swdsvc.exe uses 100% of my cpu

[bmxdude]

At times my computer is slow and unresponsive, when I got to the task manager I see that swdsvc.exe is using almost 100% of my cpu and the memory usage climbs well over 120mb.

I also can't seem to do a full scan of my system, it seems to hang at the file scanner and then the whole of spyware doctor is unresponsive and I get the swdsvc.exe at 100& cpu and above 100mb again.

please help

[AChen]

Hi bmxdude,

We will look into this, I have passed this information on to the developers for further investigation/testing.

When you get the 100% cpu, are you using IE7 or any other browsers? Any additional info you can provide will be great.

I will get back to you asap regarding this.

[bmxdude]

Hey it seems to be happening no matter what software is running everytime I want to do a Full Scan of my system, when it gets to the file scanner it jumps up to >90% and hangs my system and uses >100mb memory, i then have to go into the task manager and stop the swfsvc.exe process.
I can only do Intelli Scans of my computer.

This seems to have started after I installed the Anti-Virus plugin.

[AChen]

Can you please disable the AV-Plugin to see if this goes back to normal.

Also, is it possible to get a screenshot on the entry that the scan freezes on?

[pl-spirit]

hello,
i have the same problem, it appears when i have the firefox brwoser running and either "on guard" ist activated



this is kind of annoying, trying to type in forums an every 5 to 15 seconds you dont see what you type because swdsvc.exe ist using the whole cpu power

surfing is extremely slow

i unfortunatly can't tell if this has anything to do with the antivirus plugin, i installed it direcly after downloading the swdoctor 5.0 version

edit: i tried to switch off different applications of "on guard" and i think the problem disappears by deactivating the "file guard"

[AChen]

Hi pl-spirit,

Thanks for getting back to this thread. We are aware of this issue and are working to get a fix out asap, including all the bugs found in SDv5.

If you would like to download SDv4, click here (http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/version4/).

I will send out a notice once these issues have been fixed.

[nikallen]

I have suffered the same fate. In addition the program seems to disconnect and acan only reconnect by re-booting. Attemying to reconnect otherwise brings up error code 258.

Meantime I will revert as suggested to v4.

Thanks

[thpethal]

Hi Anthony,
I've found similar issues with both IE7 and Mozilla, where the swdsvc.exe process goes into overdrive and uses most of the processor power and browsing starts to go at snails pace.(this continues even when the CPU has calmed down) Will download version 4, but if you could add me to the email list when the bug is fixed that would be appreciated.

[RPN5045]

I do support for a Lawyers office. He upgraded to the latest ver. 2 days ago. I got called because the computer was blue screening at times and at times running so slow it took 3+ min. to close IE7. Went into services, stopped two spy-ware services and disabled them. The computer seems to be working OK now. Please post or let me know when the bug is fixed.

[pl-spirit]

as mentioned above in the edit note in my last post, the problem disappears whe deactivation the "file guard" found within the "on guard" functions (since then i could work as usual)

if you want to have the file guard running, you should download v4

[tom.tdw]

I do support for a Lawyers office. He upgraded to the latest ver. 2 days ago. I got called because the computer was blue screening at times and at times running so slow it took 3+ min. to close IE7. Went into services, stopped two spy-ware services and disabled them. The computer seems to be working OK now. Please post or let me know when the bug is fixed.
i have been experiencing the blue screen whenever i scan. but the spyware doctor service doesn't use more than 1-0 processor:confused: i have tried everything including system restore, reinstalling and updating the bios. if i can't fix it i will have to wait till i get my free vista upgrade from dell (is taking forever) if you want to try something you could set the processes to realtime in task manager (or low if you just want some peace)

[mburton06]

I have the same problem but I have found two ways to fix it that might help keep version 5:

1. Turn Off OnGuard and instead use PC Tools Firewall Plus. Works the same as OnGuard and uses much less memory download it here http://www.pctools.com/firewall/

2. turn off internet connection when running a full scan. Touch nothing on the computer until the scan is done. Then when its finished you can go back to using your computer.

This plan has worked for me right now

running Windows XP home SP2 on 4 year old computer
SD v.5 with Antivirus, Firefox browser, PC Tools Firewall Plus 2.0

Matthew Burton

[tom.tdw]

i have been experiencing the blue screen whenever i scan. but the spyware doctor service doesn't use more than 1-0 processor:confused: i have tried everything including system restore, reinstalling and updating the bios. if i can't fix it i will have to wait till i get my free vista upgrade from dell (is taking forever) if you want to try something you could set the processes to realtime in task manager (or low if you just want some peace)
i eventually managed to fix the problem by formatting my hard drive :( it was a bit of a hassle but i didn't have many files (they all fitted on my usb) and now it works perfectly + my whole system is running at lightspeed

[AnilS]

My computer has become unbearably, painfully slow ever since the upgrade to the latest SW Doctor. In fact I noticed it was slower since installing the AV plugin before installing the latest version of SW Dr. It takes a very long time to fully bootup and sometimes makes it impossible to do anything, let alone surf the net. I am using XP Home Service Pack 2. I have IE7 installed. I also use Zone Alarm as my firewall.

Please let me know once a fix or a solution has been issued so that I can get my PC back to normal!

Thanks
Anil.

[AnilS]

Also, strangely my PC has hung quite a few times lately and my PC has ended up rebooted itself on occasion.. I hadn't really thought it was to with this issue before, but thinking about it, this has only started happening this last week since upgrading SW Doctor :(

[tom.tdw]

try turning onguard off and then on again after it speeds up again also try setting spyware doctors 2 prosseses to low priority in task manager. you should try removing the av plugin. doesn't zone alarm have built in anti-virus? i dont use the program but if it does they are probubably conflicting. there are known issues between zone alarm and spyware doctor 5. make sure that all your drivers are up to date and you could update the bios. it might just be best to go back to version 4 (click the for windows 98 users link on the v5 download page). make sure that you uninstall v5 first else v5 will become very hard to remove. also switching to firefox might help. if all else fails you might have to format or use system restore.

[RPN5045]

Why should I disable parts of the program or revert to on older one? Is V5 a beta? If a product is released to the public is should work.
Someone with PCTools please let me know when the problems are fixed.

[tom.tdw]

don't worry your problem is quite commen first make sure you have the latest version 5.0.0.0174 then turn off parts of onguard and the anti-virus plugin as appropriate. if this doesn't work and you really need your pc revert to version 4 and when you have time either spend it turning bits of onguard on and off or reformat (it's not as scary as it sounds; just copy your files to usb or a free upload service and afterwards your pc will run much faster:))


note: uninstall version 5 before installing version 4


ps:
5 is not beta but some people are having compatibility issues with the avplugin and their anti-virus

[Alex Venturi]

Hello!
I'm Ale, i have the same problem, but now my computer often restar the system.
I understand well? The solution is uninstall the program and download version4?
I wait reply.

Thank's:)

[socrfan]

Hello!
I'm Ale, i have the same problem, but now my computer often restar the system.
I understand well? The solution is uninstall the program and download version4?
I wait reply.

Thank's:)


Yes, download version 4 and use it until version 5 is fixed.

[Alex Venturi]

Yes, download version 4 and use it until version 5 is fixed.

Tank you, i have the last question....
How can I do download version 4? :rolleyes:
Is possible download version 4 :confused:
How?

This is my firts time inside a forum and i don't have experience....
Thank you for your support.

[Chippa]

To download SD v4 visit: http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/version4/

To download SD v5 visit: http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/download/.

Just curious Alex Venturi, what version of SDv5 have you been using. Can check by clicking on help|about. The latest is 5.0.0.174. Most computer slow down issues have been fixed with this on. You might want to try this first, before going back to the 4. I've had my problems fixed in this one.

Cheers,
Chippa

[tom.tdw]

i think that network guard causes high cpu problems

[ladyvols]

I have a Dell XPS 410 (duo core). Recently, I installed Vista and reinstalled applications (and their Vista updates) and everything has worked fine. I also am running Norton Internet Security 2007. I then purchased Spyware Doctor 5.0. After installing SD5, I rebooted and both cores were maxed out at 100% and the system was nonfuntional. I had to manually shut the system down and reboot in safe mode. When I uninstallled SD5 and rebooted, the system was back to normal.

It is sad that PC Tools released a product that does't work with Vista (I purchaed SD5 because PC Tools stated via email that ver. 4 was not an option for Vista and SD5 was Vista ready (so very, very wrong).

[tom.tdw]

I have a Dell XPS 410 (duo core). Recently, I installed Vista and reinstalled applications (and their Vista updates) and everything has worked fine. I also am running Norton Internet Security 2007. I then purchased Spyware Doctor 5.0. After installing SD5, I rebooted and both cores were maxed out at 100% and the system was nonfuntional. I had to manually shut the system down and reboot in safe mode. When I uninstallled SD5 and rebooted, the system was back to normal.

It is sad that PC Tools released a product that does't work with Vista (I purchaed SD5 because PC Tools stated via email that ver. 4 was not an option for Vista and SD5 was Vista ready (so very, very wrong).
version 5 should work with vista as well as xp. the problem is probably norten (they are having problems) luckily as you have duo core i might just have a quick fix. use task manager to set the affiliation of all the spyware doctor to one of the processors. it's not perfect but your performance should stay bearable.



i know that there are currently issues but just wait for the next release then try reinstalling

[RPN5045]

[QUOTE=tom.tdw;157707]version 5 should work with vista as well as xp. the problem is probably norten (they are having problems) luckily as you have duo core i might just have a quick fix. use task manager to set the affiliation of all the spyware doctor to one of the processors. it's not perfect but your performance should stay bearable.


