Vista running like a dog on a laptop - AVG to blame?

NeilF · 26 Dec 2011 at 11:38

So I've inherited a Fujitsu Esprimo laptop:-
Celeron 1.73Ghz
1GB ram
Vista Home Premium

AVG seems to make it run like a dog with long hangs and lags. I've always run AVG on my PCs before without a problem. Anyone suggest anything to help? Or worse case a (free) alternative to AVG?

kiel367 · 26 Dec 2011 at 11:41

i think the fact you are running the bare minimum ram for vista tbh

Craig321 · 26 Dec 2011 at 11:47

Microsoft Security Essentials is better.

Get some more RAM in there, Vista doesn't really like running on 1GB.

NeilF · 26 Dec 2011 at 12:06

kiel367 said:
i think the fact you are running the bare minimum ram for vista tbh

It runs fine with 1GB of ram, with numerous applications all open.

It does not run fine with 1GB of ram, and AVG.

It is not ram related :rolleyes:

It is AVG related. It's going to be a bug or conflict...

NeilF · 26 Dec 2011 at 12:07

Craig321 said:
Microsoft Security Essentials is better.

OK - I'll take a look...

CaptainCrash · 26 Dec 2011 at 12:08

I'm not entirely convinced by MSE's "low overhead" credentials; I've known it to bring low-spec machines to their knees in the past, although admittedly I haven't used it for quite a while.

On that hardware I'd do without a memory-resident AV altogether, even if upgrading the RAM is a cost-effective option - if your usage patterns are likely to put you in the firing line, just run a scan every few days and make sure you keep an up-to-date system image to recover if necessary.

ShakenNstirred · 26 Dec 2011 at 12:12

i`d stick more ram in it and install win 7
you will see it run a lot faster and yes i`d ditch AVG

CaptainRAVE · 26 Dec 2011 at 12:21

lol, if in doubt, blame the anti-virus

NeilF · 26 Dec 2011 at 12:27

CaptainRAVE said:
lol, if in doubt, blame the anti-virus

How is their any doubt? If I run the machine without AVG, it runs fine. Put it on, and it runs terribly. Seems pretty conclusive to me...

NeilF · 26 Dec 2011 at 12:30

ShakenNstirred said:
i`d stick more ram in it and install win 7
you will see it run a lot faster and yes i`d ditch AVG

It's a spare machine for my son, so not looking to spend money unless I have to. It's just for web browsing and a few office apps etc... and... unfortunately... itunes

It runs fine without AVG. So just need to work out what the problem/conflict is that AVG's having...

Mr.Fantastic · 26 Dec 2011 at 12:42

remove AVG and look into Microsoft Security Essentials/malwarebytes, having seen what AVG has done to my dads machine i wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

CaptainRAVE · 26 Dec 2011 at 13:53

NeilFawcett said:
How is their any doubt? If I run the machine without AVG, it runs fine. Put it on, and it runs terribly. Seems pretty conclusive to me...

Yet missing the underlying problem of only 1GB of Ram.

bledd · 26 Dec 2011 at 15:29

Vista does run badly on just 1gb, the bare minimum requirement should be set to 2gb imo.

AVG tends to hog all resources, just chuck MSE on it in a limited user account with UAC on

nightmare99 · 26 Dec 2011 at 15:30

It runs fine with 1GB of ram

But would run better with more

edscdk · 26 Dec 2011 at 15:38

ShakenNstirred said:
i`d stick more ram in it and install win 7
you will see it run a lot faster and yes i`d ditch AVG

Laptop is only worth £80 unless you can get w7 free I would upgrade the ram to 2 gb and do a clean vista install with mse not avg for av

edscdk · 26 Dec 2011 at 15:43

NeilFawcett said:
It runs fine with 1GB of ram, with numerous applications all open.

It does not run fine with 1GB of ram, and AVG.

It is not ram related

It is AVG related. It's going to be a bug or conflict...

If you know the answer why ask?

You know avg uses ram.... Quite a large % of you free ram once the os and other vital bits are loaded...

NeilF · 26 Dec 2011 at 18:41

edscdk said:
If you know the answer why ask?

You know avg uses ram.... Quite a large % of you free ram once the os and other vital bits are loaded...

I don't/didn't know the answer. But I know that running a single app like AVG isn't enough to bring speeds down to ridiculous.

It was Windows Defender to blame. Turned it off and all is running OK! So it must have been that conflicting with AVG.

NeilF · 26 Dec 2011 at 18:42

nightmare99 said:
But would run better with more

Yeh, for £10-15 I'll look to add some more maybe!

ps: I bloody hate iTunes!

3dcandy · 27 Dec 2011 at 21:45

Glad it's sorted...MSE or Avira *seem* to use the least memory for me on a general basis

neoglow · 27 Dec 2011 at 21:51

More RAM.
Get rid of the hog that is AVG.
Turn defender back on.
Install MSE.

Enjoy more speed!