severe lockups when using POP Peeper

POP Peeper: Tech support, suggestions, discussion, etc.
Simone
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2020 4:06 am

severe lockups when using POP Peeper

Post by Simone »

For several reasons i had to list several accounts on POP Peeper. About 17. Which i have to monitor. All of them are IMAP or POP3.

Ever since installing POP Peeper the system freezes anomalously at random. I suspect due to push notifications from the server or POP Peeper checking stuff.

It might be partially due to the interaction with Spybot Search & Destroy which heavily edits the HOSTS file to immunize the PC at a "somewhat low level" (it basically redirects all known malwares back to the system instead of letting them go unchecked) or it might be due to the large amount of accounts. I do not know.

In any case the system becomes unresponsive at random intervals for up to 10 or 30 seconds during which i am left sighing and waiting for it to resolve whatever is happening.

Any chance of knowing what setting i might have to tweak in order to mitigate what is happening?
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mjs
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Re: severe lockups when using POP Peeper

Post by mjs »

Welcome to the forum Simone,

So to clarify -- this problem started immediately after installing POP Peeper (and was not present at any time prior to this)?

Is your conclusion that POP Peeper may be involved in regards to the random hang time (freezing) you are getting because this behavior occurs when POP Peeper is checking for Incoming messages (you can tell this if the eyes are rolling in the sys-tray icon)?

In other words -- when this random freezing occurs is POP Peeper doing a Mail Check?

If so -- have you tried disabling the "Auto Check" for POP Peeper and waiting over a period of time when this problem would have occurred to see if this issue continues to occur with the "Auto Check" disabled (right-click on the POP Peeper icon in the sys-tray and click on "Auto Check" to uncheck the option is one way to do this).

In regards to:
Simone wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2020 4:16 am ... system freezes anomalously at random. I suspect due to push notifications from the server or POP Peeper checking stuff.
You can disable this "push" function by editing your IMAP accounts and unchecking the "IDLE/Push" option (to see if this resolves the issue -- which I personally don't think is the problem). Doing this the only time POP Peeper will retrieve messages is when the POP Peeper "Auto" Mail Check is scheduled (specifically the "Polling Interval" under "Tools">"Options">"Mail Check" in the main POP Peeper menu) that is unless you otherwise have account specific "Polling Interval" settings as well within the "Advanced" settings. I would add this random "freeze" issue as you have described would not be due to the number of your accounts (17) used in POP Peeper.

If you think the issue may be due to Spybot Search & Destroy -- here is a link on how to add app exceptions: https://www.safer-networking.org/faq/ho ... he-search/. You could try this and see if this helps.

Otherwise, here are a few additional questions that may be of help to us:

1) Is there a reason why you feel that Spybot Search & Destroy may be involved? (I ask because there may be other security software that might be contributing to this behavior among other things).

2) Have you made any recent software security setting changes?

3) Have you tried a computer reboot to see if this resolves the issue?

4) Do you use an AV program (if so what is it)?

5) Have you just recently installed POP Peeper?

6) What Operating System do you use?

7) What type of accounts are you using in POP Peeper (i.e. Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook.com etc etc)?

And I would add finally; as you are a new member to the forum we would also ask that new members please take a look at the following information for new users and forum members which provides very important additional information that can be very helpful to you in regards to issues you may have with PP.

Other members of the Esumsoft Team may be posting additional feedback in regards to your issue as well. And thank you so much for taking the time to get back to us with answers to the above questions. :D
Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. - Will Rogers
Simone
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Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2020 4:06 am

Re: severe lockups when using POP Peeper

Post by Simone »

lakrsrool wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2020 4:56 am Welcome to the forum Simone,

So to clarify -- this problem started immediately after installing POP Peeper (and was not present at any time prior to this)?

Is your conclusion that POP Peeper may be involved in regards to the random hang time (freezing) you are getting because this behavior occurs when POP Peeper is checking for Incoming messages (you can tell this if the eyes are rolling in the sys-tray icon)?

In other words -- when this random freezing occurs is POP Peeper doing a Mail Check?
This is what stumps me. It started when i installed POP Peeper, i've done any check i thought possible... including removing pop peeper.

And the system still hangs up.

I re-installed windows... it all works normally (right now i'm using it without pop peeper and there is no hitch) the moment i install pop peeper the problems start.

I've done 7 full reinstalls of windows since i bought it with this order number XXXX soooo about 5 years ago, i changed all the programs i'm using, i've even changed 3 PCs in the meantime.