Let me get this straight. I stop Norton and the computer is still slow. I stop Spyware and the computer works just fine. And you say Norton is the problem? This is sounding like PC Tools does not want to stand behind it’s product. Not good.

[tom.tdw]

did you reboot after stopping norton? version 5 often dosn't go well with norton

[Alex Venturi]

To download SD v4 visit: http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/version4/

To download SD v5 visit: http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/download/.

Just curious Alex Venturi, what version of SDv5 have you been using. Can check by clicking on help|about. The latest is 5.0.0.174. Most computer slow down issues have been fixed with this on. You might want to try this first, before going back to the 4. I've had my problems fixed in this one.

Cheers,
Chippa


Thank you very much for the assistence....i try now. This is a perfect!!! :) By

[ladyvols]

Norton works just fine - the problem is with SD5. I was told by PC Tools that I had to upgrade to SD5 to run with Vista. I am now reviewing Spy Sweeper in PC mag and will go in that direction.

[wa2tqi]

I just installed version 5 and the computer came to a grinding halt. So what now.....use ver 4????

[Gambit]

Back to 4 for you if 5 doesnt work. Im running v5 with no probs atm.

What comes to a halt? web browsing? Or everything? I did have something similar with 5.0.0.169 but fixed with this new build.

I like!!!

[kallikrates5]

I had problems such as there originally with V4. It was so annoying I disabled that service in the startup profile. However on Sunday I upgraded to V5 and the problem is now worse than ever. I am also having problems with freezing programs including Movie Maker 2. The machine is terribly slow and like some others have reported Firefox seems to be much, much slower and the Task Manager too. Even typing now for this reply has slowed down. I'll try disabling File Guard as suggested.

[kallikrates5]

I have been having most of these problems including the inability to drop clips in Movie Maker on the timeline/storyboard without it freezing. Disabled Fileguard and guess what it works again. Machine seems to have speeded up too. :D

[migues]

Hi guys,
opening new tab in IE 7 consume like 5 seconds when File Guard is on... Process usage for swdsvc.exe is about 60% and what's more the file opening in new tab is about:blank ;)

[tom.tdw]

hi
version 5.0.0.182 is much faster
see if it helps

[PJWilkin]

hi
version 5.0.0.182 is much faster
see if it helps

Yes... on my system it takes 6 seconds to open a new (blank) tab in IE

[tom.tdw]

for me in firefox it takes less than one

firefox is quicker but you might want to try desktop mechanic for speed

[wembely]

Very disapointed. Time to start taking action to get my money back.

[tom.tdw]

i recommend you go back to 4 until it's fixed Very disapointed. Time to start taking action to get my money back.

[notE]

Someone may find the new build faster but for me it still runs slower than molasses in january. Everything takes too much time to open.

[tom.tdw]

it may only be faster for me as i have duel core and a gigabyte of ram;)

it seems to make more difference on higher spec computersSomeone may find the new build faster but for me it still runs slower than molasses in january. Everything takes too much time to open.

[Reodor]

I Gig here and a Gig there might help. But I do not think most users are willing to add those needed Gig's just to make SD faster. For the 'freaks'(no offence) with the latest Vista prepeared machines it maight look fast, but for those with non-Vista speced machines wich I believe will still be the majority for quite some time, it is SLOW, dead SLOW! The only thing that is making 182 faster is a few less error messages. If a drastic change had been made to make it faster I do not think the 'slow sticky's' on top would have remained!
Unfortunately with the present buildup of V5 and way of operating I do not think they will disappear in the near future - let us just hope I'm wrong!

[PJWilkin]

I Gig here and a Gig there might help. But I do not think most users are willing to add those needed Gig's just to make SD faster. For the 'freaks'(no offence) with the latest Vista prepeared machines it maight look fast, but for those with non-Vista speced machines wich I believe will still be the majority for quite some time, it is SLOW, dead SLOW! The only thing that is making 182 faster is a few less error messages. If a drastic change had been made to make it faster I do not think the 'slow sticky's' on top would have remained!
Unfortunately with the present buildup of V5 and way of operating I do not think they will disappear in the near future - let us just hope I'm wrong!

Unfortunately, I have 2GB here and it makes little difference in speed. I think some slowness can possibly be attributed to the fact SD5 makes use of Virtual memory. Thus it's probably paging in and out of disc.

[jeannedobson]

I am having to uninstall the latest version if SWD. I too have EXTREMELY slow connection. Even when I did a shut down for SWD it kept running! I have spent the last two hours trying to fix it but to no avail. I just bought this the day before yesterday. What a waste of money for me. (Oh and time) Too bad.

[John McAfee]

I've also had the problem of 100% cpu usage on swdsvc.exe in SD5. Sometimes the 100% utilization was by process svchost.exe. I had some of the other problems others reported as well, such as spontaneous rebooting.

I first tried disabling the file guard, which others said helped them. For me that didn't fix it. Maybe when I disabled file guard is when I noticed the swdsvc.exe using 100% instead of svchost.exe being the culprit. I remember first noticing svchost.exe being the process using 100%, but later (after disabling file guard?) it was swdsvc.exe that was always the one. For the past week I have disabled both file guard and cookie guard and haven't had any problem with the cpu usage.

I've been leaving the Windows Task Manager running minimized, on the performance tab with view update speed set to low so it will capture the performance for the last few minutes. I noticed the problem seemed to occur more often while browsing a video clip sharing site than other sites.

[mburton06]

I too am noticing this problem, a fix that I have found is to turn off On Gaurd and just get pc tools firewall plus. It doesw what OnGaurd in SD5 does with out taking up your computers resources

[mjq424]

Hi
PC Tools Firewall Plus is just that...a firewall. It DOES NOT protect against malicious software!
If you are having issues with SD5, please use SD4.1.

[npl10]

Hi
I installed Spyware Doctor with antivirus version 5.0.0.184 downloaded the latest updates and started the scanning. It went well, detected few threats (high and low) and progressed up to 32%, then I noticed that the swdsvc.exe occupied 99 of CPU time and about 125MB of Mem. It took some time before the SWD –itself- interrupted the scanning process and showed the scanning interface (window). The system become very slow. I tried to lower the priority of the swdsvc.exe process, but it didn’t help. So, I had to kill the process to regain the system speed. I tried to scan with all on-guard disabled but again the same problem occurred. In all my trials, I noticed that the problem appears when SWD scans the registry. So, I focused on the registry. Tried many tools including Registry Mechanic, Registry Booster, RegSweep and other tools. None fixed the registry problem. Before giving up, I tried Eusing Free Registry Cleaner and it did the job. After that I used SWD and worked fine.
Cheers

[reboot_dude]

Just in case someone from PCTOOLS or more likely a resident geek can take a look . The probelm with SWDSVC.exe for me is that it not only consumes massive cpu time BUT it does alot of IO other with virus turned on. Now io other is not a default setting on taskmgr so maybe the other peeps that complain about this process may be missing it . Any chance ANYONE knows a way to investigate just wtf the process is doing so we can fix it ?
btw it still does io other with EVERYTHING possible turned off just not as much:confused:

[AChen]

Just in case someone from PCTOOLS or more likely a resident geek can take a look. The probelm with SWDSVC.exe for me is that it not only consumes massive cpu time BUT it does alot of IO other with virus turned on. Now io other is not a default setting on taskmgr so maybe the other peeps that complain about this process may be missing it . Any chance ANYONE knows a way to investigate just wtf the process is doing so we can fix it ?
btw it still does io other with EVERYTHING possible turned off just not as much:confused:

According to npl10, the 100% CPU usage has been resolved by doing a registry clean. If your registry is corrupt then it can show up during a scan or during an OnGuard action. Without having access to your PC's we cannot tell if its malware breaking into the registry or if you have just hard reset the PC too many times and corrupted the registry. If you are experiencing the 100% usage issue, try repairing your registries and then running SDv5.

Also, what other security applications are you running? We will continue to investigate this issue.

[reboot_dude]

ok . I don't have 100 % cpu usage but i did post this on a serperate thread but someone seems to have moved it on the end of this one. I use pctools regcleaner tool , which works fine as far as i can tell by the way . If my registry has become corrupt , which i doubt , then it is your product that has done it :>) either way . Anyway , i was suggesting that someone checked to see if a normal running SD5 with AV does a rediculous amoutn of i/o other. I assume that you use SD5 and your other software on a pc that you use to moderate here so maybe you can see if this is the case !?!?!

[AChen]

ok . I don't have 100 % cpu usage but i did post this on a serperate thread but someone seems to have moved it on the end of this one. I use pctools regcleaner tool , which works fine as far as i can tell by the way . If my registry has become corrupt , which i doubt , then it is your product that has done it :>) either way . Anyway , i was suggesting that someone checked to see if a normal running SD5 with AV does a rediculous amoutn of i/o other. I assume that you use SD5 and your other software on a pc that you use to moderate here so maybe you can see if this is the case !?!?!

The i/o number is generally high, this does not affect your systems performance. Everytime a file is checked, the number will keep on increasing. Again normal behaviour.

