Windows XP problem with system resources

[Lisandro]

bbfi, it's quite difficult to me to figure out what is happening in your system. Unfortunatelly, 'memory leakage' is not an easy thread for me. I suggest again you try to send an IM to Igor (Vlk is working outside of the office, until I know)  :'(

[bbfi]

Technical,

Presently, without Avast, I have no 'memory leakage' problem anymore.  Everything works great now.  

I have spent so much time in trying to get Avast to work on my system, that right now, I no longer can afford to dedicate time to this problem.  In order to find out if the problem persisted, my computer would have to run continously for 4 to 8 hours.   Each time I tried a suggestion, I would have to wait that amount of time to see if it worked.  

Not only did I have suggestions from this forum, but also from 4 other ones and various other websites.  I must have tried every option given with no success, other than uninstalling Avast which got rid of the problem all together.  So, for the time being, I will use the setup I am now running until A future major release of Avast comes out and I have some free time to experiment more on this situation.  

Thanks for your concern.  

[Lisandro]

Technical,

Presently, without Avast, I have no 'memory leakage' problem anymore.  Everything works great now.  

I have spent so much time in trying to get Avast to work on my system, that right now, I no longer can afford to dedicate time to this problem.  In order to find out if the problem persisted, my computer would have to run continously for 4 to 8 hours.   Each time I tried a suggestion, I would have to wait that amount of time to see if it worked.  

Not only did I have suggestions from this forum, but also from 4 other ones and various other websites.  I must have tried every option given with no success, other than uninstalling Avast which got rid of the problem all together.  So, for the time being, I will use the setup I am now running until A future major release of Avast comes out and I have some free time to experiment more on this situation.  

Thanks for your concern.  

We will be here if you want to come back. I just want to say you that this is quite the best antivirus forum. It´s a pitty that your system does not run avast! well. Anyway, thank you for your time. Come back anytime.  

[Taikonaut]

Hi, basically I have been having a similar problem - when I have avast! installed and running, my computer will eventually run out of resources.

Specs:
WinXP Pro + SP1 + Updates
AMD 1GHz, 256MB RAM, fixed size swap file 512MB

avast! 4.1 Home Edition (4.1.289)
Kerio Personal Firewall 2.1.5
P2P client eMule

I noticed this problem when my computer started running 24/7. For a long time (6 months or so) I put the blame on eMule and just rebooted the computer every 3-4 days (that’s around the time Windows became unusable). Recently I decided to get to the bottom of this problem and traced the leak to the Kernel Memory Paged Pool. Tried to trace the leak in there with WinXP's "verifier" but without results (when tried to verify all drivers Win didn't boot up in normal mode and then tried by manually selecting all non Microsoft drivers - this time things worked but none of the drivers seemed to be responsible for the leak). Then decided to start uninstalling programs that run 24/7. The first one I uninstalled was avast! and the problem was gone. Uptime 7 days and Paged Pool around 40MB. Then installed avast! again and 1,5 days and Paged Pool is already at 80MB and rising

So I would really like to continue using avast! (IMHO its light years ahead of other free antiviruses) but at the moment it seems that the mixture of my other software + avast! doesn't work for me.

[bbfi]

Hi Taikonaut,

For awhile, I thought that I was the only one having this problem.  

And, like you, it is a shame that we have to choose either running Avast (superior to other freebies) and restarting our systems after 5 hours in my case or 3-4 days in yours (I'd settle for that even) or using different software.   :'(

Any ideas about this situation Vlk or Igor?  

[igor]

Vlk is not around it seems and I don't know much about resource leaking...

If I should say something, I would probably:
1. like to see the snapshot of the Task Manager (similar to the one on the previous page of this thread) with avast! when the problems are present - preferably at the moment you notice that the text is disappearing or something like that. Or even better - do a few snapshots (lets say every hour) until the problem appears. Then check if any number is constantly rising... maybe some of the columns (handles, USER objects, GDI objects, VM size) would have some useful info...

2. try various options to see if they have any effect on the problem. For example, would disabling the Standard Shield help? Or does it really leak even if you boot the computer and don't touch it for the next few hours - no apps running (net etc.)?

Maybe it has already been tried, but I didn't see such info in this thread...

[bbfi]

igor,

I have attached a snapshot with avast running a while back.  I don't have any others now since I uninstalled avast for the time being (when I have free time I might try again).  This snapshot was taken with only essential programs running and eventually after 5 hours, the problems began.  Usually by that time, I can't do anything with the computer like taking a snapshot.  

I did try running avast with only two processes (email and standard sheild).  Also, I stopped the system server process for updating avast (aswUpdSv.exe) which did add about 1 to 2 hours of uptime for me.  

The problems occurred with or without using the computer.  I could leave it alone for 5 hours, come back to it, and the screen would be full of error messages and disappearing text, etc.  

Maybe Taikonaut could shed some light on these questions of yours.  Taikonaut did seem to do a lot of different tests that I didn't.  

[Lisandro]

Vlk is not around it seems and I don't know much about resource leaking...

If I should say something, I would probably:

Like to see the snapshot of the Task Manager (similar to the one on the previous page of this thread) with avast! when the problems are present - preferably at the moment you notice that the text is disappearing or something like that. Or even better - do a few snapshots (lets say every hour) until the problem appears. Then check if any number is constantly rising... maybe some of the columns (handles, USER objects, GDI objects, VM size) would have some useful info...