I just am at a loss right now of what could cause this.

If i disable pop peeper. Or uninstall it they just happen more rarely and more at random, they don't disappear.

I've just beared with it because... welll... it's the only program that does everything i need. But honestly? After 5 years i'm basically fed up.

I noticed a connection between it ans Spybot but it's a tenuous one, let's just say the problems become more evident and more common when the two are installed together.

But it's POP Peeper by itself that gives me these problems and i think at this point i've slammed my head every which way.
Last edited by spc3rd on Sun Feb 02, 2020 7:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Order number edited for security/privacy reasons.
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mjs
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Re: severe lockups when using POP Peeper

Post by mjs »

I'm not going to say that Spybot Search & Destroy might be the problem (why you still get the issue even w/out PP as well) -- but have you tried disabling this app to see if this makes a difference.

I'll say this -- I had used Spybot Search & Destroy for many many years but this was probably well over 8 years ago (it's been around a long time). My reason why I stopped was due to some issue I was having at the time (can't recall exactly after all this time). I personally liked Spybot Search & Destroy (and have thought at times of using it again) but have never pulled the trigger to use it again over these past 8+ years due to my reluctance to have whatever that issue was re-insert itself.

Let me ask you this: Are you using the "Tea Timer" function of Spybot Search & Destroy?

I used that function a lot myself and if I recall I had issues at some point with that function and thus had to reluctantly stop using the "Tea Timer" function (due to conflicts) even though I liked the function very much at the time. Once I had stopped using "Tea Timer" it was a matter of time before I eventually stopped using the entire app at some point (for whatever reason I can't recall).

If you are using the "Tea Timer" function you could consider disabling it to see if this helps: How to disable Spybot – Search and Destroy TeaTimer.

Are you using another AV program in conjunction with Spybot Search & Destroy?

I ask this because there is the possibility that Spybot Search & Destroy may not play well with other AV programs, especially if you are using the "Live Protection" function. (As you know the app is very complex. In my view it is this complexity that might perhaps have the potential of raising conflict issues depending upon what other software has been installed perhaps.) But let me be clear, please don't let my reluctance to use the app once again stop you -- this is only my opinion for what it's worth and may not be relevant to your issue at all, hence Spybot Search and Destroy may be perfectly fine for you to use -- I know the app has a very loyal following for sure (of which I was at one time as well) and does have many many seemingly nice functions. I do know of reports that it is sometimes difficult to fully uninstall from Windows 10, but again my intention is not to say that Spybot Search & Destroy is in any way necessarily contributing to your issue.

That all said, based on this:
Simone wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2020 7:08 am This is what stumps me. It started when i installed POP Peeper, i've done any check i thought possible... including removing pop peeper.

And the system still hangs up.
... during all the times you have been testing to eliminate the issue completely have you at any time tried testing w/out installing SpyBot Search & Destroy for a while to determine if the issue gets resolved in this case?
Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. - Will Rogers
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Jeff
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Re: severe lockups when using POP Peeper

Post by Jeff »

I would agree with lakrsrool's suggestion of temporarily disabling spybot to see if that does cure the problems. If you're able to pinpoint the source, it's a lot easier to troubleshoot.

Since you mentioned the hosts file -- I did some research and I couldn't find any specific evidence that it has an effect on performance, but you may want to try disabling the "DNSLBL" and "URIBL" component of POP Peeper's AntiJunk and see if that helps. These components will call a high number of DNS lookups.
1) From POP Peeper's main menu, select Tools / AntiJunk -> Main interface
2) On the "overview" page, uncheck "URI Blacklist" and "DNS blacklist" from the list on the right
3) Press OK

If you can provide any other clues as to when the behavior occurs, that would be helpful, too. e.g. do the freezes only occur when you receive new email? How often do the freezes occur? Does it freeze every time PP does a mail check? etc. If the freezes occur frequently enough, try leaving the POP Peeper window open and refer to the status bar to see if it's doing anything when the freeze occurs.
Simone
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Re: severe lockups when using POP Peeper

Post by Simone »

As i said, spybot makes the problem bigger, but the problem is still there.

I don't use any "active" ability to stop malware, just passive filtering, relying on other stuff, mostly because i don't like stuff checking my files. And also because windows defender cannot be stopped anymore for now a few years, so i do not wish multiple things wrangling my files.

