Spybot 1.5 runs VERY slowly

N

normana

New member
I've just upgraded from 1.4 to 1.5.2.20 and it has slowed to a crawl. With 1.4 it look about 30 minutes to scan my system (XP Home SP2), but the first run with 1.5 took about 3 hours! Just to keep things clear, yes, I have NAV loaded (I have a Corporate version so I can access my office system), but that didn't seem to affect version 1.4. I really couldn't believe just how slow 1.5 was running AND it was grabbing almost all the CPU as well.
Suggestions, please?
Do I have to revert to 1.4 to get a reasonable system?
 
normana:

I believe that with Spybot 1.5.2.20 you are actually running the latest version.

I have no explanation as to why there would be a six-fold increase in your scan time.
 
Hello,

Please also do the following:
Clean your Cache and Cookies in IE:

* Close all instances of Outlook Express and Internet Explorer
* Go to Control Panel > Internet Options > General tab
* Click the "Delete Cookies" button
* Next to it, Click the "Delete Files" button
* When prompted, place a check in: "Delete all offline content",
click OK

Clean your Cache and Cookies in Firefox (In case you also have
Firefox installed):

* Go to Tools > Options.
* Click Privacy in the menu on the left side of the Options window.
* Click the Clear button located to the right of each option
(History, Cookies, Cache).
* Click OK to close the Options window
Alternatively, you can clear all information stored while browsing
by clicking Clear All.
A confirmation dialog box will be shown before clearing the
information.

Clean other Temporary files + Recycle bin

* Go to start > run and type: *cleanmgr* and click ok.
* Let it scan your system for files to remove.
* Make sure Temporary Files, Temporary Internet Files, and Recycle
Bin are the only things checked.
* Press OK to remove them.

Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot
 
normana said:
I've just upgraded from 1.4 to 1.5.2.20 and it has slowed to a crawl. With 1.4 it look about 30 minutes to scan my system (XP Home SP2), but the first run with 1.5 took about 3 hours! Just to keep things clear, yes, I have NAV loaded (I have a Corporate version so I can access my office system), but that didn't seem to affect version 1.4. I really couldn't believe just how slow 1.5 was running AND it was grabbing almost all the CPU as well.
Suggestions, please?
Do I have to revert to 1.4 to get a reasonable system?
Click to expand...

As far as I see it, it is quite normal for it to take longer than ever before, as new updates come out. Meaning new threats will be sought for. But 3 hours? The longest time it ever took was 23 minutes. The problem does not reside within spybot but on your computer.
 
1.5.2.20 very slow startup...

normana said:
I've just upgraded from 1.4 to 1.5.2.20 and it has slowed to a crawl.
Click to expand...

I'm experiencing something similar, alas it feels to me now like 1.5.2.20 is back to the ill-behaving startup procedure of the 1.5 early versions :sad: I have it set to automatic check for updates, and it gets past that pretty quickly, then the "Loading" bar appears again and quickly fills up. After that it just hogs the CPU completely for ~1 min and during that time my old Win 2000 SP4 machine is pretty unresponsive... :mad: Sounds familiar, hmm?

I had the one called 1.5.2 RC1 (aka 1.5.1.19) installed until today and it behaved well, before that I had "1.5he beta2" (aka 1.5.1.18) which I downloaded from the this forum when I first hit the startup problem(s).

The SB S&D scan I'm running now doesn't seem to be very much slower than before though, even if I too have Symantec NAV Corporate on this computer. A SpyBot scan takes a lot of CPU (~80-90%) but it always has and it's no worse than before that I can see.

I'm disappointed in the 1.5.2.20 startup behaviour though, I have to say that. I'll try a downgrade to 1.5.1.19 again and see what happens then, will get back with the result.

Cheers,
/M
 
Hrm. Well, I can't see what the problem is. My scan only took around 13 mins. minimum and approximately 18 mins. max. I would suggest downloading "CCleaner" and clear the temp. files, cache, and cookies. Due to the clutter of these files, they will slow scanner time. I always clear the "gutter" before I scan with Spybot SD. In addition, download the latest version, updates, and immunize.

Note: I would recommend/suggest CCleaner as a simple tool to clear the "gutter" in the computer. I'm not advertising the product in any way. :red:
 
normana said:
I've just upgraded from 1.4 to 1.5.2.20 and it has slowed to a crawl. With 1.4 it look about 30 minutes to scan my system (XP Home SP2), but the first run with 1.5 took about 3 hours!
Click to expand...

Normana,
Obviously the characteristics of a PC, its speed, available memory and version of operating system affect the time it takes to carry out any process, along with housekeeping measures like cleaning out obsolete files, defragmenting drives, keeping the number of resident processes to a minimum etc. Spybot S&D 1.5.2.20 is doing a lot more than the earlier 1.4 version.

That said, and as a guide, a full scan with 1.5.2.20 is taking me 8 minutes 36 seconds, on a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo machine with 1GB memory, Windows XP-Home SP2 with all MS updates. This is with the PC in its normal operating condition, AVG antivirus active, Zone Alarm firewall active, Teatimer and SD Browser helper enabled and an active network connection to a router. As seen by Windows Taskmanager CPU usage varies throughout the scan from 43% up to a maximum of 61%, and memory usage from 43MB to about 50MB.
 
1.5.2.20 very slow startup...

var3gen said:
I'm experiencing something similar, alas it feels to me now like 1.5.2.20 is back to the ill-behaving startup procedure of the 1.5 early versions
Click to expand...
I've experimented with 1.5.2.20 and 1.5.1.19 (I downgraded properly to it, by first uninstalling 1.5.1.20 and reboot). Under Immunize, 1.5.1.19 has 66229 "items" now on my old Win 2000 SP4 box. When I do Check Again, it's fast. Every time I click Immunize, the whole computer hangs for ~45 secs at the end of the progress bar (no HT or DualCore here :sick:) I haven't seen this before, it might have to do with my switching to Firefox for good (from IE6 :bigthumb:) ? 1.5.2.20 hung for ~60 secs at the same spot.

1.5.2.20 seemed to have more "items" to Immunize, >80000, but I may be mistaken there and I have no idea what the difference is if it is indeed so. I have updated to the lastest def files a.s.o. in my current 1.5.1.19. I don't have the impression that 1.5.1.19 is now crippled in some what w.r.t. updates. Can anyone give some more exact info on this?

A full scan (115220 threats, I believe this is the current definitions) takes ~13 mins in 1.5.1.19 and this is on an old P4 2.66 GHz Windows 2000. 1.5.2.20 needs ~35 mins to do the same, it was clearly slower -- visibly so through the whole scan. I didn't change anything on the computer (except SpybotS&D itself) deliberately in between these runs. No Web-browser was running, but all Anti-virus stuff a.s.o. Nothing was contending for CPU cycles during any of the scans.

I'd say something changed to the worse performance-wise 1.5.1.19 -> 1.5.2.20 :sad:

Going through all the options I tried to toggle "Immunize on program start if program has been updated" and this is what affects the startup time so much for me. As soon as I untick this option, startup is really fast again regardless of the status of any updates.

One would think that this option means that no new Immunization will take place unless a newer definition file for it has been d/l:d and installed during the startup, but in 1.5.1.19 as well as 1.5.2.20, it behaves the same. Perhaps I don't suss the semantics of that option..? I don't know, but I don't like it much.

At this point, I'm inclined to stick with 1.5.1.19 for the time being rather than using 1.5.2.20. Hopefully these issues will be fixed in 1.5.2.2{1,2,3,4,5,6,...}

Comments?

Cheers,
/M
 
var3gen said:
.....1.5.2.20 seemed to have more "items" to Immunize, >80000, but I may be mistaken there and I have no idea what the difference is if it is indeed so./M
Click to expand...

