Slow PC and n track: Antivirus is the culprit

Hi everybody: Finally after a lot of the usual maintenance (registry and hd cleanup,memory optimization, n track studio reinstall, etc, etc), I’ve found the culprit: antivirus running in background. Long time ago I had NOD32 and pc was running fine, I switched to AVG free 9 and whole pc and apps started to run slow, uninstalled AVG and pc runs normal again (this is confirmed in System process memory usage in Task Manager: it went down to 220 kb from 134000 before AVG uninstall). I decided to install current AVAST free version and again pc started to perform very slow, so I uninstalled it and now pc performance is back to normal. Does this mean I shouldn’t have antivirus protection, because even if you disable it temporarily without uninstalling, it still runs some processes in the background slowing down the overall performance?

Thank for replies

In my experience the way to get good performance is to have a dedicated audio setup where the “Audio” computer has only the bare minimum on it no MS office, no anti virus. I run a dual boot setup using the Gag bootloader to choose between two installations of XP in separate partitions. Its a bit fiddly to set up but worth it.

http://gag.sourceforge.net

Nick

:agree: same here - ish.

Thanks for the suggestion Tony. I’ll consider it, but I tell you this sluggishness happened even with just firefox 3.6.10 and msn 7.0 running, not n-track, so I guess dual boot won’t be useful in my case. What I should do is format C (previous backup obviously) and reinstall xp and all the apps again which I try to avoid in any way, but in the end I’ll have to go with that.

Quote: (jazito @ Oct. 21 2010, 11:28 PM)

Thanks for the suggestion Tony. I'll consider it, but I tell you this sluggishness happened even with just firefox 3.6.10 and msn 7.0 running, not n-track, so I guess dual boot won't be useful in my case. What I should do is format C (previous backup obviously) and reinstall xp and all the apps again which I try to avoid in any way, but in the end I'll have to go with that.

What are the specs on your pc and how old is it? That may be at the core of the issue.

SmartClose - freeware - works on all Windows Versions.

Hi BillClarke:

Thanks for that link…
Looks pretty nice…
I use EndItAll on my machines…
I have for several years, now…
How does this application compare with each other ????

Bill…

Hey Bill,

I think I was the one who told you about EndItAll - I used to swear by it but found it to be incompatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7 so I looked around and found SmartClose.

A feature (that I don’t really use but some may like) that SmartClose has that EndItAll didn’t is that it takes a “snapshot” of the programs and processes running before it shuts them down so you can restore them later. I never bother; I just do a re-start.

It seems to work well although my current set-up is fast enough and my demands so few that I rarely feel the need to use it. But for those struggling with an older or less powerful rig it could be just the ticket.

Winter’s coming there, huh?

Bill.

yep…
We’re getting your yesterday’s weather, today…
The wind has come around and blowing from the north-west…
It’s raw-and-damp…
It feels like snow is in the air, none yet, though…
It wouldn’t be long now…
Our foliage is at some 75-80% now…
not much left to it … sigh…




Now that I use these Intel E-5200 machines I rarely use EndItAll…
However, I still have a P-4 1.7 XP machine on the DJ Desk, in the studio… I use it on that machine…





Bill…

Ayuh - we woke up yesterday to frosted windows and semi-frozen car doors. I had to dig out the scraper for the first time this season (sigh). Apparently we got a light dusting overnight but way before I got up and it didn’t stick so I didn’t see it. But it’s coming - no question.

It wouldn’t take much to convince me to lock up the house, cancel the utilities and take off for the Gulf Coast, down south…

Don’t tempt me… :) :p :laugh:

Bill…

well, I’m repeating my “buddy and me” week in the Dominican Republic this winter. Gonna try February instead of January this time in hopes of avoiding the rain. At least we aren’t likely to have another earthquake like last year. That was just freaky.

The cold has already got me looking forward to it, I can tell you that. Rain or no rain - it’s better than snow.

I was gonna ask you about you taking off to the Dominican Republic… That sortta answers that… :laugh:

Bill…

Do it, Bill - it’s paradise.

Bill, if you are going to be putting that operating system on the internet, you need to have good antivirus. Avast and AVG do use a lot of resources, it is true, but that is because they WORK. Norton will use more, and still let your system get infected.

Dual booting is a good idea if you use the second o/s STRICTLY for running your recording studio, do not run anything else on it, and do not ever go online with it.

