Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: Avanti63 on April 14, 2004, 02:41:15 PM
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8)I am new to avast. I just installed it a few days ago. I have noticed that my hard drive no longer powers down after the specified time of inactivity. My monitor still shuts down as normal but the hard drive just keeps on going. I selected the option in Avast to indicate that I has a dialup connection but this did not solve the problem. I am running windows ME. Was working fine before I installed Avast. Thank you in advance for any help you might provide.
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Hello Avanti63 :)
How many hard drives do you have and if more than one, is one shutting down but not the other?
I've found that with Windows9x that my D: drive will shut down as Windows has no use in accessing that drive as all it contains are my music and video files.
The C: drive however is the primary drive where the operating system *usually* resides. Windows Me probably has over a DOZEN simultaneous background processes running all at once which keeps the computer busy needing to access the hard drive from time to time. Windows 2000 and XP can be even WORSE when you want to power down your drive after a a few minutes of inactivity... since these newer operating systems have even MORE silent background proccesses running all at once.
Try INCREASING the length of inactivity to 30 minutes or more. Maybe then it can power down the drives. I find that with Windows 2000/XP... the drives WILL in fact power down... but only to power back up because something that was running in the background NEEDED to access the drive.
It's not worth it...for me anyways. :(
Are you saying that because you just installed Avast that your PC will no longer power down the drives, but it did before? :-\
Try opening up the power settings and increase the length of time for hard drive shutdown. Then RE-APPLY your power scheme.
Hope this helps.
~Steele~ ;)
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Thanks Steele,
To answer your question...I only have a single C drive. Yes...it was working before...but not now. I will try resetting the times as you indicated and see what happens.
Thanks again
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Good luck Avanti63.
Unfortunately.... if the drive does NOT power down, then that indicates a running process or background process keeps resetting the inactivity clock.
You can have 20 minutes of inactivity only to have all that time wasted if another process accesses the hard drive.
Mouse or keyboard activity does not affect the timer.
You could be shifting that mouse around like mad in MSPAINT and the hard drive could still shutdown just as long as you don't click on a tool that hasn't been fully loaded into system memory.
It's hard to say.
I hope Avast isn't the culperit. :-\
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Could this be something to do with VRDB generation?
If configured to do so, it will kick in when
a) the computer is idle, or
b) when the screensaver is on.
I believe this would be entirely sufficient to stop the HDDs from spinning down.
Try turning automatic generation of the VRDB off and see if that makes a difference.
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Hey, I forgot about the VRDB.
For a new user... I believe it would be set by defualt to run when the screensaver starts or after a certain amount of inactivity.
Good point... ;)
You can either disable the VRDB or let it run for the first time.
What you may want to do is force the generation of the VRDB database (updates every 21 days) by right clicking the Avast baloon, go to VRDB... then select generate NOW!
It will then take 3 back to back snapshots/images of your hard drive
This process can take a long time.... maybe 30minutes or more.
After this important step, you should THEN be able to see if your hard disk drive shuts down.
Basically the VRDB (Virus Recovery Database) takes a snapshot of your virus free hard drive. This is a very important step in protecting your system from future infection. If a virus was found on your system in the future and it corrupted an important system file... you would then be able to HEAL/RESTORE that file back to it's original virus free un-corrupted state based on the original snapshot you took. The IMAGE/snapshot of your hard drive allows for this recovery of files.
It's like Windows XP restore feature... ;)... except... Windows XP's restore feature can encapsulate viruses into the restore files. Sometimes it's better to disable XP's system restore.
Good anology? ???
Sorry if I sound confusing... :P
Thanks cjtc . ;D
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Thank you all for the comments.
I also thought about disableing VRDB generation but there was a warning against doing so....so I didn't. From what you say I should be able to disable and run on demand? How often should I do so?
Also...I don't know what effect it has but I don't us MS restore. I use GoBack which creates a snapshot of everything. Could it be that Avast creates enough stuff continually that GoBack is always trying to keep up? I really do like GoBack. I have used it often to undo problems or to restore lost or modified files.