The total number of items immunised in 1.5.2.20 is 33,732 where Firefox is not installed. This comprises 9,170 items for EI (32bit), 16550 (IE 32/64bit) and 8012 for Global Hosts. From the number pattern it would appear that the same group of items is repeated in the total count. For example the 8012 is repeated 4 times.

Whilst I don't have Firefox, if I remember correctly when it is installed, another section is added to the immunise screen showing the items immunised for Firefox, and this probably raises the total count. I am surprised that it would be as much as to the >80,000 you mentioned.

Did you "unimmunise" before you uninstalled and reinstalled different versions?

On the scan for problems, my 1.5.2.20 shows 116,826 items.
 
Last edited:
Greyfox said:
The above includes items in Beta.sbi - with this unticked it reduces to 115,220
Click to expand...
Ah, Ok. Very good. No difference there then, I should of course have made a note but I had problems (careless uninstall of 1.5.2.20 so I had to go to safe mode a.s.o. :sad: )
 
1.5.2.20 very slow startup...

Greyfox said:
The total number of items immunised in 1.5.2.20 is 33,732 where Firefox is not installed.
Click to expand...

Ok, I see. Well, I don't really want to uninstall Firefox, so perhaps someone else has it (and IE6) installed?

Whilst I don't have Firefox, if I remember correctly when it is installed, another section is added to the immunise screen showing the items immunised for Firefox, and this probably raises the total count.
Click to expand...
Yes, correct. Actually I've had Firefox installed for quite a long time by now, I just didn't use it until recently. So that section has been there during the whole time I've been using 1.5.1.18,19 as well.

I am surprised that it would be as much as to the >80,000 you mentioned.
Click to expand...
I have no idea what that number means in detail, perhaps I should know really... :oops: Is it the max no of items that can be covered, or is it the number currently covered? Can that number change depending on some other factor than the contents of definition(?) files for it? So are definition files for 1.5.1.19 and 1.5.2.20 different then? I don't clean out cache and cookies very often (read very rarely) in Firefox. I don't want to do that and should not have to IMO.

Did you "unimmunise" before you uninstalled and reinstalled different versions?
Click to expand...
No. I didn't think of that since I'm haven't been 100% aware of what the Immunization procedure actually does. Apparently it modifies the hosts file at least, I suppose I have to go and read about it

Thanks for the input
/M
 
More on Sybot running slowly.

I now have to consider my whole usage of Spybot. I have other software running to keep my PC safe, one of which is SpySweeper. It should protect my HOSTS file from being amended. Somehow this failed and I found that Spybot added 7970 entries to that file. When I next started up my PC, SpySweeper went though the contents of the HOSTS blocking each of the addresses in the list. This took nearly TWO hours, and I couldn't even kill the process.
That is not what I call something nice. I think will revert to 1.4 and stay there. It's not as if I don't use other programs to keep my PC safe. It's just that Spybot seems to be getting ahead of itself. I wonder how this hasn't been reported before? Incidentally I'm running a P4 2.53 GHz with 1GB ram, so it's not as if this is a slow machine ordinarily.
 
Mine is veeerrrrryyyyyyy slow as well

My scan went from minutes to hours. I have been running a scan on one machine for nearly 8 hours! I'm an IT guy by profession so I 'think' I know what I'm doing. The temp files are cleared, the machine is patched, it is XP SP2, yadda yadda. I now have version 1.5.2.20, the previous version did not to this. We have tried this on several machines, they all report it taking longer.

Love the tool, but come on.
 
Greyfox said:
Did you "unimmunise" before you uninstalled and reinstalled different versions?
Click to expand...

I gave this some thought. When (if...) I have the time, I should probably "start over" from the beginning with testing 1.5.2.20 by first de-installing my current 1.5.1.19 and rebooting. Now, what exactly do I need to do to "unimmunize"? Is it enough to just press the Undo button there, and EVERYTHING will be taken away that was put in for IE and Firefox?

