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Does Spybot SD Work on Win98 ?


JorgeA

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rilef has some good advice and brings up a point that I've also meant to discuss. You've mentioned that Spybot worked fine in the past with Norton Internet Security, SystemWorks, etc. installed, then you started getting the page fault error at some point later on. I recently reviewed my Windows error logs and noticed I did get a very similar Spybot page fault error to yours at some point in the past. I don't recall the specific circumstances of the crash but I suspect it was after one of the Spybot version updates (1.4.x to 1.5.x to 1.6.x). Apparently, unlike you, it only occurred once and hasn't recurred since. It would be worth following rilef's advice and reverting back to a previous version of Spybot to see if that makes a difference.

I fully agree with georg - you are very determined. :) I can relate to that, but at some point it's probably time to throw in the towel from a time and work cost-benefit perspective. You've gone through considerable advanced technical troubleshooting, courtesy of georg, et al., and like you I've learned a lot from reading this thread.

I personally suspected your problem was caused by incompatibilities with all your $ymantec system utilities but apparently not. I'm not a big fan of $ymantec at all, as I find their products extremely intrusive, overbearing, and bloated. To me they're the Microsoft (aka "The Evil Empire") of system utilities and it was interesting reading a few replies back that the two companies work closely together, which I didn't realize. Norton Utilities was a fantastic product way back when Peter Norton actually owned them (before he sold out to $ymantec).

Also, thanks for the shoutout :) but I don't recall giving any specific anti-malware advice, at least not in this particular thread. I did suggest using AVZ (Antiviral Toolkit) recently in another thread discussing Win9x compatible anti-malware software.

By the way, I have confirmed that Spybot definitely loads faster with the recent new definitions updates even though they're significantly larger in size. It now takes just under 3 minutes to load whereas before it was taking between 5 to 7 minutes.

Edited by Prozactive
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rilef,

Thanks for the links!

After uninstalling Spybot 1.6.2.46 and deleting the directories it leaves behind, I downloaded Spybot 1.4, skipping the immediate update during installation in order to avoid downloading the main program update. (A couple of weeks ago I'd tried the 1.5 generation, and for me it had the exact same problem as the newest version.) It seemed to download the definition files updates without a hitch, but when I started a manual scan, it showed only 185,064 items in its total at the bottom, not the 1.29 million that I'd been seeing with 1.6. And then the scan paused several times to report that, "There were problems in the include file" with various .SBI listings, and then asking me to "See 'Include errors.log' for details." (That wasn't very helpful, just a list of paths with no elaboration.)

Looks like I'll be investigating your suggestion of SuperAntiSpyware in addition to the other ones folks have proposed in this thread.

--JorgeA

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Prozactive,

You're right that the current Spybot is loading faster even though the definitions files are bigger. FWIW, I think I read somewhere that they're starting to incorporate some features from the upcoming 2.0 version. Check out my reply to rilef for my experience with earlier versions of Spybot.

I know that there's a lot of dissatisfaction with Symantec products, but for better or worse I renewed the "marriage," this time with Norton 360, when I got my Vista machine. It's annoying that the online backup feature miscounts how much stuff I have on their server, and that it keeps trying to sell me more backup space, but otherwise I'm happy with N360. It puts together a whole slew of security and housekeeping functions in one integrated package.

Maybe it WAS that other thread that I was thinking of when I gave you the shoutout, but that's O.K. -- I'll look into your suggestion anyway! :)

Thanks again.

--JorgeA

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Prozactive,

I just ran the Prime95 Torture Test that you recommended a couple of weeks ago. Ran the system for 24 hours, and it passed all the tests.

That's reassuring. Thanks for the tip!

Now, maybe I'll sign up for their prime-number project and see if my PC happens to be the one to win that grand prize...

--JorgeA

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JorgeA,

If your system passed 24 hours of the Prime95 torture test, you can be extremely confident you don't have any hardware issues. Prime95 is a very popular tool in the overclocking community for testing system stability. In my experience, the test will fail within the first few iterations if you have any hardware problems. I've actually never run it the full recommended 24 hours but that would certainly give you more confidence. Good luck in finding the next Mersenne prime! :)

Well it was worth a shot trying older versions of Spybot. I'm pretty much at a loss for other ideas to try.

I'd be interested in hearing about your experience with SuperAntiSpyware if you decide to use it. I've DL'ed but not installed it yet. I'm currently having some strange problems with Avast! antivirus and may eventually have to bail out and install Norton AntiVirus by *gasp* Symantec as suggested in another thread if I can't resolve them. Like so many others, Avast! is discontinuing support for Win9x/ME shortly. If I do that, it'll be the fourth or fifth major AV change I've had to make within the last few years.

Edited by Prozactive
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...

I'd be interested in hearing about your experience with SuperAntiSpyware if you decide to use it. I've DL'ed but not installed it yet. I'm currently having some strange problems with Avast! antivirus and may eventually have to bail out and install Norton AntiVirus by *gasp* Symantec as suggested in another thread if I can't resolve them. Like so many others, Avast! is discontinuing support for Win9x/ME shortly. If I do that, it'll be the fourth or fifth major AV change I've had to make within the last few years.

Prozactive,

Installing SuperAntiSpyware is going to be my next step with that PC. I'll let you know how SAS works on it, thanks!

