EggXpert

I built my first computer last year for gaming and storage.  While it handles every game I have tried so far with no problems, it still seems slow for everyday use.  For example, I'm running the i7 processor and everything slows down or gets "stuttery" when AVG Free is running scans.  I thought the whole point of a quad core processor was that you wouldn't notice when something like that was running.  Shouldn't the virus scan be running on one of the cores, leaving the other 3 to process something simple like typing this message?  Instead, I'm typing faster than it's showing up on the screen and my mouse pointer is choppy.

Any ideas?

Probably a driver issue.. Though it could also be overheating, which would force it to slow down to prevent hardware damage.. 

I'd say, double-check to make sure you're running the right, and latest drivers for your chipset and graphics card.. Then after that, check to make sure you're not overheating.

 

Well, I wasn't able to figure out how to update the i7 drivers.  Either I wasn't looking in the right place or the Intel website just doesn't have any.  So I updated the Nvidia driver.  Apparently a new version just came out on the 5th.  Now the whole screen flashes when I mouse over tabs or links on a webpage.

Suggestions?

The screen flashing has stopped.

Any suggestions on the i7 driver?

download/install "Realtemp" the software will tell you the tempertures on a 4 cores.  The version i'm using is 3.0

 

Go to www.asus.com, under the united states, click on the support tab, click on downloads, enter in your mobo socket and model, proceed past that, choose your operating system and then under the "Chipset" submenu, there are Intel drivers there that you need to have installed.

 

Franknj229:

Now the whole screen flashes when I mouse over tabs or links on a webpage.

Suggestions?

The screen will flash during the driver installation process, after you reboot a couple times, you shouldn't get any more flashing.

I'm sorry, but the previous replies to your post are flat out ignorant.  Most likely, absolutely nothing is wrong with your system or your drivers.

Your symptoms SCREAM (to anyone with any experience with computers at all) MECHANICAL HARD DRIVE!  

 If you're running an i7 system with a mechanical hard drive, the bottleneck that prevents you from doing things faster is that hard drive, not your CPU.  Hard drives are especially bad if you want to do multiple things at once, such as running a virus scan (which is reading data from all over your hard drive in a systematic manner) and trying to run applications at the same time.

 The reason is obvious : you might have 4 physical CPU cores and 8 logical CPU cores with your monster i7, but there is literally ONE mechanical, slow moving arm on your hard drive that can be only in ONE place at any one time.  That bogs down everything.  It's like having traffic go on a 20 lane expressway for 20 miles with a single lane dirt road with a traffic light in the middle.

You have only one viable solution : buy an SSD.  Right now, they are a little pricey, though well within the price range of someone who buys an i7 system.  The Intel SSDs are the best and the fastest : http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150636%2050001157&name=Intel

 Or the best value for your money are OCZ Agility drives.

I'm sorry is I insulted the previous posters above, fellows, but this one's pretty obvious.

 Setting up SSDs is a little bit complex, but the basic thing is that your operating system and your applications need to be on the SSD.  Data files for things like movies and game install disks and music audio files need to stay on your mechanical hard drive.  Data for applications like photoshop and movie editing software and the like should be on your SSD if you have room. 

Thank you for all the replies.  Obviously there are plenty of people out there who know more about computers than I do and I will explore every suggestion.

I have one concern about Habeed's post though.

While your analysis of my issue seems quite logical, it makes me wonder why EVERY computer builder or buyer for at least the last couple of years is going with a dual or quad core processor, when 99.9% of those builders/buyers is also going with a mechanical hard-drive.

Is Virus-Scan the only thing that slows us down?  If not, then what advantage have we gained by going with a multi-core processor?  Are mult-cores purely hype unless we have an SSD hard-drive?

Thank you again.

Franknj229:

While your analysis of my issue seems quite logical, it makes me wonder why EVERY computer builder or buyer for at least the last couple of years is going with a dual or quad core processor, when 99.9% of those builders/buyers is also going with a mechanical hard-drive.

SSD technology is still plagued with issues.. Even the best SSDs on the market made by Intel have controversial performance..

 

Franknj229:

Is Virus-Scan the only thing that slows us down?  If not, then what advantage have we gained by going with a multi-core processor?  Are mult-cores purely hype unless we have an SSD hard-drive?

