Online Armor "not started"

[cressnet]

When starting my computer, most of the time I get the following message about Online Armor.

"The Online Armor service is not started, and you do not have permission to start it. Please contact your system administrator."

I have a standalone, personal computer in which I presume that I am the admin. The program oasrv.exe seems to be operating. Is it only operating partially?

I purchased Online Armor on June 28, 2006. I had tried Online Armor during the previous month without getting this message.

What needs to be done to not trigger the message?

Thanks.

[MaB69]

You got this message when trial period is over.
Have you tried to start OA manually ?

[Afrodude]

I'd reccomend an uninstall and a reinstall, entering your key in the process.

[Puddingalien]

are you in limited user or an admin account? I've seen this in limited because that account does not have permission, which is why I suggest checking again for this. you can go to control panel then user accounts to make sure what account it is.

[MikeNash]

When the Online Armor UI starts, the first thing it does is check to see if the OA Service has already started. If not, it attempts a start. If the start attempt fails, you receive this message.

There was a bug (I thought we had fixed it) whereby the Service is still starting, and the GUI tries to start it up - and fails - because it is in the "Starting" state. I'll log a job to have another look at this - can you please let me know - are you using the most recent version ?

You can work around the problem in two ways. The easiest is to just double click the OA icon again and the GUI will start.

The second is to wait a little at the login prompt before logging in. Windows XP will allow you to logon before all servuces are started.

Mike

[cressnet]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I checked if I have admin privileges and I am the only account on the computer as the "Computer Administrator".

It could be the problem of a second starting of the program when it is already runing. I also got the message when double-clicking on the desktop icon, yet oasrv.exe was running. Online Armor asks to allow new versions of other programs to run.

I have version 1.1.1.826 of Online Armor with a last update of 27 July '06 showing in the Online Armor window header. It has been informing me daily of updates being installed so I presume that the automatic update feature is working.

A week ago, oasrv.exe took over my computer for a couple of hours, running in the 90 percent level. After doing whatever it was doing, it has since just produced a blip of activity once in awhile. It would be nice if the program informed us as to what it is doing when it takes over the computer for an extended period of time.

Thanks for your support.

[MikeNash]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I checked if I have admin privileges and I am the only account on the computer as the "Computer Administrator".

It could be the problem of a second starting of the program when it is already runing. I also got the message when double-clicking on the desktop icon, yet oasrv.exe was running. Online Armor asks to allow new versions of other programs to run.

I have version 1.1.1.826 of Online Armor with a last update of 27 July '06 showing in the Online Armor window header. It has been informing me daily of updates being installed so I presume that the automatic update feature is working.

A week ago, oasrv.exe took over my computer for a couple of hours, running in the 90 percent level. After doing whatever it was doing, it has since just produced a blip of activity once in awhile. It would be nice if the program informed us as to what it is doing when it takes over the computer for an extended period of time.

Thanks for your support.

Hi Again,

Just on the last comment - OA should *never* do that. It sits passively until something happens, so this is an indicator that another process was doing something. Do you have many programs with "track changes" activated?


Mike

[cressnet]

Hi Again,

Just on the last comment - OA should *never* do that. It sits passively until something happens, so this is an indicator that another process was doing something. Do you have many programs with "track changes" activated?


Mike[/quote]

Hi Mike,

I don't know about anything else operating at the time. I tried to open an internet window and when nothing happened, I checked Windows Task Manager and Security Task Manager (a standalone program). Both programs were indicating the oasrv.exe was using over 90 percent of the CPU cycles over an extended period of time. I wasn't in a hurry to get on the internet, so I just let it run. I thought that it might be checking all of the 100,000 or so files that I have on the computer, like a virus checker or spy checker program.

No other program was showing a sustained amount of CPU use. Perhaps oasrv.exe and some other program got tangled up/tried to use the same space/didn't release or something. I noticed that there were comments by others about oasrv.exe using all of the CPU cycles for awhile, so it apparently happens. If it happens to me again, I'll try to capture a snapshot of the running programs.

