Norton Power Eraser is stopping before starting its scan. At first, I see a small popup in the center of the NPE window that says something about encountering some kind of error, but this is quickly obscured by the following window:
After that, if I select Continue, NPE starts "checking for new version" all over again, and eventually comes back to the same message as above. I can't get it to actually start a scan.
I'm trying to use NPE version 5.3.0.90.
Any ideas as to what may be causing this? AV scans turn up clean, but this inability to run NPE makes me suspicious.
For anyone curious about the resolution of this issue, the bottom line in my case is that NPE runs fine always if the PC has recently been rebooted. But if it has been a while (more than a couple of days) since the last reboot, then there is a great chance of the PC's freezing during initialization of NPE.
Further, in this case, at least, the problem seems to have something to do with the anti-malware program HitmanPro.Alert. If I add NPE to HMP.A's exclusion list, then NPE runs fine even if the PC has been running for a while since the last reboot; but if I then take NPE off the exclusion list, then the freeze-up occurs again when NPE is launched after the PC has been running for a while since the last reboot.
So, from here on out, I will keep NPE on HitmanPro.Alert's exclusion list and there should be no further issues of this kind.
I've been trying to upload the requested log file. It seems to disappear after a while. Maybe submitting a post here along with the upload will get the upload to stick.
UPDATE: Out of curiosity, after rebooting I ran NPE once more, and this time it completed the scan just fine. I suspect that the reason for the lockups has something to do with Windows being up for some days instead of freshly rebooted.
Amazing the power of a system reboot. That is the first thing I try when there is some unusual behaviour on my systems.
Meanwhile, tonight I tried to run v5.3.0.100 on the Vista system again (after taking appropriate precautions!). The "Initializing..." circle keeps spinning and spinning without NPE ever actually completing the initialization so that the scan can be performed. I was able to close a windows that was open next to the NPE window, but trying to maximize a Taskbar icon made the mouse pointer turn from an arrow to a spinning circle, except when I move it to within the NPE window, when it turns back into an arrow. So the difficulty appears to have something to do with Windows Explorer.
I have a clock gadget and a CPU/RAM gadget. The CPU/RAM dial seems to be going up and down normally, the CPU usage hovering between 45-55%. The analog clock is advancing normally, but then the digital clock in the Taskbar hasn't advanced for going on twenty minutes now.
Looks like I will need to reboot the system to get full functionality back.
UPDATE: Out of curiosity, after rebooting I ran NPE once more, and this time it completed the scan just fine. I suspect that the reason for the lockups has something to do with Windows being up for some days instead of freshly rebooted.
So it looks like there is some kind of conflict with the driver and something else. I would really like a full log collection but that would require you to chat with an agent and gather logs.
OK, I believe I know why the .ETL file you saw says it's the older version.
The file I sent you, NPETraceSession.etl., has a timestamp of August 13 at 12:54AM (meaning, early on 8/13). However, the NPE scan that locked up my computer was done later that day, and indeed the NPETraceInProgress.etl file has a "Date modified' time of August 13 at 11:41PM (meaning, late on 8/13). That was the next time I tried to run NPE, this time with the latest version.
Apparently this scan, which locked up my computer, did not produce a TraceSession file and I ended up sending you the one for the previous scan. So now I'm attaching the TraceInProgress file instead. This should include the 5.3.0.100 version information.
Log file pointed out you are running the older version. which it should have stopped it from running and said you needed a newer version. either way, please download the latest. https://support.norton.com/sp/static/external/tools/npe.html
If you are running Norton Security, run a live update to get the latest.
Also, the etl can only be read if you have the symbols files which are only on our internal servers available to only a few developers. Added bonus, there is nothing personally identifiable inside the logs.
OK, here goes. The file NPETraceSessionBoot.etl is 80MB in size, so I'm starting with NPETraceSession.etl which is much smaller. let me know if you'd like to see NPETraceInProgress.etl too.
Note: Had to attach it as a .ZIP file, as I discovered that .ETL is not an acceptable format for attachments.
I have three .etl files for my attempted NPE scan of Vista last week. The files are named NPETraceSession, NPETraceSessionBoot, and NPETraceInProgress. Would you like to see them?
