Page 1 of 2

Can't install smanager, windows 7 pro (2 different PCs)

Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 3:25 pm
by jun1or
When I tried to install SManagerV1-4-8-0.exe I get an error that says:

driverinstall.exe

The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000005). Click OK to close the application.

It did finish the install but smanager.exe will not start either. (same error)

I am a network administrator (geek), I checked the obvious, this includes:
  • Common sense
    Google
    Remove, reboot, reinstall, reboot, repeat.
    Hondata forums
    Compatibility mode on(to XP sp3 and Vista sp2)
    A second windows 7 pro computer, same error!
Thanks in advance,

Mike

Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 3:38 pm
by Luke
installed in compatibilty mode?

here a "normal" install worked/work just fine.

best regards Lukas

Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 3:46 pm
by jun1or
Luke wrote:installed in compatibilty mode?

here a "normal" install worked/work just fine.

best regards Lukas
Yes, I tried compatibility mode, it's a feature of windows vista and windows 7 whereby you can fool the application into thinking it's running in windows xp or vista (or 98 or 95, etc etc etc).

I installed v1.4.2 and still got the driverupdate.exe error, however I CAN launch smanager.exe manually after that error. Something with new v1.4.8 must be causing this. I did try both PC's I have. Brand new HP 6930p laptop and brand new HP DC8000 desktop.

Mike

Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 4:20 pm
by Spunkster
Just tried this on Windows 7 64bit with no problems. What version of windows 7 are you using?

Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 5:36 pm
by jun1or
Spunkster wrote:Just tried this on Windows 7 64bit with no problems. What version of windows 7 are you using?
Windows 7 32 bit OEM HP.

I have volume license version available to test tomorrow (only slightly different)

I'll also test on at least two more systems, Dell and HP.

Very strange indeed.

Mike

Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 5:38 pm
by jun1or
jun1or wrote:
Spunkster wrote:Just tried this on Windows 7 64bit with no problems. What version of windows 7 are you using?
Windows 7 32 bit OEM HP.

I have volume license version available to test tomorrow (only slightly different)

I'll also test on at least two more systems, Dell and HP.

Very strange indeed.

Mike
You know what I bet it is now that I think of it? Symantec Endpoint Protection Corporate!

I'll test and update thread.

Mike

Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 11:25 pm
by jun1or
jun1or wrote: You know what I bet it is now that I think of it? Symantec Endpoint Protection Corporate!

I'll test and update thread.

Mike

I've disabled SEP and check all log files (10+) and that does not appear to be the problem. (I'm the SEP administrator for my company)

I'll repeat test on aformentioned Windows 7 Pro systems tomorrow.

Mike

Image

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 9:32 am
by Hondata
There are several issues here. First, during the installation the DriverInstall program is not working because Vista/7 will treat any program with 'Install' in its name as something which requires privilege elevation, which seems to stop it working when running in a silent install. It does not really make any difference for the installation - DriverInstall only runs the inf to pre-install the USB drivers. I've fixed this for subsequent releases.

Next, we've tested SManager/KManager/FlashProManager on Windows 7 32 and 64 here, and it works ok, with data execution prevention either on or off. Given that you mention Symantec then I would hazard a guess that you're running a third party anti-virus / anti-malware / etc package. In our experience, these often cause problems. Try disabling it and see what happens.

Anti-virus software can be a religious decision, but the only anti-virus / malware etc package which I am happy with is Microsoft Security Essentials. Unlike Norton / Symantec / AVG / Avast etc it does not make the system slow to a crawl, does not have many false positives and also, in my experience, detects more problems than the other. And it is free.

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 12:26 pm
by jun1or
Hondata wrote:There are several issues here. First, during the installation the DriverInstall program is not working because Vista/7 will treat any program with 'Install' in its name as something which requires privilege elevation, which seems to stop it working when running in a silent install. It does not really make any difference for the installation - DriverInstall only runs the inf to pre-install the USB drivers. I've fixed this for subsequent releases.
Thanks for your input, as always. Your comments make sense to me. For what it's worth I have disabled UAC and tried running as admin, but if you say it doesn't work due to vista/7 behavior as mentioned above, I certainly believe you. Not a major issue since I used device manager to install the s300 drivers and got around this for the driverinstall.exe portion.

Hondata wrote:Next, we've tested SManager/KManager/FlashProManager on Windows 7 32 and 64 here, and it works ok, with data execution prevention either on or off. Given that you mention Symantec then I would hazard a guess that you're running a third party anti-virus / anti-malware / etc package. In our experience, these often cause problems. Try disabling it and see what happens.

Anti-virus software can be a religious decision, but the only anti-virus / malware etc package which I am happy with is Microsoft Security Essentials. Unlike Norton / Symantec / AVG / Avast etc it does not make the system slow to a crawl, does not have many false positives and also, in my experience, detects more problems than the other. And it is free.
I did disable Symantec Endpoint Protection and it still will not allow me to run smanager.exe 1.4.8, but it will allow me to run 1.4.2 which still baffles me.

For sh*ts and giggles I installed 1.4.8 on Windows Server 2008 and it worked just fine.

Edit: while typing this I stopped and installed this on two more windows 7 pro 32 bit machines in our marketing department (useless info?). Anyway, results:

1.) HP DC8000 Small form factor, Windows 7 32 bit OEM, Symantec enabled. Result = fail, same application error on driverinstall.exe and smanager.exe

2.) HP DC7900 Small form factor, Windows 7 32 bit OEM, Symantec disabled. Result = fail, same application error on driverinstall.exe and smanager.exe

I'm fine with using 1.4.2 at this point, but still curious.

I will test tonight with a Dell D430 windows 7 ultimate 32 bit.

Mike

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 12:39 pm
by jun1or
Just tried on freshly imaged HP 6930p Elitebook. Turned off data execution prevention in the bios, and same results.

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 12:49 pm
by Spunkster
uninstall the SEP software...we have seen that sometimes just disabling this type of software does not turn it off completely.

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 4:25 pm
by jun1or
Spunkster wrote:uninstall the SEP software...we have seen that sometimes just disabling this type of software does not turn it off completely.
Sure enough, disabling all three facets to Symantec Endpoint Protection (enterprise) did not allow smanager.exe to execute, nor driverinstall.exe (nor flashpro.exe - just picked up flashpro for the S2000!), however, when I removed Symantec entirely (and rebooted) it worked fine.

That's the good news. The bad news is that I cannot go without Symantec, so smanager.exe will just not work on that laptop. I can deal with that I suppose. My question is why? Why is smanager and driverinstall and flashpro considered malware/virus/trojan?

Regardless, thanks for your input prior and testing efforts as well.

Mike

Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2010 2:53 pm
by Hondata
Contact Symantec and submit a false positive report:
https://submit.symantec.com/false_positive/

Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2010 9:49 pm
by jun1or
Hondata wrote:Contact Symantec and submit a false positive report:
https://submit.symantec.com/false_positive/
Submitted false positive report with SHA256 hash of smanager.exe and link to this thread. Thanks again.

Mike

Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 7:49 am
by jun1or
Check engine light came on during drive in this morning. Plugged in laptop and fired up smanager to check the code and what do you know.

The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000005). Click OK to close the application.

I checked the status of my false positive report with Symantec and they closed the case because no Symantec threat notification showed up for smanager.exe

Rock-----> Me <------Hard place