@Sagittarius59 , appreciate your feedback. Thank you for bringing the issue to our attention. Please help with the following details to troubleshoot and resolve it.  Please send me Service tag, log files from the path "%ProgramData%\SupportAssist\Client\Agent\logs\ApplicationLogs\"  and also provide step by step details on "freezing" scenario. 

Thanks,

Dell- Kumar

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.