I need help with pc problems.

by 28 replies
28
Hi all,

I have several problems I need advice on if anybody has answers.

1. My antivirus scanner is taking MUCH longer than normal.
I use Avira. It used to take around 90-120 mins. Right now it is running and 4.5 hours has gone so far.

2. I use Mozilla Thunderbird for my emails. Since yesterday, it has been extremely slow. By this I mean that you click an email and it may take up to 10 seconds before it recognises that you have clicked it.

I don't know if this is affecting it but 3 weeks ago I put an additional 12 GB ram stick in the second slot and I had a 4 GB stick in the first one.
My pc tells me I can handle 16 GB.


Any ideas??? (Yes I have Googled and no luck either.)
#off topic forum #avira #emails #slow
  • I have no idea what machine you have but ram is usually inserted into a computer in matched pairs of equal value. So to get 8 gigs you must have 2 sticks of 4 gigs each. 16 gigs would be 2 sticks of 8 etc. I'm surprised your machine is even working. I would revert back to what you had and see if it resolves the problem.

    Added, a single stick of 4 as it was by default (on it's own) would not be a problem. But, if you wanted 8, you would buy another 4 gig (same specs and speed) To get 16 you would have to go out and buy 2 8 gig modules.
  • I have a 4 gb and an 8 gb. So you think I should have 2 that are the same GB?
    I did ask the computer guy in the shop and he said it shouldn't make a difference.

    I just did another Google about uneven memory and found this:
    With equal amounts of memory in both slots, memory can be interleaved so that successive chunks of memory alternate slots. That way, memory access gets distributed to both slots almost perfectly evenly, allowing their bandwidth to combine.
    With uneven amounts, memory cannot be interleaved and has to be mapped first to one stick and then the other. A program that is accessing a large contiguous chunk of memory will find almost all of its access going to one stick and there will be no bandwidth combination.



    Can anybody confirm if this is true?

    If so, I could just take out the 4GB and work with the 8GB and I still get double what I originally had. Thoughts?

    • [2] replies
    • True, that you should put in balanced ram sticks, but you will probably get away with uneven ones.

      As for the antivirus taking forever, yeah, had the same problem myself.

      It seems that when the WF gets inudated with spam, and others my Laptop gets thousands of tiny cookie or trojan junk inundating my system.

      And when you run the antivirus, it takes so long to clear all of this crap, you almost have to leave it on overnight.

      I run Regcure Pro, once or twice a week, and at these times, it has found 5000 bits of crap, it had to clear, and that has taken the software 4 to 5 hours.

      It is just the price of being online, unfortunately.


      • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • The guy in the shop is a dumbass, you cannot mix a 4 gig module with a 12 gig. It has always been that way. Matched pairs. You're getting a memory/ram mismatch conflict that is slowing your machine to a crawl. Take the 12 gig out and see if I'm right. Then you can take it back and get 2 8 gig modules. Replace the 4 with one and the other goes in the spare slot. Simple. Make absolutely sure it's the right ram fo your machine though.

      I buy all my ram from crucial.com. They have a huge database of all the machine models out there so you can always get the correct ram.

      I ran a computer section of a retail store for 5 years.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I have an 8GB and a 4 GB right now. I had a 4 GB to begin with.
    I would rather NOT spend more on Ram unless it is worthwhile.

    I think I will take the 4GB out and see how it goes with the 8 GB before I do anything else.

    I do appreciate the tips.
    • [1] reply
    • That should work, but just remember, you want 16, buy another 8 gig module.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I started with 4GB. and then bought an 8 gb.
    I have now removed the 4 GB and my email problem remains.
    I don't know about the antivirus scan.

    Ian, how do I know FOR SURE what RAM is right?
    What info do I need?
    I am rather lost now, seeing these problems appeared. The email thing in Thunderbird only started yesterday so that is weird.
    • [2] replies
    • Laurence, leave only your 4G in and do a system restore to a few days or a week back. That should sort your problems for now.

      I'd also get rid of Avira. Even when you said it usually only takes 120 minutes for scanning, that's wayyyy too long. Also download the free version of Malwarebytes Anti Malware and also run CCleaner. When you've scanned with Malwarebytes set it for scanning times, or disable it (as I do) until you next want to run it. This prevents it slowing your computer when it activates every time you boot up.

      My scans take only 15-25 minutes on average.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • Well, perhaps not related but my info about the ram is correct. I would also consider that you might have bought an 8 gig module that is a mismatch for the machine. Go back to your original 4 in it's original slot and start there. If problem goes away then great, at least you know.