If users are suffering high cpu loads all the time from SD then either you have found a bug in SD or you have some other process that keeps on altering the registry or file structure and SD has to keep on checking that the changes are not malicious, using up cpu.

[DrDrew]

OK PC tools, help me out.

I bought SWD yesterday, and already my wife blames me for the demise of my PC. Ironic, in that I bought SWD to get rid of spyware and adware and ultimately speed my PC up, no other reason. Now, it seems everything is very slow to open e.g. 73 seconds for 'Control Panel,' and I am sleeping with my dogs.

Seriously, if I have to use V4 (or whatever) send me the link, I presume my license will work????

What do I do, help and / or a refund?

Dr Drew

[c_edge]

OK PC tools, help me out.

I bought SWD yesterday, and already my wife blames me for the demise of my PC. Ironic, in that I bought SWD to get rid of spyware and adware and ultimately speed my PC up, no other reason. Now, it seems everything is very slow to open e.g. 73 seconds for 'Control Panel,' and I am sleeping with my dogs.

Seriously, if I have to use V4 (or whatever) send me the link, I presume my license will work????

What do I do, help and / or a refund?

Dr Drew

What sort of system are you running? What other security software do you have installed? Which version of SD are you currently using? Some users are having this issue and its probably most likely linked to the OnGuard tools, you can try disabling this to see if this speeds things up. Are you running several security programs at once? Also have you installed Site Guard and Email Guard?

This issue is most likely related to the following on the reported issues:
SDv5 Beta 11 slows down PC
Status: Reported
Original Thread: http://www.pctools.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45742
Original Thread: http://www.pctools.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45760

I've been on this forum for quite some time now and this issue has slowly been improving as less people are coming across this, however, there are still users having this problem, whereas others are not. PCT should be working on this issue and the progress is a little slow as it may also be related to the PC's environment, different factors of the PC.

If you are unable to use the latest version, you can always go back to SDv4.1, this still uses the same signature database and is very stable. To download this version, visit: http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/version4/.

c_edge :)

[swannie]

I was just browsing on firefox 2 when the scheduled Intelliscan started and everything just slowed right down. I checked and CPU usage was at 100% and then everything just froze. Had to reboot. I have 768 RAM and XP/SP2. I have SD/AV latest version. Should I go back to 4.1????

Advice from anyone please....

[Reodor]

I was just browsing on firefox 2 when the scheduled Intelliscan started and everything just slowed right down. I checked and CPU usage was at 100% and then everything just froze. Had to reboot. I have 768 RAM and XP/SP2. I have SD/AV latest version. Should I go back to 4.1????

Advice from anyone please....


Scanning and browsing have never been a good combination. Just stop the scan!
As for V4.1: have a glimpse at my recent post about 'system requierments...'

[debls]

Hi Swannie,
I have made it a habit not to browse when scanning. I schedule my scans to run when I am pretty sure I won't be on the PC. I have not met a scan (any company's) that does not slow down my browsing.

[swannie]

Hi Reodor and debls,

You're right about slowing things down, but stopping them altogether? Anyway, I'll heed your advice and do a scan at times I'm not doing anything else - no other programs were running at that time, by the way.

Other than that, the key word is patience, as someone else on this forum has pointed out.

Really appreciate the help and advice I've received on this forum from you and everyone else:)

[swannie]

PS Reodor - I read all your posts!

[looney2ns]

I was just browsing on firefox 2 when the scheduled Intelliscan started and everything just slowed right down. I checked and CPU usage was at 100% and then everything just froze. Had to reboot. I have 768 RAM and XP/SP2. I have SD/AV latest version. Should I go back to 4.1????

Advice from anyone please....

You don't have an over abundance of ram. Xp likes at least 1meg. @ a minimum.

[swannie]

Yep, you're right and I'm about to add another 256 in the near future, but until then...
Still, things are now moving along. And I did get along with 512 for a pretty long time.

[tom.tdw]

an alternative is remote desktop connection

www.cosmopod.com is lightning fast and it has enough programs for most everyday tasks:)

[chrisbonnie]

after having spyware doctor for a few years, i had this problem about 3 months ago, so i downloaded the older version

unfortunetly, that didnt keep the spyware from my pc, today, i got some spyware/malware on my pc, redirecting my home page to some shop for anti spyware, anybody else get this?

anyway, i bought the spyware doctor again ,the latest version, im not sure wheter it has worked or not, as i keep getting a pop up box saying my subscription is up, yet there is no registration box where i can register with my new code(which i have)

and to add to my woe, spyware doctor is using 100% of my CPU at times, seriously, whats the story with this

a che, i do not envy your job on here, im not giving out to you, but this really is poor is it not

[AChen]

after having spyware doctor for a few years, i had this problem about 3 months ago, so i downloaded the older version

unfortunetly, that didnt keep the spyware from my pc, today, i got some spyware/malware on my pc, redirecting my home page to some shop for anti spyware, anybody else get this?

anyway, i bought the spyware doctor again ,the latest version, im not sure wheter it has worked or not, as i keep getting a pop up box saying my subscription is up, yet there is no registration box where i can register with my new code(which i have)

and to add to my woe, spyware doctor is using 100% of my CPU at times, seriously, whats the story with this

a che, i do not envy your job on here, im not giving out to you, but this really is poor is it not

Hi chrisbonnie,

Have you purchased a new license instead of renewing your original license? If so, could you please send a private message to me with your license code or order number and I'll resolve this for you. SD will not be able to remove the infections found if your subscription has expired.

Regarding the 100% cpu, which version of SD are you currently using? Click on Help|About. Also what other security software are you running? and try temporarily disabling OnGuard to see if this resolves the issue.

[swannie]

I have this 100% CPU problem and when I disable On Guard it drops right back to normal. This is the latest version .205 with AV. I also have CH. Any solutions?

[katie]

Do you have site guard and/or email guard installed?

kt

[chrisbonnie]

Achen, i sorted the license issue up, thansk to your customer support, ive disable the "onguard" function, hopefully that`ll do the job

btw, what does "Onguard" do?

[swannie]

Do you have site guard and/or email guard installed?

kt

Yeah, I have e-mail guard - should I disable it and see what happens?

[malves]

FYI: This happened to me also this morning when I got into work. SDTrayApp.exe was using 100% of my CPU. IE 7, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Windows Explorer and MS Outlook were open at the time as well. I do not have e-mail or site guard installed. SD version is 5.0.1.205. System is a Dell Precision 370 with 1 GB RAM, XP SP2. Closing SD and restarting it brought CPU levels back to normal. SDTrayApp.exe is now using 00 CPU and 8,116K memory. I hope this info helps.

[tom.tdw]

Yeah, I have e-mail guard - should I disable it and see what happens?worth a try:)

[swannie]

OK testing 1...2...3...

Will report back - thanks!

[drftr]

i have only ran into this problem once but disabling the 'file guard' will stop the high memory and cpu usage but you have to wait 30secs-1min or so to see it..

worth a try ;)

[swannie]

Don't have file guard but so far having e-mail guard disabled seems to be working.

[Chippa]

Don't have file guard but so far having e-mail guard disabled seems to be working.

For you interest: http://www.pctools.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47736

Email Guard hasn't been fully developed just yet, so if you interested with this addon, probably best to wait a while until it has officially been released.

Cheers,
Chippa

[jwsolve]

I've got the same 100% usage with SD, usuall when just visiting a page in a site and then trying to scroll up or down - like this forum for instance. So I've disabled Onguard totally (I did try disabling single items in onguard but no change), so now I've got a great product that essentially does no realtime protection except for the AV side of things.

Come on PC Tools, you're taking a backwards step with this latest update and it's getting F***ing annoying.

Edit: Actually disabling Process Guard seemed to help until I went to edit this post and then it hung out again. I use Firefox normally but it's the same in IE6. I've now disable Network Guard, maybe I should just disable SD and delete the f***er.

[Chippa]

Not everyone experiences this, so I guess it may take a little difficult to resolve and not only that, each person experiences different slow downs with different tools. Its not all the same tools. I think the best thing to do now, would probably be to install sdv4.1 until these things get sorted. The Onguard tools are probably constantly scanning for infections, hence the slow downs.

Cheers,
Chippa

[jwsolve]

I appreciate that version 4 is an option, but I rely on SD5 Antivirus and to be honest I'm bored of uinstalling, reinstalling.

For now I'll leave onguard off and just wait.

Thanks again.

[debls]

For what it's worth, I was having major slow down problems. I got rid of the site guard plug in and have not had other problems. At first I thought it was Cyberhawk but I've had that running again and have not had any other problems. This was with Firefox and SD5 W/AV.

[CanadaKen]

I noticed some application was constantly accessing the Net for a second or so
at a time. As far as I can tell it's swdsvc.exe.

I also noticed swdsvc.exe is second in CPU usage only to System Idle.

Why????

CK

[swannie]

Excellent question! Let's have an answer from Support.
Why does Intelliscan use 100% CPU and AVG/AV scan at under 50%?

[AChen]

Intelliscan appears to use higher CPU because the file scanner is not used. File scanner is the least CPU intensive and runs for the longest so it means that average CPU usage is lower during full scan.

We will be releasing a new build soon and we have added a new feature, where users are able to select an option to lower the scan priority of SD. It will still use the same CPU if available, however, if there are other processes/applications running, these will have higher priority over SD.

