Kaspersky slowing everything down massively

Hello,

have not posted for a while, hope all of you are well.

I was using Avira for a long while (free version) and before that Avast. A few weeks ago I saw a Kaspersky package reduced to a tenner so I got it as I was getting fed up witht he Avira 'buy me' ads every day and also it seemed to take a lot of CPU just downloading updates, or something...not sure what it was doing.

However Kaspersky appears to be as bad if not worse. I was wondering if there is a way to limit when it downloads stuff - i only update at weekends, well I set it to anyway - but every time I use the PC it holds everything up so much, while that little yellow cogwheel appears on the taskbar and I tear my hair out.

Please could someone share if they know a way around this - I wouldn't mind if I could just make it do it when I go to make a cuppa or something but it is random and frequent at the mo.

Sorry if answer is obvious, I am a dunce with these things.

Thankyou.

Have a read through the Kaspersky Forums.

I would also suggest down load & run Malware bytes and do a deep/full scan. This will find anything Avast or Avira has missed. Quarantine & delete everything it finds. Avast let through a nice cocktail of root kits and trojans recently, despite the file being scanned as it was downloaded and again before I hit install.

Or if you think that you have a infected machine, there is another good malware free 30day trial that is fully functional on xp,A-squared, you have to register it to activate it, as no license keys, detects things that malware bytes doesn't ,
But it maybe just down to Kaspersky hogging your cpu and memory for what ever reason, try disabling the modules one at a time to see if any improvement, or if you know how try with it disabled totally,trial and error,and process of elimination,
it could also be a conflict with other installed s/w,
Do you have any other security apps running other than kaspersky?

Thanks both...have not had Avast for about a year so should be OK ref that.

I don't think there is any sort of infection...scanned recently when I installed it, also no other funny business - it is just v v slow and always some Kaspersky thing going on when it is - stuff like AVP.exe, etc which I have googled and found is quite useful and shouldn't be removed. I did remove tea timer initially which seemed to help but things are still very very annoyingly slow!

Also have S&D (spybot) + spywareblaster (I think still?) and spywareguard...prob don't need all of those do I : )

In reply to a post by susier:

Also have S&D (spybot) + spywareblaster (I think still?) and spywareguard...prob don't need all of those do I : )

These will not help the speed of your machine, I would advise removing them all.

Ah Ok...are you sure it will be alright if I get rid of these? Does Kaspersky have inbuilt spyware etc? Sorry am eejit with this stuff!

The thing is it does seem to be slow only when there is the little K icon doing something odd. It isn't slow at other times iyswim?

Thanks for your answer.

Is it just just network slowing down with Kaspersky - I had lots of problems with Kaspersky Anti-Virus NDIS Filter and disabling them improved things no end - but on last rebuild it was all OK

Thankyou very much, perhaps it is that - not sure what 'network slowing down' means though. I have version 7.0. Thanks for the link but I can't understand how to disable it - could I do this and see if it helped, then restore it if not?

I don't know what the little yello cogwheel icon means or the written page one either...but it seems to be when Kaspersky is doing those that it goes slow. then once it finishes is back to normal good speed.

without being a kaspersky user i can't be 100% sure what the yellow cogged icon is/does, but in general it is usually a config button, it may well that the settings need justing, but if spyware s& d is running or it's associated processes are ,that will most likely be the reason for the slowness,
You can run s s&d for on demand scans but without the real time protection on, as this will most likely cause a conflict or cause hogging of system resources

In reply to a post by susier:

Ah Ok...are you sure it will be alright if I get rid of these? Does Kaspersky have inbuilt spyware etc? Sorry am eejit with this stuff!

The thing is it does seem to be slow only when there is the little K icon doing something odd. It isn't slow at other times iyswim?

Thanks for your answer.

