Author Topic: Gaming freindly AV  (Read 3694 times)

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Offline Nuke

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im not saying that all utils are bad. i just find it non-intuitive to use more software to fix software problems.
I can no longer sit back and allow communist infiltration, communist indoctrination, communist subversion, and the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

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Offline jr2

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No, those utilities actually do work.  Don't pay them money by any means, the free version works just fine (I actually paid for them b/c I wanted to know whether to recommend to customers to buy them or not... the difference between free and paid was a matter of convenience in scheduling auto-tasks instead of hitting 'clean' once a week, with a few more thorough cleanup options).

Nuke, you would never know if it worked, as you don't let your system get that far.. rather than maintain, you nuke & pave (or ghost-restore, same difference as we both know)... try it sometime.  Get someone's computer that they haven't maintained in five years but have used regularly, and the kids have put all sorts of toolbars and messenger services on it.  Now, this only works as long as it's got a GB or more of RAM and XP (2GB for Vista / 7 but Vista will be slow anyways, just not as slow) - you will see a boost with 512MB as well, however, the system is figuratively chewing its arm off for more memory at that point so it's not really pretty (workable, but not pretty).

Take said computer, make sure there's no viruses.. do an offline scan wish a bootable, updatable AV CD (BitDefender, AVG, Kaspersky, etc).

Install & update MSE (it's the lightest and I always use it) and do a full scan.

Install & update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and do a full scan.

Now, do benchmarks.  Time the startup, fire up a few web pages (I'd install Chrome or Firefox, whichever, and use those to benchmark, IE is pretty ****ty except IE9 and I don't trust M$ so..), start up a few commonly used programs that they have, time them.

Install all Windows Updates that you are going to install.

Then, get CCleaner, run it through, scan the registry, fix the errors (yes i know i know registry cleaner zomgwtfbbq).

Then, get Advanced SystemCare Free from iobit, do a thorough scan, select scan&repair.  Go to Settings at top right (maybe located under 'More'), and disable ASC Free's starting on system boot.

Then, get Smart Defrag from iobit, select system volume, go to Boot Time Defrag tab, select all the boxes.. then go to Settings at the top, (don't disable starting Smart Defrag on startup; it will keep your hard disk from getting too fragged while system is idle) go to Schedule under Defrag on the left side, enable the schedule for your system drive, set mode to full optimize.  Then from main screen select your system drive and use the drop down menu to do a full optimization defrag.  Reboot after it's done; if Smart Defrag wants to do a boot time defrag to optimize your system files (13 of them for XP IIRC), let it do it.

Now, do benchmarks again.  I guarantee you will see significantly better results.  Bonus - if you run the tools once a week (except Smart Defrag, that's automatic) then your system will stay that way for years.  You can set CCleaner and ASC Free to not wipe your Cookies, History, and Session data if you like keeping those for convenience (you can always select them to be cleared once in a while like every other month or so).


I know probably a lot of you think I'm crazy for advocating this.  Problem is, I've seen the results.  Every. Single. Time.  (Unless the system was corrupted beyond repair by a really nasty virus, that did happen once out of every 15 or so cases I got).  I don't mind if you don't want to do things this way.  And I'd actually love to hear what your methods are for cleaning / maintaining WinDOwS systems; I enjoy learning and sharing.  I know Nuke's methodology, and I know it would work nicely if that was how you prefer to run your system.  What's you guys' methods behind your 'madness'?  This is mine.  :)  (I'm not loyal to the brands, either; I've switched them several times and will do so again as programs change and new programs appear or I learn of them.)

EDIT: I forgot to say, clean out the toolbars and tell the messenger programs not to run at startup, as well.

Also, Klaustrophobia, what do you mean it doesn't work?

Nuke - I forgot to put a :lol: on my description of your method, but I'm not knocking it by any means, just so you know.  ;)
« Last Edit: March 23, 2012, 08:15:18 pm by jr2 »

 

Offline Nuke

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nuking the site from orbit is still faster.

after which i reinstall os, drivers, and antivirus software. i then install firefox, because people who use ie get targeted by more **** and hide the ie icons.

if they are dumb enough they **** up their rig in another 6 months and i get another $50 for 30 minutes of work.
« Last Edit: March 23, 2012, 08:24:49 pm by Nuke »
I can no longer sit back and allow communist infiltration, communist indoctrination, communist subversion, and the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

Nuke's Scripting SVN

 

Offline LHN91

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Generally once every 6 months to a year I reinstall, not so much due to the computer slowing down but more due to me getting lazy during those months, my file organization setup getting ignored, and me using it as an excuse to make myself organize my files again.

Beyond that, I usually just don't have any issues. I just avoid any and all toolbars and the like. I have at least one friend who swears by Advanced System Care, and I haven't managed to find any serious proof that it helps make his systems significantly faster, but neither have I found significant proof it makes them worse.

 

Offline Nuke

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these days my installs have lasted for a couple years. in fact my last 2 reinstall were because of a new motherboard, and a new comp, respectively, not because the system was going tits up.
I can no longer sit back and allow communist infiltration, communist indoctrination, communist subversion, and the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

Nuke's Scripting SVN

 

Offline jr2

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6 months is when you first start noticing the slowdown that I'm talking about that ASC + CCleaner + SD stave off for you.

If you re-install every six months, unless you are constantly installing / uninstalling and never defrag, you won't really notice what I'm talking about.  Use those 3 like I outlined and you should be good for at least a year if you're a heavy installer / uninstaller (probably longer, it just depends if some really ****ty program craps on Windows hard enough that nothing can put it quite back the way it was or not... which, if you suspect the program is cheap junk, Sandboxie can help you avoid that).

