I Found Bug in True Image Home
I am running Acronis True Image Home on Windows 7 Ultimate, 64bit, Dell Precision T7500.
I noticed that my system was running too many "dllhost.exe" processes. I would kill them all, or reboot. Without touching the system, the number of "dllhost.exe" processes would continue to grow. In a day's time, it was typical to see 70-100 dllhost.exe processes without doing anything else on the system, just sitting without any operator intervention.
At first, I believed I had a Trojan, or malware. I ran SUPERantispyware, MalwareBytes, plus two antivirus programs. I ran Windows Security Essentials which found nothing. I loaded AVG antivirus which found nothing.
Next, I ran ProcMon from Microsoft System Internals distro, and downloaded Process Hacker to help find what was causing this problem. This problem is caused by one of the three Acronis True Image Home background processes that schedule and control the backup process. I failed to write down the names. But, there are only three labeled Acronis. I killed those three processes, and not a single dllhost.exe process has launched and stayed "hung"; that was 24 hours ago.
What appears to be happening is this: dllhost.exe is a Windows process that launches and causes execution of DLL files. Once the DLL is finished running, dllhost.exe should terminate. If the dllhost.exe didn't terminate everything the service was needed, it wouldn't take long before your system would be out of memory. These are what I call from UNIX as "zombie" processes - They take up memory and system resources, but do absolutely nothing.
I saw other processes calling for dllhost.exe. But, when finished, the dllhost.exe would terminate and disappear. Acronis True Image Home 2012 is not always freeing up the dllhost.exe, but leaving it hanging until the count grows to a large number. Once I shut down the three Acronis background processes, I see a normal dllhost.exe action, where it is launched, then shortly disappears.
This has been reported a few times with this version.
At a minimum and without much fuss you could run the installer again and select repair.
Or you could uninstall and reinstall. If uninstalling/reinstalling then use msconfig to ensure no other progs are interfering with the operations and be sure to use administrator rights when running the installer.
Before you return to normal startup with msconfg, run ati and see if the prob persists. If not, then return to normal startup and see if it happens then.
I have the latest build as observed on the Acronis site. I have uploaded the files and responded to your private message with some other details.
Hello Raymond,
Thank you for the provided diagnostic files.
I've submitted a separate case to investigate the issue. Appropriate person will take care of the request.
We will contact you as soon as possible.
Thank you.
Is there already a solution? I have experienced the same problem.
(Win 7 64, deinstallation of previous version, run of cleaning program, installation of Build 7119)
Best regards,
KL
PS. This textbox is in Russian
Hello Klaus,
Thank you for your report.
We've created a fix for Raymond, but we were unable to verify it because the issue was fixed by installing the latest update.
If you experience the issue using the latest build, please let us know about it, I will send you the necessary file.
We are awaiting for your response.
Thank you.
Dear Oleg,
as mentioned already in my comment, the error shows with the latest build 7119. I repeat that the installation was done as recommended (deinstallation, cleaning, installation of build 7119). With build 7119 there was another (minor) error with previous backups. These were found but showed only as "Recovery" but not as "Backup" in the backup list. Thus I had to rebuild my backup tasks manually.
The most serious error was that TIH runs in background. I would very much appreciate if you could send me a fix.
Best regards,
KL
PS. If you look into all threads concerning build 7119 you will certainly come to the conclusion that a corrected build 7119 is urgently needed, probably by thousands (!) of users.
PPS. I see this thread still in Russian, which causes some difficulties. I am quite sure that I have not selected this language! How could I?
Dear Klaus,
Thank you for your response.
I will send you the file in an hour. Meanwhile, please check the settings of your browser, if you use Google Chrome, please go to the Tools section -> Settings -> Advanced settings -> Check the item Languages.
Thank you.
Dear Oleg,
thank you very much.
I am using Windows Explorer and I do not see any other page in Russian.
Best regards,
Klaus
Dear Klaus,
Please accept my apologies for the delay.
I am sending a file to your via Private messages.
Thank you.
Dear Oleg,
thank you very much for the file. I regret to say that with this file (I copied it as recommended and did a cold restart) things are getting even worse. I cannot start TIH anymore. I am really shocked by such a quality.
Please inform me when this issue has been solved.
Best regards,
KL
Dear Klaus,
Thank you for getting back to us.
Are you able to provide us with a remote access to your system?
We are awaiting for your response.
Thank you.
PS. I could not delete your file, Windows Explorer did not work properly (COM Surrogate?????) and I had to reinstall the program. Congratulations! Please send never ever such an erroneous file out that damages the whole PC.
I regret that I cannot allow access to my PC since it contains confidential data.
Best regards,
KL
PS. Build 7119 has another (minor) error: whenever I open TIH after a previous shut down, the sequence of the backup list is reversed from (previous) A..Z to Z..A.
Information for the members of this thread:
I have received a fix, which damaged my whole operating system. Windows Explorer did not work properly, and there were several other problems. I first deinstalled TIH, applied the cleaner and reinstalled build 7119. Since this did not resolve the problems, I had to recover my whole system to a state prior to the installation of the fix. After this restore I deinstalled build 7119, applied the cleaner and installed build 6154. The problems observed with build 7119 were gone, I even see in this thread no longer Russian text.
In the meantime another fix was offered to me that I rejected to install.
I cannot exclude that I have made an error in the whole installation process. However, the installation is more or less straightforward and I have used the same procedure for installing build 6154. To conclude: I am waiting for an official new release.
KL