Problems with antimalware defender update 4.18.2202.4

BrianInEngland · Mar 15, 2022

Earlier today my partner's Forza Horizon 5 game crashed (it's done that a few times). Went to the Event viewer to see what happened - Event viewer wouldn't load, it was just the circle going round. Closed Event viewer, tried again, there was a message 'waiting for all snap-ins to load'. Nothing happened after that.
Opened Reliability Monitor, again nothing happened for ages, then it showed up completely blank as if it was a new Windows install.

Did a repair install, which took a very long time, much longer than the usual 20-30 minutes.

Here's where the fun starts - my PC did EXACTLY the same thing - no Event viewer, Reliability monitor not loading. Yes, two completely different PCs doing exactly the same thing this evening.

At first we thought it may be the new AMD chipset driver, we've both rolled back to the previous one but the problem hasn't gone away.
The only other explanation is an issue with the AnitMalware platform update yesterday. The problem started after that was installed.

boombastik · Mar 15, 2022

Same think to me. Restart your machine and disable windows defender real time and check. With disabled defender pc works with enabled some programs dont open.

BrianInEngland · Mar 15, 2022

boombastik said:
Same think to me. Restart your machine and disable windows defender real time and check. With disabled defender pc works with enabled some programs dont open.

This must be an issue with the Antimalware platform update earlier today

DigitalGoat · Mar 15, 2022

Don't have this issue, Intel based system, up to date.
Defender versions:

boombastik · Mar 15, 2022

@DigitalGoat This problem start after a restart.

boombastik · Mar 15, 2022

More findings if you open cmd, the antivirus will start freezing anything. The problem is the Antimalware platform update because i downgraded with a backup image that i have with macrium reflect and the when it updates the problem will start.
What is this magic....

glasskuter · Mar 15, 2022

I'm intel and fully updated. Not seeing any of those problems.

boombastik · Mar 15, 2022

It seems that my two affected pc fixed with the definition update : 1.361.67.0

BrianInEngland · Mar 16, 2022

boombastik said:
It seems that my two affected pc fixed with the definition update : 1.361.67.0

I got 1.361.71 this morning, let's see what happens...

Update: Just restarted the PC, the problem is back

cereberus · Mar 16, 2022

As always, it can be a detective exercise.

First thing is to see if you get issue in safe mode.

Next clean install OS in a bootable vhd and update to latest build

Then install apps one by one, testing as you go along.

BrianInEngland · Mar 16, 2022

cereberus said:
As always, it can be a detective exercise.

First thing is to see if you get issue in safe mode.

Next clean install OS in a bootable vhd and update to latest build

Then install apps one by one, testing as you go along.

It's a weird problem that two PCs had yesterday. It seems to be ok again now, after Windows was loaded up for a while

BrianInEngland · Mar 16, 2022

boombastik said:
More findings if you open cmd, the antivirus will start freezing anything. The problem is the Antimalware platform update because i downgraded with a backup image that i have with macrium reflect and the when it updates the problem will start.
What is this magic....

Well it's an annoying problem but as it's not just my PC I'm not overly concerned about it being a hardware issue. Mine plus one other in the house, and yours as well

BrianInEngland · Mar 16, 2022

cereberus said:
As always, it can be a detective exercise.

First thing is to see if you get issue in safe mode.

Next clean install OS in a bootable vhd and update to latest build

Then install apps one by one, testing as you go along.

That's a lot of work when it wasn't just happening on one PC

cereberus · Mar 16, 2022

BrianInEngland said:
That's a lot of work when it wasn't just happening on one PC

Most likely it is an app affected by update. In the end, this sort of issue is not easy to find. Yiu could try and install last update.

BrianInEngland · Mar 16, 2022

cereberus said:
Most likely it is an app affected by update. In the end, this sort of issue is not easy to find. Yiu could try and install last update.

This was happening before the latest CU yesterday. I uninstalled it anyway and the problem persists. The other PC here didn't have the CU before we noticed the problem

boombastik · Mar 16, 2022

The problem is back.
If you disable all protections in defender and restart and then enable only realtime protection without the two cloud options (protection and sample sumbition) and the self defence option (the last option,i dont remenber the english name for it because i have greek windows), it will work.

BrianInEngland · Mar 16, 2022

boombastik said:
The problem is back.
If you disable all protections in defender and restart and then enable only realtime protection without the two cloud options (protection and sample sumbition) and the self defence option (the last option,i dont remenber the english name for it because i have greek windows), it will work.

I can't disable Cloud protection, it may be because I'm on Release Preview or there's some other reason it's enabled but not selectable.

boombastik · Mar 16, 2022

With AveYo tool i will install above 11 windows the 10 (downgrade) and i will tell the result.
I see that we have creative soundcards can you check if you uninstall sound card drivers what happens?
(without internet to protect download )

RD Mercer · Mar 16, 2022

I'm still have "some" random freezes, not a many as before, mine only happen in my browsers, Edge and Chrome, it never freezes or acts up, unless I'm browsing the web.

BrianInEngland · Mar 16, 2022

boombastik said:
With AveYo tool i will install above 11 windows the 10 (downgrade) and i will tell the result.
I see that we have creative soundcards can you check if you uninstall sound card drivers what happens?
(without internet to protect download )

I'm not able to uninstall the soundcard right now, have you tried it?