Thanks.

[Puddingalien]

I've noticed that tie-up behavior due to trying to update. there have been some problems with update. does OA say in its window that it is getting update?
[edit: try filemon from sysinternals (get their stuff while you still can!) to see what else is running]

Oh, Mike, yeah I've never stopped having that issue with the gui/tray icon not loading. it never does in limited user for some reason. I wonder why it would manage better in admin? what would make it take longer? yeah, mum gets the error message every time, clicks it off, so there is never a tray icon. it just needs a delay programmed in, right? It could even be adaptive, so that if it notices the user has this problem it adds 5 more seconds to the delay, and does that each time till there is no problem!

[MikeNash]

If it happens to me again, I'll try to capture a snapshot of the running programs.

Thanks.

I'd like to see a screenshot (or just a comment) if you have a lot of programs with the "track changes" checkbox activated.

Mike

[cressnet]

I'd like to see a screenshot (or just a comment) if you have a lot of programs with the "track changes" checkbox activated.

Mike[/quote]

Mike,

As shown in the "Programs" screen, I have 28 out of 193 loaded programs that are checked for tracking. I have only seen a change notice from Online Armor when a known update was made to a program. By the way, I think that your program window would be more useful if you allowed it to be expandable so that lines could be read to their end and more lines displayed. Also, for the "Programs" option, have an export feature, similar to the "History" option, for a permanent record and easier examination of what Online Armor is doing. Do you really want a couple of screen shots of my checked programs?

While taking a look at what is being blocked, as shown in the "History" window, I noticed that www.tallemu.com/forums has something blocked because of the Cookie cutter rule. Oh, oh! Also, why not display the Content, Rule and Accessed From information in columns in the program "History" window (with a wider window, of course).

I am still getting the "not allowed to start" message upon computer startup. Your suggestion to wait at the "Logon" screen doesn't seem to apply now. For quite some time, I haven't seen that splash screen. Pretty, but a nuisance when there is only one user registered. Perhaps, in one of the many Windows updates, they now bypass that screen when there is only one registered user.

Thanks for the help.

[MikeNash]

Hi Again,

Of those 28 programs - do any of them do a lot of disk or registry access?

Can you tell me how large your OnlineArmor.fdb file is, please?

And - have you had a recurrence of your CPU issue?

As far as the cannot start error - I will have a look into that - its certainly a bug I thought we had already squashed.


Mike

[cressnet]

Hi Again,

Of those 28 programs - do any of them do a lot of disk or registry access?

Can you tell me how large your OnlineArmor.fdb file is, please?

And - have you had a recurrence of your CPU issue?

As far as the cannot start error - I will have a look into that - its certainly a bug I thought we had already squashed.


Mike

*****************************

Hi Mike,

1) I don't think that any of those 28 programs produce a lot of activity. The fahcore_xx (Folding At Home) writes about once an hour when executing (when I'm not using the computer), sdsetup.exe was used a week ago to update Spyware Doctor, the others I haven't knowingly used for quite awhile. (What does it take to get a PrtScr capture into this message?)

2) The onlinearmor.fdb file is 216,656 KB.

3) I haven't had a recurrance of the CPU problem.

4) The oasrv.exe seems to start up anyway. It takes selecting the desktop icon to start the Online Armor icon in the tray and then selecting the tray icon to get the Online Armor window to display.

Thanks.

[Afrodude]

Ouch! That is very large.
You most likely have tracking enabled for some applications, uncheck all of them.

I would personally reccomend you delete that file and start the SCW again (or a clean install).

Your db file shouldn't be much over a couple of MB. Yours is ~200MB.

[cressnet]

Ouch! That is very large.
You most likely have tracking enabled for some applications, uncheck all of them.

I would personally reccomend you delete that file and start the SCW again (or a clean install).

Your db file shouldn't be much over a couple of MB. Yours is ~200MB.

