Please help -- avast! makes cursor freeze temporarily

[snarky]

I'm going absolutely nuts trying to find an AV solution that I can live with.  I'd happily settle on avast! if it didn't have this performance problem that drives me bonkers: Whenever I run a program with avast! installed, my mouse cursor freezes for a split second.  (I guess this happens when avast! is scanning the file.)  The freezing only occurs for a very brief period of time, but it is still extremely annoying, given that it happens so constantly.

I'm using Windows XP Pro SP2.  I have an AMD Athlon 3000+ (2.1 GHz) with 2-GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA 6800.  Not the latest and greatest stuff, but not garbage yet, either.

This problem happens with all versions of avast! I've used, even the latest.  This problem also happens even though I'm using default settings (except that I have VRDB disabled).  Playing with the settings also makes no difference.

I don't have any other anti-malware software installed.  No anti-spyware garbage, no firewall, nothing.  And I don't have malware; I've scanned with everything under the sun, including Kaspersky in "Safe Mode with Networking".  I've checked for file system drivers that might be part of the problem, but the only thing installed is TeraByte Unlimited's PHYLock utility, and removing PHYLock doesn't solve the problem.

Has anyone else had this problem, and is there any way to solve it?

[DavidR]

Well I see none of the issue you mention and my system spec is less than yours.

To have run a scan with Kaspersky in safe mode it would have to be installed.
Having another AV installed in this system could possibly lead to this issue, so how did you get rid of it ?

Some Kaspersky removal stuff.
Run this utility to remove all traces of Kaspersky from the registry:
http://www.ice-kav.com/downloads/util/KAV_Registry_Clean.zip
ICE is a US distributor for Kaspersky.

KIS6 Removal - http://support.kaspersky.com/downloads/kis6/kiskav6remove.zip

[snarky]

You don't have the problem.  Great, except that...  I do.  I didn't really think it was a system spec issue.

I did have Kaspersky installed, but it has been removed, both by the normal way, and thorough removal via Total Uninstall.  As I said, I do not have any AV software installed.  The problem is not due to Kaspersky or any other AV.

[Glass]

I do have this split second problem, but don't know which one of the apps does this. I see this when browsing with Opera. The cursor freezes for a microsecond every now and then.
I have Comodo & Avast.

[Lisandro]

The freezing only occurs for a very brief period of time, but it is still extremely annoying, given that it happens so constantly.

Which is your Standard Shield sensitivity?
Would you like to uncheck the scanning of open/created/modified files (although you'll reducing protection, you'll increase performance)?

[snarky]

The problem happens with default settings.  I would not want to disable scanning of open/created/modified files.  Thanks.

[Lisandro]

I would not want to disable scanning of open/created/modified files.

Well... it's my default configuration. I don't want to scan every single file (the executables and Office files are ALWAYS scanned as well floppies, etc.).

[DavidR]

You don't have the problem.  Great, except that...  I do.  I didn't really think it was a system spec issue.

I did have Kaspersky installed, but it has been removed, both by the normal way, and thorough removal via Total Uninstall.  As I said, I do not have any AV software installed.  The problem is not due to Kaspersky or any other AV.

That was more or less my comment, I don't believe it is system spec or I too 'would' see the effect.

So the impact is something and I went for what is most common since you mentioned a previous AV.

It may be worth temporarily enabling this option, 'Show detailed info on performed actions' it should show what is actually being scanned. This may give an idea what the activity is about and if there is any interaction with another application. The list is usually very quick but you should be able to see what folder is being scanned if not the file.