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So-long AVG

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by captbilly1eye

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[b]So-long AVG. ....well, for now, anyway.[/b]

After years and years using AVG and promoting it to other users, I am now switching gears.

I recently installed the latest version 8.0.
At first, I liked the new look and built-in features.

Then I experienced several 'false positives' (where files are tagged as viruses when they are really not).
When AVG determines a file is a threat, it disables the file making it useless. Even if you added the file to the 'exclusion list' within AVG, the file was still blocked.

I got past that annoyance and then the real issue with AVG 8.0 became apparent...
It is an [b]extreme[/b] resource hog!
I first noticed a pronounced decrease in system performance and a much longer boot time.
I then checked Task Manager to see what running processes were causing the slow-down.
The file was 'avgrsx.exe' and it was quite often using up 85 to 98% of the CPU cycles (processor power).
This is the AVG Resident Shield executable and it runs for an extended period at every boot up.
It did this for such long periods that it actually caused a severe over-heating issue with my 3.4ghz Pentium 4 processor!

If you are still using AVG 7.0 or 7.5, I suggest you stick with that for now. Do not update to 8.0

If, on the other hand, if you did like I did and updated, I suggest you uninstall AVG through Add/Remove Programs, reboot and then download and install an alternative anti-virus program.

The one I have chosen is Avast.
Avast is a free anti-virus product that many of my peers swear by and have been using for several years. I have been using it for a while and I now agree. It does every bit as good a job as AVG. Plus it does it without eating up system resources!
The CPU is back to running at 130? F rather than the over 160? temp it had with AVG.

Here is where you can download the installer for Avast Free Edition:

http://tinyurl.com/8z9h5

I recommend using the 'Custom' option during the installation so you can remove any features that you don't want installed.

I am disappointed to see AVG now falling in line with McAfee, Norton and Sophos and no longer being the efficient product it once was.

Please let me know of any other free or low-cost alternatives you would recommend.

27 replies

by boxfiddler

Though I use Avast myself and have for several years, I have kept AVG on my recommended list. I think that now I will remove it from that list so as to save friends and family and students a big pita.

by rob miners

your lead. I was a long time supporter of AVG and Vet before it became E-Trust. I have only been using the free AVG so I am unaware of the performance or lack of with the paid version. I dont know of any other freeware AV that I would personally install. ;)

by captbilly1eye

I found the resource issue both with the free version and the paid-for version of 8.0.
The makers, Grisoft, have currently provided a response or a resolution.

If you have 8.0 installed, try this out:

1. Reboot.
2. After the Desktop loads, open Task Manager (right click the Task Bar and select Task manager or do the Ctrl-Alt-Del combo).
3. Select to Processes tab.
4. Click on the CPU column header twice to sort the running processes based on CPU usage with the greatest users on top.
5. Look for 'avgrsx.exe.'
6. I found it repeatedly showing up as using 88 to 98%. That's excessive and unnecessary in my book!

My loyalties don't change easily. But the CPU temperature alarm going off over and over was what it took.

by rob miners

Here are my results.

One instance on XP
avgrsx.exe 28,704 k
avgtray.exe 3,216 k
avgagent.exe 3,364 k
avgwdsvc 9,212 k

And on Vista only this
avgtray.exe 728 k

Browsing the net is almost unbearable with the amount of time it takes to load anything. Even changing from 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps Hub did not speed anything up.

Flushed all temp files, history, cookies and no difference. That silly page detector that is supposed to let you know if the site is OK must have something to do with it.

I agree 'loyalties don't change easily' I felt the same about E-Trust but I was forced to to let go.

by danlm

I had it running on the machine prior, but the machine was so yuked up I couldn't tell what and what wasn't causing problems.

Thats what I did today, I reformated that machine and started reloading stuff.

This is no lie, I JUST installed it. Hell, the update is probably still running as I sit at this machine.

I will be watching this for sure. This is a clean machine, just reformated. Had all of the service packs installed. The only other thing installed besides avg was office.

so, I should be able to tell right away.

Dan

by michael kassner

I have Freeware version 8.0.100 and it is working fine in my case. The only time it has an elevated processor hit is when the computer was not able to run the scheduled scan. Immediately after the scan completes the processor drops off to normal.