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Thank you all for the comments.
I also thought about disableing VRDB generation but there was a warning against doing so....so I didn't. From what you say I should be able to disable and run on demand? How often should I do so?
Also...I don't know what effect it has but I don't us MS restore. I use GoBack which creates a snapshot of everything. Could it be that Avast creates enough stuff continually that GoBack is always trying to keep up? I really do like GoBack. I have used it often to undo problems or to restore lost or modified files.
Say for example you use the generate VRDB NOW! option... Avast will not run the VRDB service again for another 21 days from the day you started it. You can run it again sooner or later...it's all up to you.
Roxio GoBack should not interfere with Avast VRDB... I'm not terribly familiar with GoBack but I know it's better than XP's or Me's restore feature.
I think once you just let VRDB run once and completely... you'll be done and your HDD will power down.
If you force VRDB to run now... you will see a new very fast spinning icon appear in the system tray. Once VRDB is done... that new icon will dissapear.
Good luck!
I highly recommend you run that service "on-demand" for the first time. It will get you all set up and protected. ;D
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I am very happy to see such an active board here. I certainly got some good comments back. I am at work now. I will try your ideas when I go home. I am really happy to see all of the fine help that is available here. I hope that I may also be of some help to someone else some day. You all make me feel very happy that I swithched from Norton ($) to Avast.
Thanks again....looking forward to more comments
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You're very welcome Avanti63! ;D
I used Norton before...but there updating policy stinks.
It expires too quickly, and I'm not about to go paying for updates THAT often.
Notice how Norton is always at the top of AntiVirus polls when comparing themselves against other companies? It's only because Norton PAYS those sites that are hosting Norton downloads that help them get boosted up there in the polls.
Hopefully more users will post some ideas about your situation. ;)
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Thank you all for the comments.
I also thought about disableing VRDB generation but there was a warning against doing so....so I didn't. From what you say I should be able to disable and run on demand? How often should I do so?
Also...I don't know what effect it has but I don't us MS restore. I use GoBack which creates a snapshot of everything. Could it be that Avast creates enough stuff continually that GoBack is always trying to keep up? I really do like GoBack. I have used it often to undo problems or to restore lost or modified files.
I think not, I use GoBack, avast and Windows XP... No problems with hibernation but sometimes, yes, the HDD does not sleep... :'(
Like Steele said, I cannot due this to avast! all the time. Windows is not a deterministic scenario for tests ;D
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Avanti, you can try to open the file <avast>\Data\avast4.ini (e.g. in Notepad) and change the line Database=ODBC to Database=XML. Does it help?
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Thanks Egor....I will try that tonight when I am at home.
Last night I tried turning automatic generation of the VRDB off. I did run it once and I have left it in the OFF condiition. Wish that would have worked but it did not. Disc still awake all the time.
I do appreciate the help that has been offered.
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Avanti, you can try to open the file <avast>\Data\avast4.ini (e.g. in Notepad) and change the line Database=ODBC to Database=XML. Does it help?
Igor, since some users have problems with the ODBC drivers, why don't you set the option XML as default?
Will we lose something? Will it be worse than the ODBC?
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I don't know much about it, in fact, but I remember Vlk saying that ODBC makes it possible to store the past sessions in the Professional version - which is not possible with XML. I'm not sure if it has any other implications, especially for Home version.
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Yes, that's basically correct. Due to a limitation in the avast XML storage, it does not support storing of old sessions (session results). This is not a limitation of XML itself, this is the limitation of the current implementation of the avast XML storage...
Since the Home Edition doesn't let you access the sessions anyway (it is a feature of the Enhanced UI which is missing from the Home Edition), switching to XML should be completely benign for Home Edition users...
There's a plan to create a whole new storage that will support everything and still won't require any OS drivers (such as ODBC/Jet).
Vlk
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IGOR,
:-[Last night I did as you suggested and set Database=XML In an attempt to test and see if this worked I set my monitor to sleep at 1 min.; disk drive to shut down at 3 min. and computer to go on standby at 5 min. ( I am not sure how to tell the difference in the last two).
