avast suddenly started slowing down my computer.
Whenever I start a program it scans thousands of files (.dlls and everything probably used by that program while starting) and my computer usage goes up to 100% which means I canāt do anything else while waiting for a simple program to start. Program starts take very long now, too.
I donāt know if it scanned all those files before when starting a program or refreshing the desktop or anything, I just noticed it as my pc started to slow down a lot.
There have been no changes on my computer as far as I know - no new stuff installed or else.
I use Windows XP with SP2 and avast! 4.6 Home Edition.
What is your Standard Shield sensitivity, Normal is the default and that gives the best compromise between performance and protection. If you increase that more files will be scanned.
What is your firewall ?
I assume you would see something similar on boot, do you have any other security programs running on boot, e.g. anti-spyware, etc. ?
Somehow or other I doubt it scans thousands of files when you start a program, can you give examples of the Scanned Count: before and after launching a program ?
What program is it that you launch that would have this kind of file access activity that would require avast to scan the file/s ?
Iām using Zone Alarm 6.1.737 and nothing else, only AdAware and SpyBot which I have to start manually. Nothing else should run on boot but Zone Alarm and avast!.
I donāt know how many files exactly are scanned but I think itās a lot. As far as I know it scans only while starting a program like I start Firefox or Outlook Express and it scans files before I see the program and when Firefox is running it doesnāt scan anything anymore? Concerning Outlook Express it scans the incoming mails which is perfectly fine and which doesnāt slow down the pc.
It scans the files whenever I start any program, be it Firefox, Outlook Express, Trillian, Winamp or any other program.
I start Trillian and it scans trillian.exe, files located at c:\windows\system32, quicktime files, .dlls like vfwwdm32.dll and even the trillian.ink located on the desktop ā¦ I think it were 10 to 20 files.
Like I said it happens with all programs and everything I do ā¦ but I think it didnāt a week before? I never noticed my pc being so much slowed down by avast!. I donāt know what happened and like I said I donāt think I changed anything.
When I start firefox I thing avast scans about 20+ files, there are a lot of files being opened by firefox on start, extensions, user.js, profile info, etc.
For me even on boot the total files scanned is between 250 and 300, so I canāt see where all this activity is coming from simply by opening a program.
As I have said avast only scan files that are accessed it doesnāt just launch into scanning files. Perhaps if you monitor the start and end Scanned Count: as I mentioned to get a better idea of numbers and enable āShow detailed info on performed actionā that will show what file are being scanned. This may give a clue as to why they are being scanned if you see anything that may give an indication of what is causing it.
I too have been experiencing this slow-down. I recall it occurring after upgrading from 4.6.744 to 4.6.763, nut cannot say for certain as Iāve been putting up with this for a while and just recently started investigating. I have since uninstalled and reinstalled several times trying to ensure clean environment, but still I get slow-down with most program starts. It seems to be intermittent, however. In some cases opening an app is slow, close and re-open and it opens fine, but the close and re-open some time later and itās slow again - the slowness affects entire machine as stated in original post.
1.4 ghz, 768 mb, XP SP2, XP Firewall on, MS Antispyware (yes, Iāve tried shutting MS Antispy to no affect on PC performance).
Iāve have to agree with the poster as wellā¦ Iāve noticed the slowdown only since I updated to v4.6.763 ā¦
I canāt do anything else when itās updating as it seems to freeze my system. When downloading Thunderbird email, all applications are frozen until itās done scanning. Iāve been running with Avast for over a year now, and this last update is the one iāve noticed the big difference.
Avast normal mode: Standard Shield, *NetworkShield, Instant Messaging
Avast custom mode: Internet Mail, P2P Shield
Avast disabled: WebShield, , Outlook/Exchange
My System:
IBM 2153E3U, AMD K6-2, 350 MHz, 40gig, 256mb;
WinXP-Pro SP2, MSN-9 dialup, U.S.Robotics Modem (5660A-BP), TCP Optimizer v2.03,
Firefox v1.5.0.1, Thunderbird v1.5, IE 6.0.2900.2180 (Windows updates only);
SPF v5.5.2710, Avast v4.6.763, SpyBot-S&D (No Teatimer), Ad-Aware SE,
SpywareBlaster, CCleaner, RegCleaner, Webroot SpySweeper (not run resident, scans only),
A-Squared Free, Windows Worms Doors Cleaner
Love the service tho and wont switch, maybe just go back to previous versionā¦
I have no problems with downloading megabytes of Thunderbird email with the current versions of avast & Thunderbird - my system (which is now over 5 years old) doesnāt miss a beat.
Thunderbird is very inefficient in the way it manages mail folders. I think you might find that downloading your Thunderbird mail will be a lot faster if you:
Empty the trash mail folders.
-then-
Compact all of your mail folders (and set the option to compact regularly to save space).
By the way are you having avast scan the mail you download with the Webmail extensions?
Yes, using Webmail extensions, but I only have 1 email currently installed in TBird at the moment, having problems with sending mailā¦ Nothing to do with Avast thoā¦
The slowdown tho was prior to installing TBird thoā¦
As far as the TBird, thats just an error on my part or Corrupt profileā¦
Are you thinking that the extension(s) are the problem, this 1 in particular for getting/sending email?
(I do keep a rather tidy empty box lol ā¦ Only cause I got just the 1 acct going currently, and have the Compact Folders setting on the default, 100 kbs I believe)
Oh and I donāt run anything else on startup besides Avast and Sygate either
sorry the question about the Webmail extensions was by the way and I am certainly not suggesting that is part of the slowdown (we can take having that mail scanned by avast offline).
