On-Access System Hang Problem

[memento]

Hi, I am new to this forum.

I just formatted my laptop yesterday and I installed Avast and I noticed something.

Whenever On-Access Protection is enabled and I finish downloading any file, for example in Mozilla Firefox or in mIRC, right before/when the download finishes, the system lags/hangs for a few seconds. I tested this by turning the On-Access Protection on and off and it's definitely the on-access scanning of the finished/downloaded file that is causing this hang. Is anyone else experiencing this problem? How can I fix it?

p.s. My specs are well above the requirements.

Thank you in advance!

[memento]

Until someone posts in response to my problem, could anyone try the following and post their results?

Can someone download a file >1mb in firefox, or in mIRC, etc. and just as the file is about to finish, have the Firefox or mIRC download window open and wiggle your mouse around with music on and see if the system hangs (i.e. the music stops for a few seconds) while the On-Access Protection scans the newly downloaded file. I would greatly appreciate to see other people's results on this matter, because this is the problem that I am currently having. Thank you in advance!

[igor]

Well, if the music stops for a few seconds, I'd personally blame the player. What player/music format do you use?

[bob3160]

If you're listening to streaming music, it could also be a problem with the server where
the music is coming from.

[alanrf]

Hmmm ... trying to keep an open mind ... and knowing what avast is up to in that brief expanse of time ...

I have to ask memento if this seems to be with files over a particular size or of a particular filetype? 

Where you using avast prior to formatting your laptop? 

If you were is this issue recent?

[memento]

I am using Winamp, which I have used since version 2.x, to play .mp3 format music.
Prior to formatting, I used avast and didn't seem to have this problem.
But the weird thing is that it only seems to happen when I have, for example, the actual firefox download manager open on top.
I can tell that it is not the music player's fault, because the mouse lags and moves slowly during the temporary slowdown/hang.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[igor]

I remember WinAmp used to have many useful settings in program options - size of output buffer, decoder priority, etc. Can you try to "enlarge" them (i.e. make the output buffer bigger and priority higher).

However, if you say that even the mouse doesn't move for a while... that's strange.
Somebody reported recently a problem similar in certain aspects - and found out that he had his hard disk in PIO mode (i.e. with DMA disabled). If you say you just formatted the computer... maybe it would be worth checking.

What operating system do you use, btw?

[alanrf]

memento,

I just played some music on the latest release of Winamp while I downloaded a 90Mb file in Firefox (I use the Download Statusbar extension which calls ashquick.exe to scan the downloaded file).  During the completion of the download and scanning Winamp did not miss a beat.  This on a system that is now 5.5 years old with only a 1GHz P3 processor. 

I assume that you are checking out the issue that igor has reported here.  I would also ask if there is any specific file or file type you are encountering the problem with so that we can try to emulate the problem.