OK all, I still have very seldom freezing problems. after reading a few comments from Riggely & Andavari about disabling some of the less needed scanners. & setting it to standard scanning.
I have disabled all but standard, I now only have 1 scanner running out of 7 , Am I still protected ? with just the standard scans. Or am I all confused as of what was meant.
I just did this and not sure if its cured my problem , But want to make sure i,m covered. Also the few times it froze it did it during the little blue ball in the bottom tray started spinning. I hope this makes sence & appreaciate any advise. Thanks to All. Cowboy
Disabling Avast's resident shields will leave your computer more vulnerable and open to infections therefore if I were you I'd re-enable them and configure them to use the Standard protection which is the factory default settings, also the Standard protection settings will rarely cause a false positive.
There's no sense in my opinion turning off the multiple resident shields protection it supplies. Disabling them would defeat the purpose of Avast auto-protecting your system!
Well some of the shields could be disabled under certain circumstances.
P2P shield- If you don't use p2p programs like limewire, kazaa, bearshear ect.(which you shouldn't because they are riddled with spyware/viruses)
Instant Messaging- If you don't use IM programs then its not doing anything for you.
Outlook/Exchange- Now I didn't play with this enough but avast didn't scan the emails from either thunderbird or Outlook Express with this service running.(or it didn't say it did in the GUI/files scanned list) Maybe there was a setting I missed but it seems that it only scans emails from outlook.(which makes it useless if you don't have outlook)
Hi Cowboy357. Been following a few of your posts, as I have Avast also. Haven't read every single one, though. Nor am I by any means an expert; 2 years ago my experience or ability was somewhere near where you are now, I think. (Sorry if that's wrong or way out.)
Very curious about the freezing problem, the PCPitstop tests, the windows updates, the status of your windows. So, in reverse order, 1) Have you been able to validate your WindowsXP yet?
2) Any chance of posting a techexpress link to your most recent PCPitstop test?
3) Is it still freezing (when it does) at 8.05 in the morning, or are the times more random?
Re: Avast, I have 5 of the seven providers running - sometimes use p2p - but not IM or Outlook. Outlook Express is my mail system. Have no problems with it at all. You do want to check the providers are set to "normal" rather than high. The default program settings are generally excellent, except perhaps for the number of providers running.
It could be a conflict with other software you have running. I see you've had quite a few security applications in the past, what do you have active now? And how many startup items are enabled in msconfig?
It could be a conflict with other software you have running.
ZoneAlarm would be one of those apps which is why Avast will state it won't start a certain shield. I don't know if I'm remembering correctly or not however I though it was the Network or Web Shield.
Thanks again for Your responses. I was talking about the ones rridgely mentioned in his response So I just left those 3 disabled & restarted the other ones thankyou .
Andavari, I assume when You say standard that means the level of security which is set all the way to the left ( Normal ) thats where I left it, & is the only kinda setting I can find.
Tarq57, Yes windows is validated, no problem getting the updates , I just do them manually.
The freezing problem is very random . And is more than likely caused by NetZero, My Isp. I opened task mgr & watch it constantly. about 15 minutes out of every hour netzero uses 100% memory or whatever the hell it is. & if it happens to happen at the same time Avasts little ball is spinning at the bottom instant freeze.
Theres 24 startup items All necesary . I had the experts from this site ( Thanks Andy )look at the pcpitstop tests & all was fine exept connection speed .
I have superantispyware, spywareblaster, Ccleaner, Avast , & windows firewall, So I dont beleive I have to much. All are updated & ran daily
If needed I have all kinds of store bought security apps i can use by installing the disk,s & updating , But I wont do it till needed. I hope this asnswers Your Questions, & Thanks again to All. Cowboy.
P.s Tarq57. No Your not far off I,d have to go to school for 8 years to be able to understand puters fer dummies, hehe
Andavari, I assume when You say standard that means the level of security which is set all the way to the left ( Normal ) thats where I left it, & is the only kinda setting I can find.
Yeah Standard = Normal, it's been at least 2 or 3 weeks since I went back to using AVG Free so I didn't remember the exact word listed in Avast.