      If the problem remains then perhaps not necessarily hardware related. Is it an old machine though, is the hard drive spinning up to speed properly? Time to backup data methinks, just in case. Have you de-fragged the hard drive ever . Has your machine become infected with malware, too many programs starting up with the machine at boot, gobbling up ram. A minefield.

      However, it could be a ram problem since it happened after you started replacing the modules. So, revert to the 4.

      If not, Perhaps choose to do the system restore within windows and take the machine back to before this happened. Any other software downloaded and installed recently. Thunderbird's development upgrades and support ended in 2013 unfortunately.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Ian, I have gone to your crucial.com site. According to the scan I did, it says I can use an 8GB and a 4 GB...so maybe one isn't a match in a different way?
    • [1] reply
    • I seriously doubt that Crucial would say that. Perhaps a single 8 gig or a 4 gig, or matched pairs of both.

      Anyway, you have already answered your question. The 4 gig you had with the machine inserted on it's own makes the problem go away. The 8 gig on it's own you still have the problem. (the 2 in together goes without saying)

      Conclusion. You have an 8 gig memory stick that is not correct for your machine. That needs to be got shat of. Crucial.com will tell you the correct speed and configuration and compatible ram that goes in your machine. So perhaps will the user manual or you can look it up online on the manufactures website.

      Armed with the correct info, you can take the 8 back to the store and get the correct type of ram.
  • I use Malwarebytes and Super antispyware but they are not antivirus programs.
    Is there a better free one than avira?

    I am thinking of removing the 8GB and putting the 4 GB back...for now.
    • [1] reply
  • First of all, Antivirus programs DO have several modes, and the most thourough mode on a large system can take a LONG time.

    Mozilla won't explain this kind of change.

    You can NEVER do simple math on a computer to determine what memory can be used, ESPECIALLY with less than 2 banks. Ideally, you should have ALL banks filled with the LARGEST size memory allowed that can be distributed evenly. It ALSO should be rated at the same speed. WHY?

    1. The motherboards are made a certain way so that using larger sizes MIGHT work, but that doesn't mean all the memory will be used. Make a mistake, and you waste money, and memory. So 8+8 likely equals 16. 4+12 could equal 12, or even 8!
    2. The boards may be setup to interleave in certain ways. If you do it RIGHT, the memory could run up to 2,4, or even EIGHT times as fast! Do it WRONG, and it could run SLOWER!
    3. Memory has different levels of quality(speed). If a particular bank has slower memory, it will likely slow down ALL banks interleaved with that memory.

    Another thing, the interleave may be settable, so you might be able to change these changes a bit.

    Manufacturers generally tell you how to populate the board. And some companies, like crucial, DO illustrate it if you give them enough detail. In short, adding the wrong memory COULD explain the slowdown.

    Steve
  • Thanks for your input Steve. I have now only got a 4 GB RAM in the PC. Email seems ok right now. I am going to see if the antivirus runs faster with the restored settings and ram. Then I will know one issue.
    Maybe I need to get another 8 GB stick so I have 2 x 8 GB.
    But is there a way to know for sure?
    • [1] reply
    • What is the model number and brand of your computer, or your motherboard(if it is not a regular brand computer, or the motherboard was replaced). Maybe I can find out.

      BTW if you are only using 20% of your disk space, it is UNLIKELY that your disk is materially fragmented! DIsk drives Will tend to save many files in the best way they can, and supposedly NT(2000,XP,7,8,8.1,windows v10, etc...) does as well. ALSO, if you have 10GB free, and extend a file by 5GB, that 5GB could be almost all sequential.

      In normal processing, fragmentation affects speed because files you access are stored in many pieces throughout the drive, and all over. Reading the next sequential block on a drive can be INCREDIBLY fast. Moving the head to even the next track(which happens more often as you have more fragmentation) is ABSURDLY SLOW(1000 such "seeks" can EASILY take upwards of 2seconds, and possibly close to a minute)! Of course, if you want, you can test this out by doing a NORMAL defragmentation. It may be rather quick for you to do. There are some FANCY defrags, that not only defrag, but place in a given order or given place, but most people generally wouldn't notice the difference, and they take FAR longer to do usually.

      One thing I did NOT consider is that if you have even a relatively slight defragmentation on all your files, it COULD add tens, or hundreds of minutes to something like a full virus scan, because it may read all of every file. Again though, that is unlikely in YOUR case.