This said... I've tried uninstalling both this and spybot. As i said before. The problem remains. Once ì've installed Pop Peeper, for some reasons i'm stuck with the hitches and hiccups.

It's been 5 years, and honestly i think i've tried everything by now. But feel free to throw stuff and i'll tell you what i have not tried yet.

I did not show up here to ask this directly, because, honestly, when you feel you are the only one with a very big problem it seemed like a useless thing up to now, buuuut i'm honestly fed up.
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mjs
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Re: severe lockups when using POP Peeper

Post by mjs »

Simone wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2020 7:10 pm ... I've tried uninstalling both this and spybot. As i said before. The problem remains. Once ì've installed Pop Peeper, for some reasons i'm stuck with the hitches and hiccups.
Sorry I'm confused... I'm assuming that by saying you've "tried uninstalling both this and spybot" (as stated above) that "this" means POP Peeper hence both POP Peeper and Spybot are both NOT installed -- and you say as of that point "The problem remains"... And in that case, the problem would then have to be attributable to something else other than both Spybot and most importantly POP Peeper. Am I correct to say this?

So with that said, I'm a bit confused when you continue to say "Once ì've installed Pop Peeper, for some reasons i'm stuck with the hitches and hiccups." but just prior to that (that is prior to installing POP Peeper) you've also said that "The problem remains". :?

Perhaps you can clarify what the difference is between when "The problem remains" and when your "stuck with the hitches and hiccups" that I'm not understanding? -- I'm assuming that both issues mentioned here are basically one-in-the-same... and if so the issue remains with or w/out POP Peeper installed -- am I correct to say this?

.... that is unless there is some tangible difference between your references to when "The problem remains" and when your "stuck with the hitches and hiccups" that I may be missing. :?

Thanks in advance for providing additional clarity. :)

Oh and I would add as well in reference to:
Simone wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2020 7:10 pm .... when you feel you are the only one with a very big problem it seemed like a useless thing up to now.....
Please don't feel that it useless to ask for help because you may feel you are the only one with the problem... We are here to help and will be happy to continue to try and determine what is the cause of this ongoing persistent issue. Based on what you've stated so far -- I'm under the impression that without both POP Peeper and Spybot you continue to have issues of this sort. Can you tell us what else you might have installed on your computer as of that point in time (prior to when either POP Peeper or Spybot have been installed)?
Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. - Will Rogers
Simone
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Re: severe lockups when using POP Peeper

Post by Simone »

sequence of events:

System like i have right now. Flawless.

Once i install POP Peeper. => Hitches and Hiccups start (no sign of the origin, process explorer just signals 100% interrupt usage for unknown time as the system freezes) timing appears to be random, i've set POP Peeper to check the mail every 3 minutes or in case of imap, but it can be hours between "hiccups" or they can come every few seconds.

Uninstalling POP Peeper, the "hiccups" become sparser, but they stay. Solution appears only to do a complete system reinstall up to this day.

IF on the system is also installed "Spybot Search & Destroy" the "Hiccups" are a lot more frequent and they last longer (about 10 to 20 seconds as opposed to 1-2 seconds).

Uninstalling Spybot does not solve the problem, uninstalling POP Peeper makes the "hiccups" sparser as before, but they keep the "longer lasting" from having also installed Spybot.

System with spybot as of right now has zero problems.

I would have said that it's an interaction with some other software, but in the last 5 years, POP Peeper is the only softwares that i have kept constant use along with POP Peeper are Spybot, Steam and GOG Galaxy, except steam looks nothing like itself as it got a complete overhaul, and gog galaxy too has basically nothing of the original gog galaxy. They all use different directories and different registry keys, they don't even use the same API calls as before, soooo... yeah everything. Only Spybot seems to affect POP Peeper in any way. Because in the last install i've used to not load either steam or gog at all and i still got the same stuff happening.

i... honestly have zero clues on why this is happening.
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Jeff
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Re: severe lockups when using POP Peeper

Post by Jeff »

Simone wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2020 12:46 pm System like i have right now. Flawless.
What's the flow of this? ie. have you installed spybot? have you installed PP? Was something installed and subsequently uninstalled?

After a clean Windows install, have you tried installing POP Peeper without spybot?

Have you tried uninstalling spybot after the hiccups occur?
If you've tried uninstalling spybot, have you looked back at the hosts file to see if it restores your hosts file?
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
(the default hosts file is only about 1-2KB)

Have you tried disabling DNSBL/URIBL as per my previous post?