Come back Vlk! (joke) How is your trip?
Talking seriously now, Igor, is there any way to log the error and not just take a snapshot... As bbfi said, the user (me included!) cannot take a snapshot on a freezed system... I see Windows Events but I cannot discover anything why  my system freezes sometimes...  

[Vlk]

Chill out Technical, I'm not DEAD!!!

[Dave50]

Hello everyone!  I've been reading and re-reading this thread ever since it started last month and I think bbfi may've found the cause of his problem in his very first post when he asked if it could be Microsoft's updates and patches.  Let me explain...

bbfi's computer stats are similar to mine.  I've also got
512mb ram and my processor's a Pentium 4 at 1.8 ghz.
I'm also running XP home.

Avast is a GREAT antivirus, but yes, it does use a lot of memory.  If I boot up and just let my computer sit for a while and then check task manager, avast is using between 18,000k and 22,000k of memory.  McAfee 7 and Norton 2003 each use between 7,000k and 8,000k of ram and AVG-6 Free uses around 1,500k.  BIG DIFFERENCE!  However, 512mb ram is more than enough for avast and other applications.  I checked all of these with clean installs of XP and I do not have more than one antivirus on my computer.

With Windows Updates, my computer will slow to a crawl (with avast) after 3 to 4 hours.  Rebooting solves the problem for another 3 to 4 hours.  Cycle repeats.  If I uninstall avast and use any of the other antivirus programs mentioned, no problem.

Now, if I do a clean install of XP and DO NOT install any Windows Updates, there is no problem with using avast.
I do not believe avast is the cause of any problem.  Rather, it could be a trigger with something in one or more of the Windows Updates.

I've said this repeatedly in other threads -- several computer companies (HP and Dell especially) are 'unofficially' telling customers with problems not to install Windows Updates.  There are many people who have slower computers and less ram but have no problems using avast and having Windows Updates.  This is what is so perplexing.  Just read the online forums and you'll find complaint after complaint about computer performance and Windows Updates.  Some computers work with them, some don't and there's no concrete reason discovered yet why this is so.  bbfi and I may be some of the 'chosen' whose machines simply don't like Windows Updates.

I make a radical suggestion to bbfi to try and solve the problem once and for all.  Wipe your hard drive, reformat and do a clean install of XP.  TURN OFF WINDOWS UPDATES, install avast and see what happens.  If the problem persists, then it's possible bbfi's computer just doesn't like avast.  I know of several cases where a computer just won't work with some programs or software, regardless of how good they are.

Personally, I think avast is fabulous and the avast team is superb.  And, if my computer works with avast better without Windows Updates, then they go -- not avast.

Dave

[igor]

Technical: I don't know what to log... if the system behaves strangely, and we don't know why - what information should we log? There is no apparent error...
Therefore, I was suggesting to take snapshot of the values e.g. every hour. If some of the number would be continuously rising (and it will not be IE cache, for example - then we found something suspicious.

Dave: Are you looking at the correct column when checking the occupied memory? You should look at "Virtual Memory Size", not "Memory Usage".
As for the Windows updates - while it would be nice to find the true reason, not installing the updates is not a solution... remember the Blaster worm?

[Dave50]

Igor -- I do recognize the importance of security.  What I was trying to convey to bbfi was simply a test to see if Windows Updates were causing the problem.  Sorry if it didn't come out that way.  I don't want anyone's computer at risk.

As for the columns to look at -- you might be able to help me.  All I see with Task Manager under "Processes" are columns for Image Name, User Name, CPU and Mem Usage.  There is no column for Virtual Memory Size.  What do I need to check or adjust in order to see that?

Thanks,
Dave

[Lisandro]

Chill out Technical, I'm not DEAD!!!

I'm happy to know this  
But Vlk, when you have some time, please try to look around memory leakages and system resources threads. They are too complicated for 'common' users... We stay shooting in the dark without technical knowleage  

Dave, I fully agree with you. Perhaps my last troubles are due to Windows Update. Who knows... It takes a lot of time to discover.

Igor: I know what to log: the increase of memory consume... (values that continuous rise or the suspicious things you talk about). Snapshots are quite difficult, requires user answers all the time. Windows make dump files (memory and drivers troubles I suppose) but they are 'binaries' with nonsense information for common users. Is there a way to log memory useage?

[Dave50]

Igor -- I found my way around and now have a column for virtual memory size.  I'll do some experiments over the weekend.

Technical -- I'm with you!  It takes a lot of time to try and figure out whether Windows Updates are causing problems on a particular system.  Honestly, I can't tell you how many hours I've spent on reformatting and reinstalling XP to make sure there's no 'garbage' left to try and discover some answers.

I'm off to work now and will do some digging over the next two days.  I'll post again if I find anything out.

Thanks to all.  We learn something new, exchange ideas and thoughts.  That's good!

Dave

[Taikonaut]

Well, in my case the leak happened only in Kernel Memory Paged Pool (Memory->Pool Paged Bytes in PerfMon) and none of the processes showed any sign of leaking. I'll post also a pic of what pool i'm just talking about, I mean MS calls the same type of memory with different names in different places (VM and Private bytes etc.).

When it comes to memory logging, then at least WinXP Pro has quite nice tools for that. You should look at Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Performance (or Run:"perfmon") from there you can set it to log hundreds of things.