Hi Mike,

Well, it gets even stranger. That 216 MB file has a last "Date Modified" of 7/30/06. Now, there are two more files with 7/31/06 dates for onlineamor.fdb.3904.#01 of 193 MB and onlineamor.fdb.3904.%01 of 96 MB.

Also, I am not able to delete any of the 3 files with a message of "Cannot delete xxx. Access denied.

I'll try closing down Online Armor. Ok, shuting down Online Armor released the files so that they can be deleted.

I have restarted Online Armor and the onlinearmor.fdb file has not been recreated. After about 30 seconds of CPU activity in the 60 to 80 percent range for oasrv.exe, it now only has an occasional blip.

Do you still want me to un-check all of the checked programs in Online Armor? What is SCW?

[MikeNash]

Ouch! That is very large.
You most likely have tracking enabled for some applications, uncheck all of them.

I would personally reccomend you delete that file and start the SCW again (or a clean install).

Your db file shouldn't be much over a couple of MB. Yours is ~200MB.

Hi Mike,

Well, it gets even stranger. That 216 MB file has a last "Date Modified" of 7/30/06. Now, there are two more files with 7/31/06 dates for onlineamor.fdb.3904.#01 of 193 MB and onlineamor.fdb.3904.%01 of 96 MB.

Also, I am not able to delete any of the 3 files with a message of "Cannot delete xxx. Access denied.

I'll try closing down Online Armor. Ok, shuting down Online Armor released the files so that they can be deleted.

I have restarted Online Armor and the onlinearmor.fdb file has not been recreated. After about 30 seconds of CPU activity in the 60 to 80 percent range for oasrv.exe, it now only has an occasional blip.

Do you still want me to un-check all of the checked programs in Online Armor? What is SCW?

Hi there,

Deleting files is protected by Online Armor (as you discovered). The quickest solution is to reinstall it - I'll implement a way to reset the OnlineArmor.fdb file.

You must not run Online Armor without this file or change tracking will not work.


Mike

[Virtual Steve]

That would be the Safety Check Wizard, which you can run from here:

http://www.virtualwebdesigns.net/flash/online_armor/images/oa_avplus_scw.jpg

As far as posting screen shots is concerned, you need to have some place where you can host the images first, and then you can provide a link to where they're hosted. There are lots of sites that will allow you do this for free. Just Google for "free image hosting" if you don't have your own web server.

[cressnet]

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

I uninstalled Online Armor, obtained the current version from tallemu and reinstalled it. It installed with an onlinearmor.fdb file of 540 KB.

I ran the Security Check Wizard and the file increased to 554 KB.

I haven't had the extreme Online Armor CPU usage that I experienced previously. I'll keep checking the size of the onlinearmor.fdb file to try and determine which of my programs may be irritating OLA.

Following are the programs so far listed by OLA (also seeing if I figured out how to get a screen capture into this message).

http://usera.imagecave.com/cressnet/Misc/OLA_Programs_1.JPG
http://usera.imagecave.com/cressnet/Misc/OLA_Programs_2.JPG

Also, reinstalling OLA has me back to using the trial version (ending in 29 days). Is there a code for me to use to get back to registered status. Before uninstalling OLA, I checked but couldn't find one in "About", the usual place for display. I purchased OLA on June 28, 2006.

Thanks for the help.

[MikeNash]

Thanks to all for your suggestions.
Also, reinstalling OLA has me back to using the trial version (ending in 29 days). Is there a code for me to use to get back to registered status. Before uninstalling OLA, I checked but couldn't find one in "About", the usual place for display. I purchased OLA on June 28, 2006.

Thanks for the help.

Hit the "Register" button at the bottom an pop your key in. As far as your lists of programs, please uncheck the following:

Firefox - otherwise every site you visit which creates a temp file will get logged.

Webshots - this will download and cycle photos as your screensaver

HP PML - looks like a printer driver.

TrueVector - part of ZoneAlarm

Really, if you trust these apps then tracking should be turned off.


Mike