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| Thread ID: 56040 | 2005-03-25 11:41:00 | Multiple programs slowing down PC | Renmoo (66) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 338027 | 2005-03-25 11:41:00 | Greetings PressF1, I am wondering whenever I do a full virus scan on my HDD (74.47 GB, 47.2GB occupied, unpartition) using Avast and I run IE6 or MSN Messenger 6.2, they take longer than usual ( about extra 10-15 seconds than normal startup) to startup. The CPU usage when I do a virus scan is between 30 to 70% and never reach 100% and the amount of free RAM never dips below than 150MB. I am using a 3.0GHz with HT, 512 DDR400 RAM. HDD speed running at 7200rpm. Thanks and cheers :p | Renmoo (66) | ||
| 338028 | 2005-03-25 13:49:00 | Probably due to the WebShield and IMShield features of the program. Search for slow at the forum (http://forum.avast.com). A quick look through the threads there seems to have the developers denying there are any speed issues ;) There are many other virus scanners out there... |
gibler (49) | ||
| 338029 | 2005-03-25 22:17:00 | Sometimes I also do an AVG scan, but the same lagging thing happen to my computer. | Renmoo (66) | ||
| 338030 | 2005-03-25 22:53:00 | Doing a thorough AV scan of your hard drive is intensive. Although your CPU is only showing 30-70% usage during this, launching an application also causes a CPU spike and if the CPU is already busy, then this will reflect upon the startup speed of that program. Once the program is opened, its CPU usage is minimal so the AV scanner CPU usage shouldn't interfere with it. | Jen (38) | ||
| 338031 | 2005-03-25 22:58:00 | Doing a thorough AV scan of your hard drive is intensive. Although your CPU is only showing 30-70% usage during this, launching an application also causes a CPU spike and if the CPU is already busy, then this will reflect upon the startup speed of that program. But the CPU sudden increase due to the launching of another application never reach 100%. I don't really understand, if the CPU is busy, but still has enough free resources, why should there be a sudden slow down in starting up an application? Thanks Jen :) |
Renmoo (66) | ||
| 338032 | 2005-03-26 13:36:00 | A full virus-scan will usually only take up about 1/2 to 3/4 of the CPU. This means there is ample CPU to run a program at resonable rates, right? Wrong. A virus scan is extrememly intensive on disk usage. It usually uses all available IDE-bus bandwidth to do the scan. And as all your programs are stored on the hard drive(s) (including your windows paging file) - it can take a long time to read all the info required to run the program and even slower for windows to swap bits of it in and out of the paging file while the scan is taking place. | mogwai (6235) | ||
| 338033 | 2005-03-26 14:47:00 | But the CPU sudden increase due to the launching of another application never reach 100%. I don't really understand, if the CPU is busy, but still has enough free resources, why should there be a sudden slow down in starting up an application? Thanks Jen :) More than likely the slowdown is at the disk side of the issue. The AV scan will be scanning files all over the disk and the heads will be moving back and forth. Then you want to start another program while this is happening so the PC sends the commands to the HD to send it the data it needs and finds out it is in another place on the drive and has to move the heads again. More than likely a sort time later the AV scan needs more data so the heads move back to get the data and then the heads go back to keep getting the program data it needs. This continues until one finishes or the other and things settle down a bit more. Moving the disk heads takes a lot of time in PC time cycles so you notice a bigger slow down than would normally be there. |
Big John (551) | ||
| 338034 | 2005-03-26 21:07:00 | A virus scan is extrememly intensive on disk usage. It usually uses all available IDE-bus bandwidth to do the scan. And as all your programs are stored on the hard drive(s) (including your windows paging file) - it can take a long time to read all the info required to run the program and even slower for windows to swap bits of it in and out of the paging file while the scan is taking place. Call me dumb, but what is "IDE-bus"? What is "paging files"? Thanks people for the great reply. |
Renmoo (66) | ||
| 338035 | 2005-03-26 21:39:00 | Call me dumb, but what is "IDE-bus"? What is "paging files"? Thanks people for the great reply. www.computeruser.com |
Safari (3993) | ||
| 338036 | 2005-03-26 21:59:00 | Is there any tools of software that can display the HDD activity and usage? Cheers :) | Renmoo (66) | ||
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