Spamming + crashes caused by "Database Update" balloon msgs (V3.9.95478.509 X32)

[Guest]

[Saiph]

I'm being spammed by "Virus Database Update" balloon messages up to 15-20 times a day. Most often, they arrive unprompted. Other times, when I leave my machine unattended for a while, return to it, and deactivate the screen saver by moving the mouse, it's almost 100% guaranteed that Comodo pops up immediately with yet another balloon message which I have to click on. Sometimes I even get 5 or more balloon message pairs ("database is being updated"/"database has been updated") in a row, and I have to sit there clicking on each one to get rid of them. This is extremely annoying, especially when I have the option set to prevent balloon messages being shown and interrupting me.

More seriously, it seems that these balloon messages are probably interfering with full-screen Direct3D/OpenGL apps which I am running. Occasionally, these apps lock up, and even trying to bring up the Task Manager with CTRL-ALT-DEL doesn't work. The only option is the reset button. Recently, I've noticed that before these lock-ups happen, my cable modem shows Internet activity of some sort, such as a "Virus Database Update" being sent down the line. I don't have any other Internet-active apps running apart from Comodo when I'm running 3D apps. And very often, when I reboot and my machine recovers from the crash, the first thing I see pop up on my screen is a Comodo "Virus Database Update" balloon. It seems as thought Comodo tries to update my anti-virus and show a balloon message (even though I'm busy running an app), the update fails because the balloon message causes my machine to freeze up, and then when I reboot and my machine recovers from the crash, Comodo tries the update again and shows me the message.

This is not a GUI "wish-list" change. The problem is far too serious and inconvenient for that. The constant spamming and potential for a machine crash clearly represents a serious bug. Please can you fix this ASAP. The easiest way to fix this would be to make the anti-virus product respect the users' wishes, and respect the option concerning balloon messages. An easy change, I would have thought. Thanks.

EDIT: This problem is not specific to the latest version of CIS - I've been having it for several months now. However, the number of daily virus database updates seems to be increasing recently, making the problem more and more inconvenient.

Machine details:
Athlon XP3200+ processor
512MB RAM
GeForce 7600GT graphics card, drivers 163.75
Windows XP Pro sp3
Crashing 3D app: Papyrus Grand Prix Legends
Other software running at crash: Comodo CIS, Rivatuner v2.23, NVidia sound mixer/volume control
D+ and F+ both set to "Safe Mode" - no special custom settings.
I usually run under an admin account as this is a single-user machine.

[EricJH]

The issue has the devs attention.

Try working around it by disabling "Show alert/notification messages" under Anti Virus --> Virus Scanner Settings --> Real Time scanning.

Does the workaround work for you or not? Let us know.

[Saiph]

Does the workaround work for you or not? Let us know.

Yes Eric, that workaround does seem to do the trick! No balloon popups at all today, and no hangs/crashes from my other software either. Excellent! Thanks a lot! 

[JJMan]

Thanks for this post and the solution. 

I had been having the same problem and foolishly assumed that unchecking the Miscellaneous > Settings > Show Balloon Messages box would fix the issue.

[Dennis2]

Please note there is a trade off with this, you do not receive virus alerts either if I remember correctly when I tried this the alert does show in the log.
Dennis

[devenroy]

Thanks for solution EricJH, i will try it, but i think dev. should look into this and make a separate tick box for disable antivirus update pop-up as its getting annoying for me & i also dont want to miss notification for virus being Quarantined as i have it on "Automatically Quarantine".

[Dennis2]

I believe there are.
I hope this option will be included in 3.10
Dennis

[Trailhound]

Just joining in to add my thanks for the work-around -- I have been frustrated with the same issues.

[LCecil]

Over past 4 days, Comodo update has caused my machine to go "Missing operating system" at the reboot.
AMD Athelon 64 2x, running XP SP3 and Mandriva 10 in dual boot.    Windows is default boot.
Running Recovery console is enough to "correct" and restore boot into WinXP, but that has not been a problem for the year+ that I have run Comodo.

Over past couple weeks, the nagging update balloon has been an irritation on the system, but I just changed the display period to 5 seconds and it was then no worse than a wife.

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