Avast slowing down new computer

[fshost]

I have been using Avast on all my PCs for several years now and have been quite happy with it.  However, I recently purchased a new PC and after installing Avast I am experiencing a noticable lag time in opening a browser (IE and FF) and in surfing the web in general, as well as some slowness in applications to load (though this is less noticeable than the browser issues).  As this is the only PC I have had this happen with I am thinking it is something related specifically to its setup and wondered if someone might have some suggestions to help me resolve this.

I have been using the same setup regarding security as all my other PCs - Avast! (free edition), Threatfire, SuperAntiSpyware (free edition, auto-startup disabled), and SpywareBlaster.  The computer in question is a gateway with Intel Core i3, 8GB RAM, and Windows 7 Home Premium.  (As far as I can tell I have removed all of the bloatware from this system.)

The slowdown is not a huge issue but it is kind of annoying to have a brand new system running slightly slower than all my other older ones.  I suspect the issue may either lie with Gateway software hiding on here still, or the fact I have Windows 7 Home Premium on here (Vista, XP, Windows 7 Ultimate, Enterprise, and even Starter are not having this issue.

One of the main reasons I like Avast is that it is light on resources.  Has anyone had a similar experience or suggestions regarding this?

[SafeSurf]

Hello fshost and welcome to the forum.

Is your machine acting normally otherwise?  Have you scanned your machine for malware and come out clean?

[SafeSurf]

You signed off-line prior to answering my questions, but another thing to download that may fix your problems is the Winsockfix Utility:
Windows 7 – http://windows7themes.net/winsock-fix-for-windows-7.html

Should the Winsockfix Utility not fix your problem, please scan your machine with Avast and your other on-demand tools (including a Full scan with MBAM - Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware http://www.malwarebytes.org/ - blue button) and cut and paste the log if not clean.

Please let me know if you have any questions.  Thank you.

[Pondus]

(As far as I can tell I have removed all of the bloatware from this system.)

If it was delivered with a preinstalled AV and you have uninstalled it, then it is recomended to run a removal tool after the uninstall so all leftovers are gone.
You can find the tool here http://uninstallers.blogspot.com/

also recomended http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

[Nesivos]

Bloatware -  You can use the Task Manager to help.

Open it.  Set it to all users.

Sort it by Memory usage.

Watch it while you are doing whatever on the computer.

There could be some programs in their eating memory and/or processor

Also if you are using FF 3.6.X check which X it is.

FF 3.6.12 is horrible on XP.  Their worse release evah.  I don't know how it runs on W7 because I am using FF 4.0B6 on my W7 computers.  I would switch to 4.0B6 on my XP except too many of the addons that I rely on have not yet been updated to 4.0 because 4.0 is still changing enough so that a number of the addon developers are waiting until either 4.0B7 or possibly even 4.0RC1 before bringing their addons up to compatibility.

3.6.12 running on my XP computer sucks memory like people suck on oranges.  In fact even after you close the FF it continues to suck memory for maybe up to 30 seconds before finally releasing it all.   Make sure to look at the memory being used by "Plug-In Container.exe"   This is a FF program designed to keep FF from crashing when Adobe Flash does.  It can also suck a lot of memory.   There appers to be a Java related memory problem with 3.6.12.  It could have to do with a problem in Java 6.22 their latest release I am not sure.  I did find that sights with a huge number of Java scripts really suck the memory big time unless you block some of them.  Personally I hate these web pages with 20 plus Java scripts. Ugh

Don't forget to check to see if all your processor memory is being used while you doing whatever and what programs are using it.  It can be checked with Task Manager.

It helps a great deal to have two monitors attached to your computer and this is one of those instances where it really helps as you can move the task manager over to the second monitor and watch it real time as you are doing whatever on the computer.

Check to see what programs are loading at startup.  You may not have gotten rid of all the programs.  There are a number of utilities you can use to do this.  I personally use Glary Utilities free version.

Also take a look at the processes running according to Task Manager and make sure that there are non running that you don't need and want running.   If they are W7 processes they can be disabled in through the Control Panel, System and I forget the last option but you should be able to find it.

Finally you can use something like Process Manager or an equivalent to check in more detail on what processes are loading.

That is all I can think of at the moment.

[Nesivos]

I thought of one other thing.

Check FF and IE to see if they are automatically checking for addon updates when you are loading FF or IE.  If you are using a lot of addons (I use 16 and have used up to 20) it will slow the loading of FF and IE