Anti-Virus affecting frame rate

[George Orellana]

Hello guys and gals,

So basically I had to install AVG antivirus along with with ZoneAlarm Firewall (I know, I know I'm a cheapo), because Norton had expired and I didn't want to pay my renewal because Norton sucks anyway. But now when I run SL my frame rates have dropped by half. Any idea how to fix this? TIA

[Peggy Paperdoll]

It's not being a cheapo by using AVG and Zonealarm.............both are excellent security software.  I gave up Norton years ago because of it's resource usage.  I've used AVG for years and never had a problem with it and SL...........I haven't used Zonealarm for quite sometime but I have a friend who does and she doesn't have issues with SL and it.  I presently use Comodo security suit.  Anti virus, anti maleware and firewall..........it's free and doesn't interfere with SL in any way.

 

Google Comodo.

[George Orellana]

Thank you Peggy I will give that a try.

[Andromeda Quonset]

I use ZoneAlarm too.  I used to use  AVG, but I found that gave me problems, and I switched to Avast.  You might consider Avast, too. if the other suggestions don't work out for you.

[George Orellana]

Thank you I'll keep that in mind also.

[Baloo Uriza]

So basically I had to install AVG antivirus along with with ZoneAlarm Firewall (I know, I know I'm a cheapo), because Norton had expired and I didn't want to pay my renewal because Norton sucks anyway. But now when I run SL my frame rates have dropped by half. Any idea how to fix this? TIA

ZoneAlarm, along with every other personal firewall, is snake oil.  Even if you have just one computer, go get yourself a home router:  It's a better firewall than any personal firewall could be.  If you must take a retro-active approach to security (rather than a pro-active one like not accepting files and software from non-trustworthy sources, and never doing anything as Administrator when it's not absolutely required), you can probably get away with not using the real-time protection and have it schedule a scan for a time when you're not using the computer.

[Suspiria Finucane]

Baloo Uriza wrote:

you can probably get away with not using the real-time protection and have it schedule a scan for a time when you're not using the computer.

 

Agreed, I don't use any protection when accessing SL. In over 3 1/2 years I've never had an issue.

[Faubio Alter]

Why do you think it is the AV program? Mostly frame rate is handled by your graphics card that can be effected by your connection. To check whats running on your CPU where the AV program does open task manager in Windows and see if it is running while your on SL. Look also for other programs that are running and disable what you can. If your using MAC or Linux sorry i can't help you.

[Baloo Uriza]

I'm not saying "don't protect yourself."  I'm saying, "Use proactive measures, don't expect retroactive measures and snake oil to do anything for you."

[Cerise Sorbet]

Hi, on the AVG interface there is a place to make exceptions on the real time scan. It can help to exclude the main SL cache directory, you can find its location in the SL preferences.

The SL web cache is separate under browser_profile, it could be better to not exclude that directory, web cache is more risky and it is not so big a bottleneck as the texture cache.

[George Orellana]

Thank you guys for all your suggestions. Nothing seems to be working thou now i have a whole other can of worms. When I boot my system windows tells me that User Account Control has been turned off. I'm about to just give up and go back to Norton since I didn't have any problems while using it.

[Baloo Uriza]

Here's a one-liner to fix that.  Don't go throwing away more money on Norton when you could be spending it on something actually worthwhile.

[George Orellana]

Thank you all once again for all your suggestions. Here's what I ended up doing. I uninstalled the antivirus and firewall, I am now only running on windows defender and windows firewall. My frame rate on SL went back up and even gained more, and my laptop is running everything a lot faster too. CPU usage and Memory usage has gone down too, which makes me wonder if having antivirus software is really worth it. I hope running on Windows utilities alone is good enough, we will see. Baloo, as for the UAC, that did not work. even after uninstalling the av and firewall it still turns itself off every time i reboot the pc, I wonder what is causing this, it did not happen with Norton.

[Baloo Uriza]

even after uninstalling the av and firewall it still turns itself off every time i reboot the pc, I wonder what is causing this, it did not happen with Norton.

I strongly suspect we're dealing with a compromised computer, hopefully you have a clean backup of your data.  Have you considered reinstalling?

[Faubio Alter]

which makes me wonder if having antivirus software is really worth it

 

Yes, it is worth it and it would be reckless to not run them.

What OS are you using? I have a Windows 7 OS on a Compaq PC and I have trouble with programs running in the background slowing my PC. I have disallowed automatic updates on a number of programs in my PC and have chosen to be notified of them instead, this way I know they are running and can choose when. This appears to be a Windows 7 problem but I'm not for certain yet.

[George Orellana]

I didn't even think of that, thank you. I found the culprit and it was not the antivirus software after all. Indeed it was Windows Media Center that was running in the background using up all my CPU (made it go up to 100%) and was slowing things out. So I installed Avast anti-virus, and kept ZoneAlarm firewall, and run CCleaner to clean my registry and uninstalled unused software. My laptop is running fast and SL is running fast too, Now if only I could figure out why the UAC keeps turning itself off I'll be set. Baloo has suggested it might be a virus but i doubt it, I did a scan and did not find anything and this did not start happening untill I installed AVG.

 

Thank you all for your suggestions and your help.