorry, meant to mention that on all of these, AVG Professional is the AV program. Nothing else, although the Windows firewall is turned on for all three.

To provide a few more details... once IE quits working, many things stop. For example, I can click the "pearl" (the Start button in Vista) and get the menu, but clicking on programs will not start them. I can right-click on the Task Bar and choose Task Manager but it never opens. I can right-click on the SD icon in the taskbar and choose ShutDown, then click "Yes" to shut it down, but it doesn't actually shut down. Sometimes, I see the processor pegged at either 25% (on my quad core machine) or 50% (on my dual core machine) and once I already had Task Manager open and it showed sdloader.exe was pegging one core.

[AChen]

BOSTONVRS, Air1 and Crunge - We require some additional info for this issue and if you could please provide the information sent via PM, that would be most appreciated.

[Crunge]

BOSTONVRS, Air1 and Crunge - We require some additional info for this issue and if you could please provide the information sent via PM, that would be most appreciated.

Done. I hope it helps you uncover the cause of the problem. Let me know if there's anything else I can provide.

[Air1]

Copied from another tread 5.5 problems:

Achen,
I have uninstalled or turned off SD/AV on all my computers. The problems brought us to a stop. The primary systems we use IE7, AOL, & MS Outlook.
Problems that I have mentioned in this and other treads was on the following computers:
Toshiba Qosmio XP/Sp2 McAfee AV
Sony UX Vista Business (WLOC) Windows Live one Care
HP-TX Vista WLOC
HP-Media XP/Sp2 WLOC (2 units)
I've been using SD for over two years, what happened with 5.5?
all units are working fine now that I've taken this action.
Is there a fix coming or a recommendation?

[kgregg1]

I have a brand new Vostro 200 Dell very loaded up with upgrades. 4 gig ram, lots or memory, etc - I'm having he same issues with my system running slow.

Now I have ZoneAlarm loaded - however I turned off in SW - Antivirus off, email check - off that should be it that might conflict with ZoneAlarm and I have Kernal checked. So basically since this upgrade my system freezes constantly and of course takes sometime to load up. I'm not sure why or what is happening but I like this program I hope someone figures this out because if not I'm going to have to remove it and get something else that works.

[AChen]

Thanks for the info guys :) It's been passed on and I will keep you updated on this issue.

[kgregg1]

I've had to temporarily turn off SD to get my system running again it was causing all kinds of issues with regards to my system no functioning and that was with or without ZoneAlarm activated very difficult I hope this gets resolved as I like the program.

[debls]

I was just reading this tread out of curiosity. I have a similar post in the PCTIS forum. PC freezing up after short usage. I use Firefox exclusively so it will not help to change browsers. In fact I was going to change to IE when I get home to see if it made a difference but I see it will not.
Hope PC Tools can find a solution. I had SD V5 running for quite some time without this problem. Frustrating.

[BOSTONVRS]

Folks, sorry was busy all week and four kids had the run of IE yesterday so I can confirm three more lockups -- i.e. nothing would work, nothing would close, had to pull the cord to get out of the lock up.

Anthony: you asked for information sent via "PM"??? What is that? I have a very simple setup, MS Office, iTunes, and Spyware Doctor. Not much else.

V/R
Bruce VanRemortel
Needham, MA

[mjq424]

Hi
"PM" means Private Message through the user control panel.
Hope that helps

[BOSTONVRS]

how about an e-mail to my registered account?
Thanks,
Bruce

[AChen]

how about an e-mail to my registered account?
Thanks,
Bruce

Email has been sent :)

[tom.tdw]

you could try firefox to see if you get any lockups

firefox is much lighter than internet explorer so it is less likely to have problems

[Crunge]

Does 5.5.0.204 have anything to address this particular issue? I'm back to running 5.1.0.273 and have only had one lockup since. I'd prefer not to upgrade unless 5.5.0.204 addresses the issues I was having with 5.5.0.1xx.

