TAM Attachment issue

Jimmy McCaig · May 09, 2011, 05:26:34 AM

We are experiencing an issue with a few clients and wondered if anyone else has experienced the same issue and been able to reach a resolution.

When trying to view the Attachment list, users are redirected to the Homebase screen. When you use the Windows Task Manager, there is CLNTFILE shown as "not responding" and the CPU usage is 100%. We've tried to work around this issue by removing anti-virus software (AVG version 9.0) without success.

Any workaround on this issue would be appreciated.

Jimmy

Jeff Zylstra · May 09, 2011, 08:36:08 AM

What is your attachment setup? Where are the files stored temporarily until they are attached? Are there a lot of files in your attachment folder? And are there any files that don't have an extension on the file? If windows doesn't know how to handle the file type, it will lock up TAM because the file viewer in TAM will flip out.

Jimmy McCaig · May 09, 2011, 09:42:11 AM

Hi Jeff
we have a work around but it involves the entire removal of AVG from the one test pc.It does not have the issue that others are experiencing. The 'return' to homebase is on attempt to open the attachment screen which of course contains many different fie types

It appears that the issue is AVG but as we are exposed without it we need to establish which part of AVG is causing the conflict. We have a 2 year deal with AVG and just started!

Thanks
Jimmy

Jeff Zylstra · May 09, 2011, 10:29:11 AM

You're more than welcome to my ramblings and wild guesses.

I know that AVG has had some problems with its link scanner in the past, and I'm wondering if that isn't a part of what it going on here, but in a round about way. I'm wondering if it isn't considering your LAN as a "trusted zone", and is freaking out and rejecting access to these files on that machine and returning you to Homebase as an unintended result.

You might want to download and run SysInternal's Process Explorer and have it running in a window while you attempt whatever operation is causing all of this grief. In case you're not familiar with Process Explorer, it will show all file access along with any messages and errors, and hopefully give you an idea on what is going on under the surface. Good luck, and I hope this helps.

Cheers, Jeff

Jan Regnier · May 09, 2011, 10:35:21 AM

Jimmy

You indicated you are having issues with "a few clients" - is there any commonality in what attachment extensions are on those clients that are not on other clients?

Jimmy McCaig · May 09, 2011, 11:45:46 AM

Hi Jan,

thanks for getting back to me - there is no consistency re the attachment types I am afraid. It's simply a case of not being able to view any attachments with the affected client/customer. I plan to have the company who deal with our IT issues check out the AVG software per Jeff's response as this looks promising! Here's hoping.........

Jimmy

Jan Regnier · May 09, 2011, 11:53:51 AM

It's seem strange though, if it is a specific program issue that it only affects certain clients....which would lead me to think there is an issue with the client(s) rather than the program... but then I am not a "qualified" IT person and I could be way off base ---just using common sense here..

Diane Baldwin · May 11, 2011, 10:43:20 AM

Is there an update on this? We have one user (so far?) having the same problem.

Jeff Zylstra · May 11, 2011, 12:17:11 PM

Diane, Jimmy, when did this start for each of you? And have there been any Windows or TAM updates that have been applied since it started? Diane, are you also using AVG anti-virus software?

Diane Baldwin · May 11, 2011, 03:24:55 PM

It was first reported to me last Friday, by only one user. We do have AVG. I have not installed any TAM updates lately, and I'm not sure about Windows updates.

Jeff Zylstra · May 11, 2011, 04:26:53 PM

Quote from: Diane Baldwin on May 11, 2011, 03:24:55 PM
It was first reported to me last Friday, by only one user. We do have AVG. I have not installed any TAM updates lately, and I'm not sure about Windows updates.

Then I'm guessing that you have an AV update edition in common with Jimmie that might be causing you both of your issues. Might be worth comparing notes.

Jason@KiteTech · May 23, 2011, 09:53:04 AM

It's related to the Resident Shield in AVG 9. When the first attachment on the list is a large file, AVG tries to scan the preview as it loads and the entire window blows out (usually resulting in an errant process that's consuming lots of CPU.)

I've found two workarounds so far:

1. Disable the Resident Shield
2. Switch to Kaspersky

Jimmy McCaig · May 25, 2011, 10:05:17 AM

Sorry about the delay in providing an update - this has been due to my being on holiday and also the user of our test PC working part-time so there's been little overlap.

Our IT consultant has provided the following comments re action taken to date on the test PC:-

Installed standalone version of AVG 2011 and only installed the basic components. By standalone I mean not managed by the main server.

The additional components that I have not installed are...

Link Scanner
Firewall
Online Shield
Office Add in
Email Scanners

The Resident Shield that has been referred to in the posts was my initial thought to be the issue. This is a core component and if you disable it completely then there is no real point in having antivirus installed.

There is a feature of this component that allows you to exclude files or folders from being scanned by the Resident Shield. I had configured this in the old version to exclude the following folders from each PC but this didn't appear to make any difference. I have also configured the new version of AVG on *****'s PC with the same exclusions.

C:\Program Files\AVG
C:\ Program Files\Insurecom\ (this is the Commercial Lines application – this is not installed on all the PCs)
C:\wintam\
C:\Ieoffice\ (***** doesn't have this folder on her PC)
J:\ (this is the mapped drive to the Applied folder shared from the server)
UNC Path to the above server shared folder.

If ******'s PC remains ok in the next day or so then it may be that the Resident Shield and its exclusions were not functioning properly on the old version or one of the other components were causing the issue.

However, the TAM engineer who removed AVG from *****'s PC originally also configured the PC to only load the basic windows services on boot up. He had excluded all the other bits of software that loads on start-up. These included printer scanning software, Adobe updater software and various other things.

It could be one of these bits of software that was causing the issue. The next move will be to configure *****'s PC back to load all these bits and pieces at start-up and see if this makes any difference. If the issue reoccurs then it is likely to be one of these start-ups that's causing the problem.

If this doesn't cause any issues then we can concluded that it was AVG and we have sorted it with the new version and configuration. We will then roll this out to all the other PCs.

I will let you guys have a note of the outcome when we've done more testing.