PC freezes when connecting an e-reader with an external card

[parkher 1]

This happens with Kobo Aura HD but recently more and more frequently also with  Sony PRS-T2.

The freeze is not complete -  just all the programs not responding and cannot be killed.

When Inserting just the sd card without the e-reader - everything is OK.

 

Maybe I need to wait a few hours, not sure - because  The SS  icon is circling around and saying something about start-up scanning (forgot the exact wording).

But it starts circling only after inserting an e-reader into USB.

When I tried to disable all the protection,  the ESET icon became red, but when I inserted the e-reader,  it still began circling around with start-up scanning, even though disabled !

 

Each time I have to reboot.

 

So not sure, I strongly suspect ESET.  There was a time a few years ago when ESET caused freezes after connecting external USB hard drives (windows XP). Something similar with e-readers now.

But this is so severe that perhaps ESET is not the culprit - I noticed that my PC sometimes does not boot correctly after such an episode if not switched off completely. Just "restart" is not enough.

As I currently have many external USB drives connected as well, possibly the severity of the problem depends on how many and what drives are connected, in what enclosures or docking stations, to which usb ports, etc.

 

I guess, the best test would be to uninstall SS completely and see what happens. But it really should not run any scans when red-disabled !!!

 

BTW, my license expires in 11 days and SS is going crazy: showing warnings all the time even though I still have a valid license and do not wish to see any such warnings.

 

I am posting here in a hope to get some answers before I need either to get a new license or a new antivirus software.

 

 

My system:

Windows 8 64 bit (with explorer.exe from Windows 7)

32 GB of memory

ESET Smart Security 7.0.302.26

Edited April 7, 2014 by parkher

[Marcos 5,074]

Please configure your system to allow manual generation of complete memory dumps as per the instructions at hxxp://kb.eset.com/esetkb/index?page=content&id=SOLN380. Afterwards, reproduce the freeze and generate a memory dump. When done, compress it, upload it to a safe location and pm me the download link. It'd be best if you could remove as many RAM modules as possible to keep the size of the dump relatively small.

You can also check the following topic for a list of known problematic software that may cause the system to freeze: https://forum.eset.com/topic/530-lockup-issues-on-windows-xp-after-connecting-usb-hdd-known-conflicting-software when installed in conjunction with ESET. Although these problems were mainly confined to Windows XP, other systems may also be occasionally affected.

[parkher 1]

At least there are no freezes when connecting external USB drives - as used to be with XP and SS version 5? I am using mostly double docking stations, some USB 3.0, others - 2.0, and some of them  disconnect and reconnect from time to time.

I blame the controllers in those docking stations rather than ESET.  But I am just guessing.

 

Speaking about those docking stations:  today I was not able to connect the T2 e-reader at all, even after reboot - never happened before. I should test also with all those docking stations disconnected. Possibly some conflicts when using so many usb ports.

 

Thanks for the links. As to the second link, I don't think I have any of those drivers installed.

 

Is there a way to disable SS completely, short of uninstalling?  It was really strange to see that red circle rotating - protection disabled but still started some start-up scan after already being disabled.

Even so, I would expect such a scan to be performed very quickly, not  to continue seemingly forever. The card in the reader is 32 GB almost full of small files, though.  But still, when it works correctly, the card shows up at once and there is no perceptible waiting involved.

[parkher 1]

UPDATE:

 

I have uninstalled Eset Smart Security completely.  Tried again - the e-reader and its external card detected and working fine.

Then I have installed a trial version of another similar antivirus/firewall combo - still e-reader and its external card detected and working fine.

 

The history with Eset Smart Security was getting progressively worse and worse:

 

1. Initially,  the freeze was occurring only with Kobo Aura HD when an external card was inserted and only when Calibre was already running.

If Aura HD was connected first, and Calibre started afterwards - all OK.

Meanwhile - with Sony PRS-T2 everything was fine, but I never used Calibre with PRS-T2 - no need for that with a rooted T2. Later I stopped using Calibre with Aura HD as well, after somebody made a Cool Reader port for it.

 

Anyway, later   I began experiencing problems with T2  sometimes,   but never after a fresh reboot.

However recently even reboot was no longer helping, I tried to reboot several times and no success.

 

Possibly some software updates caused this deterioration. If it was because of a conflict with some driver or other software, software updates of another product may have caused the deterioration as well.

 

I tried to disable virus protection - still windows hangs.

 

But when I uninstalled Eset Smart Security completely - everything is fine - so far. 

When I installed another similar product - again everything is fine - so far (still relatively  soon after reboot).

 

 

But I think it proves that the problem was with Eset SS or with  its conflict with something else.

Edited April 11, 2014 by parkher

[Marcos 5,074]

We'll try to get hold of Kobo Aura HD and reproduce the problem.

[Marcos 5,074]

I haven't encountered any issue with Kobo Aura HD on Windows 7 x64 and Calibre running. Have tried to insert and eject a SD card with no issues observed. I'll try to test it on Windows 8.1 as well.

The best would be if you could provide us with a complete memory dump generated at the moment of a system freeze. However, beforehand I'd strongly recommend removing as many RAM modules as possible to keep the dump reasonably small.