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System becomes unresponsive

Chogidog

I tried the AV out and found it had negative effects on my system. I have a Macbook Pro 3,1 with a 2.4ghz processor, 4gb of ram and a 500gb hd running 10.6.4. 

I noticed that start ups had become longer and icons on my desktop weren't immediately there, instead there were placeholder dashed rectangles. 

I attempted 2 separate scans. Both resulted about the same. My MBP became unresponsive, the items remaining count stopped and the CPU temperature dropped from an elevated working temp to a lower idle temp. I wasn't able to check through the activity monitor due to the unresponsiveness. Both times I had to press and hold the power button to shut down because clicking restart didnt respond.

Anyone else having this problem?

:1000063


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  • 0

    Hi,

    Please check out "work-around now available" for a description of what's been causing this problem, and how to get round it.

    Check out what that post recommends. Please post your replies to that post, so we can gauge the effect of the work around. If you've had problems, and the work around works, please let us know. If you still have issues, post the details as replies to that work around post.

    Thanks,

    spike.

    :1000297
  • 0

    I think they all have windows 7 via bootcamp...

    all of them are talking about having windows 7 but why is my system hanging during starting up when i'm using sophos?

    :1000300
  • 0

    Not all have Windows 7.  I am using vista x64 and have the same problem

    :1000305
  • 0

    Briefly, for the record:

    • in some environments without Boot Camp, the computer may stop responding at login time (after the user enters credentials, before the computer becomes usable) 
    • for a user whose home directory is served via AFP the computer may stop responding soon after a manual scan begins

    — both cases requiring a forced stop (press and hold the power key) or a forced restart (command-control-power).

    I'll post details separately in around two weeks' time, possibly sooner — I shouldn't broaden this already long topic.

    FWIW I sense a generic bug that causes things to stop responding in a variety of environments, for a minority of users. 

    Focus on something within a Boot Camp environment may yield a workaround, possibly an exclusion, for that environment but ultimately I think that we (users) need Sophos Anti-Virus to:

    • handle, more gracefully, situations that are novel or anomalous
    • never contribute to a forced stop/restart situation.

    Side note: does anyone know what happens, technically, when command-control-power is keyed? It seems more graceful than a sudden stop (disk activity is audible for a while before the stop, before the startup chime) but I have never found an Apple article on the subject.

    :1000313
  • 0
    I wrote:
    • … the computer may stop responding at login time (after the user enters credentials, before the computer becomes usable) … requiring a forced stop (press and hold the power key) or a forced restart (command-control-power).

    Bingo! Here's someone in the same situation as me: 

    Unable to complete login after reboot.

    :1000413
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    How does one use this workaround if neither BootCamp nor Parallels Desktop / VMWare Fusion have never been anywhere near one's Macintosh?

    This is a brand new install of Mac OS 10.6, iWork and iLife only (yes, no third party anything installed) on a freshly formatted drive with two partitions. My system locks up, stop scanning, and otherwise misbehaves when I scan a large folder (by size) or entire external drive hooked up via USB. If I keep it to less than 600 MB, all is well. It seems if I go beyond that, the system locks up, and Sophos will not respond. 

    I also note my confusion : namely, I had recently been a administrator of Sophos' enterprise Mac Anti-virus and the Mac client software was golden compared to this 'free' version. I routinely scanned drives that were hundreds of gigabytes without any fuss at all. Is this a completely different version? If so, why?

    :1000499
  • 0
    busterb wrote:

    How does one use this workaround if neither BootCamp nor Parallels Desktop / VMWare Fusion have never been anywhere near one's Macintosh?

    Re Update to the work-around post maybe you should avoid not only the Scan Local Drives option, but also avoid other on-demand scans.

    Whilst your issue may be unrelated to the extension that Apple provide for NTFS, it's possible that a fix or workaround on the Sophos side will have broader benefits than for NTFS alone. Just a guess. 

    :1000525
  • 0
    busterb wrote:

    … Sophos' enterprise Mac Anti-virus … Is this a completely different version? …

    AFAICT the technical differences are trivial. Please subscribe to http://openforum.sophos.com/t5/Sophos-Anti-Virus-for-Mac-Home/Drawbacks-compared-to-Sophos-Anti-Virus/m-p/53

    Postscript: … subscribe also to  

    Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition: differences from the edition for business/enterprise

    :1000527
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    grahamperrin wrote: AFAICT the technical differences are trivial. 

    Sorry, but that is pure here say and speculation at this point. Sophos has not spoken definitively on the subject, and I wish they would sooner rather than later. 

    What we know from the evidence at hand people are having problems, and my personal experience on my Macs is one of total system lock-up when scanning anything over 600 MB. Mind you one of those Macs was a freshly formatted drive, new install of Mac OS 10.6.3 and updated, only Apple software on the drive, nothing third-party save for Sophos Home.

    Contrast that with my Enterprise experience where I had nearly 1,000 computers in my bailiwick, all of which - Mac & PC - functioned flawlessly scanning drives of hundreds of gigabytes. And I emphasize - the Macs did NOT get managed from a central server. They were stand-alone just like with Home, and looked to Sophos directly for their updates. 

    I just cannot honestly state this is the same software at all. Others may be more comfortable saying so, but until Sophos comes forward and gives a definitive answer, I simply cannot believe them. 

    :1000603
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    I posted a copy of busterb's post to the  …differences … topic.
    :1000613