      Steve
  • Banned
    #1 Use an offline virus scanner like

    15 Free Bootable Antivirus Tools (March 2016)

    It's much more effective to get a virus off a computer when the operating system is not booted, the virus can call system functions to hide itself and not even antivirus software can always detect it.

    #2 Hard to say

    #3 You are never suppose to mix up memory. I have no idea what motherboard you have but most motherboards are dual channel, meaning the motherboard can read and write from each channel independently and simultaneously, but this will not work if you mix the memory up. If you mix memory on the DC motherboard you can still use the memory but you have to change settings in BIOS and this will slow the memory performance by 50%. Depending on which slots you put the memory in, this could cause some extremely bizaare behavior and could lead to a fatal crash every time your OS tries to access certain memory ranges. The only way you should ever add more memory is by adding more of the exact type of memory you already have or replacing the matching pairs with new matching pairs.

    Do you know what motherboard you have by chance? If you can give me the motherboard model, I can most likely get a copy of the manual offline and tell you the optimal memory configuration.

    Edit: I responded without reading the responses, it seems like some others explained the memory issue to you. And yes, the wrong configuration can range from not working at all to being 8x (or more) slower if the speeds are not identical.

    If this is too difficult, I would personally just use the single 12gb ram stick.

    Yes, you can be 100% certain the memory will work if it says it works in the manual's QVL. I made the mistake once of buying memory that was not on the QVL and the machine froze 2-3 times a day and I had to screw with the ram timings endlessly. I never got the machine stable and I decided to ebay the memory.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I don't have a 12 gb. I have an 8 and a 4.
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      Whats the memory speed on each? It should say something like DDR 1866 on the memory. Also really do need to know what motherboard.

      You might have to go into BIOS and setup the speed or it won't run at full speed.

      Qualified Vendor List. The motherboard manufacturer tests and verifies the memory works with the board, the manual contains a list. Other memory will work but you're taking a chance.
  • @Joe, I am now back on the original 4 GB RM stick.
    My emails seem back to normal again.
    I don't know about the Avira yet.

    So now I need to find out if I can use the 8 GB stick either on its own or with another 8 GB. On its own, it wasn't very good.


    @irawr...What is QVL?
    • [1] reply
    • Take the old 4-gig out and put in only the new 8 gig stick.

      Reboot and see what 'you got'.

      If things look good, add the old 4GB in the second slot. Reboot and see what you got.

      It might be possible that you system may not "do" mixed memory sizes.

      It might be possible that you have a faulty 8GB stick. (This would be the lowest percentage possibility though.)

      Working through the problem with one variable will allow you to ID the problem.

      AND...

      "Don't believe everything you read on the Internet."
      -- Abraham Lincoln


      Joe Mobley
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • @Joe, I have tried all that already.

    I have a program called Belarc Advisor which tells me lots about my computer.
    Maybe I have to get a second 8 GB but am not sure and don't want to buy it if unnecessary.
  • It is 39 C here and I am melting (and so is my brain) so it's rest time but I will be back later to see if anybody has ideas that haven't been suggested already. I appreciate ALL your help so far, people.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • For me it could be a hardware or software issue. Try doing the basic troubleshooting steps. Since you added an additional memory or RAM. I would guess you want to speed up your PC, that means it could probably the current specs you have can no longer take the load. This means it could be either your HDD or memory is reaching max. remember consuming 80% of your hard disk space can also slow your PC down.

    So with that, try go doing these. Are you on Windows btw?
    1. Hit "Start"
    2. Accessories
    3. System tools
    4. Defrag
    5. System cleanup

    Defragmenting your hard drive is a great way to consolidate files and speeding up your PC. It basically organizes files and putting them nicely in a neat way.

    System cleanup is basically deleting the ff:
    Cookies
    Saved files
    Temp installation files
    Recycle bin. (yes you have to empty it to add space)

    but never interfere with your rgistry. especially system32. haha

    hope i helped.
  • You did give me ideas BUT I have already done them all. Yes I am on Windows 7 64 bit.

    My drive is about 20% full so no issue there with space.
    • [1] reply
    • Be careful of CCleaner, it is effective, but it tends to be an aggressive cleaner.

      Or it might take a third of everything and store it somewhere, and if you press the wrong button, it can get ugly.

      Regcure Pro, isn't free, $30, but it is a very good cleaner.


      Yeah, l know, bloody hot day, l went down to the shopping ctr, to get away from it, but at 7.30 it was still hot.

      Must be,.....oh, forget it!

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