EXE will not unload on exit

[ShoestringWebs]

When I exit the viewer, the PDFXCview.exe process does not always end. If I open the Viewer again while the first process is running, a second process begins but the program does not fully open.

This happens about 60% of the time. To resolve the problem, I have to manually kill the processes and try again.

Using v11.33. Usually opening a PDF attachment to a Gmail message in Firefox 3.5.3

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

The latest version is 2.42.4. I recommend updating, you seem to be using a very old version.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Thanks for the help Bhikkhu,

and ShoestringWebs, please let us know if updating solved your problem.

Cheers,
stefan

[ShoestringWebs]

Updating to the latest version seems to have solved the problem. Thank you for the suggestion; I just assumed that I had the latest.

I cannot recall from where I downloaded the older version. I just started using it last week. It may have been from an older article at Lifehacker.com

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi ShoestringWebs

thrilled to hear it. Enjoy.

[ralf]

Hello,

I encountered the same problem again with the latest build 42.9 on machine running XP32 SP3. When closing PDFX viewer the window disappears but the process still continues to run in the background. I manually have to kill it via the task manager.

Any ideas or any advice?

Regards,
Ralf

[John - Tracker Supp]

Very odd Ralph - will it literally stay resident for hours - unless you 'kill' it ?

[ralf]

Okay, actually I didn't wait for hours...

I tested it again and waited... Looks that it gets finally unloaded after about 50 seconds. But during this time the PDFXCview.exe process consumes nearly 99% of cpu time!

And when I open the viewer a second time during this period it takes about 40 seconds to start...

Very strange...

Ralf

[Cadillakin]

Okay, actually I didn't wait for hours...

I tested it again and waited... Looks that it gets finally unloaded after about 50 seconds. But during this time the PDFXCview.exe process consumes nearly 99% of cpu time!

And when I open the viewer a second time during this period it takes about 40 seconds to start...

Very strange...

Ralf

I have the same Windows setup and I have never had anything like your issue. Seems to me that you probably have some other application(s) that are interacting with the PDF Viewer.. Do you have anti-virus or security programs running resident?

You can download the great tool, Process Explorer - it's free - and see what is interacting with the viewer. Just highlight the Viewer executable in the upper left portion of the window (in the tree) Make sure "show all processes" and "show lower pane" are checked in the "view" menu of Process Explorer. All the dlls and interacting processes will be showing in the lower pane. Check and see what is there.. There should only be Microsoft and Tracker files there, with a few nls files that don't show any ownership..

That might give you some ideas.

[ralf]

Hi Cadillakin.

I already disabled my anti-virus program but it doesn't have any effect on this strange behaviour.

And this is what the process explorer shows when running PDFX viewer:


As you can see only MS and Tracker files.

When I now close the viewer, CPU load rises up to 99% and the viewer stayes in memory for another 45 to 50 seconds!


I'm now going to uninstall PDF-Xchange completely and reinstall it again. Maybe this will fix it?

Ralf

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

Do you have installed Kaspersky AntiVirus ?

[ralf]

Hi Ivan,

yes, it's Kaspersky Antivirus 2010...

Actually it seems to be a local problem on my notebook. The process-explorer shows that PDFX viewer only tries to write the HKCU reg keys to the registry when closing. Looks to me that something is blocking write access to these keys?!? This is why it takes so long to end the viewer. Or my registry is broken...

So NO bug in PDFX viewer!

Ralf

[Cadillakin]

Hi Ivan,

yes, it's Kaspersky Antivirus 2010...

Actually it seems to be a local problem on my notebook. The process-explorer shows that PDFX viewer only tries to write the HKCU reg keys to the registry when closing. Looks to me that something is blocking write access to this keys?!? This is why it takes so long to end the viewer. Or my registry is broken...

So NO bug in PDFX viewer!

Ralf

Hi Ralf..

What we sometimes find is that the security applications still have the ability to affect the desktop and the other running programs unless uninstalled or completely disabled. You can use Autoruns, another great application for this kind of troubleshooting, to see all the dlls, as well as additional files and services for everything running. They too will have ownership attached , so you can see just what is loading - even though an appllication is thought to be "disabled", - it may still have an affect on your other programs.

