Re: Reasons why: Anti-virus scan

Thank you so much!
I'll be spending the next few hours reading over your suggestions and
information, as I'd really like to know why this happens.

And thanks again for the links... I have heard for a long time that reg
cleaners were bad as they could potentially delete needed entrys.
Time to start becomming more aware of whats in the Registry and whats needed.

--
XP(32) SP3 - Intel D975XBX x6800 @ 2.93GHz (2CPUs) - 2Gb DDR2 - VisionTek
ATI Radeon HD 4850 (512Mb) x2 - CCC 9.2 - SB X-Fi Audio
Any thing else need to be added?



"Daave" wrote:

"Davmswan" <Davmswan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:FCFFA22B-7FCC-4279-A722-369074A11E9B@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
First just want to say that I'm not trying to avoid a reinstall I
would just
like to narrow down the problem(s) before I do so.

As a learning exercise, it's not a bad thing to do if you have the time.
That being said, since you obtained this PC second-hand, the wise thing
to do is to perform a clean install. But if you want to narrow down
problems beforehand as a learning exercise, go for it.

I just spent 15 hrs 14 minutes doing a virus scan for 200347 files.
That is
an extraordinary amount of time for a scan like this.

Agreed!

And it is not the first
time (every time actually-I just happen to stop it most times around 9
hrs)
that the scan takes such a long time.
I have the same virus scanner on my laptop and it normaly takes around
3 hrs
to scan 795497 files.

Can anyone list the possible reasons why an anti-virus scan would be
running
slow or any suggestions on what to do?

That's easy. It could be any one of the following:

1. Could be a faulty hardware component. Remember, I'm listing general
reasons. I'm not saying that this is your particular situation.

2. Could be malware. Malware very often wreaks havoc with performance,
including scans. This is *very* likely!

3. Could be that you neglected to delete all your temp files first.
Without doing this important step first, your scan will include these
files. Keep in mind, though, that this cause alone wouldn't account for
a 15-hour scan!

4. Could be that your hard drive's access mode shifted from the faster
DMA mode to the *much* slower PIO mode becuase of access errors.

PC will sometimes feel sluggish (when
not scanning of course) when opening programs/internet tabs (IE7 with
no
hotbars) and will also hang (nonresponsive) sometimes.

AVG (Free) 8.0.237 on both the PC and laptop
Both report no infections.
Using Eusing free registry cleaner on both as well

It's unfortunate you used a registry cleaner because many times their
use actually *decreases* performance. And sometimes they might even
cause a situation where your PC won't even boot! For more info:

http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099

Other than installling:
AVG-8.0.237
Eusing-v2.0 build 20081022

Don't install any registry cleaners!

CPU-Z-0.3.2
GPU-Z-1.50
Driver Sweeper-1.5.5

and reinstalling:
Catalyst Control Center-9.2

Instead of installing the entire Control Center, you may want to
consider installing the standalone graphics driver.

I haven't installed anything other than what came on the PC from
manufacture:
Nero7 Essentials
Creative Console Launcher-2.60.29 for the sound card
CyberLink PowerDVD
Intel matrix Storage Console
Windows search

Windows Search has been known to bring PCs to a crawl. I wouldn't use
it. If you want that functionality, Agent Ransack is much better:

http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/


and the normal Accessories/Games

with Windows Search on startup (that's it).

Again, I'd avoid that!

Links to other threads about this PC.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/newsgroups/reader.mspx?&lang=en&cr=US&guid=&sloc=en-us&dg=microsoft.public.windowsxp.general&p=1&tid=6ea0e6b3-7c37-442b-88de-f1d7a9511c50&mid=406cdf10-35f8-4348-b9be-5361ecccba81

and

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/newsgroups/reader.mspx?&lang=en&cr=US&guid=&sloc=en-us&dg=microsoft.public.windowsxp.general&p=1&tid=3741a05f-db84-488e-94e9-08d40467c72c&mid=3741a05f-db84-488e-94e9-08d40467c72c


--
XP(32) SP3 - Intel D975XBX x6800 @ 2.93GHz (2CPUs) - 2Gb DDR2 -
VisionTek
ATI Radeon HD 4850 (512Mb) x2 - CCC 9.2 - SB X-Fi Audio
Any thing else need to be added?

When performing your clean install, make sure there are no peripherals
connected at the time. Just your mouse, keyboard, and moitor.

Regarding sluggishness in general, here are its usual causes:

1. Malicious software (malware)

2. Certain programs that are designed to combat malware (e.g., Norton
and McAfee). Ironically, they can slow things down because they simply
use way too many resources. Sometime they cause conflicts with other
programs. And their default mode is to scan your entire hard drive each
time you boot up.

3. Too many of *certain types* of programs always running in the
background -- with or without your knowledge.

Use these sites to determine what these programs are and to learn how to
configure them not to always run at startup:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php#THE_PROGRAMS
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

Sometimes it is recommended to use msconfig to configure the programs to
not run at startup. A better, more thorough program is Autoruns:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

4. Not enough RAM, which causes the PC to overly rely on the pagefile. A
quick way to determine if this is happening is to open Task Manager
(Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then note the three values
under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand corner: Total, Limit,
and Peak.

The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that
very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you
used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of
Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM.
Otherwise, you may want to explore this further by running Page File
Monitor for Windows XP:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

5. You might also want to check that your hard drive's access mode
didn't change from DMA to PIO:

http://www.technize.com/2007/08/02/is-your-hard-disk-cddvd-drives-too-slow-while-copying/

and

http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduck/itserviceduck/udma_fix/



.

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