All that depends entirely on what you're using the computer for..  SSDs really do a great job at boosting desktop snappiness, but for some things like video editing, RAID is cheaper and gives much more drive space.

 

Franknj229:

Instead, I'm typing faster than it's showing up on the screen and my mouse pointer is choppy.

This can't be just your hard drive that's the issue.. I've got a few PCs that have 1/10th the CPU and a single hard drive that don't ever do this with an AVG virus check running in the background.  The only time I've ever had a choppy mouse pointer is when it's a driver issue or overheating. Even if your system is waiting on the hard drive, that doesn't mean it can't smoothly draw a cursor across the screen..  I still don't think it's your hard drive..  Did you download the latest video drivers from nvidia's website? Windows patched to latest version?

Is it only bogged down or slow when the HDD is running?

Press CTRL / Shift / ESC at the same time, on the bottom of the Task Manager what does it say about Processes running and Physical Memory usage?

What programs do you have starting up with windows?

Do you have a seperate Malware / Spyware scanner tool?  (AVG just isn't any good at removing them) and you might consider scanning with a better anti-virus, AVG is kinda lacking these days, you might be missing allot in the scans. I suggest at least downloading MalwareBytes and Avira's free versions and running there scans to ensure your free of maleware and viruses.

 

 

I updated the video drivers from nvidia and also the chipset drivers from the ASUS website.  I haven't noticed the issues since updating the drivers, but it hasn't even been a day, so I'll keep an eye out.

Just checked the task manager and it states the following: CPU usage - 1%, Physical Memory Usage - 1.77GB (Physical Memory - 29%)

I don't visit any "questionable" websites in Vista.  I run Ubuntu in a virtual machine for websurfing, which is why I didn't bother with anything more than AVG Free.  If you think I need to add to it, let me know and I will look into it.  (I wasn't running any virtual machines when I noticed the issues)

I don't think it is an overheating issue.  I am running RivaTuner and it currently shows my temps averaging 36c across all cores.  The highest I think I've ever seen an individual core is mid-40's.  Could be wrong though.  I'll keep a closer eye on that if I notice the issues again.  My graphics card barely gets into the 50's playng Fallout 3 for hours.

Thanks again for the advice.  I'll certainly repost if the issues continue.

Ya, hopefully it's fixed now because you're quickly running out of options

kinda seems like habeed is pushing product or something =/ SDD drives are fast but again fairly new technology that doesn't have the kinks out and i argue that there price is affordable for someone with an i7 set up some of us have to save up for ever to get these things ;) and im not gonna dish out 400 bucks for a 256gb hard drive when i can have 4 Tb drives running in raid 1 and raid 0 for teh same price i doubt his hard drive is the problem

 

And as i have read seems it has been solved by downloading some drivers =/ 

Well, not quite...  I still definitely notice when a scan is running.  I just can't understand it!  What is the point of having a quad-core processor if you can't run a simple virus scan (on a perfectly clean system no less) without it slowing down other simple tasks like opening a webpage or playing Vista Chess.  Again, shouldn't one core be dealing with the scan and the other 3 be picking up the slack so I don't even notice???

I was under the impression that a quad-core is like having 4 computers in one.  When the guy down the block is running a virus scan on his computer, it doesn't slow mine down.  Shouldn't the same logic apply to a quad, or even dual, core processor?

Plus, I have 6GB of memory, which I was told I would never come close to using, so that shouldn't be the problem either.

I'm just very disappointed.  It is such an extremely minor annoyance, but as has been mentioned several times in this thread, I did not build a budget system, so I expect it to run the way I expected it to run.

You mentioned you run Ubuntu in a virtual machine while websurfing, and that you were typing faster then it's being displayed posting this. Are you using VMWare? If so, did you install the "VMWare toolkit" for the Ubuntu installation? I know when I make a fresh VM I always have to do that before my mouse works smoothly and video displays properly. If you don't only experience this in the VM, this is a moot point, just thought I'd ask.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Your CPU can move like 1800GB/s of data, your ram, 35GB/s, and that single hard drive........... 90MB/s .........