I usually last 2 years between installs, and I'm a heavy installer / uninstaller.  I could last longer, but I get severely annoyed when my system is too busy doing whatever the little gremlin leftovers of old programs want it to do to bother with immediately doing what I tell it to do (I can tolerate minor slowdowns... but not if the computer sits on it's thumb for five seconds first.  That brings teh rage..)  :lol:

 

Offline LHN91

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Admittedly, that's only on my own systems; on my family's and my girlfriend's, I hardly ever reinstall (Usually only about every 2 or 3 years), but I pretty much do the same thing - except I do have to occasionally strip out a toolbar forcibly, and when that happens I do usually run CCleaner for the uninstall and cleanup afterwards. I still can't get behind ASC though. Never seen any benefit to it, and I'd rather not lose the RAM and CPU time to software that doesn't need to be there, especially when most of my family runs Athlon 64 and P4 single cores, with the odd Dual Athlon or early Core2Duo or Quad.

 

Offline jr2

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-_- You missed the part where I said disable ASC's launch on system startup in the settings... cause I agree, it doesn't need to run except once in a while, just like CCleaner.  ;)

 

Offline Mongoose

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I've run XP installs for years without reformatting, and I don't really do anything special in terms of system maintenance.  I think the last time I had to reinstall on here was when the original HDD bit the big one, and that was in 2008, so do the math.  It could probably stand to be a bit faster, but it still gets things done.

 

Offline jr2

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Hmm.  That works if all you do is save documents... maybe with windows updates, not sure... do you set automatic updates on or no?

Also, it helps to define what necessitates a re-format or in my case, a tune-up (and if that doesn't cut it, a re-format).  If a computer is taking longer than 2 minutes to load programs and 5+ minutes to load, to me that is unacceptable.  If IE (yeah some people insist on using it) takes half of a minute to even start loading a webpage, it's unacceptable.

What are your standards for 'it works' and 'it works but not good enough?

 

Offline LHN91

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-_- You missed the part where I said disable ASC's launch on system startup in the settings... cause I agree, it doesn't need to run except once in a while, just like CCleaner.  ;)

Yeah I missed that, oops  :nervous:

Admittedly, it's not that those old P4's aren't capable enough, it's more that they get used by "average users" - Facebook, Youtube, Skype, chat sites, lots and lots of Flash, and outdated graphics chips with no Flash acceleration; so adding optimizing programs that by default run in the background ends up hurting more then helping, and I've never found ASC to really do much in the way of actually speeding up things. Up until not too long ago, I was running a P4 1.8 Northwood with a Radeon 2400 AGP and 1GB of RAM as my main box, and believe me, I played around with ASC in the hopes it might squeeze a bit more out of that system, and I found that in my experience it made no noticeable difference.

Ironically, I found that box behaved much better with Windows 7 than with XP, actually; my commonly used programs loaded much faster, and it was in general much smoother and less prone to random lag-fests. It's still in use as a basic HTPC at my Aunt's.

 

Offline jr2

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ASC doesn't do anything for performance whilst it's in the backgound... it's be like running an over-bloated CCleaner all the time, so that when you wanted to run a scan you wouldn't have to wait for it to load.  The only way ASC is going to give you performance whilst running is if you paid for it and have 'Turbo' mode on (which is essentially just a lite version of what GameBooster does) - the rest of it (the paid version) is just scrubbing the Windows internals a bit harder on the cleanups, and automatically running cleanups on a schedule.

Keep it from running automatically, and be sure to quit the task tray icon after any scans you have instructed it to do are done.  (Or just leave it open and disable the 'minimize to tray on program close' option in the settings, right where you find the disable autostartup option.)

 

Offline Crybertrance

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While even I'm doubtful about it being solely the AVs fault, I can't help but think otherwise... My Win7 install is just a few months old (not much software there too, 'xept games). Even my comp just got upgraded about a year ago. CPU and GPU are fine in stress-test (Prime95, MSI Kombustor, for 5hrs without a crash), did that built-in Memory test 5 times, no errors. My Display and audio driver are the latest. What else could it be?? I'ts such a headache trying to figure out this...



I use GameBooster 3 and I have to say, it really does improve stuttering on some games (RailWorks 2012, comes to mind)


Okay, the games I face stuttering:

1. RailWorks 2012
2.Mass Effect 2
3.Mass Effect 3
4. Mafia 2
5. Freespace 1&2 (with or w/o SCP)
6. STALKER COP & CS

Now 1 and 6 experience extreme stutter when running an AV, while the rest experience medium to light stutter..
<21:08:30>   Hartzaden fires a slammer at Cybertrance
<21:09:13>   Crybertrance pops flares, but wonders how Hartzaden acquired aspect lock on a stealth fighter... :\
<21:11:58>   *** The_E joined #bp [email protected]
21:11:58   +++ ChanServ has given op to The_E
<21:12:58>   Hartzaden continues to paint crybertrance and feeding the info to a wing of gunships
<21:14:07>   Crybertrance sends emergency "IM GETING MY ASS KICKED HERE!!!!eleventy NEED HELPZZZZ" to 3rd fleet command
<21:14:50>   Hartzaden jamms the transmission.
<21:14:51>   The_E explodes the sun

 

Offline jr2

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Get Process Explorer (sysinternals / microsoft), and run your game in windowed mode (FSO at least will allow you to do that; many games have the option).  Use the game with process explorer running until it stutters, then take a look around process explorer.  Another thing I forgot is, you may want to be sure your hard disk controller drivers are up to date as well, if there was something wrong with them, perhaps that could cause this.  Usually chipset drivers includes hard disk controller drivers, so update your chipset drivers, like MP-Ryan said.