SA, exe files

They are probably just the actual Dell Support Assist

Noticed these files too over here.

Dell of all companies should know that "phobos" is Trojan malware that was discovered in October 2017. See link:

http://www.removemalware.guide/tips-to-uninstall-phobos-ransomware-from-windows-7810

And, phobos means fear in Greek, so of course, I'm afraid.

Dell should either changed the name of the files to actually say Dell or delete them from our PCs. There's already enough junk & bloatware that come with PCs in the first place. Now we have to deal with Dell adding to this mess after owning the PC for more than 3 years?!

I've also noticed phobos.exe.config and phobos.exe.nlog

My google searches aren't coming up with any solutions. This post was the only one I was able to find concerning Phobos.

Here's what I've found today.

Phobos in file location and Task manager

Anyone who can uninstall the entire Dell Support Assist, & permanently, please PM me - I'll gladly pay $5,000 for your service.

Now, my mouse is so jittery it is practically unusable, because the cursor keeps lagging & jumping all over the screen.

For the life of me I will never understand why Dell came up with this intrusive software. So, to catch issues that would occur only about 1% of the time for a few users, they created problems that occur with high frequency for all their customers? Seriously mind boggling!!!

On Windows, you can find how to uninstall it by going to C:\Program Files\Dell\SupportAssistAgent and reading through the Readme.txt file included there. As for if it's permanent, I don't know. I haven't had time to test if it was or not.

I went back to a Windows restore point before SupportAssist went bonkers and then deleted all Dell software using the normal windows uninstall interface as soon as the computer booted up. I am free of all Dell software now. Sad. I used a free third-party driver scanner and updater program, one of 10 mentioned in a Lifewire article, and then uninstalled that program as soon as all 12 drivers that needed updating were installed. 

You can write me that check now. : )

:BigSmile::Gift: Thanks for the suggestions, but I don't need to quarantine SupportAssist as desperately anymore.

Did a clean boot to isolate the software that was causing the conflict with the mouse. Turns out to be my printer. The ink is about to run out, so I think the alert message was causing a conflict in the background. Will mention this to customer support.

Sorry to Dell for initially taking this out on them :Embarrassed: , but I still think Phobos is a poor choice to name your software.

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@SLHSLHwrote:

I went back to a Windows restore point before SupportAssist went bonkers and then deleted all Dell software using the normal windows uninstall interface as soon as the computer booted up. I am free of all Dell software now. Sad. I used a free third-party driver scanner and updater program, one of 10 mentioned in a Lifewire article, and then uninstalled that program as soon as all 12 drivers that needed updating were installed. 

You can write me that check now. : )

 

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:BigSmile::Gift: Thanks for the suggestions, but I don't need to quarantine SupportAssist as desperately anymore.

Did a clean boot to isolate the software that was causing the conflict with the mouse. Turns out to be my printer. The ink is about to run out, so I think the alert message was causing a conflict in the background. Will mention this to customer support.

Sorry to Dell for initially taking this out on them :Embarrassed: , but I still think Phobos is a poor choice to name your software.

Would like to know the answer as well. I noticed there also seems to be another "conhost.exe" process running now unless I just hadn't noticed it. I don't understand the need for program after program when I don't use any of them and never had the need to.

Today I've begun experiencing the same thing. High internet usage and CPU usage from Phobos.exe and Phobos.core appears to be pulling a lot of data even after I killed the process. Thing is, the only facts I can find about Phobos being malware are on those terrible SEO sites written by who-knows-who.

I don't have a printer.

I uninstalled the Dell Support Center and all references to Phobos, we'll see what happens.

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@ehjumpwrote:

...

Did a clean boot to isolate the software that was causing the conflict with the mouse. Turns out to be my printer. The ink is about to run out, so I think the alert message was causing a conflict in the background. Will mention this to customer support.  ...

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In the spirit of full disclosure I want to inform you of the outcome of my contacting Brother.

As I said I would, I emailed the printer customer support telling them about the software conflict issue and they fixed their printer driver & sent the update to me today. I'm impressed with the quick turnaround - a big thumbs up to the customer support!!

It's not something harmful, it's just part of PC-Doctor. 

Thanks @Zinapse.

Please be assured that Phobos.exe is not harmful as it is neither malware nor virus. It is a SupportAssist process which runs in the background along with DSAPI.exe for Dell hardware support. We heard your concern and this file is being renamed to be more product specific and appropriate. We are releasing a hotfix in early June to rename this file.  Thanks for all your feedback.

Thanks,

Dell - Kumar 

#iwork4Dell

I think i may have posted my problem with Support Assist on the wrong board so am re posting here. I have 2 Dell XPS 8930 purchased 6 months ago , both of which came with Support Assist preinstalled.

About 10 days ago, I updated to Version 2.2.253 and since then I get an App Crash message every day in the reliability monitor. The message is:

Description
DellInc.DellSupportAssistforPCs_htrsf667h5kn2!App
Faulting Application Path: C:\Windows\System32\backgroundTaskHost.exe

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: POFContextAppCrash
Package Full name: DellInc.DellSupportAssistforPCs_3.0.0.0_x64__htrsf667h5kn2
Application name: praid:App
Application Version: 3.0.0.0
Error Code: 0x80131577
Signature: 0d827c14fcc7fe044304f9ecccaa3756
OS Version: 10.0.17134.2.0.0.768.101
Locale ID: 15369

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: 0a90847f614596532ff82266111d2e3d (2303629031169142333)

Am running Windows 10 (with the latest Features update version 1803)

I have tried uninstalling and re-installing but have the same problem.

I also have a Dell Precision 5520 but have had no problems at all with the new version of Support Assist.

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated.