TeaTimer CRAZYNESS

[rivermandave]

1. Using massive CPU Task Manager % after Start up.

2. Using massive CPU Task Manager % after opening various files on external hard drive.

3. Using massive CPU Task Manager % after Power Outage.

Attached is an example screenshot.

Getting TIRED of this SH*T

BIGGEST GRIPE of ALL...

NO way to make changes to what TeaTimer does.

You software developers AND QA folks here are SERIOUSLY losing my respect.

As are software writers for MSN...Yahoo...and ALL the damn adware companies.

[tomdkat]

I've found the CPU usage on the two systems I run Teatimer on that I'm able to monitor most closely is quite low after the system (and Teatimer) start.

Memory usage on the XP system is quite a lot but overall system performance doesn't seem adversely effected (e.g. the system has an adequate amount of RAM installed to support the typical system usage).

We'll see how this changes with the next version of Spybot.

Peace...

[jimcollier]

I've used Spybot S&D on all my Windows machines (and VMs) for a long, long time. Many years. And Teatimer.exe as well. On machines ranging from Pentium II, to Core i5.

It has always consumed a ton of memory and generated incredibly excessive page faults. (For example, right now as I write this, in Task Manager Teatimer.exe shows 246 million page faults (system running for 3 days 20 hours). Or, a consistent delta of 4,000. This is on Win 7 x64 with 8gb RAM.

To put it in context, that's two orders of magnitude more page faults than second place explorer.exe (which happens to be responsible for most of your interaction with windows not even counting Windows Explorer so no surprise on the paging).

Actual I/O is not as exorbitantly high though...I'm not sure what high page fault count but not proportionally high I/O means.

Another problem is the crazy amount of memory used (which by itself doesn't explain the paging).

tomdkat, you said you hope a future version will fix it. Unlikely, as the problem has existed ever since I can remember, and I have used it since it existed.

rivermandave, there is no reason for profanity. It is possible there is a perfectly good reason for the high page fault counts and memory usage. Maybe the tradeoff is worth it, and/or it doesn't impact your system as badly as the numbers make it seem (though I doubt that myself--it has a noticeable--and more importantly, measurable--effect on overall system performance...or lack of). But either way, remember that it's free software, and you are free to try something else! (Hopefully my criticisms are constructive enough to point out areas for improvement...even if that improvement is just better communication about what exactly Teatimer is doing and why it needs such resources to do it, and why I [everyone] should agree.)

I have put up with Teatimer myself this far because what gets my goat even more than poorly optimized software (if that is even the problem), is software that adds itself to the startup sections in the Registry. But, there is other software that checks for that (and more--including all other startup entry points) far more efficiently, e.g. by doing simple polling periodically of a very limited list of places. I've just been too lazy (for years!) to find it and switch. That is all I really need--to guard my startup entries.

Another problem with Teatimer that is kind of annoying, and I haven't seen mentioned--and a problem that most definitely is an issue of poor GUI design and lack QA'ing under enough variety of interface configurations: The buttons for "Accept" and "Reject", and the text on the buttons, are too big in some circumstances. Not only can you not see what the buttons say, but they cover up the critical text about what is actually being changed!

Which of course makes the program completely irellevant. After all, if you can't read what the problem is, or the options for dealing with it, then what's the point? (Fortunately I just know which button is which, and can usually "intuit" the problem based on the context of what I've been doing.)

And these "conditions" aren't exactly unusual: 1) Exists if you use the "Large Fonts" Windows display option (which has existed since Windows 3.0, was a popular option in 95 through XP, and still exists in Windows 7 [though since Vista when running in Aero mode, by default simple blurry upsampling is used, which is unacceptable to most people so they switch to the "legacy" mode and boom, the Teatimer problem returns).

Granted the Large Font problem does affect some other software including at times Microsoft's own, but by and large the vast majority of software was explicitly designed and tested to work with the higher DPI "Large Fonts" mode. Many UI developers in fact design UIs in Large Font mode, so that they know it will work (and of course they test in regular mode as well). Of the software not designed specifically to work, most do just fine anyway, either thanks to using GUI libraries that were designed with that in mind, or usually just because the designers left enough "breathing room" on their windows forms, which is just good design practice period. Cramming as much stuff as possible into the smallest possible area--dialog or not--is a rookie UI design mistake. (You'd think that after all these years, the rookie UI designer wouldn't be a rookie any more!)

But hey, again it's free software. I've used it forever, and I will continue to use the main product. I've just made the decision to remove Teatimer from all of my machines and VMs, and finally get off my duff and find a more appropriate startup watchdog than "Teatimer". (I should point out that I used to use a product called "Registry Protect" [I think] that had a small resource footprint. Only problem was that it would prevent everything without giving you an option.)

I would still love to hear from the SSD developers on thoughts on resource consumption. I've scoured the interwebs, and this forum, and have not found a decent answer. But again, it's free software so what can I expect!

-Jim

[bitman]

Though the delay to getting the 'new' 2.0 version of Spybot S&D released has been far too long, the direction has been relatively clear and dicussed in the beta forums here for ages. Just look for PepiMK's comments in any of the 2.0 threads there.

For a more coherent look at the plans and directions, though somewhat old, see the blog entries by PepiMK at this link:

http://forums.spybot.info/blog.php?u=1&blogcategoryid=6

There's also supposedly a way to follow him on Twitter, though I personally have no interest in such daily drivel myself, so I've never seen it.

Overall, the technologies in the 1.x versions of Spybot S&D are relatively ancient and badly in need of replacement. Obviously Patrick and others know this, but apparently the daily demands have caused 2.0 development to drag, resulting in maintaining an outdated platform well beyond its useful life.

Unfortunately, I believe the attempt to maintain support for older operating systems has stretched a small group far beyond what they can handle, so I'd rather see them drop outdated os platforms and focus their efforts on developing for only those currently supported by Microsoft. I believe this even though that will orphan my own Windows 2000 Pro PC in July of this year, but that's how it should be, since Microsoft will no longer support that platform for even critical security updates past that point anyway.

Bitman

[rivermandave]

I appreciate the thoughts on this subject folks. Here's what I have discovered.

I had 2 computers....both with roughly 1.8 Ghz processors...not fast by any means. The desktop only had 256mb RAM...and that's where I was having my MOST problems....but the laptop had 2 Ghz of RAM...and was not that much faster.

I appologize for the profanity jimcollier....but I am DANG tired of advertisements and the data collection for those being RAMMED down users throats through Adobe and Sun Java. I would BET that MOST users could give a crap about seeing animated adverts....but yet these companies seem like we HAVE to see them. Atrocious (sp) marketing at best IMHO

Blocking Cookies has basically become useless...as these companies are all using Javascripts to circumvent that...and I see no way (free) to block those dang things :-(

Between a cracked motherboard on my laptop...and seemingly power supply issues on the old desktop I have....I decided (basically forced) to buy another computer....a used Dell 745 with a 2.8 dual-core processor and 2 Ghz of RAM. At this point I haven't had any issues on websites for the most part...nor with TeaTimer eating up CPU. At the same time though...my Yahoo and Hotmail emails STILL hang sometimes....and it seems to happen when animated ads from certain companies are loading to the page.

Before the old Desktop started REALLY acting up....I was able to make a scan in Safe Mode...and I had shut down TeaTimer with Task Manager...total scan time was just abit over 2 hrs. IMHO for those of you having LONG scan times...shut down TeaTimer and then make the scan.