I would be curious to learn if there is a application issue or it is related to specific computers.

by danlm

It's been running awhile.

I have seti and the einstein grid projects running all the time. So they are going to be hitting hard on cpu usage. Grid computing.

But, what I did was:
1). Sort the list by process name... the module avgrx showed 0 cpu usage.
2). I then sorted everything down by memory usage. It was in the top 5, flippen ie 7 seems to be a memory hog. I knew seti would be.

I don't know.. I'm definatly not saying what capt said is wrong. I just don't see it here.

Don't know. Like I said, I rebuilt this machine today.

Dan
[edited to add] Sorry, didn't provide any machine specifics. This is a 2.8 dual processor with 2 gig of memory.

by santeewelding

...the real-time objective reportage, Dan. I've been monitoring this one. Thanks to the others, as well.

by captbilly1eye

...to see if it stays that way.

I didn't notice the issue for the first few days. But then it was obvious that the AVG Resident Shield (avgrsx.exe) was engaging at every boot and staying on for over five minutes.

I disabled auto-scanning and auto-updating and the behavior continued.

Evidently, others have experienced similar issues with 8.0:
http://tinyurl.com/62ht6c
http://tinyurl.com/58yklh
http://tinyurl.com/5ojbgt
http://tinyurl.com/585oyt
http://tinyurl.com/6xokbb

I haven't given up completely on AVG. I will be continuing the testing of 8.0 on several machines. I will also be investigating the possibility that it was a AVG vs. firewall thing as I use ZoneAlarm Pro on the box that had the over-heating issue.

Let me know if you notice any change in AVG's behavior on your systems, or if you have any suggestions for replacements or configuration changes to correct the issue.

by jdclyde

we are getting ready to hit our renewal time for AV, so I have been testing different products.

Avast finds the same thing, every day, says it deletes it, but next day is back there. (sys restore is off)

AVG finds nothing.

Counterspy finds nothing.

the live scans on-line find nothing.

Avasts website is useless at finding about what it considers viruses.

I am so sick of the lot of them. Is it to late to turn into a mac "fanboy" as Oz calls them? :D

by dumphrey

if you are not looking for free, but want a lot of control and then forget its there.

by Former member

I installed AVG Free on about 15 client machines last week, most of them far less capable than the 3.4 gig CPU mentioned. The slowest being a 1 gig PIII. I noticed no unusual system activity or excessive boot times.

All of the installs were after a fresh install of XP, with AVG being the only thing other than the drivers that was installed.

You might have other problems that AVG revealed.

by captbilly1eye

On the machine that was most effected, but I am certain that the AVG Resident Sheild (avgrsx.exe) was definitely the culprit.

I, too, have it installed on many machines. Well, version 7.5, that is.

For now, I'm holding off on further updates or change overs.

...still investigating.

by wiloooooo!!

Of all the free anti-virus I can say that the best one that I have used is Avira Free Edition. Sure the updates are kind of slow but check all the reviews:

www.av-comparatives.org
www.virusbulletin.com

They all conclude that the second best anti-virus is Avira.

by dumphrey

does not check email... other wise it would be my number one choice. Their Av is great overall.

by danlm

I have issues right now with my ati drivers. I was all happy and stuff because of the restore partition on dell and the lack of issues I had. But, now I see I have driver issues with my vidio. Old drivers? vid card going? Not sure.

So, I will be heavy into this machine till I can figure that one out. And I won't be installing anything else till I figure it out.

I'm not sure I like the AVG 8 myself... When I upgraded, I was like... wtf is with all this crap pushing me to use their paid subscription. The new gui took a bit of getting use to also.

Eh, time will tell.

Dan

by captbilly1eye

I am also in an ATI funk.

I have a A-I-W 9600XT.
There is a Windows update that came out a few months ago for the drivers.
When I let M$ install 'em, I had all kinds of issues - particularly with OpenGL.
I then spent several hours resolving it with updates from ATI (now owned by AMD).

Now the updates show up again in Windows Update but since I do 'em manually, I've been ignoring them. They are also one reason why I have held off installing Service Pack 3 for XP on this box.

