Computer Slowdown... 1

[sonnyjim]

2 PC's ( 128MB RAM , 10GB HDD 600Mhz P3 ) , running MS Office and McAfee Virus Scan.

Behave okay for about 2 hours then grind down to a most disgraceful pace. Only way to fix this is to Reboot ( hence refreshing the mem ) but it keeps happening.

Have tried different mem , checked Page Files - only thing I can think of is Memory "Leakage" from apps not releasing themselves properly.

We have Mcafee all over the office here ( same version & DAT as the troubled PC, and do not have the same problems)

Does anybody know of any workarounds?

 

[sonnyjim]

Forgot to mention they're running NT4 ( client ) with SP6

 

[ayjaycee]

As it's NT, does Task manager show anything usefull (i.e. which processes are using up the CPU/Memory) ???

http://www.tanda.f2s.com

One by one, the penguins steal my sanity.

 

[sonnyjim]

Nothing out of the ordinary...

Also , its happeing on 3 other machines there ( 2 on Win98 and one on Win95 )

I would say it was Mcafee - but why is this not happening elsewhere.

 

[ayjaycee]

Is Mcafee set up differently on these PCs? If it's set to scan ALL files, rather than just Programs, it could be slowing them down ...

http://www.tanda.f2s.com

One by one, the penguins steal my sanity.

 

[sonnyjim]

At present , I'm not entirely sure ( doesnt help, I know ) as the machines are in another office.

I think the main problem is highlighted in your comments - but if its not affecting other PC's with it on why should it cause probs on these?

Bizzare to say the least.

 

[ayjaycee]

Quote:
but if its not affecting other PC's with it on why should it cause probs on these?

Usually, because somethings different! Hardware, software and/or configuration (or, sometimes, User X-))

http://www.tanda.f2s.com

One by one, the penguins steal my sanity.

 

[UTTech]

I have the same problem here. I'm almost positive McAfee causes the problem because I uninstalled McAfee and it runs great. I resolved the problem on some workstations by adding more memory (only had 32MB)and haven't got any complaints so far. However, there is still 1 workstation here that still has the problem. It runs great in the morning but late afternoon, it slows down. After rebooting it runs great again. Haven't found a solution yet. It has 128MB so I don't think it needs anymore. Janny
Network Administrator
jcha@ArkionLS.com

 

[sonnyjim]

I do realise that Software etc etc could be different , but - as is my luck - it is not. They all have the same install ( exactley ) the only difference being the O/S.

Users do not have permissions to change any settings on the actual Mcafee App.

It is exactly like Janny says - fine in the morning , the grinds to a halt in the afternoon. Reboot sorts it . I know of apps like Outlook not freeing themselves properly causing what is commonly known as " leakage " but is this the case with Mcafee?

If I had my way I'd use Trend....

 

[UTTech]

I use Outlook here also. I wonder if there's a conflict between Outlook and McAfee? I know the user with the problem has Outlook open all day.

 

[sonnyjim]

Food for thought...

But, I run McAfee on my PC here at work ( as my evil overlord requests ) and have Outlook 98 open all day. I have no probs with anything slowing down.

Same goes for all the other users I look after in this company.

So why on earth are these cases linked?

 

[Maruis]

Just a tought.......

Emty the TEMP directories and see what happens.

Hope this helps

 

[sonnyjim]

Interesting... But I dont think Macafee holds anything open in that location - or Outlook.

What I think it could be - is that McAfee can be configured to run inside outlook ( scanning Mail /Attachments etc ) . Now , if Outlook has a problem releasing memory , combine this with Mcafee ( also slows things down ) I reckon it could be settings within Mcafee..

But where are they.... ( I'm not talking about the settings that can be changed through the GUI - more registry based ones I guess ).

 

[JohnS9051]

This definitely sounds like a software problem to me. Could be a memory leak or a compatibility problem between programs that are running.

It could be that these machines and users are running software that the others are not.
I'm not refering to programs that are installed but to programs that are actually being used.

