Mouse cursor lag when AV realtime guard active

Asking a question regarding AV realtime guard on Windows 98 computers.

I noticed a slight hesitation and delay every few seconds when I attempt to move the mouse cursor when I activate the real time guard option for the AV program (used McAfee and Antivir) for a windows 98 machine with 160 MB. When I turn off the AV guard, the mouse cursor returns to normal. Has anyone else experienced this occurrence on a similar PC setup? Is this a RAM issue or does the AV track the movement of the mouse? On the Windows XP system with 768MB, I don't notice any mouse cursor lag with the AV guard turned on. Would switching to another AV program help?

BTW, Happy holidays to everyone!

 

i dont have that kind of machine or operating system, but it sounds like a total pc upgrade is needed, its either a slow HDD, or ram issue, but i think its a CPU issue, if the ram really was that low, it would reboot, although low ram wont be helping the matter.

maybe im wrong, who cares.... lol

anyway, merry christmas to you

 

Thanks. I did consider if it could be a slow CPU, low ram, or drive. Upgrading may not be cost effective since the system is 7 years old. I don't think the motherboard will accept any of newer CPUs, and the total RAM is limited as well. Guess I will have to dig out the manuals.

 

yep i suppose you will have to,

i personally just had to upgrade, but decided on buying a new laptop and selling the other to my brother, it was much easier that way, although it cost it bit.

oh well, its christmassss

 

I got several PCs that are "not state of the art". Most of them were either free or dirt cheap, so getting a new system isn't a priority now. I am a believer of free things or dirt cheap things (hardware, software, peripherals). Just got a Canon ip6220 photo printer (new) for $ 0.50 after rebate and 4 X 6 photo paper (400) for under $15.

 

My 1997 Dell Latitude LM p133 (maxed to 72MB RAM) and running on a 1998 install of Win98
with 80% full 6GB hard drive has never exhibited that problem with AntiVir or Norton before it.

Has the slickest, quickest and most accurate mouse I have ever used
(a Synaptics TouchPad running the latest Win95 Driver from Synaptics Website).

Had to get an IntelliPoint Bluetooth Mouse, to be happy with the newer, WinXP System.

Check your mouse or system support site for a driver, default is to run on a Windows generic Driver,
but you can do much better.

 

The delays are due to windows 98s kernel design, an AV can't work in parallel to your OS on 9x based systems which is different from NT/2000/XP based systems. So, when your AVs guard component is scanning a file "on-access" your os is effectively blocked from doing ANYTHING at all until the file has been scanned completely. It's not a fault of a specific AV, it simply can't be done differently on these systems.
You either have to upgrade your system/OS or you'll have to live with the delays. I'd recommend a switch, 9x based systems are now completely unsupported by microsoft (read: no more security patches), and it's only a matter of time until AV companies will drop it as well, because it's a lot of extra work due to the massive differences between those windows generations.

 

Using 98se myself ,some avs lag more than others.The usual cause is having the av resident shield to scan ALL files.Ive never used that setting (except for on demand setting) just use the extenison lists if you havent already done so.I wont use antivir on my 98se ,but when i did i dint find any lag at all on the extensions setting.Avg is another av with ahrdly any lag ,and thats what i use now.
ellison

 

yup i noticed that on my old windows ME pc when i turn on the antivir guard and sometimes when i tested kaspersky on it.
since windows me is based on win 98 they both have the same problem.
i dont know a fix.
lodore

 

Thanks everyone for your replies to my question. I will try to play with the different guard options for the program. Also may try out the other AV programs to see if they are any better. I guess if the guard is scanning each file that is changed or accessed, then I the mouse movement translates to some file being changed (such as coordinates) so therefore the AV guard has to inspect that mouse position change?

The odd thing about the McAfee VirusScan program that I previously used is that the mouse lag occurs only when I turn on the "guard" mode function when I click on the program icon (I get a prompt to do that). When the PC boots up, it appears that the program is loaded, but the "guard" mode is not turned on (hence no slowdown). But I still would get virus detection messages despite not "turning on" the guard option. The icon doesn't indicate that the program is turned off whenever the PC boots up. So it looks like there are three modes for the program - turned off, on (without guard being on), and full on modes. The manual doesn't say that this is so. Maybe this is an oddity of my system.

 

I would suggest using avg antivirus. Its the lightest/easiest av i have ever used. I install it on all my friends old school systems that just cannot handle many of the other products.

 

i agree your machine will run super fast with avg installed,

the old argument that ram usage means nothing with performance, as avg Internet security can use 'up to' 50mb ram and still manages to run faster than any other suite out there and keep a super fast boot up time too.

 

if you want a light av for older systems and with good detection rate go with dr web or nod32.
lodore

 

Thanks for the suggestion. Looking over the system requirements on AVG's website, they said the system requires 32 MB RAM, while Antivir says it requires 20 MB RAM. So would AVG use less system resources?

What puzzles me with McAfee VirusScan 6 and Antivir 7 is that both were developed for Windows 98 systems. The McAfee program which was released back in 2002 would still exhibit the mouse drag even for a program that is several years old. As for the issue being the mouse driver, the driver program was installed with the version from the manufacturer and the mouse has never been replaced. If the problem is with the OS interface with the AV program, then I can't see how users dating back from the late 1990's would have tolerated a hesitating mouse when they loaded an AV program that was created from that time period. I used a 486 (66MHz) PC with a very old McAfee VirusScan program in the past and I never had to endure the mouse cursor being stalled on the screen.

 

The ram usage is nothing to do with system resources on a 98 system.If you want to see which av uses the most resources ,then run rsrcmtr.exe (windows resource meter) located in the windows directory.You can make a shortcut to it and place it in startmenu>startup so that it loads with windows if you wish.As far as resources go i think youll find antivir is lighter than AVG (i also found it a little less laggy than AVG).However you should be able to run both (especially if you are not scanning all files with resident shield) without too much trouble.If you are still getting lots of lag then id check the cpu usage of other apps that you may have installed.Also i wouldnt say that antivir 7 was developed especially for a 98 system.In fact 98 users had lots of problems with it (including myself) and no matter what the diehards say ,its still a lot more hassle to run on 98 than avg or avast for instance.
ellison

 

Thanks for the tip ellison64,
I will try and compare the resource usage of each program side by side.

 

AVG has the smallest resource use out of all the av apps i have used. Antivir is also super light. Either one is great so use whichever suits you best.

 

An update to the mouse pointer problem. Before I was going to download the AVG program to test it out, I went and got online on the computer and the mouse lag appears to have stopped. While the system did hesitate a little when I started an application or another browser window, the persistent mouse cursor drag that would occur every few seconds appears to have stopped for some reason. Maybe Antivir needed a "learning period" on the PC? When I first installed it and then closed every application, the cursor hesitation first appeared even as I moved the mouse across the screen without opening any programs. Very odd. Will see if there are any changes later today.

 

Very odd indeed. I don't think antivir has a learning mode lol, but who knows.

 

One last note on this problem. I decided to add more memory (from 160 MB to 256 MB which is the max for the motherboard), and the system not only boots up faster but the mouse hesitation drag appears to have stopped. The CPU is 333Mhz (250Mhz rated) so it isn't that fast. It does appear that adding RAM has improved performance. The mouse drag seemed to have lessened considerably after the first day I installed Antivir. With the additional RAM, it looks like I got rid of the problem completely.

 

on my old P3 system it has 256mb or ram but still sometimes had drag with the mouse when running antivir and sometimes with kaspersky as well.
seems to be a 98/ME problem.
lodore