View Full Version : Teatimer Performance and Startup Issues
787Infoquest
2008-03-04, 19:30
I have been performing a number of performance test with the various malware software options out there… Spybot, Ad-Aware, Spyware Doctor, Windows Defender, AVG Antispyware, NIS 2008, Spyblaster, WinPatrol, etc. To my surprise, most of these do seem to get along and cover different aspects of preventing malware from making its way on to your computer.
No matter what combination I have tried, I have been seeing real performance impacts due to teatimer.exe. One of the more surprising things is that it is doubling the boot up time. I have tried to narrow the startup to the core components and still see similar results.
There also seems to be an issue that the longer teatimer runs, the longer the boot ups take. Running several reboots, I found on log off that teatimer memory reference error surfaced. This error and performance become a real issue until you turn off teatimer, reboot and then reenable it again. The interesting thing is that the next boot up after enable it was just over a minute… after a number of boots… the slow boot issue surfaced again. When teatimer is not enable, the issue and performance does not surface not matter how many reboots or what software is being loaded at startup.
Any advice or ideas on how to resolve this and make teatimer stable would be very appreciated as I like this feature of being able to better control how and what is changing my registries and would like to continue to use it.
Make sure you are running the latest version. Teatimer over time can take more cpu usage and ram i have found when there are several items in its list. right click teatimer and click settings. click all the x's in the list on every tab and see if that helps. I did that when teatimer was taking alot of cpu usage and ram and now its fine. Note that you will be asked again about any changes that were recorded in the whitelist in the future.
787Infoquest
2008-03-05, 04:37
I am running Spybot version 1.5.2.20. Where should I right click teatimer? I have tried various places in the Resident panel and the side menu, but no luck.
787Infoquest
2008-03-05, 05:12
Okay... I right clicked the Teatimer icon in the systray and then settings. I went through Allowed registry changes, Blocked registry changes, Allowed processes and Blocked Process. All were empty, though this may be due to my recent clicking and unclicking of Resident "TeaTimer."
Other ideas?
..... I have been seeing real performance impacts due to teatimer.exe. One of the more surprising things is that it is doubling the boot up time. I have tried to narrow the startup to the core components and still see similar results.
I have had version 1.5.2.20 running on three different PC's ever since the new version was released, all with IE Browser Helper and Teatimer enabled and I have not experienced any operational problems, errors etc from Teatimer on any of the PC's, and two of them are worked quite hard. (I do completely remove each earlier version before installing a newer one)
Yes, having Teatimer enabled does increase the boot up time. As measured on one PC using Sysinternals Process Monitor (Boot logging on) it increases the total boot time from 42 seconds (All normal startup items enabled except Teatimer) to 68 seconds (All normal startup items enabled including Teatimer), and this is reasonably consistent.
To be fair I could significantly reduce this boot up time if I didn't have AVG Antivirus, or Zone Alarm firewall, or other protection software load either, but I'm happy to trade off the extra 26 seconds boot time each morning for the protection Teatimer gives me for the rest of the day.
Okay... I right clicked the Teatimer icon in the systray and then settings. I went through Allowed registry changes, Blocked registry changes, Allowed processes and Blocked Process. All were empty, though this may be due to my recent clicking and unclicking of Resident "TeaTimer."
Other ideas?
1.) i agree with the guy above me with the fact that "I'm happy to trade off the extra 26 seconds boot time each morning for the protection Teatimer gives me for the rest of the day."
Maybe try exiting teatimer and then reloading it. That solved my issue sometimes, i used it as a last resort however for version 1.4, i dont know if this will help at all but its worth a shot. Right click teatimer and click exit spybot s&d resident protection. teatimer is a hidden operating system file found in the spybot installation folder, so once you exit, navigate to C (or whatever drive spybot is installed on) and go to program files, spybot s&d. then click tools, folder options, click the view tab, and click show hidden files and folders AND uncheck hide protected operating system files. click apply and ok. double click the teatimer icon, and wait a bit. it will show back up. See if that helps at all. make sure you go back and undo the changes that u did to see teatimer in the folder. It is highly recommended you hide protected operating system files. :) if that doesn't solve your problem, I honestly can say I am sorry, I do not have any other solutions. Wait for a team member to assist you.
787Infoquest
2008-03-06, 01:29
I agree too.. additional 26 seconds is worth the protection you gain. If we can figure out a way to get there, that would be great! My problem is that the boot up times goes from 1 minute and 27 seconds to over 4 minutes. When I exited spybot s&d resident protection, I ended up getting the following System Setting Protector error (I hope this provides a clue). Should this file still be 1.5.2.16, instead of 1.5.2.2?
AppName: teatimer.exe AppVer: 1.5.2.16 ModName: teatimer.exe
ModVer: 1.5.2.16 Offset: 000042b2
I have followed the steps outlined above and now will repeat my boot test and report back.
I am following this thread with interest, because on my PC here, TeaTimer still crashes any time from seconds to hours after starting, with the 'big white empty dialog box' except for the Close button.
Am I the only person experiencing this problem?!!