It seems as though you are jumping to conclusions and blaming this on McAfee Anti-virus. You have convinced yourself that McAfee is the problem and have not done a thorough diagnosis.

McAfee Anti-virus has a reputation of not playing nice with other software. But since the computers have the same software, this is not likely unless the user is running something that the others are not.

You say that all the effected computers have exactly the same software installed. This maybe true, but as Jeff Goldblum said in Jurassic Park, "Nature will find a way".
Well, users will also inevitably find a way to change things either intentionally or inadvertently.

You can eliminate the possibility of different software by cloning the hard drive of the suspected machine with one that is working properly.

If that doesn't solve the problem, then find out what programs the user is running. Memory leaks are caused by software programs that load objects dynamically (possibly .dll files) then close or delete pointers without freeing the memory that was allocated.
The programs could be running continuously or opened and closed repeatedly.

The problem could be caused by the way the user is using the installed programs. Try moving the user to a machine you know is working properly and see if the problem moves with the user.

When you finally determine what is causing the problem, go to the software maker's website and see if there is an upgrade or software patch that fixes the problem.

This kind of problem is difficult to diagnose that is why you have to follow a thorough diagnostic procedure.

Please, let me know how you make out.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

John

 

[Maruis]

Very good post John!!!
I would say reinstall service pack 6a on the NT machine. It is possible that some dll files got corrupted in some way.
In 95, 98 I have seen dll's being corrupted in very rare cases on NT4. For the 95 and 98 machines I would do a reinstall.

I would not touch the registery if it is not absolutley nessasary. Unless you know what you are doing.

Give us some feedback on what happens

 

[sonnyjim]

Cheers for the good advise guys - I'll let you know more on it when I'm back at the place and get my teeth into it. ( probably literally! ) :-D

I'm well aware of software issues , but the problem is that SP6 causes another piece of software to malfunction - so thats a no-go.

Again , the mind boggles X-)

 

[cdogg]

sonnyjim,

I'm not sure if this will help, but "food for thought" to say the least!

Our company has seen a growing number of resource problems on systems running Windows 98 with users running Mcafee VirusScan 4.5.0.534 with scan engine 4.1.50

What happens is that the systems run great for the first 30-45 minutes. Then the system starts to lose time, apps take a lot longer to open/close, and the mouse cursor trails movements around the screen. Keep in mind that this only affects our Windows 95/98 users, and isn't a problem for users running Windows 2000.

There was a recent patch we received to upgrade users to scan engine 4.1.60 which resolved the problem.

***************************

Guess the point is that it is possible that some software might conflict on one OS and not another. So even if the software is identical on all the systems, that still wouldn't rule out problems like this in all situations (like John had suggested). However, his point to take a step back and evaluate everything is a good one!

 

[sonnyjim]

Another good post!

I download the latest DAT files every week , and also the superDAT.

I had thought that this upgrades the scanning engine as well - something I will check.

Did you get the patch off of the site?

 

[cdogg]

There are two main components when it comes to upgrading Mcafee - DAT files and the Scan Engine. Both are separate components and updating one doesn't necessarily update the other. If you run a superDAT file, it's updating the scan engine and installing the DAT file version that was available at the time it was created.

As far as obtaining updates, they should be available directly from Mcafee's website. We have a 3rd-level team here that works directly with a Mcafee helpdesk and receives all sorts of updates and patches before they've been thoroughly tested! I can't say if the version I have is available or not to be honest! The superDAT file you have to run to upgrade to scan engine 4.1.60 is sdat4173.exe.

 

[sonnyjim]

Cool,

I know that the SuperDATs also update the engine as well , and should I presume that all the later dates from there also carry the updated engine code within them.

As for McAfee's site , I am aware that they have all the latest stuff.

I was just wondering, as it appears that so many people are having problems with this Virus Scanning product , if McAfee plan to release any fixes or recommendations.

The amount of times that this software has caused grief is just amazing. %-(