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Your Computer started running slowly

computing50yrs
Grafter
Posts: 27
Registered: ‎24-06-2012

Your Computer started running slowly

I have seen several cases recently where to PC which was running at a normal speed has suddenly started using over 80% up to 100% of RAM which almost stops it operating.
After several trials I have realised that the anti-virus program has grown too large with its virus database (normally loaded into RAM)  and several enhancements to it have contributed to suddenly overloading the PC.
In particular I have found that AVAST antivirus has been the culprit. Uninstalling it and installing in a different more basic free anti-virus program has solved the problem
10 REPLIES 10
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Your Computer started running slowly

Looking at this report http://www.raymond.cc/blog/which-free-antivirus-is-the-lightest-on-system-memory-usage/ I would question your analysis
Quote
Avast is the most popular free antivirus around today, and its memory usage is quite impressive. During scanning Avast kept flushing its memory every 10 seconds which kept usage at a very low level, and it should never grow above a small number of Megabytes. Idle resource usage was also very impressive. For efficient memory usage, Avast is the no.1 free antivirus by far.

If a PC running out of memory I would suggest that there are other factors involved
The more usual reason for an anti virus bringing a computer to it's knees is excessive CPU usage while scanning
computing50yrs
Grafter
Posts: 27
Registered: ‎24-06-2012

Re: Your Computer started running slowly

I have had this particular problem on Win XP with 256Mb Ram &  Win 7 with 1Gb Ram where the amount of RAM was OK until a certain update of Avast this suddenly caused this running  problem - In all cases the PC was not doing anything else as from bootup to getting the desktop loaded. In fact the response was so bad it was even difficult to shut down the PC.
Removing Avast and installing Avira was a solution.
All Pcs were scanned for virus and Trojans and found to be clean. From my signature you can see I have been with computing since 1958 and have been trouble shooting on PCs and Laptops since 1994 when I started with Win 98 O/S  responsible for 150 PCs
picbits
Rising Star
Posts: 3,432
Thanks: 23
Registered: ‎18-01-2013

Re: Your Computer started running slowly

I had a WIndows XP machine running as a virtual machine consuming 100% CPU on a fresh install with no other software running except the updates from Microsoft.
It turned out that the Microsoft Windows Update broke itself and I had to manually patch the installation before it would start working properly again.
This was on a totally clean install from a genuine XP disc. If Windows can break itself before the user installs any of their own software on then there is very little hope Wink
7up
Community Veteran
Posts: 15,824
Thanks: 1,579
Fixes: 17
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Your Computer started running slowly

Actually it must be said I've noticed avast also hogging memory when it pleases too. Task manager will show avastsvc or avast.setup running and both just sit there doing whatever they want for however long they want and can't be terminated. PC grinds to a halt while it does so.
One thing that is a real memory consumer is the mozilla range of browsers. Firefox used to be terrible for it but even seamonkey is getting bad these days. Both of which can consume upto 1/2GB of ram with ease.
I need a new signature... i'm bored of the old one!
Rippong
Grafter
Posts: 41
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎23-12-2013

Re: Your Computer started running slowly

Who has a PC with 256MB / 1GB RAM any more???
Even my phone has 2GB......  Cheesy
ReedRichards
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 4,927
Thanks: 145
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Re: Your Computer started running slowly

Lots and lots of people, Rippong.  Almost everybody still running Windows XP will have RAM in that range.
picbits
Rising Star
Posts: 3,432
Thanks: 23
Registered: ‎18-01-2013

Re: Your Computer started running slowly

My Raspberry Pi's all run on 512Mb ram Wink
Gus
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 3,236
Thanks: 26
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎31-07-2007

Re: Your Computer started running slowly

Going by your username if you are doing pc repairs and you get a win7 pc in with 1 gig of ram.  Then your should be advising the customer it needs 2 gig minimum and if they do anything intensive/gaming then 4.  That and sadly if a gaming pc, most online games require at least 4-6 or ideally 8.
So remove all memory hogging services/applications, but that customer has to know there is a limit.
FTTP 500 regrade from Tues 28th November
Rippong
Grafter
Posts: 41
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎23-12-2013

Re: Your Computer started running slowly

mmmm Pi....I've got the bug with those, now you've got me thinking about them again  Crazy
picbits
Rising Star
Posts: 3,432
Thanks: 23
Registered: ‎18-01-2013

Re: Your Computer started running slowly

Most of the stuff I program has 512bytes of RAM and 8K storage Wink
The username gives it away Tongue