[Ditto]

Why don't you try some methods below

Try the instruction under the issue 7
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/community/columns/ietopten.mspx

If not, try IE fix
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFIX.htm

This may help you, I cannot guarantee it though :)

[AChen]

Does 5.5.0.204 have anything to address this particular issue? I'm back to running 5.1.0.273 and have only had one lockup since. I'd prefer not to upgrade unless 5.5.0.204 addresses the issues I was having with 5.5.0.1xx.

Crunge,

With the latest version, build 204, the developers have included fixes focusing on hangs, crashes and freezes experienced by some users. For the IE and SD issues found in this thread, I have gathered all the info from yourself and many others on this thread and we have assigned a team to run multiple tests on this on the different environments based on the information provided and will continue to do so until we can replicate this issue. So at this stage, I cannot say for certain if this new build will resolve this particular issue, but could be worth a try.

[dipschmit]

I just came across this thread. I am having the same issues as several people in this thread. I noticed that IMZ14U2NV mentioned he is running Windows Live OneCare. I am also running that application and wonder if that might be a source of the problem.

[BOSTONVRS]

I'm not running that one and still have the issue... Can't wait to see if they can fix it before my money back offer expires!
Thanks
Bruce VanRemortel
Needham, MA

[AChen]

BOSTONVRS, have you tried the new version (SDv 5.5.0.204)?

Dipschmit, I have already added the information regarding the Windows Live One Care and I have also run a test with SD but could not recreate this. We are still investigating this issue and will try to resolve it whenever we can.

[BOSTONVRS]

I know, clueless... How do I get that version?
Regards,
Bruce VanRemortel
Needham, MA

[Ditto]

Have anyone actually disabled the site guard and email guard COMPLETELY to resolve the problem? No one seem to answered to that, so I am just curious.

If not, please disable them completely from the onguard section of your SDAV or SD. Normally onguard is the source of troubles :D

[Chippa]

I know, clueless... How do I get that version?
Regards,
Bruce VanRemortel
Needham, MA

For the latest version, check out http://www.pctools.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50701 :)

Cheers,
Chippa

[BOSTONVRS]

Why would we want to shut down a major part of the program? That's why I bought it... Can you clarify?
Regards,
Bruce

[BOSTONVRS]

204 has not helped, the PC still locks up... It happens at the 30-45 minute mark while surfing the net, no particular site, it's random!
Help!
Regards,
Bruce VanRemortel
Needham, MA

[BOSTONVRS]

Anthony,

Looks like I accidently passed the 30 days money back date (I bought 31 January). More lockups than ever. Is there anything you've figured out or just tell me if I have any options to get money back or how to disable or remove PCTOOLS SPYDOCTOR. 3 lock ups yesterday on my wife thesis put her OVER THE EDGE.

Thank you,
Bruce vanRemortel
Needham, MA

[AChen]

Anthony,

Looks like I accidently passed the 30 days money back date (I bought 31 January). More lockups than ever. Is there anything you've figured out or just tell me if I have any options to get money back or how to disable or remove PCTOOLS SPYDOCTOR. 3 lock ups yesterday on my wife thesis put her OVER THE EDGE.

Thank you,
Bruce vanRemortel
Needham, MA

Bruce, the devs are currently working on resolving this issue. If you would like a refund, please send me you're license details or order number via PM and i'll assist you further with this.

[BOSTONVRS]

Anthony,

One more data point... My PC just locked up 3 minutes into a web search... I was able to click the SpyDoctor icon in the right hand bottom of my screen and click "on Guard Protection On" to turn it off and the internet came back in less than a second! i.e. disabling the product that protects me allowed the IE to come back on line and reverse a lock up :)

What's up with that?

If you think there is hope I would love to wait a bit.

PC Magazine RAVES about this product that's why I'm so SHOCKED at how it is working for me... I'm loyal IF it can be fixed.