What kinds of accounts do you have? Specifically, POP3/IMAP/RSS/WebMail? Regarding WebMail: an account like gmail may be imap or pop3 or webmail; if you edit the account and refer to the "server type" it will say "imap" or "pop3" or (for example) "gmail" -- anything that's not imap/pop3/rss is "webmail"

Do you know the type of CPU you have? and how much RAM is installed? (opening "about your PC" from the start menu should have this information)
Simone
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Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2020 4:06 am

Re: severe lockups when using POP Peeper

Post by Simone »

i told you the flow above, but let me restate.

situation 1:
1) clean system => there are no hiccups
2) install spybot => there are no hiccups
3) install pop peeper => severe hiccups (interrupt calls 100% for 10 to 20 seconds at random from system services)
4) remove spybot => no change
5) remove pop peeper => hiccups become sparser, still persist.
only solution found: full system reinstall (re-installing over existing installation of windows does not solve the problem)

situation 2:
1) clean system => there are no hiccups
2) install pop peeper => hiccups (interrupt calls 100% for 1-2 seconds at random from system services, sparser than before)
3) remove pop peeper => hiccups become sparser, still persist.
only solution found: full system reinstall (re-installing over existing installation of windows does not solve the problem)

situation 3:
1) clean system => there are no hiccups
2) install pop peeper => hiccups (interrupt calls 100% for 1 to 2 seconds at random from system services)
3) install spybot => hiccups become severe (interrupt calls 100% for 10 to 20 seconds at random from system services, more frequent)
4) remove spybot => no change
5) remove pop peeper => hiccups become sparser, still persist.
only solution found: full system reinstall (re-installing over existing installation of windows does not solve the problem)


to answer other questions:
• do the freezes only occur when you receive new email?
- no, they happen regardless or emails or email checking.
• How often do the freezes occur?
- completely at random sometimes i have full days without them, sometimes they lock me every 2 to 3 minutes.
• Does it freeze every time PP does a mail check? etc.
- it seems unrelated.
• I'm under the impression that without both POP Peeper and Spybot you continue to have issues of this sort.
- they only start AFTER installing POP Peeper. There are no issues before installing it. Once i have installed it the issues persist even on an uninstall, prior to its installation there are no known issues.
• DNSBL/URIBL?
- i don't understand how would this matter since the problems persist even after an uninstall, but, no i never tried, because right now i just wanted to be able to work for a few days without having the system freeze at random.
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Jeff
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Re: severe lockups when using POP Peeper

Post by Jeff »

Here's the thing, and why I need to fully understand the method that you're using to pinpoint POP Peeper as the culprit -- there is absolutely no reason why POP Peeper would have an effect on your system when it's not installed, or even if it's not running. POP Peeper does not install any files outside of its own program files (ie. no shared DLL's or anything like that).

As you sound willing to test different scenarios (and, honestly, that's about the only way we'll be able to pinpoint what the problem may be), I'd like you to try this:
Install POP Peeper (preferably using the 'zip' archive, as this could eliminate even more possibilities) but DO NOT RUN IT. Just let it exist and see if this causes a problem.
If/When you feel confident that this isn't causing a problem, run POP Peeper but don't actually do anything; ie. don't add an account. Just let it run in the background.
If/When you feel confident that this isn't causing a problem, add a single account and see if that causes a problem.


One other thing -- I'd suggest that you run a scandisk on your Hard Drive(s). Even if a specific program like POP Peeper is causing the problem, the behavior you're describing is not normal. That is, a program should not be able to cause your system to freeze like that (certainly not one as innocuous as POP Peeper) and, to me, it sounds more like a hardware or file corruption issue. A bad sector on the HDD can cause this kind of behavior:
1) Open File Explorer
2) Right-click on your C: drive (if POP Peeper is installed on a different partition, you should scan that, too, but you should scan your System drive regardless) and select "Properties"
3) Select the "Tools" tab
4) Press the "Check" button in "Error checking"
5) You need to "scan drive" even if it says it's not necessary


Along those same lines, I presume that you're using a mirror backup to restore Windows? It's possible that you have a corrupt system file and you're simply re-loading that same corrupt system file every time. To check this:
1) Open an elevanted/admin command prompt (type "command prompt" into the start menu, you should see "command prompt" listed, right-click on it and select "run as administrator"
2) In the command prompt, type:
sfc /scannow
Simone
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Re: severe lockups when using POP Peeper

Post by Simone »

i tended to use the installer because i have the "plus pack" version.