One thing to check: Right click on the Avast icon, select VRDB, and check that it's set to generate database only when the computer is idle. If it is already set to do that, try turning it off. If that solves the problem, maybe leave it off, but set aside some time, say once a week, to do it manually. (There is a faq in this VRDB dialogue box, too)
Hey Tarq57. Thanks I,m trying what you suggested. I have 512mb memory I believe. but it only shows 222mb, not really sure why, but pcpitstop tests said it wasn,t a problem. & intel celeron 3.06GHs. in task mgr it shows ( physical memory 227760- kernel memory 42592 ) & cpu usage runs about 6% unless netzero is doing its thing.
Is this the info You wanted ? I had 3 freezes in 15 minutes, very unusuall & since I disabled VRDB & No problems as of yet, But But I thought it was fixed several hundred times so we,ll see. thanks again & I,ll let You know. Cowboy
Sorry to butt in here, I know I've been MIA. But! I do think these are good questions. and the first thing to check. It seems that the RAM and CPU are okay, although the RAM could be increased....512MB is the minimum in my opinion.
Cowboy my next suggestion is that you run a memtest on your memory cards to confirm that they aren't bad in any way.
Hey Krit86lr, I,ve allready run every test possible. No problems anywhere. I see pagefile in TM but dont know where to look for how or where its set. But no more freezes since I made that last change. Just waiting to see. Thanks. I,ll do some more looking. Cowboy
Hey Krit86lr, I,ve allready run every test possible. No problems anywhere. I see pagefile in TM but dont know where to look for how or where its set. But no more freezes since I made that last change. Just waiting to see. Thanks. I,ll do some more looking. Cowboy
Well it's impossible that you have run every test possible. The memtest checks your actual hardware, and you have to create a floppy to run the test and the test should run anywhere from 2-8 hours, preferably 8 hours. But I can appreciate the fact that you have ran lots of tests and feels like all of them.
Please don't be! I'm far from expert. Geek101, approx.
Cowboy, to find pagefile, aka virtual memory, open control panel, open "system", click on "advanced" tab, under "performance", click on "settings", a new box "performance options" will open, at the bottom of that is listed "total paging file size for all drives". Click on "change", and the pf for each drive should be listed. What are they? (The default setting in XP is generally good, and should be approx 150% of your RAM. Don't change it yet, unless it's set to zero , in which case set it to system managed size.)
I would be concerned that you think you should have 512mB, yet 222 is indicated. That sounds like defective RAM or a defective slot, and is reasonably easilly and cheaply repairable, if that proves to be the problem. We'll only know for sure after you've run the memtest posted by krit86lr.
OK, 3 freezes in 15 minutes again this morning. & Krit Your right I,ve never run that type of memory test.
# 1 I,m to friggen stupid, #2 I cant keep the damn thing from freezing when I get in the middle of something like that. I click on the link You provided & it freezes.
Ok, Now heres what it shows. Total page file size. 336MB. virtual memory, C-336-672 , Space available, 74571 MB , Custom size is checked with a green dot, Initial 336MB, Maximum, 672 MB, Total minimum 2MB, recomended, 333MB, currently, 336MB,
& I have not added more memory, But it came with 512 ram, What next & thanks For trying to help, ALL of You, Cowboy
OK, 3 freezes in 15 minutes again this morning. & Krit Your right I,ve never run that type of memory test.
# 1 I,m to friggen stupid, #2 I cant keep the damn thing from freezing when I get in the middle of something like that. I click on the link You provided & it freezes.
Ok, Now heres what it shows. Total page file size. 336MB. virtual memory, C-336-672 , Space available, 74571 MB , Custom size is checked with a green dot, Initial 336MB, Maximum, 672 MB, Total minimum 2MB, recomended, 333MB, currently, 336MB,
& I have not added more memory, But it came with 512 ram, What next & thanks For trying to help, ALL of You, Cowboy
Well the your comp probably won't freeze while running the test becuase it will run off of the floppy rather than your computer running it.
You just need to access the link, download, then create the floppy with the downloaded file. Don't know if that's possible though if it's freezing that much. Maybe your wife can download it at work for you maybe?