Yes you will be fine. You need to remember that 99% of the role an antispyware program plays is on-demand (well, teatimer and spybot S&D immunization is proactive, but it's obsolete anyway), not real time. That is, by removing these programs, you won't just magically start getting spyware. Those programs you mentioned anyway are obsolete and won't keep many spyware threats from you.

So yes, remove them, and then go from there.

what sort of application slows down - is it just downloading/browsing the web? or is it using things like Word?

To disable/uninstall you need to get to network properties - which depends on whether you are using XP/Vista/Windows 7

Thanks...Ok, have just uninstalled S&D (despite slightly sarky messages from them re Kaspersky being terrible!) and startup was just as slow.

Oh dear. Maybe it will improve gradually. Is there something else I coudl try? Realised I have adaware as well, and spywareguard and spywareblaster are still on pc. Should I ditch the lot? <slightly nervous> : )

Ah I see yes it is internet and OE loading. Sometimes it won't let me do anything in either.
I don't think word etc is a problem though do not use it much.

I just had task manager up and it was something called csrss going on? thanks again btw for explaining.

Oh and jqs.exe as well.

It has been pretty much constant today.

jqs.exe is most likely Java Quick Starter - it's safe to disable (and will only slow a few things down starting up) how to

csrss is most likely the internal part of Windows so called

are you connected to a router or just a modem to connect to internet?

In reply to a post by susier:

Thanks...Ok, have just uninstalled S&D (despite slightly sarky messages from them re Kaspersky being terrible!) and startup was just as slow.

Oh dear. Maybe it will improve gradually. Is there something else I coudl try? Realised I have adaware as well, and spywareguard and spywareblaster are still on pc. Should I ditch the lot? <slightly nervous> : )

Remove the whole lot (undo all the immunizations first before removing), these are bound to be conflicting with eachother and while it may not be the major cause, it will certainly help.

Adaware is a seriously faulty piece of software. Gods honest truth my neighbour installed it onto his desktop PC 4 weeks ago and when I went over to visit last week, the adaware engine was consuming 70-80% CPU constantly, removed it and the PC was back to normal.

Disable the active shield of kaspersky (disable it so it will stay disabled after a restart), restart the machine, and see whether things improve. This will rule out the active protection of kaspersky causing problems.

In addition, check in the Kaspersky settings that all the protection is set to reccomended, and not elevated/high levels.

Is there any other software you have installed which may be conflicting?

Oh great I will ditch jqs then, but leave csrss. It's a router, bt voyager.

that's fantastic - thanks so much. I don't think I have any other software installed at present, am basically just on forums, a bit of shopping, that kind of thing (can you tell I am female!)
I will remove the adaware and spyware things first then do what you said about active shield and so on, once I've tried that.
One question - how do I remove immunizations? I don't really know what they are. : )

I believe spyware blaster, and certainly spybot search and destroy, has a feature to put loads of website blacklists into your web browser settings, which again, slows them down as they aren't meant to handle large block lists.

If you open up spyware blaster and try and deimmunise or undo all the "protection" changes then you are safe to uninstall them. I would have reccomended doing that with spybot but it's not a massive deal. It's just good practice to get the app to undo all the settings it has changed to the system before you take it off (if you are concerned you may reinstall spybot, immunize, deimmunize, then uninstall )

There was a bit of an uproar when IE8 came out because the engine which handles the blacklists was changed and could not cope with the thousands of entries that spybot search and destroy puts into it, which slows down IE totally.

having a router is good - it means an extra layer of protection and your pc isn't handling all the network traffic that is trying to connect without permission

Oh that is really interesting...I hadn't realised any of this sort of thing went on. Ok, will try and find a way to undo protection and then get rid.
Thankyou very much for explaining. : )

In reply to a post by susier:

Oh that is really interesting...I hadn't realised any of this sort of thing went on. Ok, will try and find a way to undo protection and then get rid.
Thankyou very much for explaining. : )

Any developments ?