I actually did those tests you said way back. Mostly because i've actually used uninstaller programs like Revo to know what POP Peeper was doing to my system... and see if i could undo it.

• installing it without running. => no effect.
• installing it and running it but without accounts => Not really sure i think i saw some slight freezing, but it could very well have been my immagination, because i was expecting to see them, so i would say it does nothing.

ad this point i did 3 things which you did not say:

1) i added all the accounts one by one.
2) (in a different install) i re-installed from a backup.
3) also with and without spybot.

SFC and DISM all report broken windows files that cannot be repaired, but only after i have added enough "accounts" (most of them are folders which i prefer to have so that they are both colored in a different way in the icon, i'm actually checking a total of 4 accounts, 2 hotmail ones and 2 gmail ones, but there are also several folders from each account).

And honestly i always thought it was due to the fact i cannot avoid (usually) one of the freezes from occurring while either SFC or DISM are running, and that's because usually i do the disk checks "offline" so at computer restart and they always report no damage. So... SFC needs something that tells it there is an error, but without there being an actual error.
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Jeff
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Re: severe lockups when using POP Peeper

Post by Jeff »

I wouldn't ignore SFC/DISM reporting an error. Especially if they cause a similar hiccup while running that you see due to POP Peeper. I would say this is almost certainly the cause of the issue.

I don't know enough about how sfc works, but perhaps one explanation for what you're seeing is that the "offline" mode only checks Windows system files that are essential to load/run the OS. POP Peeper may call Windows APIs that use non-essential files and that's where the problem is. And perhaps SFC only checks files that have attempted to be accessed (this seems counter-intuitive to me, but I'm just trying to apply a possible explanation to the behavior you're reporting).

So what files does SFC/DISM report problems for? Hopefully the list isn't too large... :)

And I might as well suggest this: Try installing Windows from scratch. Get the Media Creation Tool from Microsoft so you can get the latest version that they've released:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softwar ... /windows10
looks like they have the latest Win10 1909 (although, I don't think you've mentioned what OS you're using)
Simone
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Re: severe lockups when using POP Peeper

Post by Simone »

the log is about 7 megabytes.

also, this is a problem that has been going on for 5 years.

I pinpointed it to pop peeper and yeah, i have zero clue as to why it happens, as i said, i've even used revo and read the log of all the files that are installed and all the registry keys that are added. I have zero clue why it happens, but it happens, and it's pretty heavy.

What i do offline is the disk check which controls the disk with the /B options soooo essentially both all of the files and also the free space

i have run SFC/DISM from:
• windows,
• windows as run from the "safe mode" (where you load minimal drivers)
• windows as a command line
• and also windows run in "special" command line (the recovery one where you start on the memory drive X:)
the log is about the same size and shows extensive "damage" to the system. Why that is and why should it even happen for adding accounts/folders on POP peeper? If i had a clue... i would not have this problem.

At this point i'm tempted to just send you over a backup i made of pop peeper where i removed the ability to send emails (not that it's very difficult to re-add that ability) because i'm that desperate to find any clue as to "why". Unfortunately it's all stuff i use for both work and personal life... and as you might imagine i have zero idea how to pass you that without passing you that and how to pass you that in such a way that it would be safe.

Because at this point i think the only way would be to send over to you a backup of pop peeper and let you tell me why it's doing a mess like that. 😖😖😖
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Jeff
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Re: severe lockups when using POP Peeper

Post by Jeff »

I followed the guide here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... ted-system

And I had no apparent errors:

Code: Select all

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18363.592]
(c) 2019 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.18362.1

Image Version: 10.0.18363.592

[==========================100.0%==========================] The restore operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>sfc /scannow

Beginning system scan.  This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>


But when I manually looked at the cbs.log file (and trimmed any checks from previous days), I did find some "warnings" that it was "Unable to repair payload file". e.g.

Code: Select all

2020-02-05 13:23:13, Info                  CSI    00000008 Warning: Unable to repair payload file ([l:27]'MSFT_MpComputerStatus.cdxml') for component ([l:98 ml:140]'amd64_windows-defender-management-powershell_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.18362.449_none_399f5f2632e852c4') from backups directory with disposition (2). A backup file may not exist or may be corrupt. Falling back to WU.
2020-02-05 13:23:13, Info                  CSI    00000009 Hashes for file member [l:19]'MSFT_MpThreat.cdxml' do not match.