[swannie]

Thanks Anthony, that answered my question but I'm very glad to see that you're bringing out an improvement. If I don't have Intelliscan programmed to run at a certain time I may forget to do it, but then I sometimes forget that it's due to run and start doing something else and everything virtually stops.

[A van Wyk]

I notice that Spyware Doctor uses in excess of 188Mb in the virtual memory. Though, it only used the CPU for just over 2 minutes, but logged in excess of 500,000 Page Faults. It also registers above 1 million other I/O bytes. This was SD running in the background only for about 1,5hrs. (I.e. not running any scans.)

For a background service it seems to be quite active.

[eye2eye]

I notice that Spyware Doctor uses in excess of 188Mb in the virtual memory. Though, it only used the CPU for just over 2 minutes, but logged in excess of 500,000 Page Faults. It also registers above 1 million other I/O bytes. This was SD running in the background only for about 1,5hrs. (I.e. not running any scans.)

For a background service it seems to be quite active.


exactly!
I noticed this, too.
Besides, SD5 totally slows down system booting. :confused:

[St.Florent]

I was having the same problem so I chose to uninstall the software. I would appreciate it if somebody would e-mail me when the problem is resolved. The program would not respond when I tried disabling file guard.Thanks.

[maghouse]

Hi All,

Just logged onto the forum after having problems with SD5.205

As you can probably guess, my machine is very slow when SD is up and running.

I have read the posts on the forum but cannot see a fix for this - have I missed it maybe :confused:

I have the same problem 100% CPU usage and very slow loading of web pages when normal browsing. Forums are particularly bad and pages take ages to load.

Disable SD5 and the problem ceases - back to a machine that flys again !

I appreciate that SD is doing a job in scanning and checking but far too slow for 'usual browsing, so much so I often just disable SD to browse - somewhat defeats the object !

I use a new machine, plenty of RAM & power etc, XP and run Firefox 2.0.0.6. (I changed to Firefox from IE7 to see if it resolved the problem but makes no difference whichever browser I use). I also have SD Registry Mechanic which causes no problems as far as I can see. Also run Norton IS2007.

I like SD as it does a great job, after a problem last year it was the only product that solved an issue so want to keep it running but this slow browsing etc. is very frustrating.

HELP :eek:

[MAK]

Hi, It is not recommended you run SD's OnGuard feature with other similar products real time intrusion prevention system like Norton.

Try disbaling Norton and the browse, I think your browsing will speed-up.

Cheer's
MAK

[maghouse]

Thanks for the reply Mak,

I have tried that but with NIS2007 you cant just 'disable and re-enable easily unlike NIS2006 unfortunately ....

Would rather have both running than have to disable one ...

[mjq424]

Hi
Have you tried using the Kernel Compatibility mode in Spyware Doctor Settings? (It requires a reboot) Some people have found this greatly improves performance.

[maghouse]

Hi
Have you tried using the Kernel Compatibility mode in Spyware Doctor Settings? (It requires a reboot) Some people have found this greatly improves performance.

I haven't - never heard of it !
Is it easy to set up ...

[Support]

maghouse,

You can Enable Kernel Compatibility mode by going to Settings > General > Check Enable Kernal Compatibility > Apply

[mbely]

me too, i guess this doesnt work out of the box. try a mac i have already spent more than a mac on registry cleaners spyware removers and anti viruses and they dont work. this is the best though i just bought it and it crashed the whole pc. and the forum says oh we know we are working on a fix all you need is a soldering iron and deft hands. to be followed- in the meantime i have been forced to turn off the software i just bought because it makes the problem i bought it for worse

[dennisgi]

I had the same problem reported by many with slow system operation
in V5 with OnGuard activated. I downloaded V4 and am using it. Question is,
has the prob been fixed yet in V5 and can I use it with OnGuard?

[swannie]

The only thing you can do is try it on your system. For me the latest version (5.259) is running fine with less CPU usage and generally no problems. Fingers crossed it's the best so far!

[bill_g]

I'm new to this forum. I have version 5.0.5.259 and the task manager is showing that swdsvc.exe is using a lot of cpu, it's frequently at 99, especially within the first 1/2 hour after booting up. Any ideas?

[AChen]

Hi Bill,

I have replied to your ticket :D

[Mikeyfitz]

I'm new to this forum. I have version 5.0.5.259 and the task manager is showing that swdsvc.exe is using a lot of cpu, it's frequently at 99, especially within the first 1/2 hour after booting up. Any ideas?

and probably wouldn't be here if swdsvc.exe wasn't driving me nuts. I have stopped it from running at start up just so I can get some work done, It's a tad annoying, I have already scrapped norton for much the same reason (memory hogging). I now have two concurrently running subscriptions for software that bungs up my system and I can't use! Help me someone please.

[webmast]

and probably wouldn't be here if swdsvc.exe wasn't driving me nuts. I have stopped it from running at start up just so I can get some work done, It's a tad annoying, I have already scrapped norton for much the same reason (memory hogging). I now have two concurrently running subscriptions for software that bungs up my system and I can't use! Help me someone please.

After keeping SD running for several days, I had no choice but returning to my routine of shutting down SD while I work on my PC.
I had the same experience with the 94-98% CPU used situation. When you startup SD, the system takes some 2 minutes to come up. Then, unscheduled and unidentified, it goes on a scanning frenzy, to such degree that the disk is going at full speed, the other apps, if started, will show a blank frame and do not start to run.
I do not notice too much of a slowdown on IE7, but after one hour or so, SD goes on the same scanning frenzy, unidentied, for another 15 minutes, blocking other apps from running.

I know... "we are working on it", but since my first complain started back in Feb 2007, and all that time PC Tools was "working on it".... the PC World mag rating SD as "Best Buy" is a puzzle to me.
Not only the ranking does not make sense, but they listed five other software and did not include BitDefender, which at this point I have to report as excellent without the SD problems.

By the way, I have the Guards off and use all recommended settings shown on this Forum.

Oh yes, there are some users that have not a single problem with SD... mmmm.

[Pete Schreiner]

I spent far too much time today trying to find out why it would take my system 10 minutes to achieve a fully functioning but slow Windows XP Pro desktop.

The problem has been getting progressively worse over approximately the last month and a half.

I have so many desk top apps and security programs running with automated updates that I didn't know where to begin when the computer started slowing down.

I cleaned out the startup files that were not necessary and started in a diagnostic mode. Loading only the essential Windows apps at startup worked fine and all was well except that of course many desktop apps and the internet connection had to be started manually.

Next msconfig was used to further pare down the unessential overhead loading at startup but the apps were loaded this time.

Still very slow to open and run anything for the first 15 mintues.

bootvis.exe showed that something was taking over 100% of the cpu time during several minutes while Windows was opening.

And then finally, with enough of the other apps like Norton Corp AV and Zonealarm shut down, task monitor showed the cluprit to be swdsvc.exe

I had to repeatedly shutdown swdsvc.exe and try to perform operations before it captured the machine again so that I could find out what swdsvc.exe belonged to. (It's obvious now, but it wasn't at the time.)

Google followed swdsvc.exe to this group and Spyware Doctor.

I reverted to the version 4 that I had subscribed with in October 2006 and after cleaning up a mess that was made during the removal of the version of Spyware Doctor that I had been using and making sure that the lastest updates to the program were not used again, I have a resposive system that is still heavy loaded when SD is run, but I only run it manually.

Spyware Doctor should not be so taxing of resources. A 2.5GHz processor with 1.7 GB of RAM should not be brought to its knees by what should be a background task.

My subscription expires next month and at this point I can see no reason why I would not find another tool for this function.

Is there going to be a fix for this problem in the foreseeable future?

Pete

[c_edge]

and probably wouldn't be here if swdsvc.exe wasn't driving me nuts. I have stopped it from running at start up just so I can get some work done, It's a tad annoying, I have already scrapped norton for much the same reason (memory hogging). I now have two concurrently running subscriptions for software that bungs up my system and I can't use! Help me someone please.

Im not sure why some users experience this 100% and others don't. It looks like it is being affected by other security apps running with SD. Some sort of compatibility issues. I've been running most of the builds of SD and have found that some are slower then others, but over the last couple of builds, this has improved quite alot. I notice that SD does take a while to load and this is probably the loading of the tools and database. But once it gets running everything appears to be really smooth. Im currently running SD with kernel compatibility mode enabled so as to avoid any conflicts with the other security apps I have running. Maybe give this a try? BTW what other security apps are you running.

Not only the ranking does not make sense, but they listed five other software and did not include BitDefender, which at this point I have to report as excellent without the SD problems.

As you can see, everyone has different opinions. It really comes down to what works best on their PC setup. You might love Bitdefender, whereas others might not and same thing would appear for SD and other security apps.

Is there going to be a fix for this problem in the foreseeable future?

There is the possibility that SD, Norton Corp AV and Zonealarm are conflicting somewhere along the lines. If you run SD on its own, do you still experience the CPU usage? Real-Time protection probably plays a vital role in this and can really slow down you computer. You should try enabling kernel mode as well.

I think this will be fixed in the forseeable future, but providing a timeframe, would be impossible. I think these companies will always battle an issue with CPU usage, because of all the setups a PC can have and with new security apps constantly upgrading and so on, everything changes. But improving this will be something these companies will probably keep working on.