Hello,
well I have been - erm - monitoring, iyswim. : ) I didn't suss out the protection removal thing and didn't want to keep on bugging you lot, so I just removed all the spy stuff and adaware etc.

So far, it seems to be less annoyingly slow than it was. It's definitely better. It still sort of does things from time to time, but really overall I am tearing my hair out far less.

I can only thank you guys for all your help - result! If it starts playing up badly again I'll try turning off the shield thingy too, that is my backup plan : )

Cheers,
Sue

When your annual sub is up, think about changing to Eset NOD32 or Eset Smart Security. It uses pre-compiled code, which places a far smaller loading on your CPU.

Thankyou very much...that sounds excellent and I will certainly look into it - have seen NOD32 mentioned on here before.

right, well i'm back...: /

Everything was fine until the other day, when for some reason I began getting 'allow/deny' pop ups from kaspersky, and being very tired at the time I clicked on 'deny'.

This was a mistake.
It seems they were windows updates and now I cannot open IE or OE without the 'bad image' msimn error message popping up.
I have to disable Kaspersky every time I want to open anything.

Can anyone please suggest a way to fix this, I have googled the error and found it is fairly common but do not know where to begin.
i understand if you are all totally fed up with answering my ridiculous questions btw.
: )
Thankyou again for sorting me out before, it was invaluable.
Susie

Have you tried temporarily disabling Kapersky while you do a Window's update?

thankyou, that is a very good idea...i am not sure how to do an update though, do I just go to windows and it'll be there on their website somewhere?
I'm sure I've updated from there before.

I'm not entirely sure it was a windows issue, I've been assuming that but could it be some kind of virus - I'm doing a proper scan as we speak so please forgive slow replies.

Thanks again for your trouble.

http://www.update.microsoft.com

Wonderful, thankyou : )

In reply to a post by susier:

I have to disable Kaspersky every time I want to open anything.

Can anyone please suggest a way to fix this, I have googled the error and found it is fairly common but do not know where to begin.

Susie

You could uninstall Kaspersky > reboot > then re-install Kaspersky. It will do no harm and probably 'cure' the problem.

Just in case ; and please forgive me if you know how to do this

'Start' icon (bottom left of screen > 'Control Panel' > 'Programs and Features' > select Kaspersky and uninstall.

Make sure you have a copy of the license key before uninstalling though !!!

that is most kind of you - thankyou! And you were right, I had no idea how...though may have got there in the end...; )

One thing though, I don't know where to get hold of the license key. I don't suppose there is an easy way?

Thanks again.

There may be other ways but Belarc Advisor is a useful tool to run from time to time. It gives the licence keys of most software, including Windows, Office, etc. in its output.

In reply to a post by susier:

One thing though, I don't know where to get hold of the license key. I don't suppose there is an easy way?

When you uninstall the wizard will ask you if you wish to keep the activation data (licence key), tick the box to retain it then when you reinstall it will automatically recognise your key.

Edited by cajef (Thu 01-Apr-10 18:51:14)

Thankyou for your suggestions, I did uninstall Kaspersky, then reinstalled it.
I also did some windows updates while it was in paused mode.

I've done all the Kaspersky updates since restarting it, and now I am getting error messages not only with the 'bad image' thing (so and so is not a recognised something or other,please check against your installation diskette) BUT now Kaspersky is failing - security threats listed are 'enable web anti virus', enable mail antivirus' etc etc and each one I click on to enable, a box comes up saying it failed.

It's referred me to the web technical help thing, but Oh dear, that won't open either.
I have stuffed this up properly.
Any thoughts appreciated.

Oh and apparently, 'databases are corrupted'.

Time to bite the bullet and reinstall from the original media?

John, do you mean the disc that came with it?

That's what I just did!

I just uninstalled it all again, and now and without anything. Shall I try re installing from the disc again? Totally confused.

Not quite, I meant to completely reinstall Windows from the original media. The ease of doing so varies according to your PC's manufacturer and whether you have the media at all.