There are 9 such cases, and they all have to do with "amd64_windows-defender-management-powershell".

I assume that these are safe to ignore, since they're only classified as "Info" in the log file and the main return didn't mention any problems. I assume you mean that you're getting more serious issues than this? I can't explain why you're seeing the behavior you're seeing in regards to this (ie. you only get failures after using PP), but even if a program wanted to corrupt these kinds of files, it shouldn't be possible because of innate Windows protection; so -- to me -- that signifies that *something* is seriously wrong with your system/image and it's not directly related to PP, even if that's what happens to expose the problem.

At this point i'm tempted to just send you over a backup i made of pop peeper where i removed the ability to send emails (not that it's very difficult to re-add that ability) because i'm that desperate to find any clue as to "why". Unfortunately it's all stuff i use for both work and personal life... and as you might imagine i have zero idea how to pass you that without passing you that and how to pass you that in such a way that it would be safe.

Because at this point i think the only way would be to send over to you a backup of pop peeper and let you tell me why it's doing a mess like that. 😖😖
I'd be willing to try that because I'm fairly confident that it wouldn't cause an issue. If you can narrow down the procedure, that would be best. For example, is it the act of checking the accounts for mail, or is it simply if the accounts have existing mail that are loaded? So -- if you backed up a "bad installation" then restored Windows and instead of installing PP as normal, restore from your backup; allow PP to run, but don't allow it to check mail and see if that causes a problem. It that does cause a problem, then the data you send me could include invalid passwords, to protect yourself.

Let me know what you want to do, but honestly, I suggest you fix the errors from dism/sfc. The URL I included above provides suggestions on how to fix corrupt files that the tools couldn't repair.
Simone
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Re: severe lockups when using POP Peeper

Post by Simone »

*sigh* yeah i thought i would not be believed.

Here i just installed everything and here is a transcript of the same procedure you did which i just did right now.

Code: Select all

simon@DESKTOP-14ES218
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18363.628]
D:\Dropbox\Applicazioni\Sicurezza>"SFC DISM.bat"

simon@DESKTOP-14ES218
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18363.628]
D:\Dropbox\Applicazioni\Sicurezza>sfc /scannow

Beginning system scan.  This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.
For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at
windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline
repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.

simon@DESKTOP-14ES218
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18363.628]
D:\Dropbox\Applicazioni\Sicurezza>DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.18362.1

Image Version: 10.0.18363.628

[==========================100.0%==========================] The restore operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.

simon@DESKTOP-14ES218
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18363.628]
D:\Dropbox\Applicazioni\Sicurezza>sfc /scannow

Beginning system scan.  This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.
For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at
windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline
repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.

simon@DESKTOP-14ES218
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18363.628]
D:\Dropbox\Applicazioni\Sicurezza>
the CBS.log has tons of:

Code: Select all

2020-02-05 22:24:38, Info                  CSI    000002bf [SR] Repairing 1 components
2020-02-05 22:24:38, Info                  CSI    000002c0 [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2020-02-05 22:24:38, Info                  CSI    000002c1 [SR] Cannot repair member file [*something*:*something*] \??\C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64\wbem\en-US\*something* of *something*, version 10.0.18362.1, arch amd64, nonSxS, pkt {*something*} in the store
2020-02-05 22:24:38, Info                  CSI    000002c5 [SR] This component was referenced by *something*
Those *something*s refer to a large number of files which appear to be present on the hard drive, and are without any problem, their online hash is the same as what i get with the local hashing. (i did a sample check of about 60 of them) there's a ton of them which appear every 2 minutes.

Note, i set POP Peeper to check email every 3 minutes and i had it shut down for this test, it was just installed.

also tons of:

Code: Select all

2020-02-05 22:26:01, Info                  CBS    Failed to clear CorruptionDetectedDuringAcr store corrupt flag (slow mode trigger). [HRESULT = 0x80070002 - ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND]
POP Peeper needs not be loaded and executing.

1) installing POP Peeper => maybe problems, but unsure, if they are there they are invisible.
2) adding the accounts, but not running, no email loaded, never exectued the first download => maybe problems, but unsure, if they are there they are invisible.
3) loading the messages (takes a few hours, on average between 14 and 20 hours) => the problems i said above start happening more and more frequently.

back-up-ping everything, then reinstalling windows then re-loading the backup of the thing above starts problems immediately.

