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Considering updating to 2017, but ...

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My question involves both 2015 and 2017. I would appreciate it if you read my comments posted on 2015 and advise me.

I'm happy to upgrade if the upgrade solves the problem. Bottom line: I'm dependent on Acronis to provide a quick system restoration.

Thank you! Vic

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What is your screen/monitor resolution? My dad had an issue with the menus not showing fully, as he used a rather low screen resolution (so that everything would be very large). Once he changed to a higher and more common resolution, everything worked properly.

When you experience this hangup does the computer eventually unfreeze and start working?  If so, do applications you tried to start suddenly start?  If so, I have had a similar problem on one of three computers.  

All 3 are currently running ATI 2017 on Win 10 CU.  The problem on this one computer has existed off and on since I first went to Win 10 about 6 months after it was released.  I think I was on ATI 2015 then.  I've gone through ATI 2015, 2016, and 2017 on all 3 computers..  I've gone through the original Win 10, AU, and CU on all 3 computers.  The problem has existed regularly on one, rarely on the 2nd, and never on the 3rd.  The level of Win 10 and the version of ATI did not change this.

The problem happens very rarely now and I cannot point to anything that fixed it.  In particular, I cannot point to ATI.

One thing I did do was make sure ATI did not retry failed or missed backups on startup.  That was because I wanted to eliminate ATI as a potential cause of the problem, and retrying a backup was the only thing I thought ATI might be doing on its own shortly after rebooting or waking my computers.

I've also disabled all Acronis tasks I do not need.  The Acronis Scheduler is the only task I run. 

Tuttle: Screen resolution was "normal" and did not change: 1366 X 768.

Patrick: My Windows 10 system is at the Creators Update level.

Acronis 2015 is definitely the smoking gun. The problem happened immediately after I installed 2015 and backed up the PC.

I wound up "fixing" all but one of the three user accounts on one of the PCs by going back to an earlier system restore point. It basically un-installed Acronis 2015.

Another PC that I have has no useful system restore points and no useful backup, and besides Acronis has been installed since 2015. Microsoft suggested I wipe out all installed apps and refresh the system. It is drastic and will take a long time to recover.

Thank you both for your response. - Vic

 

A clean install of Windows is often a successful (and painful) solution to problems like that.  If you end up doing that, I suggest you take a system image backup (with a non-Acronis program if you prefer) and reinstall ATI.  I predict it will no longer cause the problem, but you will be able restore your system if ATI does cause the problem again.

You said the problem immediately after you installed 2015.  But in the other thread you said the  problem appeared after the first reboot following the first successful Acronis backup. Is that correct?  That sort of implies that the hangup was due to one of the Acronis background services (if Acronis is involved at all).  I wish I knew how to diagnose problems like that.

Assuming you haven't yet done the clean reinstall of Win10 on the one unfixed PC, what happens if you bring it up in Safe Mode?

 

In reply to by truwrikodrorow…

Good idea, Patrick. I do have a non-Acronis backup and a spare SSD, but the backup flawed with the start menu issue. I'll try safe mode and drop you a line after. I may uninstall Acronis as well. Thank you again, Vic

In reply to by truwrikodrorow…

Well, I'm not driven by altruism. :-)  I still have occasional freezes and am very interested in getting to the bottom of it.  My freezes happen so seldom now that I've lost my chance to diagnose.  And if it is Acronis somehow causing this, Acronis support needs to know about it.

While I could never tie Acronis to my freezes, I've had ATI start backups right after a reboot - restarting failed or missed backups I assume - so I know it does something right after Windows startup.  I don't have "Run at system startup with delay" set on any backup option, but something in ATI must check for that shortly after startup so I has opportunity to cause problems.

By the way, your problem and mine are probably not the same, and even if they are the same it must be a rare problem or we would see more reports of it here.  At the very least the MVPs here would probably be aware of it and say something.  So we can assume that Acronis support is not going to suddenly come up with a solution.  We can also assume that if Acronis is part of the problem, Acronis is probably interacting with some other environment-specific software.  What security package do you use?  I use Kaspersky Internet Security.

Patrick,

 

Norton comes free with my Comcast high speed internet connection. I have a paid subscription to Malwarebytes.

I use both. Norton seems pretty inactive, but Malwarebytes gets excited on some websites. Nothing is foolproof. Once Malwarebytes had "over-protected" me, and I couldn't print to my Wi-fi-connected printer. Another time it was sopping up cycles, causing my HP laptop to run at very high occupancy. But their tech support was really responsive. I give them high marks for fixing what breaks. I've been in IT development, and we had really amazing QA, but every once in a while something unpleasant snuck through. 

I'm afraid you misunderstood my question.  I was just trying to determine if we used the same security package and therefore might have an interaction between it and Acronis.  The answer is "No".  I figure that multiple products that both set hooks in Window's file access code (like ATI and security packages) could step on each other's toes.

Patrick,

Interim new information: When I uninstalled Acronis True Image 2015 from the HP Laptop (instead of just the system restore), normal operation was restored for all users. (Two users were OK, the third was not.) Acronis software was, unfortunately, the smoking gun. Larger issues remain for the desktop PC. The backup SDD appears to be inoperative. I don't want to tamper with an 80%-working system. When new media arrives, I'll backup to it using the best backup image I have and then proceed with experimentation. I'll catch up with you soon. Thank you again for your advice. Vic

I have never noticed this issue on any of my systems. The only suggestion is to report the issue to Acronis technical support. They may be able to find something in the log files that explains what is going on. Not sure that they will do anything for the ATI 2015 installation as it could be outside the free support period. However, if you combine the 2017 and 2015 issue they may look into it.

If the problem is related to ATI and a solution is found, it will probably be after ATI 2018 is released. Updates for older versions are exceptional; there is often one just after the release of the new version, but after that only for critical bugs.

Interesting thoughts, Ian. Acronis 2015 is installed in my desktop PC, which does not function properly. It's been there for a long time. I want to restore to another SSD (using a non-Acronis image) and then selectively remove software. That may or may not fix the issue. Microsoft's diagnostics did not find the issue. Also, SFC and DISM came up clean. At this point there are more questions than answers. Maybe at the end of the exercise I'll know more. It is also possible that I won't be able to fix the desktop system and will have to refresh Windows 10 and re-install apps (ouch). I promise I'll get back to you and Patrick in any event. It is probably going to be at least a couple of weeks. The new SSD will get here when it gets here. We don't pay for Prime.

Just because Acronis 2015 was the smoking gun for the HP Laptop, it might not be the smoking gun for the Desktop PC. I may never find the smoking gun.

Thank you for the thoughts,

Vic

 

 

 

Not sure if this helps but I'm on Windows 10 and had to fall back to 2014 in order to clear up a number of issues that started with 2015 and continued on 2016. 2014 has been working flawless on Windows 10.

However the last three days I've switched to 2017 Essential and no issues so far.

Michael,

Yes, it does help. I ran into issues for 2015. I didn't buy 2016. I'll take a look at 2017. I have two Windows systems running. One without 2015 but with a non-Acronis backup which I've not tried to recover with and a limping-along system with 2015.

Thank you again,

Vic

 

 

 

May I suggest you wait a week or two for the release of ATI 2018, and tryout the trial version. The beta testing finished yesterday and we were told that 2018 will be released soon.

Ian