The most important issue to get across to you is the absolutely essential role of emptying trash folders and compacting other mail folders to avoid excessive scanning overhead by antivirus solutions (including avast).
Really this has nothing to do with scanning the email - it is an issue for avoiding overhead in the Standard Shield when the mail folders are being updated.
Naaaa, no problemā¦ Like I said, maybe itās my profile is corruptā¦ But I did notice when it updates when I first signin it was harder on resourcesā¦ Thats the main thing I noticed from the start when the I updated the version to 4.6.763
Well, by only starting and opening Firefox it already scans 692 files which takes a long time.
My pc freezes, too, when starting Outlook Express and downloading mail.
Iām also using version 4.6.763 - maybe thatās the problem?
After start-up there are 2 icons of avast in the taskbar.
Iāve also noticed that my pc takes a very long time to start now, I see the āWindows XPā screen for like 5 minutes and then a black screen for a minute and then finally the log in screen. After clicking on the username it takes a while to complete the start, too, and sometimes it freezes after clicking on the log-in username.
There is nothing deactivated in Hardware, seems like everything is working normal.
I had Norton on my pc before but it should be deinstalled now, though I have no idea if there are still parts of Norton somewhere on my computerā¦
Concerning antivirus and firewall I only use avast! and Zone Alarm. Other stuff started on booting: Windows Audio and other Microsoft stuff, some Symantec Network Driver Service (at least msconfig says so - this is something concerning Norton, right? :/).
Seems like there are a lot of other useless programs started - Iāll deactivate some now and try to restart and see if my pc still starts or if it wonātā¦ though I doubt thisāll change anything.
(edit: ok, no major changesā¦ still takes a long time to start and avast slows/freezes the pc)
Is there a program or something to list all processes that are started on booting?
Hereās a program that I use, small download tooā¦ Installs an Icon in your Control Panel, Doesnāt loadup on startup per say, but it shows you whats starting and what Key itās running from, changes can be made to it too, moved or deleted. I like this one, but there are others out there too
This link is worth looking at which is for a program removal tool, which can remove the remnants of a number of different Norton Programs: Removing your Norton program using SymNRT
I guess I mis-stated my question above and now that others have also joined in ā¦ and Sherri has mentioned a freeware program ā¦ I should restate my question. Also, David has mentioned a removal tool for Norton because that sorry program leaves all kinds of junk when uninstalled in the normal manner ā¦ as does any other Symantec program.
And to All,
What I wanted to know is what programs other than avast are running in the taskbar. Many of you have stated that you only have one or 2 programs running. This seems unrealistic to me.
In addition to the program Sherri mentioned, you can also try the free Whatās Running ā¦ www.whatsrunning.net/ ā¦ which will give you an idea of what programs, processes, etc are running on your computer. I suppose the one Sherri mentions does similar things. With Whatās Running, the last tab on the right ā¦ Startup ā¦ has 26 items listed that startup when my computer is booted and there are 12 icons in the task tray. The amount of Drivers, Modules, etc are much higher.
While I am not trying to say that in any way the recent update to avast is not a contributing factor, what I am trying to suggest is that perhaps there is more going on at the start-up on all of your computers than some of you might realize. With the recent update of avast, maybe some of these computers are beginning to get close to running low on resources. I am an āapplications junkieā and sometimes on my old computer, I tend to get it āa little heavyā on startup items. This new computer has not a problem in that area though if I do get a certain amount of stuff running at startup, I will notice a little slowdown in startup time.
Actually, even on the old computer, I do not notice a difference in startup time with the most recent avast update. The old computer is an AMD 750 Duron with 512 mb RAM. This new one is in my signature below. Oh, and some of you are probably running services you do not need. This takes up CPU cycles and memory which slows down your computer.
Remember, I do not know how computer savvy any of you are so please forgive me if I step on a toe or 2. It is not intentional. And, of course, I may have missed a thing or 2.
Norton should be fully removed now, finally.
The problems remain, though.
I have 7 icons in the taskbar, 2 avast!, Zone Alarm, that Volume-thingy, Sound Effect, FreeMex (some RAM-check program) and an icon to āremove hardware save(?)ā and thatās it.
I have lots of Windows/Microsoft Services running on startup which I can see in msconfig but I donāt know which ones are needed and which ones arenāt so I didnāt change a thing there.
Using ctrl-alt-del it tells me I have 33 processes running right now. When starting any program cpu-usage goes up to 100% which is mainly caused by avast! and the starting program.
The problem shouldnāt be my computer - 1024MB RAM and 2,5GHz and the hdds arenāt that full - still 33% left of free space on c:\ and around 30% on d:.
Naaa, nothing taken personal here ;D Iāve become a Security āJunkieā tho lol (also a āGadget-a-Holicā too) ā¦ I hardley even play on the NET these days, always hoping around Forums to learn all I can
Hereās what I have going at the moment, just to show you what is runningā¦ (see attachment)
I did go back to the āOn-Access Protection Controlsā tho and made some adjustments and well see what happens over the next few daysā¦ I have them as I posted early most in Normal mode and 2 in Custom modeā¦ Oh and on the Email scan, I donāt scan outbound emails, figure they should be scanning as it comes Inbound (seen that somewhere)ā¦
So see, in general im not running many programs while im surfingā¦ Have a couple other startups I neglected to mention, i.eā¦ UPHClean, WindowsEnabler which show as running processes (those are fairly small on resources) and these 3: āDisk Idle Optimizerā, āTweak-UIā and āBug-Offā, but these last 3 donāt show active in āTask Managerā, I guess they run Undercover ;D