In reply to a post by susier:

Oh and apparently, 'databases are corrupted'.

Which ones do you mean, Kaspersky's?
or
the OS

In reply to a post by susier:

Oh and apparently, 'databases are corrupted'.

If you mean Kaspersky's and are using KIS 2010 then go to the My Update Centre and click on the Roll back to previous databases and see if that improves anything.

I've never used it so i don't know how far back you can go regarding the previous updates to the database.

In reply to a post by susier:

I just uninstalled it all again, and now and without anything. Shall I try re installing from the disc again? Totally confused.

I would download and install the latest version from here, providing you have your licence key there should not be any problems.

http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/kis_latest_versions

Sorry for the delay chaps. I reinstalled it, it seems to have stopped doing the 'corrupted' thing and has also allowed me to start a full scan (currently paused, in order to open link from email about this thread!) and have done scan of critical areas which is fine.
I think it meant Kas databases were corrupted, not sure why.
I have yet to update them this time, though it says they are obsolete.

John I will leave that little job for when I have tried all else I think ; ) it terrifies me!

just going to try and update databases again, will see what happens.
<deep breath>
Thankyou so much by the way for this.
The problem window I am getting still is this:

'msimn.exe - Bad Image
The application or DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\IMM32.DLL is not a valid Windows image. Please check this against your installation diskette'

That's just the one for OE. There are about 6 or 7 consecutive different ones for IE.
And you then get a little Kas box at the corner:

Process C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe (PID: 3100): attempt to load new or modified module was blocked'

Does this sound solveable?

Thankyou, if these updates don't work, I will.

Got to be worth a shot.

Are you using KIS (Kaspersky Internet Security) or KAV (Kaspersky Anti Virus) and which version have you got 2009 or 2010?

It's anti-virus, not sure what year, I think probably 09 - it's version 7.0 though if that helps.
Can't find a date on the CD packet.

The previous link I gave you is for KIS, if you have KAV you willl need to use this link to download the latest version.

http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/kav_latest_versions

Ok, we are back where we were...updates completed and fully protected, however I am still getting the Bad Image error message, and cannot open IE or OE without pausing protection, which is annoying.

I have googled the error message and found a few sites that mention it but nothing definitive as to what it is, where it comes from or what to do about it.

Seem to be no other problems though - jsut won't let me open things!

Thankyou very much, I will. Am running full system scan now.

...John I will leave that little job for when I have tried all else I think ; ) it terrifies me!...

I don't blame you, it can be daunting, and is very much a last resort. Mind you the thought of needing to do so probably concentrates the mind on the data you should be backing up.

You need to upgrade to the latest version, from the Kaspersky website:-

Official support for Kaspersky Anti Virus 7.0 and Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0 has finished on the 10th January 2010.
You are now not able to receive technical support for any Version 7 products and there will be no further hotfixes released for Version 7 products.
Signature updates will still continue to be available, but it is important that you upgrade to Version 2010 if you are able to do so.


What does this mean?

If you are using KAV/KIS Version 7, you will have to upgrade to the latest version of your product, either Kaspersky-Anti Virus 2010 or Kaspersky Internet Security 2010.
Version 2010 products support Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems.
Upgrading is completely free for valid license holders.

Ah I see. I had better do it then.

On the link you kindly put, there seem to be four possible downloads, I'm not sure which to do...I think I have windows 7 though.? Not sure.

Thanks John,
I have never backed up data, and don't have a clue how to, sadly.
What I know about computers is very limited.
I think I should do a course...

A simple backup option would be to get an external usb hard drive and manually copy "precious" files to it on an ad hoc basis. By "precious" I mean stuff you can't reproduce and would be sad if it was lost, such as digital photos.

For once, what I thought was backing up, is backing up - I know a technical term! <rejoices>
Thanks...i have copied onto disc some of the photos, and will carry on doing so - I had started this but convinced myself it was foolish and old fashioned, and there must be something else I should be doing instead.

