Avast! Free & MBAM Pro

[Riadon]

I recently purchased MBAM pro because it has very good detection and it said to be able to work with Anti-Virus products without slowdowns. ((I am currently using a 64-bit Vista Home Premium with 7 GB RAM)). For some reason, whenever I turn on MBAM pro, even if i disable all of the functions but one, my computer gets very, very slow. I look at my CPU usage after my task manager has popped up 30 seconds after opening, and it seems to be very low as normal ((Around 3%)) but the slowdown is equivalent or more than a 100% CPU usage, which is strange. I have all MBAM pro files recommended by the MBAM forum in my Avast! Exception list. What I want to know is, does this have anything to do with Avast? Starting to doubt it. Also, if anyone knows how to fix this I would also be very happy.

[DavidR]

Well there are several forum members also using MBAM pro and avast without the problems you report, I don't know if they have 64bit versions of Vista though.

I would also suggest excluding the C:\WINDOWS\Temp\_avast5_ folder from MBAM as that is where avast unpacks files that it scans, so there may be an element of duplication in scanning.

Try that and see if it makes a difference. Another thing is that avast also checks for updates once you have established a connection (this can be relatively early in the boot process). I don't know if MBAM Pro would also be doing the same, I only use the free MBAM so no auto updating so I can't test that either.

[Riadon]

As far as I know, theres no way to add an exception to MBAM unless MBAM detects the file as a virus.

[DavidR]

Weird, I thought it did like most other security applications, I use SAS Pro as my resident anti-spyware and that does. So even if it does detect something in that folder, presumably it would only allow you to ignore that item and not the specific folder ?

What other security applications do you have installed, firewall, etc. ?

It seems strange when you are reporting only minimal CPU that there is a slow down when you start MBAM, surely you have MBAM Pro set to start on boot ?

You could try delaying the avast update check - In avast5 you need to edit (using notepad) avast5.ini the [InetWD] section of the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Alwil Software\Avast5\avast5.ini

- Broadband connections, add this line:
AlwaysConnectedWaitSeconds=120 and
AssumeAlwaysConnected=1 if not present (or edit AssumeAlwaysConnected=0 to AssumeAlwaysConnected=1)

[InetWD]
AssumeAlwaysConnected=1
AlwaysConnectedWaitSeconds=120

When complete save the changes, avast's self-defence module will ask for confirmation, etc. answer Yes.

The figure is seconds and the above equates to two minutes, you could try that and adjust upwards if required, 180, 240, etc.

[ziucqea]

I recently purchased MBAM pro because it has very good detection and it said to be able to work with Anti-Virus products without slowdowns. ((I am currently using a 64-bit Vista Home Premium with 7 GB RAM)). For some reason, whenever I turn on MBAM pro, even if i disable all of the functions but one, my computer gets very, very slow. I look at my CPU usage after my task manager has popped up 30 seconds after opening, and it seems to be very low as normal ((Around 3%)) but the slowdown is equivalent or more than a 100% CPU usage, which is strange. I have all MBAM pro files recommended by the MBAM forum in my Avast! Exception list. What I want to know is, does this have anything to do with Avast? Starting to doubt it. Also, if anyone knows how to fix this I would also be very happy.

To be honest, I've never heard of MBam and needed to Google it to ensure that it's not a fake AV(= =)
As far as I know, the anti-virus software with the highest rate of detection is a-squared, which has a free version without real-time scam,i.e. a scanner which can update at any time you want.
The a-squared engine ensures a high rate of detection of spywares, and its IK engine ensures a high rate of detection of viruses. In the tests, I think only Hitman or Trustport could catch its detection-and never match.
See this website for further information: http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/antimalware/
Refer to this website for download: http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/download/
Surfe this one for further information on its engines: http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/technology/

[Tarq57]

@ziucqea ,
most of the experienced forum members here would recommend MBAM, free or resident (yes, there is a free version, it is not a scam) as a very good quality demand scanner.
Superantispyware (SAS) also falls into that category.
AFAIK A2 is considered pretty good to very good overall, but a lot of folk have been somewhat put off by a fairly high false positive rate.
Personally I've been put off it a little by its taking a very long time to update.
It's an antimalware scanner, by the way, not an antivirus.

That you had never heard of MBAM is unsurprising if you don't visit security forums too often, nor read much about malware cleaning. It's been amongst the pick of the bunch for at least a year, now.

[ziucqea]

@ziucqea ,
most of the experienced forum members here would recommend MBAM, free or resident (yes, there is a free version, it is not a scam) as a very good quality demand scanner.
Superantispyware (SAS) also falls into that category.
AFAIK A2 is considered pretty good to very good overall, but a lot of folk have been somewhat put off by a fairly high false positive rate.
Personally I've been put off it a little by its taking a very long time to update.
It's an antimalware scanner, by the way, not an antivirus.

That you had never heard of MBAM is unsurprising if you don't visit security forums too often, nor read much about malware cleaning. It's been amongst the pick of the bunch for at least a year, now.