Once again, once problems start, shutting down or even uninstalling POP Peeper does not solve said problems. It just makes them happen more rarely.
User avatar
Jeff
Admin / Developer
Posts: 9227
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2001 9:46 pm

Re: severe lockups when using POP Peeper

Post by Jeff »

*sigh* yeah i thought i would not be believed.
It's not a matter of not believing you (something which goes both ways, btw). I suggested the problem sounds very much like a windows system file corruption and then you tell me that, yeah, sfc does report corruption issues. Not only that, but while running sfc, it apparently causes the same hiccup that PP would cause. I'm sure you've done a lot to investigate these problems, but to a 3rd party who has no idea what you've done, it sounds a little too coincidental to ignore.

I'm going to elaborate on something I suggested before: do a fresh Windows install (don't bother too much with changing things, I'm only suggesting a temporary install), don't bother doing anything at all like Windows Updates or anything, but just restore you PP back which you say will impact immediately and see if the problem occurs. That -- to me -- seems to be the best way to determine if the problem is with your image or not. (and, again, I'm only assuming you're using a backup image for Windows; you didn't say you weren't the last time I questioned that). Troubleshooting unknown causes starts with eliminating possibilities.

POP Peeper needs not be loaded and executing.
It seems to me that you're far above the average computer user as far as technical knowledge -- so what's your theories on that?


My previous offer still stands -- if you want to send me the necessary files that you believe will cause the problem, I'm willing to try it out. I will not open email/accounts/etc. unless directed by you if it's a necessity to duplicate the issue and I will delete the files once I'm done troubleshooting. I completely understand your reluctance to provide the files; but if you think that the problem will occur on my end (I hope not; I don't want to have to restore Windows ;) ), then that seems the best way to do it because, otherwise, I'm not sure what else to suggest besides what I've already said.
Simone
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2020 4:06 am

Re: severe lockups when using POP Peeper

Post by Simone »

Yes i could be biased because i's so used to be told "it's impossible" until i basically show it's totally happening that... yes i definitively have a bias and might or might not misinterpret what is being said.

And that's the problem. SFC *reports* problems. But there are no problems.

The hashes are the ones which should have been... which okay, it's not 100% certainty of an identical non-corrupted file, but quite close.

So to triple check at one point i even had 2 identical machines and i tried the dumbest thing possible.

I straight up got a list of the files SFC says are "broken" fed it to xcopy and did a raw copy of the list of files to the second PC.

There was not a single problem booting up or anything. No hitches, nor anything.

Also: the list of broken files changes every time. And the "broken" files are regularly distanced every 2 minutes, which is weird because hitches are never regular under normal operations.

For the record. Fresh install, no updates no nothing. Yes i tried that at one point. Went as usual. Hitches and everything.

Keep in mind i also used it on windows 7 and then on windows 10 (i jumped windows 8). On windows 7 i had the same problems. I just did not know the cause back then. I thought it was the PC which was getting old. But when i got a new PC and the problems were the same... yeah. I endured just because, honestly your program saves me a lot of time.

This last computer here? Same deal, except by now the hitches have become so worse the computer freezes and straight up forgets what i was typing (previously it would just stop writing what i was typing but still keep quite a large buffer, so it was definitively useable, nowadays the buffer is just 2 or 3 characters long, probably out of security issues).

At this point i'm tempted to wave a fricking dead chicken over this thing. I've exhausted any and all things i could try.

But yes your point stands that SFC is doing something which definitively has to do with the problem. But the problem has to be connected to POP Peeper because it happens only when it's inside the system. His noodly goodness only knows what.

Also about your offer, feel free to tell me how we can do this privately the backup file is 261 MB (273'957'482 bytes) long. If you wish me to do anything, like a list of all the other programs on the system or anything, let me know.
User avatar
Jeff
Admin / Developer
Posts: 9227
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2001 9:46 pm

Re: severe lockups when using POP Peeper

Post by Jeff »

I've sent you an email to the address you've registered here. If you don't get it, send me an email at (support at esumsoft dot com).

I think that from here on out, we should continue the discussion via email.
Simone
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2020 4:06 am

Re: severe lockups when using POP Peeper

Post by Simone »

Sorry, i'm in a bit of a problem here, due to work. And also the hiccups caused by me re-installing pop peeper the other day. Will try and solve between today and tomorrow.
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