What kind of problems are you seeing with Avast? I've been running that one on the little 98SE notebook (80MB RAM) for a couple of weeks and haven't noticed anything bad. Not yet, anyway. I even had it installed when the computer had 48 megs and a 1.5GB HD, and (other than sloooow updating) Avast! seemed to work great.

--JorgeA

Edited by JorgeA
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Prozactive,

You wanted to know how things went with SuperAntiSpyware on my Windows 98 tower.

First and foremost, find out which version of SAS you downloaded. I DL'd the current version, 4.37.1000, off their website and tried to install it, but it burped in the middle of the process. The install wizard does have a pretty neat function where you can tell it to cancel, and all the progress bars quickly shrink back to the left (instead of the usual expanding to the right) to undo what was already done in the installation.

There is a page on the SAS site where they recommend version 4.24 for older PCs. So I went to Filehippo (http://www.filehippo.com/download_superantispyware/5052) and downloaded 4.24.1004. (rilef: If you're reading this -- thanks for the tip!) That one got installed without a hitch.

Then I ran a scan -- and not only did it actually finish the scan, it found three tracking cookies AND a Trojan that apparently everybody else (Spybot, Avast, Norton) had never found. (Unfortunately, removing it didn't help Spybot to finish its own scan later.)

So: so far, so good. Thanks for the suggestion. Hope this helps.

--JorgeA

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JorgeA,

How quickly did SuperAntiSpyware's definition database load, and how quickly did SuperAntiSpyware scan compared to Spybot?

rilef,

The definitions loaded very quickly (a couple of minutes). For the first scan I used SAS's default settings, and it took about 1:45 to finish. For the second scan (after I realized that I could do a scan of all files), it took 3:14 to scan my ~7 GB of stuff on the hard disk. Not great, but I can live with it.

Incidentally, later on I looked up the one Trojan that SAS claimed to have found (Gen-Krpytik, spelled just like that), and it appears to be a false positive. In the first scan, not knowing any better (and -- very bad practice here -- while getting some work done on another PC at the same time), I accepted its suggestion to delete a file WDELTREE.EXE. Haven't find any info on that file; wonder if I actually caused harm to my system.

--JorgeA

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JorgeA,

Thanks for the info about SAS. I probably will install and start using it. I first learned about SAS from the "Last Versions of Software for Windows 98SE" thread, so I was aware of and DL'ed the last version that supposedly worked in Win9x/ME. I'm pretty sure it was the version you referenced.

Thankfully (and fortunately) I've had very few problems with malware/viruses/spyware/trojans, etc. in my long history with computers. I can't say the same for my friends and relatives though. It's been a sobering, eye-opening, and educational experience trying to help them recover from all of their malware problems!

I finally solved my Avast! problem. It was a very mysterious bug initiated by the fact that my license key was expiring soon, and caused lots of aggravating system freezes. Turned out that the solution was registering for and installing a new license key. Very strange. Unfortunately their support for Win9x/ME is expiring later this year and I'll have to decide what to do when that happens.

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Prozactive,

You're welcome! I'm glad that I can start to pay people back for all the help you've given me on this forum.

SAS seems to be pretty easy and straightforward to use. So far I haven't run into any really obscure or confusing stuff. The only drawback I've found (and maybe there's a setting I can change somewhere to fix that) is that when it quarantines an item, it asks to reboot the computer. Spybot and Norton simply remove the item and you can go on your merry way without interruption.

That IS a weird-sounding problem with Avast!. I installed it on the Win98 PC back in December, and it's good to know that this could happen as the expiration date comes near.

--JorgeA

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Philco,

It's good that you have SOME way to get Spybot to do a scan on your Win98 system. I tried all sorts of things, and Spybot just will not finish a scan on my computer without crashing.

Ironically, TeaTimer does work. (Spybot still crashed when I disabled TeaTimer, rebooted, and did a manual scan.) So now I'm using Spybot for the resident protection only (Immunization and TeaTimer).

--JorgeA

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Philco,

It's good that you have SOME way to get Spybot to do a scan on your Win98 system. I tried all sorts of things, and Spybot just will not finish a scan on my computer without crashing.

Ironically, TeaTimer does work. (Spybot still crashed when I disabled TeaTimer, rebooted, and did a manual scan.) So now I'm using Spybot for the resident protection only (Immunization and TeaTimer).

--JorgeA

Your version Teatimer? In my system downgrade only Teatimer 1.4, this old version 95% properly (any freeze problem).

New Teatimer very bad - many resources...

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Philco,

I'm using TeaTimer 1.6.6.32. It seems to work O.K.

TeaTimer is not the problem with my PC -- I have disabled TeaTimer and then tried to run a scan: Spybot crashes with an "illegal operation" message. I have uninstalled Spybot, then reinstalled it without TeaTimer or Immunization, and tried to run a scan: Spybot still crashed with the same error. I get the same error every time I do a manual scan, whether or not I have TeaTimer installed.

The problem somehow has something to do with the main Spybot engine AND the specifics of my computer. Version 1.5 did not work on my computer, either, for the same reason. Two weeks ago I also tried installing Spybot 1.4, and that did finish a scan -- but it only loads about 185,000 malware definition files, instead of the 1.3 million that the most modern Spybot contains.

So I'm stuck. Considering all the diagnostics that we tried in this long thread, it looks like if I want to keep using Spybot on my PC, then the only choice left is to do a clean install of Windows. I'm thinking of putting a new hard drive on that computer anyway, so I could try installing Spybot on the new disk, and see what happens.

--JorgeA

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