With Autoruns, we can uncheck all of the files owned by Kaspersky or others, reboot, and if we get no improvement, we can simply go back in, recheck the files, and reboot again.. Simple way to figure out if the program is affecting other programs. Or you can save the configuration, if possible, uninstall, and reboot.. and check things out that way.

[Oldjim]

As discussed in another thread it is almost certainly Kaspersky blocking access to certain registry keys via the self defence mechanism.
Try disabling Kaspersky Self Protection and test - that solved it for me.
I haven't checked after a reboot as I normally use sleep mode

[Chris - PDF-XChange]

Thanks for your input Cadillakin and Oldjim,

Kaspersky is the only reason for that behaviour found to date by Ivan and our team.

Glad it`s become clear.

[ralf]

Hi guys,

you're right! Kaspersky causes all these problems!

I completely deinstalled Kaspersky for test purpose and guess what? PDFX viewer immediately terminates after closing it.

Thanks for your help!

Ralf

[Chris - PDF-XChange]

Our Pleasure

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hey Ralf,

You could try another AV soft, and there are such as Avast and AVG for example that have free versions for home use and are probably no worse than the heavyweight (and bloatware at times) products.

Also a cautious approach to websites and received files helps more than the AV itself

Cheers,
Stefan

[ralf]

Hi Stefan,

looks that update a of Kasperky 9.0.0.736 causes all these problems. This update was released last week and it came via auto-update.

I know that KAV 9.0.0.736(a) was running on my machine yesterday. When I was done with my testing I reinstalled Kaspersky again. And guess what? It now stayes at 9.0.0.736! No bloody update a! And it seems that Kaspersky has already withdrawn this update since it's no longer distributed via update... And with 9.0.0.736 PDFX viewer runs fine.

My advice:
1. uninstall Kaspersky 9.0.0.736(a) completely
2. reboot maschine
3. reinstall Kaspersky 9.0.0.736 again
4. enjoy PDFX viewer

Greetings,
Ralf

[Chris - PDF-XChange]

Nice ralf,

[Kilmatead]

looks that update a of Kasperky 9.0.0.736 causes all these problems. This update was released last week and it came via auto-update.

As an addendum, I had the same trouble and followed the above suggestion - indeed it worked - though as a follow-through I downloaded the most recent installer of KIS (labeled 736 critical fix 2); when this installs, it's version display shows that it does include the (a) patch after all - but it does not evince the same conflict with PDFX.

I can only conclude that the conflict originated during the auto-installation of KIS (a), not as a result of (a) itself.

In short, there's no particular need to avoid the upgrade, only the automatic upgrade, it would seem.

[ralf]

Hi Kilmatead,

in the meantime I'm also back on 9.0.0.736(a)... Nevertheless the problem doesn't return! Everything is still running perfect!

So the new advice is:
1. download latest KAV installer
2. uninstall KAV completely
3. reboot
4. re-install KAV by running the latest installer
5. enjoy PDFX viewer

Ralf

[John - Tracker Supp]

Thanks guys - much appreciated !!

[shs1604]

The PDFXCview.exe (some 22 KB) doesn't exit from main storage when closed, thereby blocking newly issued calls for viewing PDF files for some 45 seconds and occupying some 50% of CPU perfomance.
New calls for PDF viewing during that time-frame will result in additional instances of PDFXCview.exe (all some 5 KB).
After that some 45 seconds, where the initial PDFXCview.exe comes to end, all other newly created instances will be reunified into one PDFXCview instance.
I'm currently running Win XP SP3

[shs1604]

Sorry, just recognized that Kaspersky is suspected to cause this problem.
Actually, I'm runinng KIS 2010.
So, I need to check out the already given hints first ...
Will post the outcome ..

[shs1604]

Indeed, KIS 2010 caused this problem.
I downloaded latest version from Kaspersky's home page,
deinstalled my current KIS 2010 while keeping the profile,
and installed the new KIS 2010 again (version 9.0.0.736))

After that PDFXCview worked fine.

[ralf]

Hi shs1604,

glad to hear that this solution also works for you!

Ralf

[Chris - PDF-XChange]

We are glad as well, cheers to all