Another SPTD driver reboot loop

[Dominic]

I'm on Windows 7, 64bit. I've installed the 64bit SPTD from the standalone installer, then installed Daemon Tools, which seems to be 32bit only.

When I try to add a SCSI drive, it says it's going to install SPTD again, but this leads to a reboot loop, as it never finds it.

I've got Avira Anti-virus installed, but deactivated, and ZoneAlarm firewall only. I've read and followed the steps in
Registry and SPTD problems | DAEMON Pro Help

I've browsed a lot of forums, and I can't see anything new to try.

[Terramex]

Which DAEMON Tools & ZoneAlarm Firewall version exactly ?
Have you already checked the ZoneAlarm instructions here (if applicable for your version):
Security software solutions | DAEMON Pro Help

Please attach/upload a zipped Autoruns arn file (no installation required).

[Terramex]

Addendum

If you are using ZoneAlarm Free, uninstall ZoneAlarm Toolbar or close IWSVC.exe using Task Manager.

Regarding that sentence from the "Security software solutions":

Click on the Windows 7 start icon in the bottom left corner of your screen.
Type MSCONFIG in the search box and then either press enter on your keyboard
or double-click on the MSCONFIG program that appears in the search results.
Windows 7 will launch Microsoft's System Configuration Utility. Click on the Startup tab.
Uncheck Zone Alarm LTD Toolbar IswSvc and click 'OK'.
A message will pop up telling you that you must restart your computer before these changes will take effect.
After the restart SPTD should be working properly.

If you want to completely remove the Toolbar use the 'Uninstall.exe' in C:\Program Files\CheckPoint\ZAForceField

[Dominic]

Uncheck Zone Alarm LTD Toolbar IswSvc

That looks promising. The toolbar we're not using has a service running in the background? Lovely.

I'm not in a position to reboot the relevant PC at the moment, but I've marked the service disabled, and I'll post back when I've tried again.

Thanks.

[Terramex]

The toolbar we're not using has a service running in the background? Lovely.

Isn't it
I've tested many ZoneAlarm settings in VM until i realized that service is running.

Another addition just in case you're not aware of this:
SPTD is not mandatory for using DAEMON Tools, it's only required if you need advanced emulation (=virtual SCSI drives).
Without SPTD you can create so called virtual DT drives providing basic emulation - but they can mount the same image types as SCSI drives.

[Dominic]

With IswSvc deactivated, I can now create a SCSI drive. I didn't change or reinstall anything.

Sadly, the reason I needed it was to use a SecuRom CD on a PC with no CD drive, and that doesn't seem to work, with one, or all boxes on the advanced settings ticked.

I don't really want to buy a USB CD drive. I guess I need to go read some of the other threads.

Thanks for sorting this step out.

[Jito463]

The toolbar we're not using has a service running in the background? Lovely.

I'm not in a position to reboot the relevant PC at the moment, but I've marked the service disabled, and I'll post back when I've tried again.

Thanks.

Indeed, just encountered this myself after updating Alcohol (which subsequently updated SPTD). However, while I assume you've already rebooted said computer, there is a way to disable the ISWSVC.exe service without a reboot. Open services.msc and scroll down to "ZoneAlarm LTD Toolbar IswSvc Properties". Open it up, and change it to disabled. Next (and this is the important part), click on the Recovery tab. Change all three to "Take No Action". Afterwards, you can open Task Manager and end the process successfully without a reboot.

Only problem I have now, though (and I haven't attempted a reboot to see if it fixes things), is that one of my two vIDE drives I had running is malfunctioning. Shows up as "invalid" in the Virtual Drives tab in DT Pro (v 4.41.0315.0262) and I can't apply a drive letter. I think I may have caused that inadvertently. While playing around with SPTD, I finally uninstalled it; and while it was removed, I deleted the two drives from Device Manager. One of them came right back, but only one. I think it screwed up the settings for the drive once I re-enabled them. Not a major issue, as I just disabled that drive and set another vIDE drive in it's place.

Finally, nice to be back. It's been a very long time since I've been around. Hopefully, it won't take my DTools breaking for me to get a chance to come back again.

*EDIT*
Just to update, since a few things overall weren't working quite right, I decided to go ahead and reboot. It fixed my context menu issue I was also having, but the aforementioned problem with the vIDE drive has not been fixed. Not really sure if there's anything to be done about that, but as I mentioned it's not a major issue to me. I never have more than two vIDE drives active. If you have some suggestions, though, I'd love to read them.

[Terramex]

Sadly, the reason I needed it was to use a SecuRom CD on a PC with no CD drive, and that doesn't seem to work, with one, or all boxes on the advanced settings ticked.

The SecuROM checkbox only helps with very old SecuROM versions.
If your CD isn't older than 10 years, you have to create a MDS or MDX image with DAEMON Tools Pro/Ultra (or Alcohol 52%/120%) using the 'New SecuROM' profile.
Success depends on your drives' ability to perform a good topology measurement (DPM).
For CDs the DPM speed should be rather low - for DVDs 'Maximum' is the recommended speed.