Vista x64 + avg = rediculious boot times

Judas · Mar 11, 2008, 03:01 PM

This may appear to be an isolated case.. but it's kinda strange in many ways..

the facts:

Recently built a computer about 2 months ago.... all was fine up until about 2 weeks ago when the user complained about extremely long periods of time spent starting up and shutting down.. however no errors or anything to speak off.... although occasionally extremely long periods where the system would "appear" to freeze while doing rather random stuff be it browsing the net and whatnot..

Either way, brought it in and i took at a look at it... typically these machines will boot up within about 15 seconds or so.... tops.... (if you want to count the number of times vista's green loading bar goes around... typically 4-5 times.. maybe 6)

however the system would take randomly..... anywhere from 30 seconds to a full blown 10 minutes occasionally to load.... completely baffled after removing everything startup wise and checking various things i decided a full wipe and reinstall would be a sure fire way to find the issue or solve it.

after the wipe.... reinstalled windows... one by one started to load up all the components ...drivers.. updates.... additional programs....

the entire time... back to the 4-5 passes of the windows vista loading bar.... extremely fast shutdown/restarts...

then i loaded up the latest version of avg... proceeded to update all of it's components... and bam.. noticed an emediate sluggish behavor.. even with the cpu registering no chance in actual usage or other resources.... rebooted to sit and wait for about 6 minutes for it to shutdown.. and another 4 minutes for it to startup.....

AVG started doing weird things as well.. random disapearing from the system tray.....

so i removed it.. and the sucker.. so far.. appears to be running full tilt...

I'm tempted to install avast.. but last time i did.... i had similarely bad problems..... wtf

norton or mcafee are outa the question obviously....

If system details are of interest:

Asus P5K-SE (latest 1009 bios)
Intel Core 2 Dou E2180
2gb kit (2x1gb 5-5-5-15)
ATI HD2400pro 256mb pci-ex
Pioneer DVR-212 sata dvd-rw
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320gb (doesn't require firmware update)
Coolermaster 600watt
Coolermaster 690 case

cpu temps average 30*C.....
PSU registers perfect rails (within 1%)

I have swapped hardrives/psu/ram/sata drive..... video cards...... the only thing that may be a possible hardware culprit is the motherboard itself..... but nothing so far suggests a hardware issue.... strickly an odd incapability... and no one else with this exact same setup and avg has experienced this from what i could find.

Nick0323 · Mar 11, 2008, 04:24 PM

Well what do you expect for using AVG?

As soon as i switched to NOD32 my gosh my startup time is quick.

Judas · Mar 11, 2008, 05:05 PM

because my experience with nod is a horrible one

Alistair · Mar 11, 2008, 05:18 PM

I've been running Avast ever since Vista hit the RC stages... at first things seemed sluggish, but either I don't notice it anymore or things are fine with the newer versions. You can always give it a shot if it doesn't work out you've just lost a little of your time.

I've also noticed on several Vista installs that you can't judge its sluggishness until you have left it powered on over night for a few nights to let it defrag and do some superfetching, but if this is anything like the rig in your profile then that shouldn't be a concern at all.

RoyBatty · Mar 11, 2008, 05:19 PM

You can try Avira Antivir: Avira AntiVir Personal - FREE Antivirus

mike2h · Mar 11, 2008, 06:33 PM

even tho u didnt mention it, i assume u ran defrag. does your defag prog allow just doing system/boot files? obviously not a complete answer to your prob but couls make it bearable.
bty, i use norton on all 3 comps & its effect on load times is negligble - as long as you r using newest(06 or newer) vers.

Tipstaff · Mar 12, 2008, 12:34 AM

What Windows updates were installed? Anything related to SP1? Is Office installed too, plus it's updates? Are you installing any programs related to anti-spyware or such? Is Windows Defender on or off, and have you tried disabling it to see if still occurs? I would definitely try putting AVG in just after you do the drivers, and see if it happens again.

I'd also try switching network card drivers, or at least disable the device to see if it acts up. The reason I mention it is because I've continually had issues with that damn Attansic network chip Asus uses for their boards these days (in this case the Attansic L1 Gigabit). I personally can't stand them... no matter what they call themselves (Attansic or Atheros, they're all crap).

BTW, AVG has had on and off issues with Vista for a while now, and what you described isn't the first time I've seen AVG do that. I'm actually surprised that Avast did the same thing though.

kris23 · Mar 12, 2008, 01:06 AM

get trial of bit defender, works

Tipstaff · Mar 12, 2008, 02:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kris23

get trial of bit defender, works

As long as it's the trial, and not the free version. Free version doesn't autoprotect.

Judas is probably like me, and has cheapo customers that don't want to purchase things that are necessary like anti-virus, burning software, office suite, and such. That's where programs like the OEM LG Nero/PowerDVD CD, Picasa/Paint.NET, 7Zip, JetAudio, or OpenOffice come in handy as they do what the paid stuff does, but finding a good free anti-virus software has always been a tough one. I used to use AVG a lot, but time and again I kept getting customers coming back with viruses, ones AVG should have caught, and would have if it was the paid one, so I dumped it. Just couldn't rely on it anymore. Avast is great, but a lot of my clients won't even bother to register the damn thing even though when they do it runs for a year... for free.

I haven't tried AntiVir in a while, so I might give it a shot again, but the only one I haven't tried is one that someone mentioned to me a while back, and that was PC Tools AntiVirus, which is completely free. This is by the same guys behind Spyware Doctor (which is a great program, btw), and has been getting good reviews so far.

Judas · Mar 12, 2008, 11:11 AM

actually i confirmed it's nothing to do with other programs.... install the nessary drivers.. (DO NOT use the "windows update drivers" for the onboard lan... that's where problems start with with, using the latest driver for the lan via support.asus.com's website usually keeps that lan controller in check at all times...)

As far as i can see.. avg is having a picknick on this machine... but i've been using this computer consistantly for the last few days ... and i've yet to experience a lockup/stall out/oddity or long boot times with it...

No SP1 pre stuff was installed.... i just finished the new pre sp1 updates today and the machine boots even faster now.... I'm going to try installing avg again perhaps in another week or so...

If you want to know... powerdvd/nero/office 2003/ and all the freeby nessities (excluding java cause i hate it with a passion) have been installed and configured for top performance. This thing is smoking... producing anywhere from 5-30% faster results compared to identical machines around the world (according to pcpitstop) actually scored 215% faster on the hd bench

either way.. i'm sending the machine home to the customer to see how things work out without avg installed currently.... if they have no issues at all for the first while.... hopefully avg will have an update out here soon.

pepiman · Mar 13, 2008, 12:56 PM

Kaspersky Internet Security package seems to load up at about the same time as the network icon in Vista x64 for me (basically, instant)
Haven't tried AVG on my computer, but my gf has Vista Home 32-bit and she uses AVG free edition and no startup issues there... could be a 64-bit issue with AVG as an application ... I don't think vista can be blamed here

BlueMak · Mar 13, 2008, 03:01 PM

You are giving a PC to a customer without antivirus? You are asking for problems.

Judas · Mar 13, 2008, 05:47 PM

It's all under warranty of my own labour...

It's simply a test... if they get a virus.. i've already go all thier stuff backed up..

Actually of interest.. is the machines i've built.. i've yet to have one come back due to viruses... other then this one kid that royally ruined the machine.... fried the video card.. and got it infected beyond any anti-viruses capabilities.

PangingJr · Mar 24, 2008, 09:31 AM

Try looking into alternative anti-virus programs.

Judas · Mar 25, 2008, 11:16 AM

trying a bunch out as we speak since i posted this..

but i'm just not happy with any of them....