Strange Ess Update Behavior On Laptop

[Driver8 4]

Hi.  I bought a new laptop about two weeks ago and I loaded ESS on the machine.  It is a new ESS license and the laptop runs great with it.  I like ESS because it always runs an update when you lift the lid and the laptop wakes up after having been in sleep mode for more than an hour.  I previously had a different laptop and ran a few other security programs which were not as reliable at running updates coming out of sleep mode.  This is important to me because this machine tends to be on for random amounts of time.

 

Starting yesterday, it seems as if something odd has happened, however.  The laptop has sat with its lid closed in sleep mode during the daytime hours for the last two days and I have started to use it when I get home from work.  ESS immediately ran an update when I started using it, but on both days this update only resulted in a message saying "the program modules have been updated."  The virus definitions were not updated at this first update even though I was several updates behind.  Yesterday, I ran a manual update a bit later to update the definitions but tonight I waited an hour and, sure enough, another update ran and the definitions were updated to the latest one.

 

Tonight, when the first update ran at 5:44PM CST after the laptop woke up, my virus definitions were at version 10276 both before and after the update.  I went to check the ThreatSense database and it indicated that the latest definition version at that time was 10282.

 

I never noticed this behavior before on this laptop or on my desktop so I don't know if this is what is supposed to happen.  It seems to me like both the program modules and the virus definitions should update at the same time after the laptop wakes from a long sleep.  

 

In any case, I thought I would check in and see if anyone has any input on this.

 

Thanks.

 

[Aryeh Goretsky 378]

Hello,

 

By default, ESET Smart Security checks hourly to see if an update is available, and it is certainly possible that at one hourly check only a virus signature database update was available, and at another a module update.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

[Driver8 4]

Yes, that is reasonable, but I am positive that after several hours of being asleep, there were virus definition updates that were available when the update was run.  Those definitions were not picked up but only the modules were updated.  As I noted in my message above, I was six definition versions behind when my first update ran yesterday but those didn't get picked up until the second update that ran an hour later.  I don't really know if this is a problem or something I should worry about.  It just seems like a bit of a glitch.

 

Here is a copy of my update log from the last few days.  You can see the long periods of laptop sleep followed by an update that catches some module updates and followed an hour or more later by an update the picks up the several virus definition updates.  

 

8/20/2014  5:37:57 PM  ESET Kernel Virus signature database successfully updated to version 10288 (20140820).

8/20/2014  2:13:15 PM  ESET Kernel Virus signature database successfully updated to version 10287 (20140820).

8/20/2014 11:36:26 AM  ESET Kernel The program modules have been updated.

 

8/19/2014  6:45:14 PM  ESET Kernel Virus signature database successfully updated to version 10282 (20140819).

8/19/2014  5:44:47 PM  ESET Kernel The program modules have been updated.

 

8/18/2014  7:16:38 PM  ESET Kernel Virus signature database successfully updated to version 10276 (20140818).

8/18/2014  6:53:53 PM  ESET Kernel The program modules have been updated.

 

8/17/2014  4:30:05 PM  ESET Kernel Virus signature database successfully updated to version 10270 (20140817).

8/17/2014  7:57:16 AM  ESET Kernel Virus signature database successfully updated to version 10269 (20140817).

[Driver8 4]

For the record, ESET on my laptop is still exhibiting the behavior above.  I just woke the computer up after it had been asleep for about 14 hours.  ESET ran an update and reported that program modules were updated.  My loaded virus definitions are version 10306 but ThreatSense shows that version 10314 is available.  I am sure if I leave my laptop on for an hour it will pick those up.  

 

Perhaps this is the way that the software is supposed to work and that is fine.  I can always run a manual update to pick up the latest defs.  I think it is possible, however, that someone could end up many, many virus definition updates behind if they go through a time where they are only using their laptops for short periods of time with a day or two between those time periods.  It is possible they will only be picking up program module updates and not definition updates. 

 

It seems like the odds of this being a problem that causes any real world troubles for ESET users are pretty small.  I guess one never knows, however.

 

Oh, I also uninstalled and reinstalled the software just to see if that made a difference.  It did not.