Just my 2cents worth.

c_edge

[Mikeyfitz]

:( Well, since my last post I have uninstalled SD and I am now running Avast and I have to see how it goes from here. I just couldn't take the frustration. A real shame.

[ToyTrains1]

I waited patiently for the release of v.5 of Spyware Doctor which was supposed to fix all of the problems I had with v.4. I suffered through the beta testing and was very good (I think) about providing reports on all of the various problems that SD5 was causing. I've done the same with all of the release versions. Well, I've now suffered with it quite long enough. Having my system very slow to boot and suffering random lock ups because SD5 decides on its own that it wants 100% of the CPU for neither rhyme nor reason with no fix forthcoming from PC Tools all of this time, I've now uninstalled it. Permanently. I've switched to Spy Sweeper which does the job quite nicely while remaining unobtrusive. It doesn't slow the system boot, it doesn't freeze my system, and it blocks all of the damned cookies that SD 5 let through to be quarantined later during scans (something I never really understood). In short, it's what SD5 should have been and isn't. Having dealt with PC Tools for ages (remember PC Tools for DOS?), it's a major disappointment.

[JustinCase_007]

QUOTE "I think this will be fixed in the forseeable future, but providing a timeframe, would be impossible. I think these companies will always battle an issue with CPU usage, because of all the setups a PC can have and with new security apps constantly upgrading and so on, everything changes."

The foreseeable future has already gone a long time ago.:mad:

I have been using this simultaneously with Zone Alarm Security Suite and it seems that it is using a lot more cpu than ZA and it means every network intensive application keeps it up to 100% almost constantly.

The problem for those who have this 100% all the time is not only irritation and loss of productivity but also greenhouse gases and electric bill. PC Tools seems not to be willing to compensate you for your increased utility bill.:rolleyes:

[GriffMJ]

PLEASE PLEASE SORT THIS OUT ..... IT IS DRIVING ME NUTS...... IT TOOK 30 MINS FOR ME TO BOOT MY MACHINE UP.... CONTINUALLY HAVING TO REMOVE swdsvc.exe FROM THE PROCESS LIST.

WHY IS IT USING SO MUCH CPU USAGE ..... ITS *(&^*&^()&^^ ANNOYING WAITING FOR YOUR MACHINE TO BE RELEASED FROM ITS GRIP!!!!

GET A GRIP OR I WILL GET ANOTHER SOFTWARE PACKAGE THAT DOES NOT HIJACK MY MACHINE AND FLY INTO THE TWIN TOWERS OF MY ANGER.

I AM ON 5.0.1.205......... SO IT HAS NOT BEEN FIXED AS SOMEONE SEEMS TO HAVE (DE)ELUDED TO.


WHEN WILL IT BE FIXED????!!!!!


BTW....... I have now disabled SD ..... so I have just disabled a product that was designed to protect me against attack....... yet I am being attacked by it!!!! Maybe a couple of emails to the PC magazines is in order here.... as they sing your praises for some reason? Maybe a reality check is in order!!!

[Jitney]

I have been a happy SD user, but lately there are times when the CPU is just locked up solid. For a couple of minutes nothing happens and the HD is working hard. When I can get to the processes tab of Task Manager, I see that it is SD doing the vast majority of the damage. I am attaching a jpg for your inspection. This needs fixing.

[Jitney]

I imagine that some details might help to trace the trouble. The last time I had this problem, I was reading a news story that I accessed from my Google home page's RSS feeds. I was running Firefox with no Java.
The other likely software conflicts would be Comodo's Firewall and their BOclean. I have set both SD and BOclean to ignore each other, but I did notice that BOclean was contributing to the activity, but at a MUCH lesser rate. My wireless network software was contributing about as much activity as BOclean - some but not a lot. And, of course, the usual svchost.exe and browser activity. The huge page fault number is suspicious, but I don't know what makes the difference. I am using the computer without rebooting and there is no lockup now nor has there been since the "fit". The disturbing part is that when this happens, it is distinctly like a virus attack: the computer stops responding and you can't bring up Task Manager or close what you're running. I have been tempted to just pull the plug, but I have grown used to expecting such events. I don't quite know if I will respond appropriately if I am ever hit by a virus with this kind of "normal" operation.

[twak]

Mine is using 50% which seems very high to me.

[maylcy]

I came home to find that my swdsvc.exe was using 98% and my fan was running very loudly. No telling how long this was going on. I have version 5.0.1.205
Any way to fix this????

[tom.tdw]

i recommed you install process explorer for now so you can suspend sd when it goes into overdrive:D

come on pctools, this has been an issue since .162

[_Michelle_]

I came home to find that my swdsvc.exe was using 98% and my fan was running very loudly. No telling how long this was going on. I have version 5.0.1.205
Any way to fix this????

Try the latest version 259, since your using 5.0.1.205.

www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/

[jont55]

This is so funny.

It seem like you folks a bunch of masochists.

What's wrong with finding something that works?

[davybeat]

I gave up 5 months ago, but read this site everyday. I put on Spy sweeper and It works so well. I fail to understand why so many seem happy to put up with PC Tools and this very poor software. I had used it for two years, but V5 is just not good software. I want my pc to work as it should and now it does. Most of my friends who used spyware doctor because I had told them it was great, now also use spy sweeper, as does my company who I work for. I downloaded trial and paid just over £11 for spy sweeper, I was more than happy to lose the cash I had paid to PC Tools, as I have a perfect working pc now. Wake up and smell the coffee folks.

[Reodor]

I gave up 5 months ago, but read this site everyday. I put on Spy sweeper and It works so well. I fail to understand why so many seem happy to put up with PC Tools and this very poor software. I had used it for two years, but V5 is just not good software. I want my pc to work as it should and now it does. Most of my friends who used spyware doctor because I had told them it was great, now also use spy sweeper, as does my company who I work for. I downloaded trial and paid just over £11 for spy sweeper, I was more than happy to lose the cash I had paid to PC Tools, as I have a perfect working pc now. Wake up and smell the coffee folks.


But nice to see that You still hang around to follow this 'Cirqe de soleil'.:)

[hvqboy]

Since I installed Spyware Doctor my laptop behaves as if had nearly no cpu power left. I can see that swdsvc.exe eats up the vast majority of the resources availabe. Opening an application takes eons. Jeez even while typing this message I need to wait up. What can be done? This is not a sustainable situation. I need a fix... other than uninstalling Spyware Doctor and asking for a refund.
:mad:

[Reodor]

Since I installed Spyware Doctor my laptop behaves as if had nearly no cpu power left. I can see that swdsvc.exe eats up the vast majority of the resources availabe. Opening an application takes eons. Jeez even while typing this message I need to wait up. What can be done? This is not a sustainable situation. I need a fix... other than uninstalling Spyware Doctor and asking for a refund.
:mad:

You have two options:
1: Try V4.1, uses less resources and ok if not running Vista.
2: Get Your moneey back.

This problem has been going on since the release of V5 some 6 months ago, and will probably NOT be solved.

[allibear]

This problem has been going on since the release of V5 some 6 months ago, and will probably NOT be solved.

You never know Reodor, maybe it will get resolved 'shortly':D :D

[allibear]

1: Try V4.1, uses less resources and ok if not running Vista.

For anyone reading the thread who maybe interested in my experiences and who is using Vista.

I did run SD4 on Vista for a month or so without major issues, (I bailed out before SD4.1 was released so can't comment on that), it did use 80-100mb of ram and caused a slight lag on the system but not majorly, (this is on a 2gb machine). I wouldn't recommend it on the standard 1gb that most Vista machines are being sold with but it might be worth giving it a try if you are at the end of your tether with SD5.

[Reodor]

You never know Reodor, maybe it will get resolved 'shortly':D :D

Ouch!!!
I feel 'eggs' of protest comming from the Balcony, and apologize for my negative remark. You are probably right.:o :o

PS: Does anyone have a definition of 'shortly'??? I think the Australian definition might vary slightly from the Oxford dictionary.

[InvisibleMan]

Reodor,

I gave a "lawyer's definition" of "shortly" many threads ago.

Shortly: A guy named "Lee" who is not very tall.

When anyone says they will do something shortly, they are not talking to you. They are talking to Lee, the short guy. ;)

[Reodor]

Reorder,

I gave a "lawyer's definition" of "shortly" many threads ago.

Shortly: A guy named "Lee" who is not very tall.

When anyone says they will do something shortly, they are not talking to you. They are talking to Lee, the short guy. ;)

I thank You for that, must have pased me on the way. Explains however why nothing seems to happend whenever it comes up, there is one 'Lee' on the board so the info must be some kind of coded message to him. :)

As we speak of board members there are two with rather similar 'name', me Reodor and Reorder.
Reodor
Trusted Advisor 568
Reorder
Junior Member 3

The later one is (was) one of the past regulars, still pops in no and then' that did a rather lame attempt of being 'funny' some time ago. Not everyone is/was what they claimed to be on the board, no one is 'invisible'. ;)

[Rethys]

I am having the same problems with cpu overutilization as everyone else here. I bought the software as it was the most highly recommended by cnet or some such. I wish I'd read these posts first!

Have any of you actually gotten, or known someone who has gotten, a refund due to this?

[Gambit]

I am having the same problems with cpu overutilization as everyone else here. I bought the software as it was the most highly recommended by cnet or some such. I wish I'd read these posts first!