My OS is W98SE and I am on a 200MHz PII processor with a massive (!) 256MB of system RAM, if that helps.
--
BFN
CAD
I agree too.. additional 26 seconds is worth the protection you gain. If we can figure out a way to get there, that would be great! My problem is that the boot up times goes from 1 minute and 27 seconds to over 4 minutes. When I exited spybot s&d resident protection, I ended up getting the following System Setting Protector error (I hope this provides a clue). Should this file still be 1.5.2.16, instead of 1.5.2.2?
AppName: teatimer.exe AppVer: 1.5.2.16 ModName: teatimer.exe
ModVer: 1.5.2.16 Offset: 000042b2
I have followed the steps outlined above and now will repeat my boot test and report back.
your teatimer version when you right clicked and clicked about. your says: 1.5.2.16
MINE SAYS version: 1.5.2.0
system settings protector version is: 1.5.2.16
unless thats what you meant....i guess thats what it is lol. drr to me. anyways, when you hit ctrl alt delete, and pull up task manager, go to the processes tab, and click the word mem usage until the highest usage is at the top of the list. Tell me what teatimer.exe is taking. and what cpu usage, and mem usage. Thank you. :) PLEASE ALSO MAKE SURE SPYBOT IS COMPLETELY UPDATED!
ALSO: If you open spybot and click mode-advanced mode, and click yes, go to the settings spot, click the resident side button, and uncheck use system settings protector. then restart your system. Does the performance of startup any better? Does that give back your couple of seconds booting up? if so, let me know immediately. I have a couple more suggestions. Thanks for any info you provide and your patience, as i can understand this can be frustrating. :)
I am following this thread with interest, because on my PC here, TeaTimer still crashes any time from seconds to hours after starting, with the 'big white empty dialog box' except for the Close button.
Am I the only person experiencing this problem?!!
My OS is W98SE and I am on a 200MHz PII processor with a massive (!) 256MB of system RAM, if that helps.
--
BFN
CAD
with windows 98 I am sorry to say. Please see this thread, this is the thread where people are telling of there issues with spybot running windows 98. IF you post there, that will keep all windows 98 issues in one thread. thanks :)
see here: http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=24087
post exactly what you said to me here, and that will get it noticed as well. feel free to keep up with this thread, that would be cool if my suggestions solved your issue as well :) good luck!
787Infoquest
2008-03-08, 05:28
Teatimer.exe will bounce around, but when it is at its lowest point mem usage is 27,072k and cpu is 02. I need a little more clarification on system protector. Is this the one where you go to Tools.... Resident... and check the "Resident "TeaTimer" (Protection of over-all system settings) active." ? If so, when I uncheck this box, my performance improves significantly. It goes from over 4 minutes boot up, down to 1 minute and 27 seconds. The time to open and navigate various applications also improves. The boot up time stays stable no matter how many times I reboot. As soon as I enable it, the boot up time gets slower and then after a couple of reboots, returns to over 4 minutes.
...It goes from over 4 minutes boot up, down to 1 minute and 27 seconds. The time to open and navigate various applications also improves. The boot up time stays stable no matter how many times I reboot. As soon as I enable it, the boot up time gets slower and then after a couple of reboots, returns to over 4 minutes.
787Infoquest,
I haven't seen in any of your posts on this subject details of what your computer system is, type of processor, speed, memory size, operating system, browser etc. It may help if you could post this information. I apologise if I've missed it somewhere.
... I need a little more clarification on system protector. Is this the one where you go to Tools.... Resident... and check the "Resident "TeaTimer" (Protection of over-all system settings) active." ?
This item from md usa spybot fan may be of help
http://forums.spybot.info/showpost.php?p=165801&postcount=6
Teatimer.exe will bounce around, but when it is at its lowest point mem usage is 27,072k and cpu is 02. I need a little more clarification on system protector. Is this the one where you go to Tools.... Resident... and check the "Resident "TeaTimer" (Protection of over-all system settings) active." ? If so, when I uncheck this box, my performance improves significantly. It goes from over 4 minutes boot up, down to 1 minute and 27 seconds. The time to open and navigate various applications also improves. The boot up time stays stable no matter how many times I reboot. As soon as I enable it, the boot up time gets slower and then after a couple of reboots, returns to over 4 minutes.
that means that it is teatimer(resident protection over all systems) causing the problem. you are correct. My solution to this problem would be to keep teatimer deactivated. Or do this, since teatimer is causing your system to slowly boot, i would go into c drive, Or wherever spybot is installed, and go into program files, spybot s&d. one that folder is open, do the following. click tools, folder options. click the view tab. check show hidden files and folders AND UNCHECK hide protected system files. then click ok. see the teatimer icon? right click it an create a shortcut to the desktop. go back into folder options and undo what you did. then when you want an easy way to protect your system, but keep teatimer from slowing down your machine on boot up, just click teatimer on u desktop when u want it to run. Or you could just open spybot and click mode-advanced mode, and click yes, go to the settings spot, click the resident side button, and check use system settings protector. That would start teatimer after you boot up so that it doesn't slow your boot time. Thats one idea i have. You could just choose to keep teatimer deactivated. you would lose the resident protection, but it wouldn't slow you down. This is all up to you. I can honestly say i have no idea why teatimer is causing such a slowdown for you. A team member when they see this thread might be able to give you a better solution. If a spybot team member responds to this thread, follow there directions. :)
787Infoquest,
I haven't seen in any of your posts on this subject details of what your computer system is, type of processor, speed, memory size, operating system, browser etc. It may help if you could post this information. I apologise if I've missed it somewhere.
greyfox is correct, if you could post this info that would help alot. please include the following: your spybot s&d version, your operating system, windows Xp, vista etc. and if you have installed any programs recently.