But sounds like I could actually do it, anyway, which is the crucial thing : )
Thanks again John.

I would download the latest version which is 2010

2010(9.0.0.463) was prior to Windows 7 coming out, 2010(9.0.0.736) is basically the same with some fixes to make it work with Windows 7, so take your choice.

Kaspersky recommend uninstalling the current version you have prior to installing the new version to avoid any glitches, though do not forget to save your licence key.

EDIT :- Noticed you think you have W7 in which case you must download 2010(9.0.0.736), this is the only version that works with W7 and also works with XP and Vista anyway.

Have just read through the thread from the start, it appears you bought KAV Version 7 which is old and obsolete that is why it was so cheap, if you definitely have Windows 7 it is incompatible which explains why you have had so many problems trying to get it to work properly.

Edited by cajef (Thu 01-Apr-10 22:43:16)

If Outlook Express is involved, which it is, the OS is Win XP or earlier.

Edited by Deadbeat (Thu 01-Apr-10 22:54:05)

Hmm, missed that, yet in one post she thinks it is W7, all a bit confusing and really need to find out which OS she is using.

Do you use Outlook Express as your email client? If you do, you could back up your current message store and Address Book before removing Outlook Express via the Add/Remove Programs (Windows Programs) applet. The problem with Internet Explorer is difficult as it cannot be easily removed from the system.
Before doing anything else, it may be wise to download Trojan Remover, install and update it and then boot to Safe Mode to run it.

When installing Kaspersky, as with any other installation, always choose the custom option and install only the components that you need.

Thankyou very much,

yes, I concur - it was cheap! I will do what you suggest as soon as possible.
In the meantime I found a solution to the INtegrity violation pop ups, on the Kaspersky user forum.

What you do is go into Application iNtegrity settings on KAV7, and you can click on details for all the applications listed - some of them say 'blocked', and you have to manually unblock them all, then uncheck the boxes on the left hand side of them (I did this because first thing just re blocked them all for some reason) and then it seems to work.
I was relieved it was my having blocked things by mistake, not some terrible virus.

But as you say it's not very compatible therefore I will install version 10 as soon as I feel brave enough to mess with it again!

Thanks ever so much for all your help and time, it was hugely valuable and much appreciated. that goes for everyone who replied also.
thanks guys. You are all wonderful
: )

Post deleted by Sadoldman

I take it that reply from Smith Dyer was some kind of spam! : )
Anyway, I wanted to update all the lovely people who helped me...I ended up getting a new license key for nothing, after installing the latest version of Kaspersky - it wouldn't accept my license key so they kindly sent me another. It's working really well - no issues, occasionally a little slow when it is updating itself but it's really so much better than before.
Thanks so much for all your help and advice.

A bit late but if your o/s has outlook express shipped with it, then i think it will be windows xp/xp pro or media center ,(unless you also have Microsoft office ) as windows vista came with windows mail
a newer version of OE, and win7 doesn't have any e-mail client shipped with it,Even though some files relating to one are within the windows folders, the user has to download and install one of the own choice,they also did the same thing with the browser in certain countries

Edited by tommy45 (Fri 30-Apr-10 14:59:18)

You're right - it's xp. Thankyou - I should probably write down these things in big red pen ON the hard drive so I don't forget what I am running!

Looks like it was - Link

In reply to a post by susier:

You're right - it's xp. Thankyou - I should probably write down these things in big red pen ON the hard drive so I don't forget what I am running!

Click/open > Start (bottom left of screen)

Click/open > Control Panel

Click/open > System

You will see a small window called System Properties with various named tabs at the top, the tab you will/should be looking at is named General and contains various bits of information about your System and possibly the PC manufacturer etc. etc.

Thankyou very much. I truly appreciate the step by step instructions!

This forum is gold dust.