Have any of you actually gotten, or known someone who has gotten, a refund due to this?

To get a refund, you can can email support or send a PM to AChen. They can arrange this for you.

With this CPU issue, some users will come across this every now and again. It really depends on your PC setup as well. SD does use quite an amount of resources because of its real time protection. It can also be a conflict with another software. First thing you might want to try is enabling the kernel compatibility mode if you have other security applications installed. Also if these other applications have real time protection, probably best to enable only one products real time protection as this could be a source for draining resources. BTW, what other security apps do you have running on your system?

[catalin.merex]

Hy all!
I'm using SpywareDoctor with Antivirus for about 3months and, since then, my laptop, an HP Pavilion ZD8147 with WinXP SP2 with all the latest components from Microsoft instaled (IE7 and all the KB's) works like hell
Everytime i want to do something the response is very slow and swdsvc.exe uses allmost all of my memory and the harddrive activity indicator turns on and stays on for a long time, too long actualy, anoingly long.
When i turn off OnGuard, the PC moves much, much better
When i disable SpywareDoctor with Antivirus the PC work perfectly
What can i do?

Thank you for answering
Catalin Merex from Romania

[catalin.merex]

i forgot to say that i'm also using The Windows Defender from Microsoft
can these programs be in a conflict?
every 3days Windows Defender informs me to perfom a scan, and from times to times he downloads his updates, in rest, i dont even know that Windows Defender is instaled.

[c_edge]

Hy all!
I'm using SpywareDoctor with Antivirus for about 3months and, since then, my laptop, an HP Pavilion ZD8147 with WinXP SP2 with all the latest components from Microsoft instaled (IE7 and all the KB's) works like hell
Everytime i want to do something the response is very slow and swdsvc.exe uses allmost all of my memory and the harddrive activity indicator turns on and stays on for a long time, too long actualy, anoingly long.
When i turn off OnGuard, the PC moves much, much better
When i disable SpywareDoctor with Antivirus the PC work perfectly
What can i do?

Thank you for answering
Catalin Merex from Romania

SD should not be conflicting with Windows Defender, haven't seen any problems on my PC with the 2 programs. What you can try doing is enabling the kernel mode if you have any other AV's or security software running. This is found in the (settings-> tick checkbox for kernel mode and reboot)

SDv5.5 beta has been released - http://www.pctools.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49673, this version has a great improvement in performance and something you may want to look into.

To confirm, do you have any other AV's running? and what version of SD are you running atm?

[catalin.merex]

no, i'm using only SD with AntiVirus version 5.1.273
i will try to enable kernel and then the beta version 5.5

[catalin.merex]

i updated my SD with the beta 5.5
now it's much better
i can even surf the net during scan
before, whit the 5.1.273 was imposible

keep un the good work!

[BMT975]

It takes my 15-20 minutes to boot my computer with SD 5.1. On the quick launch section it says " SD disconnected " for 15 minutes then finally it starts.
I have Mcafee internet security. Now I am using SD 4.1 AGAIN...

[_Michelle_]

It takes my 15-20 minutes to boot my computer with SD 5.1. On the quick launch section it says " SD disconnected " for 15 minutes then finally it starts.
I have Mcafee internet security. Now I am using SD 4.1 AGAIN...

Have you tried c_edge's post? about the kernel mode? since you are also running McAfee. There have been alot of posts about performance improvements with v5.5 beta - check this out in the v5.5 beta forum (http://www.pctools.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=62). Test out if SD is conflicting with McAfee, you could disable one on startup and manually start it to see if starting these 2 programs at the same time is making it take longer then it should.

[Big Adam]

Okay, just purchased SW doctor yesterday and when I started my computer today, performance was terrible. Glad I stumbled upon this post.

I turned off onguard protection and of course, things improved dramatically. Is there risk to leaving onguard protection off and just scanning the computer each day? Thoughts on this?

[c_edge]

Okay, just purchased SW doctor yesterday and when I started my computer today, performance was terrible. Glad I stumbled upon this post.

I turned off onguard protection and of course, things improved dramatically. Is there risk to leaving onguard protection off and just scanning the computer each day? Thoughts on this?

It all depends on how you surf the web and what kind of websites you visit. OnGuard will slow you're pc down to an extent, because these guards will constantly monitor you're pc to find anything that could be potentially malicious. In SDv5.5 beta, the onguard tools have been improved and performance alot better. I've tried this on my test PC's and have noticed a great improvement. Most users will have some kind of real time protection running for added protection. Running a scan each day will keep you're PC clean as well.

See DocLotus's reply from another thread below:



The hardening goes like this.
You will seldom if ever encounter a virus if
• You keep ALL Microsoft Updates current.
• You run a good two-way firewall.
• Stay away from suspicious web sites and do no blindly follow web links.
• Never open suspicious e-mail.
• Never follow links in suspicious e-mail.
• Do a daily ItelliScan of A-S and A-V scan (just in case).



This will ensure you keep you're computer as clean as possible, from viruses and malware included :)

Are you running other security suites or standalone products? which could be adding to the slow downs?

c_edge

[davisbm49]

So I like the others purchased version 5.1.0.273 and am getting performance issues. I then found this forum and jus realized I threw $40 down the drain....:mad:

How do I get the beta version..and if so is there an extra cose associated with this? I would hope that there is some resolution for the customers but by the responses it doesn't seem like there is one.

I paged through all the other responses on this forum but didn't find any great info on how to solve the problem......I did disable the OnGuard andthat helped. I am looking for a better solution though.

What are my options as of 12/6/2007?

[c_edge]

So I like the others purchased version 5.1.0.273 and am getting performance issues. I then found this forum and jus realized I threw $40 down the drain....:mad:

How do I get the beta version..and if so is there an extra cose associated with this? I would hope that there is some resolution for the customers but by the responses it doesn't seem like there is one.

I paged through all the other responses on this forum but didn't find any great info on how to solve the problem......I did disable the OnGuard andthat helped. I am looking for a better solution though.

What are my options as of 12/6/2007?

Once you have purchased SD, you can use any version of SD as it is included with the subscription.

The SDv5.5 beta has many performance improvements. For more info, visit http://www.pctools.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49590.

[JoBU]

The amount of virtual memory this application (spyware DR. 5.0.1.205 R) is using is huge!!!! 193,376 k!!!!!!!! It is getting higher too and then Windows complains of low virtual Memory and my system crashes. It stinks.

Russ

[afrinl]

I saw a posting or two from 12/07 suggesting "5.5 beta" is a significant improvement for this problem.

While some users may be experiencing an improvement, I am not -- and that's with the 5.5 production release, not beta.

My Dell Inspiron 5800 with WinXP-SP2 is having the same terrible performance problem as reported ad nauseum in this forum since I installed Spyware Doctor 5.5.0.178 about a couple weeks ago. Start-ups of all applications have been slowed substantially, but worst of all have been the start-ups from sleep (standby) mode. I used to open the lid of the machine and get a Ctrl-Alt-Del prompt to unlock the machine in 5-10 seconds, tops. Since I installed SD, though, it's taking -- and I am not kidding about this -- 20-30 minutes to get a Ctrl-Alt-Del unlock prompt.

I have not experimented yet with earlier suggestions in this thread to disable FileGuard and/or NetworkGuard, but that's where I'm headed next.

Note to the folks at PC Tools Software: part of the issue may be unproductive interaction(s) with anti-virus software -- but not just your anti-virus software. It's been long reported in this thread that your anti-virus plugin seems to contribute to SD5's performance drain, but my organization requires I use McAfee VirusShield (Enterprise 8.5i, currently), and in looking at Task Manager, I can see that whenever SD's pctsSvc.exe is consuming high fractions of CPU time, so, too, is McAfee's mcshield.exe. Note, though, that mcshield.exe never used to consume any significant CPU time until I installed SD5.

[Chippa]

Note to the folks at PC Tools Software: part of the issue may be unproductive interaction(s) with anti-virus software -- but not just your anti-virus software. It's been long reported in this thread that your anti-virus plugin seems to contribute to SD5's performance drain, but my organization requires I use McAfee VirusShield (Enterprise 8.5i, currently), and in looking at Task Manager, I can see that whenever SD's pctsSvc.exe is consuming high fractions of CPU time, so, too, is McAfee's mcshield.exe. Note, though, that mcshield.exe never used to consume any significant CPU time until I installed SD5.

Are you using SD+AV with McAfee VirusShield? It looks like SD is conflicting with McAfee's mcshield.exe resulting in the high cpu usuage. Make sure you don't have SD+AV if you already have another AV program and just install the SD standalone. Most of the times, if you combine 2 av programs will result in conflicts.

Cheers,
Chippa

[afrinl]

Thanks for the suggestion, Chippa, but I'm afraid that's not the issue with my installation. I'm using just plain SD, not SD+AV. Nevertheless, the system's performance monitor clearly shows that McAfee's mcshield.exe (Enterprise VirusScan 8.5i) is consuming significant cycles whenever SD5.5.0.178's pctSsvc.exe consumes cycles.

[AChen]

Thanks for the suggestion, Chippa, but I'm afraid that's not the issue with my installation. I'm using just plain SD, not SD+AV. Nevertheless, the system's performance monitor clearly shows that McAfee's mcshield.exe (Enterprise VirusScan 8.5i) is consuming significant cycles whenever SD5.5.0.178's pctSsvc.exe consumes cycles.