And using avg free AV on top of it = PHAIL

As well as VM's = Epic PHAIL

 

I don't know about AVG Free, but I'm seeing the full version of AVG using all 4 cores on a quad-core.. So no, you may not necessarily have free computing power.. Try going into AVG and setting the scan from "automatic" to "slow".

 

I don't only see this in the VM.  It happens when I'm not using the VM.

I will try slowing down AVG scans.  I think I can get McAfee for free through my ISP.  Would that be worth trying?

As for the single hard drive slowing me down during virus scans, is there something you can suggest to eliminate this problem?  Please be specific.  Even if I can't afford what you suggest right now, I can put it on the backburner until I can.

Thanks again for all the responses.

McAfee behaves a bit better than the latest version of AVG, it works just fine on my laptop.

If setting AVG to slow doesn't help another thing you could do is limit AVG to two cores using task manager preventing it from maxing out your CPU.

(taskmanager / processes tab / AVGscan process, right click, set core affinity, un-check one or two of the cores.)

 

I agree almost 100% with Habeed. However, i would not suggest SSD just yet, even if you can afford it. I agree that they are still buggy and overpriced. I have experienced skippy cursors and "stuck" windows during scans before, its certainly not unheard of. There are some optimizations you can do to windows so its not so hard on the HDD, but most are not worthwhile (dont do much).

A RAID configuration or a 10,000RPM HDD (or both) are your only worthwhile options for improving the situation your complaining about (many just accept it :P). However, gains are still small over a good 7200RPM drive.... One thing is for sure though, even though you might still slow down during a scan, your scan should be done faster with an i7. From my experience, quad cores can half the time for AVG scans. There might be a way to assign specific cores to be used by AVG, but for the most part, all this would do is prolong your agony (the scan will take longer and still use lots of HDD).

A quad core is, for the large majority, a waste, in my opinion. However, there are many things that benefit from them, Virtualization being one of them. Encoding (multithreaded, not all are), can benefit greatly also. All around multitasking is (although not that noticeable) improved, as long as the multiple apps you are using are primarily using lots of CPU load (which is many times not the case). The benefit of a quad core is... situational.. at best. And for most, not worth it, not only because they don't utilize it much, but because even when they do tasks that CAN use it, the benefit is usually a mater of a few seconds (a dual can do anything a quad can, just a tad slower in cases where the quad is utilized), which is not a big price to pay considering the savings. That being said, qaud core can be a godsend to someone who uses virtualization 24/7. However, most are not in that situation.

Edit: To clarify, my opinion about quad core being "a waste for most" only stands for right now. As software development changes (catches up) and prices continue to fall, my views might change. So going quad core even if you don't need it NOW might not be a bad idea because you will almost definitely want/need it later. However, by the time you NEED it, there will be much better quad cores available, welcome to the PC hardware world :).

Thanks for a great response Max.  It made me feel better about the situation.  Considering the vast amount of space the scan is running through, it does finish relatively quickly.  I never thought of that before.  What takes maybe 10 minutes now woud have probably taken an hour on my old computer.  And I certainly don't want to prolong that by limiting the scan to one or two cores.

I would like to try a RAID configuration eventually, but for this very minor annoyance it just isn't worth it right now.

Thanks again to everyone!  This is such a great and helpful group of people.

-Frank

I would also check to see if disk defragmenter is running. Vista schedules it automatically and you probably won't know it when it's running but it does slow things down.

Sidicas:

I don't know about AVG Free, but I'm seeing the full version of AVG using all 4 cores on a quad-core.. So no, you may not necessarily have free computing power.. Try going into AVG and setting the scan from "automatic" to "slow".

 

 

I agree with that suggestion, and with the hard drive diagnosis.  A throughput bottleneck like that will absolutely slow your system down.  Another suggestion would be to assign processor affinity to the AVG process.  That will effectively limit AVG to running on however many cores you designate it to run on.  To do that, open Task Manager and right-click the process in question and select "Set Affinity".  Choose your cores, and hit okay.  Done and done.

 Henry

Also unplug any USB devices you're not using at this exact moment.. I've seen some HP all-in-one USB drivers make opening "My Computer" and browsing folders take forever..