Warning: Iolo System Mechanic 8

This is a warning for people looking for info on system utilities like Symantec Norton SystemWorks, Iolo System Mechanic, etc., for disk error scanning and repair, file system optimization/defrag, security, and registry optimization. Stay away from Iolo System Mechanic!

I bought the latest Iolo release, System Mechanic 8, last week and it generated script errors the very first time it ran. It now GP faults every time it starts up, without making it through the initialization process or ever getting to a screen where I can change settings. I have never gotten it to run successfully, and support has not responded to my inquiries at all, now 5 days later.

I am an experienced software engineer, seldom requiring support of any kind and in fact much more often providing it to others, and my machine is virus and spyware free. I also attempted removal and then reinstall without my usual firewall or anti-spyware components running to ensure there was no interference, etc., but to no avail - this thing simply will not run on my machine (XP), and Iolo does not have actual tech support (i.e., if no one gets back to you in days, this is not helpful).

I cannot strongly enough recommend against purchasing this software. It's too bad I hadn't looked closely at other people's experiences with Iolo - apparently it's consistent with their past business practices to release software with severe/disabling bugs and not provide support to their users, see, e.g., http://www.forbes.com/2007/04/25/iolo-system-mechanic-tech-personal-cx_de_0425iolo.html and http://reviews.cnet.com/system-util...s-system-mechanic/4864-3680_7-32955439-1.html. They also apparently like to post fake reviews, see, e.g., http://blogs.forbes.com/digitaldownload/2007/04/iolo_technologi.html. Hopefully this will spare one or two others from buying software that flat out doesn't run, and then trying to get support from a company that couldn't care less.

 

Just thinking...I thnk I had their sofware 6 or 7running on XP... no real improvement on system performance and used tons of resourceswhen running...

Just wondering:
Maybe you can elaborate a bit more onyur problem, give details of the error before somebody suggests your on a crusade agains Iolo.

 

Sure - I run it and after it puts up the splash screen with the initialization progress bar, about 1/6 of the way through the bar, I get a scripting error message (something like that there is no field [Name], or that [Name] has no content), followed immediately by a GP fault (illegal access to 0000310 I think - uninstalled at the moment or I'd run it again to give you the exact text, but I'm sure you've seen a GP fault before). This happens every time it runs, without exception, and yes, as per above, I've removed and reinstalled, made sure nothing else is running that should likely interfere (shut down ZoneAlarm and SpyBotSD, etc.), and otherwise did my darnedest to get it not to just GP fault, but no luck.

It could be that it's not localized properly - I'm running a Japanese version of Windows - but knowing that doesn't help, as whether or not it's true, GP faulting is never correct/acceptable application behavior.

 

Ok - I don't have an answer for your problem.

But its good to see some detail now.

 

Thanks for thinking about it anyway. Methinks this is clearly a serious bug in their code, and I was bummed to see after buying it that there'd been a lot of other unhappy customers that they have not helped. That'll teach me to read the darned reviews even for a $50 product!

EDIT Update: Their customer service rep was courteous with me on the phone and quick to agree to issue me a refund. Apparently the current version of the product has known localization problems, so if you're running other than a US Windows version, watch out.

It would have been much better had support actually responded to me rather than needing to call customer service after nearly a week to request a refund, but at least they were good about admitting the problem & hopefully refunding my purchase.