Windows 10 with EAM regularly hangs

[NiThR0 0]

Windows 10 (1903 and higher)  with EAM regularly hangs at user login or before login on black screen with small blue circle. It begins around spring 2020.

We have >20 PC with Windows 10 1903/1909/2004 connected to cloud (at different accounts) and this problem periodically occurs on different PCs. To avoid this, we have to force boot in safe mode, disable the "Emsisoft protection service" and restart PC and we have normal boot. Enabling "Emsisoft protection service" and rebooting causes this problem again. Uninstalling EAM with uninstaller and "Emsiclean" and reinstalling after two reboots helps for some time. Often this problem occurs after installing windows updates and rebooting.

For testing purposes we tried to install clean Windows only with device drivers, latest windows updates and EAM connected to cloud and after some time and after another reboot (after installing windows updates) problem occurs again.

Unfortunately we had to uninstall EAM from all PC and PCs working without issues.

[GT500 861]

Is Windows Defender disabled on these workstations? Also, when this starts happening, is Emsisoft Anti-Malware still listed in the Windows Security Center and does Windows still show its protection is on?

[NiThR0 0]

Hello GT500

Windows Defender is untouched after Windows installing. EAM listed in WSC and protection is on. Often this problem occurs when PC being offline some days, last time about 7 days. And after PC is on when EAM is loading it might hang with high chances.

In two occurrences PC freezes when EAM being updated or EAM settings changed manually from Emsisoft Cloud Console.

[GT500 861]

On 10/29/2020 at 12:03 AM, NiThR0 said:

Often this problem occurs when PC being offline some days, last time about 7 days. And after PC is on when EAM is loading it might hang with high chances.

That's almost certainly due to the update running during startup, as it would have to update more of the database after 7 days offline than it would after only one night. You may be able to cancel the update when this is likely to happen, and then run it later after everything has finished loading.

[NiThR0 0]

11 hours ago, GT500 said:

That's almost certainly due to the update running during startup, as it would have to update more of the database after 7 days offline than it would after only one night. You may be able to cancel the update when this is likely to happen, and then run it later after everything has finished loading.

Unfortunately, system stops responding when EAM is loading after system booted. Only hard reset helps.

[GT500 861]

11 hours ago, NiThR0 said:

Unfortunately, system stops responding when EAM is loading after system booted. Only hard reset helps.

How long have you waited to see if the system starts responding again?

Without getting debug logs, the only thing I think may help is to put EAM in Silent Mode, as EAM won't download updates in Silent Mode. Please note that this won't work if you simply enable Silent Mode in EAM's settings, as it won't persist after a restart. You'll need to have EAM connected to a workspace in MyEmsisoft and you'll need to enable Silent Mode in the workstation's settings in MyEmsisoft. The nice thing about this is it can be done while the workstation is offline, as the setting is applied on startup when EAM connects to the Emsisoft Cloud Console to sync its settings with your workspace.

FYI: I did test using Silent Mode this way to prevent updates from installing on startup, and the Silent Mode setting is applied before EAM attempts to check for updates, so it does successfully block the update that will run on startup if the database hasn't been updated within the past hour.

[GT500 861]

Also, note that if you can get us debug logs from a system having this issue then it will help us better understand what's going on so that we can fix it. Here's some instructions on how to get debug logs for us:

1. Open Emsisoft Anti-Malware.
2. Click on the little gear icon on the left side of the Emsisoft Anti-Malware window (roughly in the middle).
3. Click Advanced in the menu at the top.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the Advanced section, and change the option for Debug logging to Enabled always.
5. After that, close the Emsisoft Anti-Malware window.
6. Reproduce the issue you are having (wait for EAM to start causing the system to hang on startup).
7. Once you have reproduced the issue, work around the startup issue (either via the method I mentioned above or via the method you're already using) so that you can start Windows normally.
8. ZIP the debug logs (located in %ProgramData%\Emsisoft\Logs which you can paste the the Run dialog to quickly navigate to) and send them to me in a private message.

Note that if you need to send the logs via e-mail that you can send them to support@emsisoft.com and include a link to this forum topic.

Edited October 31, 2020 by GT500
Changed "Enabled for 1 days" to "Enabled always", as it takes long enough for the issue to start happening.

[NiThR0 0]

1 hour ago, GT500 said:

How long have you waited to see if the system starts responding again?

From one to few hours. System doesn't respond until hard reset.

I will try your recommendations.

[NiThR0 0]

1 hour ago, GT500 said:

Also, note that if you can get us debug logs from a system having this issue then it will help us better understand what's going on so that we can fix it. Here's some instructions on how to get debug logs for us:

1. Open Emsisoft Anti-Malware.
2. Click on the little gear icon on the left side of the Emsisoft Anti-Malware window (roughly in the middle).
3. Click Advanced in the menu at the top.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the Advanced section, and change the option for Debug logging to Enabled always.
5. After that, close the Emsisoft Anti-Malware window.
6. Reproduce the issue you are having (wait for EAM to start causing the system to hang on startup).
7. Once you have reproduced the issue, work around the startup issue (either via the method I mentioned above or via the method you're already using) so that you can start Windows normally.
8. ZIP the debug logs (located in %ProgramData%\Emsisoft\Logs which you can paste the the Run dialog to quickly navigate to) and send them to me in a private message.

Note that if you need to send the logs via e-mail that you can send them to support@emsisoft.com and include a link to this forum topic.

I will try this, but it may take some time.

[GT500 861]

21 hours ago, NiThR0 said:

I will try this, but it may take some time.

Sure, that's perfectly fine.