Comodo firewall would not install - XPpro SP3, AVG antivirus, Dell D505 laptop

[Guest]

[fotyc]

I have been running Sygate Personal Firewall for YEARS - it is now out of support and I thought I should get something more modern, so I searched around and Comodo gets by far the best reviews everywhere.  So I downloaded the free version, uninstalled Sygate, and attempted to install just the firewall.

I spent hours on it yesterday and finally gave up.  I installed it and let it scan for malware.  It hung the computer.  I forced the computer off with the on/off switch and when it restarted I could not see that Comodo had installed.  I tried again.  Same thing happened but it got to the point where it had a desktop icon.  It went into 'Initializing' or whatever and hung the computer.  I could not do anything with it.  I had to boot in safe mode to uninstall it.  I tried the entire operation again and the same thing happened, finally uninstalled in safe mode and put Sygate back up, but I keep thinking it must be my fault somehow...  Was I supposed to disable my antivirus first?  Is there something incompatible in the background that made this happen?  The Windows firewall may also be enabled, could that cause this?

I have not seen anyone else run into a computer that just hangs after Windows starts, so I thought I'd post.  I hate to give up on a product so many people seem to like.  Thanks!

[panic]

G'day,

As a test, try disabling all other security related software before installing CIS. You shouldn't have to disable other software, but some earlier versions of CIS and CFP did have a problem with some security software running during it's installation.

Please post the results back here, in case others have the same issue.

Cheers,
Ewen :-)

[fotyc]

OK I still failed, but I feel duty bound to report back...
I disabled AVG antivirus and Spy Sweeper.  I have AdAware on my computer and it seems to now come with some Ad Watch thing that I was unable to disable.
The installation (Firewall only) went smoothly and the scan (35 minutes or so) was clean.  Then it prompted for restart and I restarted.

The computer restarted, the Comodo desktop shortcut appeared, the System Tray icons began to appear, I got my wireless card and my volume control, then a few minutes went by, then the Comodo icon appeared in the tray.  I waited...  After about 10 minutes I wanted to see what was the holdup so I tried to get Task Manager to show up.  It never did.  3 or 4 minutes after that, the Comodo window opened (apparently it has summary system info on it but I have never seen it as it won't display all the way) with the 'initializing' text on the bottom left.  At this point the CPU pegged (the only text I could read on the window was 'System 100%' sort of in the middle on the right) and the system tray clock even stopped incrementing the minutes.

After another 10 minutes of complete stasis, I forced it off and restarted in safe mode and uninstalled and went back to my 2004 Sygate firewall again and the computer runs fine.  It's not a new computer but it is 1.4 gHz or something which ought to be enough for a firewall.  Anyway I don't have 45 minutes to try this again unless I'm sure what was wrong and that I can fix it.   

[panic]

This may be related to another issue (100% CPU usage) that is going to be addressed in a "soon but don't know exactly when" update.

I'll send you a PM and an email when it is released if it is proven to get rid of the 100% issue.

Cheers,
Ewen :-)

[fotyc]

Thanks.... out of curiosity, what is the cause of the issue?  - other stuff running on the machine? some other OS quirk?

[Tags:]