Strange behavior with mom's computer

[Layback Bear]

MSE has never found Malware or a virus on my systems but it's not designed to be a anti malware. That is why I also use Malwarebytes Premium and SAS.

Knock on wood, I haven't had a virus ect in years.
Malwarebytes and Eset online scan finds a few PUP's now and then but never a virus or rootket. MSE does not block these PUP's but it's not designed to. It's a anti virus program.
Malwarebytes does block a site once in a while.

At the present time I don't want a anti virus program that is a fit all do all.

If a anti virus program does what it states, blocks viruses I'm happy.
That is why I use MSE. No fuss, no muss and no viruses.

 

[gregrocker]

What would be a less bloated free AV that you would recommend? Avast used to be that way.

I don't believe the problem is any malware or spyware because this is a fresh install I am working with and the reason I started over is because it was dragging despite all scans (virus/malware/adware/disk errors) coming up clean.

It seems to be working fine here at my house, although after start up the first attempt to open Firefox is slow but it's probably because Avast always downloads the database update upon start up.

Tomorrow will be the test when I bring it back to her house.

Thanks for all of the help!

Did you read Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7? Your question is answered there.

If you reimported any files or installers from previous install then scan for Malware using those two scans recommended, which should be done anyway without dickering.

When we need to enter negotiations or spoon feed clearly stated steps that have worked thousands of times, it almost always means the fix is going to be out of reach.

 

[RichO]

So running MSE and Mbam at the same time should not be a problem with bogging down the system? At least less than Avast does?

 

[NoelDP]

Jack, did you MSE ever find anything. Mine did not. Even when I scanned the system, I got a clean bill of health although SAS and Mbam found malware.

The same can be said (and has been said) of ANY AV - they look for different things to AM software.
MS is treading on eggshells with a consumer AV, and has to err on the side of 'innocent until proven guilty' as it could be (and has been, IIRC) sued for a lot of money if it makes a mistake in detection - or even just gets a little too enthusiastic.

 

[paul1149]

I stopped using MSE because it started commandeering resources over the past year. With Panda you get AV, AM, and optional URL screening, and it is the lightest I've found. An added benefit is the ability to turn off Windows Defender.

MBAM says it can run alongside AV, but I don't favor two different scanners running.

 

[NoelDP]

MSE is lighter in resource-usage than almost any other AV - if it does start being a hog, simply uninstall and reinstall it.

 

[Layback Bear]

Because MSE does not come with Windows 7 and one has to choose it to get it in my opinion is the reason Microsoft didn't end up in a E.U. court room.
Now with Defender in Windows 8 and probably Windows 10 is taking another step to see if the E.U. is going to take them to court.

It seem like every time Microsoft wants to have one of their operating system have thing that are free (come with the install) some one want to try and stop them.

MSE and Malwarebytes Premium active at the same time does not bog my systems.

The only thing I have ever found that Malwarebytes doesn't get along with is malwareware and PUP's.

 

[NoelDP]

The only thing I have ever found that Malwarebytes doesn't get along with is malwareware and PUP's.

I hear it doesn't like Norton too much, either - but then....

 

[whs]

Speaking of Norton - My Norton NIS was the only AV program I had that ever found things and blocked them. I did not renew it and installed MSE because I now do most of my internet work in a virtual Linux system. That is the safest.

Btw - the Norton footprint was smaller than the MSE footprint - if that matters. And NIS scans during system idle time which is more convenient than those constant MSE reminders for scans.

 

[Layback Bear]

I do all my scans manually. I must be doing the often enough because MSE is not giving me any reminders.

 

[NoelDP]

Last time I looked, NAV had something like 12 services running (I can only guess how many NIS has!) - MSE has two.
MSE scans every file on access - Norton has a whitelist (which use to be based solely on filename/location if I remember right, making it inherently insecure.)

 

[gregrocker]

MSE is adequate AV protection for those who don't get infected regularly because they use smart browsing habits and don't hang out in dodgy sites that offer torrents, players and other infection vectors. When they do get infected I recommend adding MBAM Real Time protection which has prevented them from getting infected again.

These are two different types of protection, AV and Malware protection. They do not conflict, but work perfectly well together.

As Noel says if one starts hogging resources or causing trouble then reinstall it. Neither are known to cause chronic problems, but are more often the solution to these problems.

 

[RichO]

The computer must know that today is the day I am bringing it back because it is giving me all kinds of problems now.

It has started dragging and the task manager is showing 100% CPU usage at times when there are no additional programs running. I did start it in safe mode and it runs at a good speed but as soon as I open Firefox the CPU usage jumps up to 100%, although it opens quickly. I don't know if that is normal behavior or not. When it's not in safe mode it takes about 20 seconds to open Firefox.

When the computer was dragging I opened the task manager and chose to show processes by all users but I don't know what to look for. Right now the problem comes and goes. It will be fine for a bit and then it will drag

There is an important Windows update that has failed to install 5 times. It downloads to 11% and then fails. It's an update to IE11.0 which she never uses but Windows keeps notifying me of the update. How do I handle this? Is this pending update what could be causing the computer to run slow?

This is common of what I am seeing:

 

[gregrocker]

Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7 shows how to trace which processes are pegging resources. You need to Show Processes from All Users, then click on the CPU column to show them in descending order, then the RAM tab to check there. To zero in even more the tutorial demonstrates how to use Process Explorer.

If you're serious about resolving this like we've helped thousands of others do then start at the top and report back results of each of the Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7.

You can reset Windows Update components. But does she have IE11? Watch for queued Updates on Shutdown button to clear first with restart.

 

[RichO]

Sorry. The thread has gotten so big that posts from days ago when the problems weren't happening kind of got lost in the middle.

IE 11.0 is installed on the computer but there are no queued updates on the shut down button. Right now the computer is running fine but before when it was dragging, the windows update icon was appearing in the system tray and now it is not. I have WU set to inform me of updates but not download them or install them.

 

[paul1149]

There is an important Windows update that has failed to install 5 times. It downloads to 11% and then fails. It's an update to IE11.0 which she never uses but Windows keeps notifying me of the update. How do I handle this? Is this pending update what could be causing the computer to run slow

It could be. The update procedure takes a lot of horsepower. Many of the updates are available for offline installation. I would try to download it manually and then install it by itself, after taking a Restore Point.

One test for this would be to switch to "Do not check for updates" and see how the machine runs over time. Another is to see if Trusted Installer is commandeering high resources when the problem manifests. Or if srvhost is the culprit, right click it and "go to services" to see if wuauserv is behind it.

Note this: It may be that IE11 is causing the problem. The machine I'm on will not run IE11 properly. It is a rarity, but it is what it is. I've tried two or three times to install it. It installs but the whole system gets messed up. I couldn't square root it so I gave up, since I seldom use IE anyway. You could try a Reset of IE before you try to update.

 

[RichO]

I also did try to manually download the update and that worked but the install failed. Then I found this:

Microsoft acknowledges -- but doesn't fix -- KB 3038314 installer fail with error 80092004 | InfoWorld

I selected to hide the update since IE won't be used on this machine

 

[RichO]

I ran through the first 11 troubleshooting steps and no errors were found. I guess my biggest problem is that it appears to be intermittent. Earlier today when the computer was running very slow the CPU usage and physical memory usage was close to 100% when the computer was idle, even in safe mode (although the performance was not dragging in safe mode) but now it's running fine and the usage numbers are back to normal. It's all a question of when it decides to act up again.