Recording the time it takes for 1.5.1.19 vs 1.5.2.20 to a) Immunize, b) complete Check on my otherwise unchanged Windows 2000 SP4 should properly reveal the differences. My impression so far is that 1.5.2.20 isn't palatable right now, it has slowed down considerably due to some factor which most PC's may not usually be affected by. My Win 2k SP4 corporate box isn't slowed down more than ~150% though, from ~13 mins to ~35 (N.B. just one single test run so far). Others are seeing a scan taking >>1 h if I understand correctly.

It may be that this factor increases the integrity (security) of the actual scan(a), but someone who knows what the Immunize and Scan code does in detail must comment on this. So, Safer Networking ppl need to get involved here I think.

Cheers,
/M
 
Hello,

So you seem to be running and mixing both versions.

We recommend a fresh install of Spybot - Search & Destroy.

Please uninstall Spybot - Search & Destroy according to the following link:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/howto/uninstall.html
Then make a fresh install of Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.5.2.
You will find links to several download locations on our website:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html

You will also have to update your new version using the integrated updater.
This should solve the problem.

Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot
 
1.5.2.20 very slow startup...

spybotsandra said:
So you seem to be running and mixing both versions.
Click to expand...

Well... I did have a problem at one point yes, but I cleaned it up by uninstalling completely (in Safe Mode) and then deleting some residual files by hand. I then installed 1.5.1.19 again "by hand" from scratch. Now it works exactly like before. The thing is, the reason I got .20 installed in the first place was that it came through the update procedure. I guess I should have answered "no" to this update then, in retrospect?

You seem to recommend ppl not to let the automated update process install 1.5.2.20 on top of 1.5.1.19, correct? May I ask why is it offered then? Perhaps it would be better to just warn; something like "you're running a Beta version of SB S&D, there is a new official release available please uninstall your beta first before installing it".

Oh well, I guess if you're running a Beta in the first place, you have to accept some quirks sometimes. What about all you others here who have reported a significant slowdown in the actual scan of 1.5.2.20? How did you install it, via the update function from 1.4? Or from 1.5.1.{beta}? Or a fresh install?

My current fresh installation of 1.5.1.19 on my Win 2000 SP4, behaves exactly as before, I'll try 1.5.2.20 later when I have more time.

You will also have to update your new version using the integrated updater.
This should solve the problem.

Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot
Click to expand...

Thanks,
/M
 
1.5.2.20 very slow startup...

Originally Posted by Greyfox
Did you "unimmunise" before you uninstalled and reinstalled different versions?
Click to expand...

So what about this issue with immunization then.

What exactly do I need to do to "unimmunize"? I.e. completely reverse the immunization actions, if I want to do that before I uninstall SB S&D? Is it enough to just press the Undo button there, and EVERYTHING will be taken away that was put in for IE and Firefox?

For example, is it possible to have a situation where changes to (system)files in Windows are left as "residue" due to immunization not being taken away properly when uninstalling SB S&D?

Cheers,
/M
 
var3gen said:
What exactly do I need to do to "unimmunize"? I.e. completely reverse the immunization actions, if I want to do that before I uninstall SB S&D? Is it enough to just press the Undo button there, and EVERYTHING will be taken away that was put in for IE and Firefox?
Click to expand...

I tried the Undo function a few times back and forth, and the first time it took everything away except 24(!) things for IE6 (in one of the categories). N.B. I do not have IE6 running at any time, I don't use it unless I absolutely have to for some obscure reason. Then I immunized again, and it worked all OK, it wasn't very slow either though still quite CPU intensive. During all this, Firefox 1.5.0.12 was running with loads of tabs up.

OK, so 2nd Undo: all IE6 stuff went away no prob ;-) But now it fails to remove stuff in firefox(Popups) & firefox(Installations). But that's only natural I understand, since my Firefox is still running.

I admit I feel a little bit confused still about the Immunize - Undo functions, but I don't see any problem or strange behaviour with 1.5.1.19 + SDhelper + TeaTimer (= System Settings Protector) 1.5.0.15.

Doing a fresh, clean install of 1.5.2.20 (first removing 1.5.1.19 completely) seems to be the next thing I should do and evaluate.

Cheers,
/M
 
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