Eh...I just joined this forum days ago, and I'm used to visiting the forums in China...in which neither SAS nor MBAM has ever been mentioned.  So any suggestion on security forums?
PS: A2 IS a anti-virus software-anti-malware(powered by A-squared)+anti-virus(powered by IK)

[Riadon]

Weird, I thought it did like most other security applications, I use SAS Pro as my resident anti-spyware and that does. So even if it does detect something in that folder, presumably it would only allow you to ignore that item and not the specific folder ?

What other security applications do you have installed, firewall, etc. ?

It seems strange when you are reporting only minimal CPU that there is a slow down when you start MBAM, surely you have MBAM Pro set to start on boot ?

You could try delaying the avast update check - In avast5 you need to edit (using notepad) avast5.ini the [InetWD] section of the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Alwil Software\Avast5\avast5.ini

- Broadband connections, add this line:
AlwaysConnectedWaitSeconds=120 and
AssumeAlwaysConnected=1 if not present (or edit AssumeAlwaysConnected=0 to AssumeAlwaysConnected=1)

[InetWD]
AssumeAlwaysConnected=1
AlwaysConnectedWaitSeconds=120

When complete save the changes, avast's self-defence module will ask for confirmation, etc. answer Yes.

The figure is seconds and the above equates to two minutes, you could try that and adjust upwards if required, 180, 240, etc.

Yeah they only let you ignore the specific item when it is detected, and my MBAM does come up on startup, the slowdown also occurs if I start it later ((Though not as bad because my computer is less busy)). My other real-time protections are Threatfire, Defense+ from Comodo Firewall ((Just saying the slowdowns occurred before I switched from PC-Tools to Comodo firewall)), S&D's Teatimer and its Immunize ((Also use Keyscrambler and WOT as firefox addons)) and PeerBlock for when I use P2P ((Seems like kind of a firewall to me)). Even if I turn off MBAM's protection module completely, I still have to restart the computer for it to go back to normal speed.

[DavidR]

Personally given that you have MBAM and avast and threatfire, I would give Spybot S&D the elbow.

I don't know if there might be any interaction between defence+ and threatfire, I don't use either, so I can't say.

[Riadon]

Personally given that you have MBAM and avast and threatfire, I would give Spybot S&D the elbow.

I don't know if there might be any interaction between defence+ and threatfire, I don't use either, so I can't say.

None of my security programs seem to use any CPU according to ProcMon and the task manager. Uninstalling security programs on my computer seems to cause more problems than fix. Threatfire and Defense+ do similar things, but I've yet to experience any slowdowns since I've gotten both. I probably don't need to be using MBAM pro anyways, but since I like to P2P alot I like to be 100% sure that any malware I get is fried instantly.

[Asyn]

Personally given that you have MBAM and avast and threatfire, I would give Spybot S&D the elbow.

I don't know if there might be any interaction between defence+ and threatfire, I don't use either, so I can't say.

None of my security programs seem to use any CPU according to ProcMon and the task manager. Uninstalling security programs on my computer seems to cause more problems than fix. Threatfire and Defense+ do similar things, but I've yet to experience any slowdowns since I've gotten both. I probably don't need to be using MBAM pro anyways, but since I like to P2P alot I like to be 100% sure that any malware I get is fried instantly.

Please drop Spybot, as it can make troubles together with avast..!!
asyn

[cyberqtf]

My other real-time protections are Threatfire, Defense+ from Comodo Firewall ((Just saying the slowdowns occurred before I switched from PC-Tools to Comodo firewall)), S&D's Teatimer and its Immunize ((Also use Keyscrambler and WOT as firefox addons)) and PeerBlock for when I use P2P

S&D's Teatimer is likely to conflict with MBAM.  If you want to keep S&D for occasional scanning, fine, but turn off Teatimer.  You shouldn't be running more than one AV, one firewall, and one anti-malware program in real time.

[cyberqtf]

Eh...I just joined this forum days ago, and I'm used to visiting the forums in China...in which neither SAS nor MBAM has ever been mentioned.  So any suggestion on security forums?
PS: A2 IS a anti-virus software-anti-malware(powered by A-squared)+anti-virus(powered by IK)

I assume if you joined this forum, you're using Avast.  If you are, you shouldn't also be using A2.  You should not be running more than one anti-virus program on your computer at the same time.  That's also true for firewalls and for anti-malware programs.  You should run only one of each kind in real time.

[ziucqea]

Eh...I just joined this forum days ago, and I'm used to visiting the forums in China...in which neither SAS nor MBAM has ever been mentioned.  So any suggestion on security forums?
PS: A2 IS a anti-virus software-anti-malware(powered by A-squared)+anti-virus(powered by IK)

I assume if you joined this forum, you're using Avast.  If you are, you shouldn't also be using A2.  You should not be running more than one anti-virus program on your computer at the same time.  That's also true for firewalls and for anti-malware programs.  You should run only one of each kind in real time.

A2 free for scanning

[Asyn]

S&D's Teatimer is likely to conflict with MBAM.  If you want to keep S&D for occasional scanning, fine, but turn off Teatimer.  You shouldn't be running more than one AV, one firewall, and one anti-malware program in real time.

Wrong, if conflicts arise, uninstall Spybot completely..!!
asyn