Spybot will not complete a scan ?

[bitman]

I wouldn't be too worried about 15 minutes, we've had several with scans taking hours to days with no apparent explanation. Also, both FireFox and SpywareBlaster have effects on the scan time for Spybot S&D. This is because Spybot must check the additional FireFox folders for both cookies, Cache files and other items that don't normally exist with just IE.

With Spyware Blaster, the thousands of entries it creates in the registry must be searched through for those that might have been created by spyware instead. It's often stated that SpywareBlaster doesn't create any overhead, but that's really not true as you can see from this, but it is worth the overhead for the protection it gives.

Personally, I'd say you're suffering from anti-malware overload. We're seeing more of this lately as people try to run everything in the book to insure their safety. Other then taking lots of time, it also starts to have the issues you've been seeing. You should never have more then 1 active (real-time) antivirus and 1 active antispyware running at once. Watch out, some of the antivirus are now adding antispyware, so you might be doing this and not even know it.

The reason for this is that when one of the programs sees a 'bad' change, and tries to block or fix it, the another may see it too and they both try to fix it at once, causing a conflict. The likely reason that Spybot's scans are being slowed is that one or more of your real-time programs is checking each access made by Spybot to determine if it might be spyware, causing much more overhead then Spybot would itself.

This is why I recommended running a Spybot scan in Safe Mode, since most other software isn't loaded in this mode. That way you can see how Spybot runs without all the other programs, without needing to uninstall them all.

It's not a problem to have dozens of scanning programs on the same PC, as long as you only scan with one at a time. It's the multiple real-time programs that really cause the problem. I'd ask around about your favorites and pick either one of each (AV and AS), or one that covers both. You can leave the others installed as backup if you're sure you can turn them off entirely, so they just sit there waiting to scan or be turned on.

So you know, Spybot S&D 1.4 itself has increased significantly in scan time since it's release, in large part due to the addition of Services and many more spyware detections. However, the combination of all the issues mentioned above is making it much worse, and often multiplies rather then adds to the time.

[Mário Rodrigues]

Thats probably it (the overload) and panda does have buil-in antispyware. Guess I will stick to panda and spybot and keep a-squared since it has no real time feature. Thanks. Regards.

[p4nts]

I had the same issue with very slow scans starting from CoolWWWSearch. Disabling the McAfee meant that the scan suddenly went like a bullet.

[BESteed]

I have Spybot S&d 1.4, when I open task manager and go to the processes tab, right-click on Spybot SD.exe and choose "Set Priority"...the box that comes up has 4 choices only Realtime, High, Above Normal,Below Normal and Low. There is absolutely no ONLY "CPU 0 to check!!!

Spybot S&D 1.3 was known to do this on HTT systems. If you have 1.3, get 1.4 by clicking the Download link on the menu bar at the top of this page. There is also a Tutorial link under Support on the left hand side of that same page that explains Installation and First run.

If you already have Spybot S&D 1.4 or it doesn't fix the problem, this is a rare situation that hasn't been explained yet. You can do the following to get a scan to work, but you'll have to do it each time you use the program.

Here is how:

• Open Spybot, then leave it alone
• Open Task Manager, and go to the Processes tab
• Right-click on SpybotSD.exe, and choose "Set Affinity..."
• On the box that comes up, check/uncheck boxes so that ONLY "CPU 0" is checked.
• Go back to the already-open Spybot, and run a scan. It should complete without hanging or losing responsiveness.

[md usa spybot fan]

BESteed:

There is absolutely no ONLY "CPU 0 to check!!!

bitman stated "Set Affinity..." not "Set Priority". If you do not have a "Set Affinity" then you do not have HyperThreading Technology (HTT).

[dangdang]

Where is set affinity? It does not show up when I right click SpybotSD.exe

Spybot S&D 1.3 was known to do this on HTT systems. If you have 1.3, get 1.4 by clicking the Download link on the menu bar at the top of this page. There is also a Tutorial link under Support on the left hand side of that same page that explains Installation and First run.

If you already have Spybot S&D 1.4 or it doesn't fix the problem, this is a rare situation that hasn't been explained yet. You can do the following to get a scan to work, but you'll have to do it each time you use the program.

Here is how:

• Open Spybot, then leave it alone
• Open Task Manager, and go to the Processes tab
• Right-click on SpybotSD.exe, and choose "Set Affinity..."
• On the box that comes up, check/uncheck boxes so that ONLY "CPU 0" is checked.
• Go back to the already-open Spybot, and run a scan. It should complete without hanging or losing responsiveness.

[dangdang]

Hi, this seems to be what I must do but I simply cannot understand the instructions. What do I do immediately after entering the command prompt?
would it be possible to use numbers , like
1) do this
2) do that


many thanks, I know it is tiresome dealing with novices but it is even more frustrating for us knowing there is a solution but not being able to understand where to click.

That's what I get for not doing the commands again myself. The problem was you weren't actually in the Spybot folder, so the commands couldn't work.

ImageCFG.exe should NOT be renamed to SpybotSD.exe, so change this back if you haven't already. You're using ImageCFG to change SpybotSD.exe, not turning one into the other.

The instruction that caused the problem was the Change Directory, it should have been:

CD "C:\Program Files\Spybot - Search & Destroy\"

The rest of the instructions should then work if both ImageCFG.exe and SpybotSD.exe are in the folder and properly named. Again, they are:

Now create a backup copy of the SpybotSD.exe file so you won't need to reinstall SS&D if there's a problem.

Copy SpybotSD.exe SpybotSD.org

Finally, execute the following command to modify the Spybot executable to use CPU0.

imagecfg -a 0x1 SpybotSD.exe

[md usa spybot fan]

dangdang:

Where is set affinity? It does not show up when I right click SpybotSD.exe

Please look at the post immediately above yours!

If you do not have a "Set Affinity" then you do not have HyperThreading Technology (HTT).