We'll run a couple of tests on this to investigate this further and we'll get back to you on the results. If we are unable to recreate this, we may require some additional info.

[bhenshaw]

I am having a similar problem. It is not always the same program, but it is always an swd program that is using so many resources that my system slows to a crawl and the only option is to use the power button to shut down. I am using standalong SWD (no AV). I use Norton Antivirus, not McAfee. Hope a solution is found soon.

[looney2ns]

Ok, after an auto update of SWD, I now for the first time am seeing a semilar problem as described here.

It takes my computer 3 minutes after it boots, before it will respond to mouse clicks. During this entire time, the hard drive is continously churning. After it starts responding, the mouse cursor will on a regular basis change to the hourglass icon, even when I'm not doing anything and no other programs running. I can see in task manager that it is swdsvc.exe causing the processor usage to jump to 50% every 20 or so seconds. :eek:

3ghz machine with 3megs of ram. XpPro.
Pitiful Pctools.

[Kah]

I have been getting this same problem just recently. And I think it may have something to do with the Network Guard tool.
I went through each tool one by one and when I got to that one it was continuously running (scanning) the hosts file protection. When I stopped it, my computer went back to 99 percent free from 50 percent free.

I want to make sure and say that I have used SD for many years now so I can tell when it is doing something not quite right in the background.
I have not added any other programs to my system in the last couple of weeks and have been running the same antivirus program for quite some time.
Still using Spyware Doctor version 4.0. Hesitant to upgrade to the higher versions because the last time I did that, my computer could not handle the program it used over 90 percent of resources.
Hope they get this issue fixed soon.

[jacklazara]

had somthing like that , but very rarely

[AChen]

I am having a similar problem. It is not always the same program, but it is always an swd program that is using so many resources that my system slows to a crawl and the only option is to use the power button to shut down. I am using standalong SWD (no AV). I use Norton Antivirus, not McAfee. Hope a solution is found soon.

bhenshaw - We've run a test with SD and Norton but couldn't recreate this. Could you disable OnGuard and see if this problems occurs? Also check if you have Site Guard?

looney2ns - When you ran the update, did you download the AV database?

You could try disabling Network Guard and see if this helps, as the slow down experienced by Kah could also be related. Once Network Guard has been disabled, please reboot.

Kah - What is in your host files? Cause it seems like SD's Network Guard is constantly scanning and slowing down your pc.

[looney2ns]

bhenshaw - We've run a test with SD and Norton but couldn't recreate this. Could you disable OnGuard and see if this problems occurs? Also check if you have Site Guard?

looney2ns - When you ran the update, did you download the AV database?

You could try disabling Network Guard and see if this helps, as the slow down experienced by Kah could also be related. Once Network Guard has been disabled, please reboot.

Kah - What is in your host files? Cause it seems like SD's Network Guard is constantly scanning and slowing down your pc.

No, it's never been given as a download option.

[AChen]

No, it's never been given as a download option.

Could you post a screenshot of your startup programs with msconfig? If you don't want to post it here, you can send an email to me :) We'd like to see what applications are starting up with SD to help us investigate this further.

[ohso]

HP desktop, 1.8 GHz, 512 MB, 115 GB disk (70 GB free).
Win XP Home + SP2 + updates.

I recently purchased Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus from Amazon on a CD.
Before I installed it I increased virtual memory to the max.

My install says: product ver 5.0.1.205, database ver 5.091190,
intell-sig 646,612, antivirus engine 4.3.11. It updates daily.
Do I have version 5.0 or the 5.5 that I read about in this forum?

I also have the problem of swdsvc.exe taking up to 100% of the CPU.
Not all the time, but often.

I use AdSubtract Pro 2.55 as a popup, ad, etc. blocker. When I use ASPro
to delete cookies, history, temp files, SD just sits there and grinds CPU cycles.
No other user logged in, no other apps running besides IE6.

I also use Comodo Firewall Pro. These are the only two realtime utilities
that I have installed that I can think of.

I'm glad that I installed SD on just this one computer as an experiment.
I couldn't afford for the others to bog down like this.

Is this how it works?

[c_edge]

HP desktop, 1.8 GHz, 512 MB, 115 GB disk (70 GB free).
Win XP Home + SP2 + updates.

I recently purchased Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus from Amazon on a CD.
Before I installed it I increased virtual memory to the max.

My install says: product ver 5.0.1.205, database ver 5.091190,
intell-sig 646,612, antivirus engine 4.3.11. It updates daily.
Do I have version 5.0 or the 5.5 that I read about in this forum?

I also have the problem of swdsvc.exe taking up to 100% of the CPU.
Not all the time, but often.

I use AdSubtract Pro 2.55 as a popup, ad, etc. blocker. When I use ASPro
to delete cookies, history, temp files, SD just sits there and grinds CPU cycles.
No other user logged in, no other apps running besides IE6.

I also use Comodo Firewall Pro. These are the only two realtime utilities
that I have installed that I can think of.

I'm glad that I installed SD on just this one computer as an experiment.
I couldn't afford for the others to bog down like this.

Is this how it works?

Your using an older version. Best to upgrade to v5.5 :) If you already have a cookie and popup blocker, then you should disable SD's cookie and popup blocker. Cause it looks like there could be a conflict with SD's onguard and ASPro trying to do the same thing.

Give this a go and see if it helps.

c_edge

[ohso]

> Your using an older version.

I know.

> Best to upgrade to v5.5

No. The User Interface on 5.5 is crap. And, yes, that's my professional opinion. 2.5 was one of the most popular, and most recommended, utilities in the industry. For all intents and purposes 5.5 put the company out of business. I believe that they were finally bought out or something.

> you already have a cookie and popup blocker, then you should disable
> SD's cookie and popup blocker.

Good point. I forgot to say that as soon as I did the installation I turned off the Cookie Guard. Anything else I should uncheck?

And what about my question about 5.0 vs 5.5? I see a lot of posts here about that. I'm puzzled why mine says 5.0.1.205. Although from posts, I'm not sure whether that's good or bad.

[c_edge]

V5.0 and v5.5 have the same interface. Not much has change in older versions as well regarding the interface. Feature wise has changed heaps.

V5.5 is an upgrade to v5.0, so your using an older version (v5.0)

Well you can try disabling onguard and see if you have any problems, and if this fixes it, turn them on one at a time to see which one is causing the problem. This will certainly help pinpoint the problem.

c_edge

[looney2ns]

Could you post a screenshot of your startup programs with msconfig? If you don't want to post it here, you can send an email to me :) We'd like to see what applications are starting up with SD to help us investigate this further.

file is attached

[ohso]

Twice I wrote asking about 5.0 vs 5.5:
> And what about my question about 5.0 vs 5.5?

c edge wrote:
> V5.5 is an upgrade to v5.0, so your using an older version (v5.0)

I know. Tell me something I don't know!

Let me start again.

_Just recently_ I purchased Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus.
I purchased it on a CD from Amazon.
Just recently I installed it.
It has UPDATED daily which, presumably, is standard operating procedure.

Here is what I do not understand:

I read in this forum that 5.5 is the CURRENT VERSION.
As I said in an earlier post:
"My install says: product ver 5.0.1.205, database ver 5.091190,
intell-sig 646,612, antivirus engine 4.3.11."

So ...
1) Since 5.5 is the current version.
2) My install says 5.0.
3) It _updates daily_.

Why do I still have 5.0?

I ask all this in a (perhaps futile) attempt
to address the swdsvc.exe taking 100% of the CPU cycles
problem.

Achen. can you address this please.

[AChen]

Ohso - We release new builds on a regular basis, due to bug fixes, improvements and features. The retail version may sometimes be an older version, however, once you purchase a subscription for SD (retail or online), you can upgrade to the latest version via the website at any time as this is included in the subscription. We release new versions quite often and I will always put up a sticky thread to notify users of a new version. See - http://www.pctools.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50177 - it also shows whats been fixed from previous builds to the newer build.

It seems that at the time of purchase, the version was v5.0 and since we have released v5.5. The retail stores will receive the newer version, but this may take some time. I hope this gives you a better understanding :)

[gpb]

I recently installed Spyware Doctor also, and am having similar cpu tie up problems. I use Mozilla regularly but also tried Ie and it seems worse. On Mozilla it shows swdsvc.exe using 80-85 % then slowly decreases to 0-2 %.

[c_edge]

I recently installed Spyware Doctor also, and am having similar cpu tie up problems. I use Mozilla regularly but also tried Ie and it seems worse. On Mozilla it shows swdsvc.exe using 80-85 % then slowly decreases to 0-2 %.

What is your computer specs?
It looks SD is checking (real-time) something which explains the reason for the CPU cycles.

Also do you have any other security apps, especially ones with real time protection?

c_edge

[looney2ns]

Twice I wrote asking about 5.0 vs 5.5:
> And what about my question about 5.0 vs 5.5?

c edge wrote:
> V5.5 is an upgrade to v5.0, so your using an older version (v5.0)

I know. Tell me something I don't know!

Let me start again.

_Just recently_ I purchased Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus.
I purchased it on a CD from Amazon.
Just recently I installed it.
It has UPDATED daily which, presumably, is standard operating procedure.