I'll be spending more time on it this week and over the long holiday weekend. At that time, I'll probably remove the ATI drivers, do the Service Pack 3 thing and then set up the video drivers fresh with the latest versions.

wish me luck.
Past experience with ATI tells me I'll need it ;-)

Who knows, maybe after that, I'll spend some more time re-trying AVG in conjunction with ZoneAlarm and perhaps reverse my judgement.

Although, I have to say the advertising built into the new version is a thorn in my side.

BTW, DanLM... did I ever mention I'm originally from Sandusky and my wife's from Brecksville? Do you remember Ghoulardi (later as the Ghoul in Detroit)? or was that too far before your time?

by danlm

The process I went through for this machine was as follows.

1). ctrl/f11 for the dell restore.
2). Delete the crap.
3). Service pack three.

I don't remember any ati driver issues prior to the reload. And I was on top of the updates. I have been wondering if service pack 3 slapped me along side of the head. Maybe I will redo this one more time, and do manual updates this time(There goes a day or 2).

Hmmm.

I have only lived in the Parma area for about 3 years... So, I'm new to this area. If it wasn't for my gps, I would still be lost. Don't know much at all about the area other then what my better half tells me.

;o(, so I guess it's before my time.

Dan

by seanferd

http://grandstreamdreams.blogspot.com/2008/04/taming-avg-free-version-8.html

Has a lot on installation, config, and getting rid of unwanted bits.

Some have apparently has their systems wrecked by AVG 8.0 install. One found that uninstalling 7.5 first helps.

Edit:
But wait, there's more!
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20471075-AVG-8-Free-Better-Than-75-After-Tweaking)

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6142_102-0.html?forumID=32&threadID=294979&messageID=2774332&tag=mcnt#2774332

by rob miners

a little to late for me though I am back to normal browsing speed with Avast. I may install it from the command line later to see how it goes.

by captbilly1eye

I left AVG on one laptop for further testing.
On that machine, it is running fine.

I may reinstall it on my main system using the command line as the article suggested and do some additional tweaking.
However, I've noticed with Avast that box boots up a lot quicker, windows open faster, and shutdown time is much shorter.

by danlm

I reloaded windows again, paid 30 dollars for some subscription to a driver data base to update my ati drivers. Service pack 3 is reinstalled(forced me into that) and seti/einstein have not caused windows to crash during the screen saver graphic display(where I was having the problems). I tried tweaking my ati settings, which caused windows to blow chunks... So, I went back to default and everything is fine again.

Point being, it looks like I finaly have a clean machine again. That was the whole point of me reloading windows. I know where I stand with this machine now and I know how its behaving from scratch with no side attractions. I'll reload avg tonight and let it run for a week and followup with a post to you.

I'm not sure who I am more irritated with right now. sp3 for the driver incompatibility, ati for being the driver that yuked up, or bloody dell for not having the latest driver on their web site. I'm supprized I didn't name my machine PieceOfCrap through this. I've been know to name it worse when I have issues like this.

Dan

by seanferd

I didn't know if the links would be useful as you've already switched, but I thought the issues folks have been complaining about might be of interest.

I have heard that Avast is pretty darn good. Perhaps I'll go with that when I either get sick of my Symantec Corporate or I can no longer update, as it is free to me for now. It certainly is better than the consumer versions I've used.

I had AVG on my older machine, but I had been looking into Avira and Avast as a replacement.

by rob miners

but we will still have to support clients that will have it installed. I am very grateful for the heads up. Thanks ;)

by ontheropes

I installed v8.0 without uninstalling the previous version and everything is running just fine. I use McAfee SiteAdvisor so I did disable AVG's Security Toolbar and Safe Search as I don't feel that I need them and Google search pages loaded too slow while using them. Other than that my system boots up at it's regular speed and I have absolutely no issues. After a week of running 8.0 on my system I'm going to install it on the other two computers we have here.

by jck

I've used Avast for months on an older laptop of mine, and it works fine.

Never did much with AVG. I pretty much have stuck with ZoneAlarm products for years. Haven't had a virus issue in 8 years of using them.

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