787Infoquest
2008-03-10, 22:02
An interesting new find. Due to my testing, I had a number of various malware software options out there… Spybot, Ad-Aware, Spyware Doctor, Windows Defender, AVG Antispyware, NIS 2008, Spyblaster, WinPatrol, etc. After a number of additional boot ups since I last posted, it started taking over 7 minutes to boot up and the system was starting to slow down even after boot up. Removing the check the "Resident "TeaTimer" (Protection of over-all system settings) active" would still result in better performance. I then went through my notes and realized that the teatimer errors started shortly after the Spyware Doctor 5.5 install. I disable Spyware Doctor Immunization and Guard protection and noticed some improvement. I then shut down Spyware Doctor and removed it. The system is back to 2.5 minutes start up with resident teatimer active. The performance on the system has also improved dramatically. I think I may have found a conflict between "Resident "TeaTimer" (Protection of over-all system settings) active" and Spyware Doctor. I will need to go through a number of reboots and see if the start up time and system performance remain constant. I will post back my results.
Operating System - Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (build 2600)
System Model - Gateway E-4000 4000783
500 XL
Processor - 2.53 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
8 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache
Main Circuit Board - Board: Intel Corporation D845GRG AAA81583-300
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Intel Corp.
Memory - 512 MB of RAM
Warning for those out there… Spyware Doctor 5.0 was a complete redesign. The initial reviews on 5.5 were positive, but those I have talked to and my experience is that there are a number of issues to be worked out, including installation complication and performance.
that is def. possible that spyware doctor is not working properly alongside teatimer. As a general rule of thumb, let me remind you that you shouldn't run 2 antispyware RESIDENTS (active protection) alongside one another, as this can cause conflicts, like the ones you are experiencing. Scanners are fine to have more then one as long as they don't all have residents. The only ones i run that r 2 resident protection is windows defender alongside teatimer. They work fine alongside, and produce no issues for me. If this is true and you post back some more feedback and results, that would be great. If a spybot team member comes across this, they may be able to contact the other company and work this out. (if this is indeed a incompatibility issue.) Try going to spyware doctors webpage, and email them of this issue if your reports hold true. please post back :) thanks!!
Once or twice a week all of a sudden my system slows to a crawl and when I check I find the Tea-Timer process is taking 60% to 90% of the system. If I just wait it will eventually go back to 1 to 2% and all runs normal. Both during this time and after I see no messages or windows open with any messages. I am running version 1.6.0.30 of Tea-Timer.
md usa spybot fan
2009-01-10, 22:59
dfjung:
... I am running version 1.6.0.30 of Tea-Timer.
TeaTimer version 1.6.0.30 doesn't sound familiar. Please double check the version of both Spybot - Search & Destroy and System settings protector (TeaTimer) are you running. To do that:
Right click on the TeaTimer icon (actually labeled "Spybot-SD Resident") in the notification area (system tray area) of the taskbar.
Select "About".
This should yield a pop-up dialog with both the version of Spybot - Search & Destroy and the "System settings protector" (TeaTimer).
Spybot - Search & Destroy
Version ?.?.?.??
System settings protector ?.?.?.??
What version of Spybot - Search & Destroy and System settings protector (TeaTimer) does the "About" dialog indicate you are running?
The Teatimer is ver 1.6.0.30 with System settings Protector 1.6.3.25 and
SpyBot S&D is Version 1.6.0.31 dated 1.07.09.
This has been happening off and on for the last 6 months.
md usa spybot fan
2009-01-12, 06:11
dfjung:
The "System settings protector" is TeatImer so you are running version 1.6.3.25.
The only time that the System settings protector (TeaTimer.exe) 1.6.3.25 appears to use extremely large amounts of CPU time is the first time it is started after Spybot updates when it has to rescan all the processes running in your system to refresh the ProcCache.sbc file. Since TeaTimer.exe runs at "Low" priority the high CPU utilization should not affect the overall throughput of your system.
One technique that you might consider to control when this high CPU utilization occurs is to exit TeaTimer and restart it after Spybot updates so that the high CPU utilization does not occur immediately following your next system restart.
Thanks for the info. I will watch it closely to see just when it happens. Normally when I bring up the task manager it only takes a couple seconds, but when TeaTimer is running it takes 60 to 90 seconds to display.