13 replies to this topic

[Phil - Tijeras]

I have an admittedly old and slow computer. But it's not that slow!
Computer processor: x86 Family 6 Model 3 Stepping 3
I installed Ad-Aware 8.3.0.0 on July 11 and started a scan.
It's been running for 105 hours, and has scanned about 16 GB of data (I know it's more than 14.7 GB and less than 19.07 GB.) It is still running. CPU utilization is 90+%.
In addition to Ad-Aware, I have Task Manager running, Windows Explorer open (not doing anything) and a Word doc open (I save an occasional screen shot on it; aside from that it is not doing anything)
Ad-Aware has run faster before.
Any ideas if there is a problem with the scan speed of 8.3.0?

[Computer wizard]

Hey there Phil - Tijeras, are you performing a smart or full scan?

[Phil - Tijeras]

Full scan

[Computer wizard]

Ok, perform a track sweep using Ad-aware and follow that by a disk cleanup, then try and perform a smart scan, post back how that goes.

-Thank You

[Phil - Tijeras]

as you suggested, I did the Track Sweep and did a disc cleanup on C:
Then I ran Smart Scan.
Smart Scan started at 11:17 pm last night, and finished sometime between 10:30 am and 11:40 am this morning (I wasn't at the computer when it finished. Smart Scan ran almost 12 hours.
It found 36 objects, TAI=3.
Total of 20685 files scanned.
It was a surprise to find the 36 objects that had to be eliminated, because nothing was done on the computer in question after the full scan which I wrote about. I terminated that full scan, after it ran over the C: drive through the J: drive, found 1 object with TAI=10, which was dealt with automatically by Ad-Aware.
- background info: I have 12 logical drives on my computer - C: through N:.

QUESTION: when should I run a Smart Scan, and when should I run a Full Scan?

additional background: the computer on which I'm running the Ad=Aware scans is a backup computer. It has been getting slower and slower, and it now too slow to use. This slow performance might be causing some of the problems with Ad-Aware, too. It's running Win2000. I am seriously considering reformatting the C: drive and reinstalling the software that I need on it.
I did a disk defrag on C: just before running the Smart Scan; didn't help with speed. I'm running Avira antivirus on it.

Thanks for your help.

[visitor]

Here are the system requirements for Ad-Aware:

http://www.lavasoft....php?t=techspecs

Out of curiosity, you stopped the full scan which found 1 object. After that, did you notice if the boot cleaner kicked in to finish the job?

FWIW, I use Anniversary Edition and a Smart Scan takes 1 min to scan 6,000 objects. Full scan takes 90 min to scan 270,000 objects. I think AE is faster scanning, but the new versions are more thorough due to scanning engine improvements.

Since I surf safe and don't get infected that often, I run Smart Scans M-F with the definition updates and a Full Scan monthly.

[Computer wizard]

it could be a system requirements issue but possibly there is a way too set the scan controls to skip scanning the archives maybe under the profile scan? , slow PC aside archives are the common course to slow scan speeds.

[Phil - Tijeras]

Visitor:
regarding: fast scans with Ad-Aware Anniversary Edition: My experience on the computer in question was that previous versions of Ad-Aware seemed to scan faster.
I did not notice that the boot cleaner kicked in to finish the job ... I don't think it did.

Computer Wizard and Visitor:
I ran a scan for viruses using Avira Scan (same computer)
it scanned 237,985 objects in 35 minutes.
(vs. Ad-Aware Smart Scan 20,685 files in 12 hours),
the evidence seems to be that Ad-Aware 8.3.0 is a slow scanner.

[Computer wizard]

i will turn on my laptop this evening and try and see what i can come up with for you and see if i can turn archive scanning off.

Thank You

Computer Wizard

Edited by Computer wizard, 20 July 2010 - 07:33 AM.

[Computer wizard]

Phil - Tijeras i turned on my laptop just before too try and come up with a solution too your issue, a smart scan by default as shown in the config doesn't scan archives, so since you had already performed a smart scan we can safely rule that out. there are a few things that i would like to try and rule out before i make my final diagnosis. couple of things came to mind that could be causing this.

1. System requirements

2. Malware related
- Due too windows 2000 unsupported by Microsoft there might be some unsolved vulnerabilities in the system that may have been exploited and used to infect your system (i surely hope this isn't the case :S )

3. uncleaned junk files


Lets try and eliminate System requirements so click start>run and dxdiag ( hope that works in win2000 im not sure ) and copy in your next reply the Processor and RAM memory ( not quite sure why its shown as RAM memory considering RAM stands for random access memory anyway lol )

Thank You

Computer Wizard

[Phil - Tijeras]

Computer Wizard:
Thanks for your continuing interest.
I Ran dxdiag on the computer in question - it does run on Win2000.
results:
- Processor: Intel Pentium II MMX ~260 MHz
- RAM: 192 MB RAM

[Phil - Tijeras]

Regarding Win2000 unsupported by Microsoft:
Microsoft continues to issue security updates for Win 2000. I keep up to date on them.

[Computer wizard]

Regarding Win2000 unsupported by Microsoft:
Microsoft continues to issue security updates for Win 2000. I keep up to date on them.

I'm glad it's still supported at least its not likely to be malware related. Your RAM is less than the minimum requirement as the RAM required is 200mb yours is 192mb, so that could be the issue. try running a full scan or smart scan in safe mode. this will eliminate some processes running the essentials for the PC to operate.

[Phil - Tijeras]

I'm glad it's still supported at least its not likely to be malware related. Your RAM is less than the minimum requirement as the RAM required is 200mb yours is 192mb, so that could be the issue. try running a full scan or smart scan in safe mode. this will eliminate some processes running the essentials for the PC to operate.

Thanks for trying. I appreciate your help.