Prime95 runs slower after Norton AntiVirus

markhl · 2003-10-19, 18:56

My iteration time is consistently 0.118 s for the 10M DCs that I am doing now: 866 MHz P3 Windows XP Professional.

I stop Prime95 before running Norton AntiVirus 2003: the home version not the Corporate version. That lets NAV finish sooner.

When I start Prime95 again, the iteration times slow down to 0.120 s, and they stay slower till I reboot. Don't know why?

Suggestion: reboot the PC after a virus scan. You lose a few minutes while rebooting, but these will eventually be paid back in faster iteration times.

dsouza123 · 2003-10-19, 20:05

Perhaps you could have Prime95 pause itself when Norton Antivirus 2003 is running then it will unpause when Norton exits.

From the undoc.txt

In rare cases, users have reported the program can interfere with the performance of some programs such as disk defragmenters and some games.
You can pause prime95 automatically when these programs are running by adding this line to prime.ini:
PauseWhileRunning=prog1,prog2,prog3,etc
Note that prime95 will pause if the program name matches any part of the running program's file name. That is "foobar" will match "c:\foobar.exe", "C:\FOOBAR\name.exe", and even "C:\myfoobarprog.exe". By default, prime95 will check the list of running programs every 64 iterations, but not more frequently than every 10 seconds. You can adjust the time period with this
prime.ini setting:
PauseCheckInterval=n
where n is the number of seconds between checking which programs are running.

Maybe Norton AV leaves some small program (process) running in the background that is consuming the extra time.

If you find out what processes are running before starting Norton then after you exit it, any leftover/new process will be identified.

( Process is a program, with Win 2000 and XP there is the Windows Task Manager that can show all the processes, with 95,98,ME a program like ATM can show them.)

You can boost Prime95s priority slightly to compensate.

Xyzzy · 2003-10-19, 20:28

Or, you could toss Norton into the trash...

The best "anti-virus software" is common sense...

GP2 · 2003-10-19, 20:58

Quote:

Originally posted by markhl
Suggestion: reboot the PC after a virus scan. You lose a few minutes while rebooting, but these will eventually be paid back in faster iteration times.

In my experience, tiny fractional changes in iteration times (like 0.118 -> 0 .120) can happen for various reasons. I don't think there's anything especially nefarious about Norton.

PageFault · 2003-10-20, 01:14

I can agree with that, but some of us work extensively through the emails ... a worker in Chile read one of my papers, asked a few questions through the mail and then asked for comments on his data ... slorton stopped an infected spreadsheet cold ...

Quote:

Originally posted by Xyzzy
Or, you could toss Norton into the trash...

The best "anti-virus software" is common sense...

Reboot It · 2003-10-20, 13:39

Quote:

Originally posted by Xyzzy
The best "anti-virus software" is common sense...

That is indeed true, but try running that as a service and setting it up so that users (all of them) can't disable it!

Your point is well made, but a safety net like Norton/Symantec antivirus (frequently updated, of course) is also essential.

2003-10-19, 18:56	#1
markhl Apr 2003 California 2²×23 Posts	Prime95 runs slower after Norton AntiVirus My iteration time is consistently 0.118 s for the 10M DCs that I am doing now: 866 MHz P3 Windows XP Professional. I stop Prime95 before running Norton AntiVirus 2003: the home version not the Corporate version. That lets NAV finish sooner. When I start Prime95 again, the iteration times slow down to 0.120 s, and they stay slower till I reboot. Don't know why? Suggestion: reboot the PC after a virus scan. You lose a few minutes while rebooting, but these will eventually be paid back in faster iteration times.

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2003-10-19, 20:05	#2
dsouza123 Sep 2002 2·331 Posts	Perhaps you could have Prime95 pause itself when Norton Antivirus 2003 is running then it will unpause when Norton exits. From the undoc.txt In rare cases, users have reported the program can interfere with the performance of some programs such as disk defragmenters and some games. You can pause prime95 automatically when these programs are running by adding this line to prime.ini: PauseWhileRunning=prog1,prog2,prog3,etc Note that prime95 will pause if the program name matches any part of the running program's file name. That is "foobar" will match "c:\foobar.exe", "C:\FOOBAR\name.exe", and even "C:\myfoobarprog.exe". By default, prime95 will check the list of running programs every 64 iterations, but not more frequently than every 10 seconds. You can adjust the time period with this prime.ini setting: PauseCheckInterval=n where n is the number of seconds between checking which programs are running. Maybe Norton AV leaves some small program (process) running in the background that is consuming the extra time. If you find out what processes are running before starting Norton then after you exit it, any leftover/new process will be identified. ( Process is a program, with Win 2000 and XP there is the Windows Task Manager that can show all the processes, with 95,98,ME a program like ATM can show them.) You can boost Prime95s priority slightly to compensate.

2003-10-19, 20:28	#3
Xyzzy Aug 2002 21D2₁₆ Posts	Or, you could toss Norton into the trash... The best "anti-virus software" is common sense...