Scan Speed, extremely slow

[strange179]

Hello all,
I've been using Spybot S&D for quite a long time mow on many, many computers. I have one PC that is giving me problems with extremely slow scan times. When I say extremely slow I mean 4+ hours. This PC has been scanned with Ad-Aware and I've also checked it with HJT and have not been able to find any nasties on the system. The PC is one of about 8-10 identical systems at a client's location and this is the only one that is giving me a problem. The PC specs are as follows:

Desktop PC (not a laptop)
P4 1.8Ghz (no HT, obviously)
256MB with 8MB shared
40GB drive with about 9GB used
WinXP Pro
NAV Corp Ed. v7.60
SpywareBlaster 3.5.1 installed and up to date
Nothing in the "Download Directory" box in Spybot
Running Spybot as administrator
Spybot S&D v1.4

The Spybot scan goes fairly quickly for a few minutes and then slows to a crawl. This happens in both safe mode and normal mode. THe CPU usage of SpybotSD.exe is very low to none while it is scanning and being slow. There is also very little hard drive activity. The scan isn't just slow on CWS items, it is slow on almost all items. The PC isn't slow in general while the scan is running, just Spybot is slow. I can post my HJT log if requested, but I'm pretty good at going over them and I don't find anything even remotely suspicious in it.

I've searched around the forums a bit and I've found that several people have had slowness issues but from what I've read they pretty much all had to do with heat, HT P4 CPUs, or existing malware. I don't have any of those problems so I'm hoping that the knowledgable people here can help me find a solution.

Thanks,
Justin

[strange179]

OK, since I can't edit my post I'll have to write a new one to update it. I said "The CPU usage of SpybotSD.exe is very low to none while it is scanning and being slow." I've since found that this is only sometimes the case. Sometimes spybot is taking up a lot of CPU time and sometimes it's just sitting at 0-2% and the system is just idling.

Justin

[md usa spybot fan]

Justin (strange179):

... I have one PC that is giving me problems with extremely slow scan times. ... I've searched around the forums a bit and I've found that several people have had slowness issues but from what I've read they pretty much all had to do with heat, HT P4 CPUs, or existing malware. I don't have any of those problems so ...

... with heat...

Usually causes PC shutdowns not slowness.

... HT P4 CPUs ...

Actually HTT (HyperThreading Technology) . Usually causes Spybot to stop responding rather than slowness.

... or existing malware.

This is the area that concerns me the most. Rootkits have been known to cause extreme slowness in Spybot scans. Rootkits are not normally detected by most malware scanners.

Please consider posting in the Malware Removal forum and having someone take a look at your system. Follow the instructions here:

• BEFORE you post a log, and who will advise you. Preliminary Steps
  http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=288

Then post in the following forum:

• Malware Removal
  http://forums.spybot.info/forumdisplay.php?f=22