After 1 min the monitor shut down… a few min later the light on the computer front went from green to yellow and the hard drive seemed to shut down. ;) I just let it sit for a while. After about 5 min the monitor came back to life and so did the hard drive. ??? I still didn’t touch anything. This process repeated itself two more times and it finally stayed asleep. It remained that way for about an hour. ;D I then figured that it must have fixed the problem. I used the computer for a little while. To my surprise things seemed work much snappier than before. I don’t know it this was real or not, but I really do think things got faster. :) What did that change really do?
Well, thinking all was now fine I reset the power management settings back to 10 min. for monitor to go to sleep; disk drive to shut down at 15 min.; standby at 20 min. I logged of the computer and went to bed. I checked on the computer when I got up this morning. Well it either stayed awake all night or it just woke up early. The monitor was on and so was the hard drive. I don’t understand. Should I have let the time intervals set to the smaller increments? I used to work with the values that I set. ???
I shut the computer down and went to work. I will try again tonight. Any more suggestions?
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There's a plan to create a whole new storage that will support everything and still won't require any OS drivers (such as ODBC/Jet).
Thanks Vlk and Igor. Seems very good to be 'independent' of that drivers.
Avanti, good luck with your research... Standby problems are really very personal in my opinion. It's not easy to reproduce the same computer/applications/services running and so on... :-\
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Hi Avanti63 :-\
I'm sorry none of my suggestions have worked for you.
I do understand your frustration.
I do believe you when you say that Avast has caused your hard drives to not power down since they were powering down before.
I used to use Windows Me like you... how do you like that operating system btw? Personally I did not like it, as it had a lot of bugs and little annoying problems with certain services and programs not running and functioning correctly. Windows Me was one of Microsofts WORST operating systems I'm sorry to say. :( However... that does not mean you should not continue to use it based on my little opinion!! :)
May I inquire if you have, for instance... gone to Microsoft Windows Update to download all the critical and needed recommended patches for Windows Me? I'm sure that there are PLENTY of patches for the Me operating system. Maybe even one patch that addresses the power setting issue you are now having? Just because you were not having the hard drive problem before...does not mean that Microsoft has already addressed that issue?
That might be something to look into? :)
I am however curious to see if this problem could be re-produced on "YOUR" computer with another operating system? Windows Me is very much like Win98SE...except Windows Me looks a little nicer. However, I would not go THAT far unless this hard drive shutdown issue is critical for you. I never power down my hard drives when my PC is turned on. I might use those power saving functions if I was leaving my PC on 24/7.
All my best to you Avanti63! ;)
And if you have not done so... see if there are critical and recommended updates for your PC. There COULD be one specific patch for a power setting problem?
I really don't know though.
Good luck my friend. ;D
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Thanks to all for the comments and help. I have heard of others with similar problems to mine and yes....it seems they are very tricky to figure out. I may or may not get it solved. Should not be big deal I guess. I have gone to MS on a regular basis and downloaded all critical updates. I often think that I would like to strip my drive down and reload everything clean (if I could remember it all). I suspect a clean load would fix this and some other minor problems that have gathered over the last few years.
Actually I have enjoyed using ME and have not had that many bugs. I think I have one of the last revisons to ME. Maybe it was pretty well debugged by then. I have not found it as annoying as many other people have. I will probably ride it out till I get my next computer.
Thanks to all who have commeted to me. I will keep checking around and see what happens.
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Just an update....Things seem to working fine again. I don't quite understand but thats ok. The combination of turning VRDB OFF and changing the .ini file to read DATABASE=XML seems to have fixed the problem. Drive have been shutting down as expected now for a couple of days. ;D
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Just an update....Things seem to working fine again. I don't quite understand but thats ok. The combination of turning VRDB OFF and changing the .ini file to read DATABASE=XML seems to have fixed the problem. Drive have been shutting down as expected now for a couple of days. ;D
Happy you win ;D
Do not forget to 'run' VRDB manually from time to time (once a month for instance) ;)