Here is what I do not understand:

I read in this forum that 5.5 is the CURRENT VERSION.
As I said in an earlier post:
"My install says: product ver 5.0.1.205, database ver 5.091190,
intell-sig 646,612, antivirus engine 4.3.11."

So ...
1) Since 5.5 is the current version.
2) My install says 5.0.
3) It _updates daily_.

Why do I still have 5.0?

I ask all this in a (perhaps futile) attempt
to address the swdsvc.exe taking 100% of the CPU cycles
problem.

Achen. can you address this please.


To answer your question, the autoupdate does NOT update (for some strange reason) the core files of the program. As Achen said, you must come here and download manually.

[ohso]

AChen, the real issue is - why doesn't SDwAV update _everything_?
I installed 5.O off the CD. It updated _daily_! But never updated
the _application_. 5.0, 5.5, it's all "5.X"!
That's not intuitive to a customer.

I followed the link you provided (thanks) and updated to 5.5.
Immediately the slowness went away. So to the many posters
who complain about slowdowns, check to see that you are running
5.5. I'm sure that the update does not fix _all_ slowdowns. But it
clearly fixes _some_ slowdowns. My computer, as an example.
I now believe that I can install it on our other computers.
Windows Task manager shows that it uses less memory.
That's one thing. For my product (SD with AV) it appears that
swdsvc.exe has been replaced with pctSvc.exe.

It appears to me after reading the many posts in this thread that
a couple of common issues are low memory and running other
realtime security related products.

I have a quesion about settings that relates to this. How do users
use the "Manage Exclusions" feature to tell SD to leave certain
_processes_ alone? When I click on OnGuard it brings up a list
of features, e.g., File Guard, etc. I want to tell SD to leave
the *process* adsub.exe alone (AdSubtract Pro).
It's not completely clear that when I add the _file_ adsub.exe
to the "always allowed" list that that is telling SD to leave the
_process_ absub.exe alone. Please explain.

If this works, then the many posters who are complaining
about slowdowns could add the file/process of their
security app to SD's exclusion list and see speed improvement.
True or false?

[Kah]

AChen you had asked regarding my previous post what was in my hosts file, and I think it may have something to do with also running Spybot Search & Destroy as it puts alot in the hosts files it seems.
I'm not real sure, but could that be causing the conflict?

[AChen]

AChen you had asked regarding my previous post what was in my hosts file, and I think it may have something to do with also running Spybot Search & Destroy as it puts alot in the hosts files it seems.
I'm not real sure, but could that be causing the conflict?

Please try the following to reset your host files:

1. Please download the files hosts.zip from:
http://support.pctools.com/manager/downloads.php?file=hosts.zip

2. Extract the files to the root of your C drive C:\
You should then have the following files on C:\
hosts.txt and hosts.bat

3. Navigate to C:\ and double click on the file hosts.bat

Also you may want to upgrade to SDv 5.5.0.212 as you are using a very old version, v4.0.

This will provide your infected host file (containing the infected entries) with a clean copy. For more info on the new version see - http://www.pctools.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50955

[ohso]

> Please try the following to reset your host files:

I use the hosts file from:
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Is that a problem with SDwAV?

[AChen]

> Please try the following to reset your host files:

I use the hosts file from:
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Is that a problem with SDwAV?

SD will only scan for host files if there are malicious entries. If that host file does not include any bad entries then its ok. Some people download host files to prevent certain websites from being accessed.

[WraithTDK]

Alright, so I've been seeing pctssvc.exe take up excessively high amounts of my CPU cycles since I installed Version 5 a while back. It seems to have increased particularly since I added threatfire. I know PCTools didn't actually MAKE them, but considering they bought the company, they promote the product, and I found it because of an email advertisement that they sent me as a Spyware Doctor customer, I would expect them to play well together.

So anyway, I run a google search on "pctssvc.exe cpu" (no quotes) and get this thread, where people have been talking about the same issue...SINCE 2/3/07?!

:eek:

I do believe that SWD provides the best protection (the jury is out IMO, in regards to removal once infected), but it's a moot point if my computer is running so slow I never want to use it for anything that would get me infected anyway. I gGotta say, that Spy Sweeper trial is looking appealing all of a sudden...

[bwu]

WraithTDK,

The problem you are experiencing is specific to certain system configurations, as many factor contribute to the cause of this it is quite hard to diagnose.
In most cases pctssvc.exe will use more memory when it is trying to start the Spyware Doctor services, after that memory usage should not be as much.

Other security applications may affect this aswell.

We are looking into this to see if we can find any common components in users pc that causes this problem

[exn01]

I have the same issue of pctsSvc.exe consuming all my avail cpu, I even tried a deinstall and install of Spyware Doctor 5.5, to no avail. In fact, I couldn't even deinstall properly, because pctsSvc.exe would not stop! Eventually I managed to disable it, and after a few reboots managed to eventually get rid of it. I have reverted back to version 4.1.0.1 which is much much better, but a worry for me as I can't get an explanation of what is wrong with 5.5 or if I am degrading my protection going back to 4.1?

I raised a ticket with support, but even though I gave as much info as possible, and did all the recommended actions (which I see others in the forum have been advised), nothing could be done to fix the issue.

Anybody have info on this? I have been using Spyware Doctor for many years, but now am wondering whether I need to reconsider renewing my license. I also have it installed on my desktop, which seems to behave a bit better, but might also revert that one back to 4.1 until I can be assured of a fix.

[s0nIc]

WraithTDK...

U got ThreatFire which is a behaviour based sec app.. which hooks to every single process monitoring ur system's entire movement, and u got it running along wid Spyware Doctor which also monitors and hooks to all processes, amongst other things.

i reckon it's a case of real-time monitoring/hooking overload. u'll need a beast to keep ur system run smoothly wid those two in da background.

[tigermonster42]

i have tried for hours and hours to find a work round until pc tools sorts out the problems, what has worked for me for the time being about 5 days now :) and the cpu speed is 0 % usage !!!. also if you do a intelli scan all is fine afterwards!!!

1,install spyware doctor
2,Take out the option to update automatically DO NOT let spy doctor install updates automatically
3,Download all signatures then spyware doc loads up then do a smart update
4,DO NOT install malware detective 3 !!!
5. enable kernel
6, change the settings where the system downloads updates to do not notify you (then you can check yourself and then de select malware detective 3 !!!
7,do a restart

I not 100% Sure what malware detective 3 does but it makes my cpu 100%

I hope this helps
thanx
phillip

[AChen]

I not 100% Sure what malware detective 3 does but it makes my cpu 100%

Hi Phillip,

This is very strange. I have just run a test with MD3 and the CPU usage should not increase.

Our Malware Detective tool enables us to analyze the problem on your PC in detail if we request you to run the tool.

Malware Detective automatically sends us the registry entries and filenames that allow us to troubleshoot the nature of the spyware and to provide a solution for you via a Smart Update.

A Malware Detective scan logs the following information from your PC to provide us with enough detail to troubleshoot reported issues such as adware, hijackers, keyloggers etc.

System Information - specifically Operating System, service packs installed and some hardware information.
A snapshot of your process list
Internet Explorer Information including plugins, toolbars, defaults, trusted zones, Advanced options
Your host file - to see if a malware has added any entries
Layered Service Providers - Protocols and Namespace
Uninstall program List
Startup programs

The Malware Detective tool does not fix found problems.

Could you download the Malware Detective tool via Smart Update again and see if the problem returns?

[raehrlich]

I've seen the same thing where pctssvc.exe uses a lot of cpu cycles and cause my machine to come to a crawl. What I noticed is that it usually happens around the time of an update or auto update. I turned off auto updates and things work much better. However, when I manually update I will still frequently get the high cpu issues. When this happens, even a reboot will not correct. If I just leave the machine on for a number of hours, say like over night, it evenually seems to correct itself.

[c_edge]

I've seen the same thing where pctssvc.exe uses a lot of cpu cycles and cause my machine to come to a crawl. What I noticed is that it usually happens around the time of an update or auto update. I turned off auto updates and things work much better. However, when I manually update I will still frequently get the high cpu issues. When this happens, even a reboot will not correct. If I just leave the machine on for a number of hours, say like over night, it evenually seems to correct itself.

Without extra information, it will be pretty difficult to help further. There could be a conflict on your pc with another security software, real time protection etc. There is an ongoing issue with ZA firewall and SD at the moment, where the CPU spikes. What other security apps do you have installed? what version of SD are you using? do you have the AV plugin? do you have kernel compat mode enabled? what are your computer specs? is this during a SD update or a Windows update or another security program update? The more information you can provide, it helps the guys on this forum as well as the guys at pctools to assist you :)

c_edge

[raehrlich]

Let me answer the questions that you posted:

1. What other security apps do you have installed? None, unless there are stubs from CA's Security Suite that I uninstalled prior to installing SD. Window XP firewall is disabled and I am no longer running Windows Defender.
2. what version of SD are you using? 5.5.0.212

3. do you have the AV plugin? Yes ver 4.4.5

4. do you have kernel compat mode enabled? No

5. what are your computer specs? Dell C640, 2.4Ghz, 1Gb RAM

6. is this during a SD update or a Windows update or another security program update? Seems to only happen during an SD update - that is not to say that during a Windows update that it doesn't consume CPU. But during and after a SD update the pctssvc.exe consumes a lot of CPU for hours