Regards,
Bruce VanRemortel
Needham, MA

[Mettler1]

Anthony,

One more data point... My PC just locked up 3 minutes into a web search... I was able to click the SpyDoctor icon in the right hand bottom of my screen and click "on Guard Protection On" to turn it off and the internet came back in less than a second! i.e. disabling the product that protects me allowed the IE to come back on line and reverse a lock up :)

What's up with that?

If you think there is hope I would love to wait a bit.

PC Magazine RAVES about this product that's why I'm so SHOCKED at how it is working for me... I'm loyal IF it can be fixed.

Regards,
Bruce VanRemortel
Needham, MA

First post for me. I've had SD for 2 yrs. I was real happy and recommended SD to friends. Loved 5.0

Then I installed 5.5.0.178 and the freezes started!! Got sick of screwing with it and shut it off until 5.5.0.204 was installed. Same results so SD is shut off again. Are these new versions supposed to be improvements? For me they are not!! SD stays off until the issues are resolved. Sorry if I seem unhappy but I am. How about bringing back 5.0 It worked great!!!

[Ashby]

Anthony,

One more data point... My PC just locked up 3 minutes into a web search... I was able to click the SpyDoctor icon in the right hand bottom of my screen and click "on Guard Protection On" to turn it off and the internet came back in less than a second! i.e. disabling the product that protects me allowed the IE to come back on line and reverse a lock up :)

What's up with that?

If you think there is hope I would love to wait a bit.

PC Magazine RAVES about this product that's why I'm so SHOCKED at how it is working for me... I'm loyal IF it can be fixed.

Regards,
Bruce VanRemortel
Needham, MA

I had the same experience. The browser (IE7) locks up seemingly at random, but when I disable Site Guard it allows access to the site(s).

Ashby

[ggtech]

I have also experienced the same problem of Spyware doctor with antivirus freezing my system. This started right after upgrading basic Spyware Doctor 5.5 with the antivirus plugin. The only way to get out was to hold the power button on my computer for 5 seconds (no need to pull any power cords). I noticed most of the freezes occurred during the Browser Scan, e.g. during the scan of a cookie or URL, regardless of whether IE7 was open or not. My response was to reset Internet explorer settings. Tools => Internet Options => Advanced => Reset (bottom right). This solved the problem. I have run a number of Intelli-scan and full scan without any more issues of system freezing. Let me know if this works for you .

Regards, George

[AChen]

Hi All,

For those experiencing problems with the IE freezes and hangs, please download the latest build - http://www.pctools.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50955. We have added some fixes to this issue.

[BOSTONVRS]

Great! I'll load it up and put it to real world use... Just in time as I had to pull the plug and log in to check this for the latest.
Regards,
Bruce VanRemortel
Needham, MA

[Athomas]

I just bought Spyware Doctor last week....I don't even want to open it right now to check what version I have because after a few minutes of it being open, my entire PC freezes solid and I have to shut it down manually by holding down my power key. My PC is just over 1 year old, 2 ghz core duo processor, 2gb ram if I'm saying those correctly (i'm no pc genius). Windows XP.

I've been through every thing possible to try and figure out what was causing the freezing. When I had the free program, everything worked great. Now that I've purchased it I'm having loads of trouble. The first 2 days after I got it worked fine, then the update came that solved the false positive trojan issue (irc bot one), and now if I am running any processes and moving quickly WHAM frozen. It doesn't matter what I am doing, firefox, IE, windows media player, movie maker, moving files within folders on my pc, the second I move quickly or do too many things at once, WHAM, frozen, then I have to restart completely and fight with the thing all over again. I have reinstalled tons of other programs trying to fix this, thinking they were triggering it with a corrupt file. Nadda.

I've tried disabling every kind of disabling there is. Keeping some aspects on, some off. I thought maybe process guard was the problem, I've disabled every single guard and all guards and disabled on guard entirely and nothing helps. Something's up since the update, this great product now brings my PC to a halt if I'm doing anything more than looking at a blank desktop. I'd love to have my full protection back. Please help.

I am downloading the new program. I had been using 5.5.0.204 - will let you know on the results!