1.7 ghz is not great, but as long as you have plenty of ram and aren’t trying to run effects on every track, it should be okay.


-Danny

Hi dannyraymilligan:

That old P-4 was hit so many times when I had it set-up as a dual boot machine in the studio…
I had '98SE and XP Home on separate drives…
'98SE was used for the Lexicon CORE 32 Audio Hardware back then…
I had AVG as the virus software…
I got hit…
I had Panda
installed on the boot drives… I got hit…
It just didn’t stop…
I would rebuild the O/P’s and call home to India and all…
That could set their clocks by me making phone calls to them, to re-register… :)
:laugh: Back then I had a dial-up Internet connection…
SIGH…
lol…
It used to take me all week to download all the '98SE updates…
Longer to get the XP Updates…
:laugh: I used to piss-off all the guys up here on the Board, complaining about it…
:laugh:

My phone line was open to the Internet 24 hours a day…
No one could dial in, here…
lol…
NO Call Center Calls, wanting to sell me something…
:laugh:
Every time I had to re-boot I’d go off-line and then the phone would ring it’s head off…
AaHh…
the good old days…




Bill…

[EDIT]… I’d have to say, so far, I’ve been lucky… I use Norton 360 (I’m into the second year) on these machines and I’ve been told to stay away from all them Porn Sites… hehe You’re right, dannyraymilligan… XP Home runs pretty slow on that old P-4… The E-5200 machines seem O.K. but I have nothing to compare them with/to…

Hey jazito. You can usually have anti-virus loaded and just turn off the active monitoring while you record. I worked that way for years (am on a Mac now). Active monitoring is not really helpful anyway as long as you get in the habit of running a scan on everything you download and not go to strange websites on the machine. If you don’t feel you have that discipline, just enable the active monitoring when you’re done recording and turn it off when you start recording. Hope that helps.

Quote: (woxnerw @ Oct. 23 2010, 12:54 PM)

It used to take me all week to download all the '98SE updates..
Longer to get the XP Updates..
:laugh: I used to piss-off all the guys up here on the Board, complaining about it..
:laugh:

My phone line was open to the Internet 24 hours a day..
No one could dial in, here..
lol..
NO Call Center Calls, wanting to sell me something..
:laugh:
Every time I had to re-boot I'd go off-line and then the phone would ring it's head off..
AaHh..
the good old days..




Honestly I have found it is best not to update,

but that's just me.

I used to and it cause nothing but problems with my audio gear, service pack this , service pack that now available....bullocks you install it and from then on nothing but problems when you ran for years without it and were fine!
:angry:

Microsoft can kiss my hairy white cheeks, I have a bootleg XP pro SP2 early stripped down addition installed for the last 3 years and not a single problem.

Sure I got all the licensed stuff too (XP Pro, HOMe EdItion), in original boxes, all JUNK, IMHO.

ON a side note Bill I hear Celine Dion is having twins, what is she like 50+? what is there something in the water up there? tee hee....you guys live in a beautiful country if it weren't for the cold I'd defect and come join ya!

If only global warming wasn't a money making scam.....

keep shinin

jerm :cool:

Hi pstretz and All:

I have, as you all know, Norton 360 installed on these three machines… Two Intel E-5200 Dual processor machines with Vista Home Premium and this P-4 Intel 1.7 with XP Home…
Norton 360 is running out-of-box as default on all three machines…
Unless I’m missing something, I see no resource drain by Norton 360 on any of these machines…
However, I’d have to say that I have not brought n-Track into any undue resource loads as most of you users, do…


I used to promise myself, it will never happen to me, again…
I knock-on-wood, every day…


It don’t matter, does it TonyR…
Once you’re hit, it already happened, it’s all too late… irregardless of the security software you use…

sigh…





Bill…

[EDIT]
I hear you, jeremysdemo…
For some odd reason I like to keep “Current”, with the MicroSoft Security updates…
They seem to appear almost every 30 days-or-so…
Lately they have included what I describe as Trash, MicroSoft Utility User Updates that don’t have much use for Audio Freaks…
However, once you choose to download-and-install them you got them and then they (MicroSoft) continues to update those applications…
Then that’s the Bloat…
IMO…

I’d like to learn how to uninstall that stuff…
BUT…
I don’t know if that Bloat can be uninstalled very cleanly…
???? What do you think ????
I say it that way cause I don’t know how to un-install MicroSoft Utility applications…