Sygate Personal Firewall causing crash on startup???

I have had a persistent problem that my troubleshooting seems to point to Sygate. here is the problem, and the reason for my deduction:

Win2K, SP4, ran entire "Preliminary House Cleaning." System is clean, and I have saved BDScan, ActiveScan and HJT logs.

System runs fine, but upon reboot, desktop icons appear, then pc crashes and reboots. BTW, "Startup & recovery" option not set to Automatically Reboot, but it still does!

I can boot into Safe Mode, but not normal boot.

The only programs that run at startup are Avast AV and Sygate FW.

It seemed to me that after the icons loaded, either Avast or Sygate were loading when I crashed. Neither load in Safe Mode...

I removed both from my Startup folder and reboot. Avast still loaded, but not Sygate, and all was well : )

I was then able to start Sygate and remain up.

I have had this problem for quite some time, and in the past, after several reboots it would finally boot, and I always suspected Sygate; it seemed like it was trying to boot and crashed while Sygate was loading, but I guess sometimes it would manage to boot up before Sygate caused the crash, and that is why it would take repeated boots.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Does anyone want to see any logs?

Thanks for any feedback,
Aiko

 

No feedback for this?

 

Okay I would definately get rid of Sygate! Try Zone Alarm (free). Search for and download Your Uninstaller! 2006 (free 21 day trial). Install then goto Safe mode and uninstall both apps "properly", above app will scrub the Registry of their presence and then reinstall. Seriously dump Sygate and try another FW, firstly the have been shown to install "rootkits" on peoples systems and secondly the have been bought out by symantec. Either way there are serious integrity issues with this product.

 

That's the first time I heard this. I thought at one time Sygate was highly recommended.

You suggest using the Unisnstaller to remove "both apps." What is the second app besides Sygate?

Also, what are "rootkits"?

Thanks for the advice, and thanks for feedback on my two new questions.

Anyone else have any comments about Sygate?

 

"Rootkits" in and of themselves are NOT malicious. Much of the recent publicity regarding rootkits has been negative. A "rootkit" is used to hide system processes and files from human eyes and other programs. There are "legit" uses for "rootkits"; such as hiding the critical system processes and files of Firewall and AV apps from malicious programs.

If you are having a problem with Sygate, yes uninstall it. Reinstall the program after your have used a decent reg cleaner to remove any orphaned registry entries. If the problem persists, then by all means change Firewalls. A word of caution ZoneAlarm can cause significant degradation is system performance.

 

Hmm. Well, my original question was whether anyone else experienced my symptoms, or whether it was likely they were being caused by Sygate.

I would still like to know the answer to that.

Does Sygate sometimes get glitchy and start to cause problems on a system that are resolved by an uninstall and reinstall?

Thanks again for the feedback,
Aiko

 

Experienced that problem with Sygate? No, but with other programs that load at start up yes. This sort of behavior is almost always caused by a corrupt file; which one, your guess is as good as mine.

Often uninstalling the 'suspect' program, then cleaning the registry of any orphaned entries, deleting the program directories; and installing the software again, after a sytem reboot, solves the problem.

 

So then i may have been on the right track when I determined that Sygate in the Startup Folder was the cause of the problem.

I guess I will try an uninstall and reinstall. What do you recommend for cleaning the registry after the uninstall?

Thanks again,
Aiko

 

BTW, SPD, what FW do you recommend?

Aiko

 

Registry Cleaners, either one of these:
RegCleaner: http://www.majorgeeks.com/RegCleaner_d460.html
Lexun RegScrubXP: http://www.majorgeeks.com/Lexun_RegScrubXP_d2048.html

As far as a firewall:
Sygate Personal Firewall, even though it is discontinued, remains my personal favorite.
ZoneAlarm Free, is very good, however some have experienced performance slow downs and other issues. AVAST and ZA don't play well with each other.
Kerio Personal Firewall, is very agressive.

 

May help with your Sygate Personal Firewall

Hi,
You have not mentioned which windows you are using and also are you using the version of "Free Sygate Personal Program???
Although the Sygate Personal Firewall may have been discontinued there is still a Forum Site running at Web Page of

http://forums.sygate.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=8

Have a look within at the subject of

smc not responding) windows/98 backtask message

And within this section there is link to the older version 5.5 2710 which I have on my other extra computer laptop running Windows ME

The later Version of Sygate gave me quite a few problems//
By using the Ver.2710 all is Ok

Hope may help
Regards

 

This was my guess corruption somewhere and I was suggesting to uninstall both and reinstall because although it seems that the FW was impaired this can sometimes be caused by another app. I had troubles with Windows Defender (WD) recently and it caused the corruption of NOD32, Outpost Pro FW, etc. So I not only had to uninstall Windows Defender but also the other apps and reinstall all and everything worked like a charm again. I did try to just do WD but the other apps were still impaired and thus all had to be done. So I am suggesting just to be safe to do both the FW and AV. Your Uninstaller! 2006 will clean your registry as well as remove the apps, excellent product in my book.

Although in some cases rootkits maybe for software safety issues and legit any company that installs hidden software on your system without full disclosure becomes seriously questionable in my book.

 

In response to Maybeck: my original post does state that I am using Win2K, SP4, but I did fail to mention the ver. of Sygate: Free Personal ver. 5.6 build 2808.

In response to Bold Eagle: I don't know what, if any, second (or third...) app is corrupt; it may be that only the Sygate is, no? I guess I need to start there, and if that does not resolve the issue, dig deeper.

Lastly, Shadow mentions that ZA and Avast don't play together nicely, and my initial post states I am using Avast (Home Edition 4.7)

Thanks for all the great advice.

I welcome any further insight.

Aiko

 

I have encountered the ZA and Avast issue that SPD spoke of, and that was the reason that I switched to Sygate, and like him, it is my personal favorite, although support has been discontinued for the free version. Both machines that had the ZA/Avast problem were HP computers.