Cpu Maxing Out During Scan

Hi there - Ive not really had any issues until recently. My PC was suffering a couple of BSOD's so I decided to run a full virus scan, and each time the CPU was maxing out completely and solidly. This in turn was causing a crash.

So I reset the CPU back to stock and run a custom scan on the c drive which completed fine - but again was maxing out the cpu.

I ran a repair on bitdefender also

Any ideas?

FX8350 - now stock

16GB Corsair

TX650 PSU

256GB SSD + 6 x 1TB HDD's

Thanks

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antikythera

Use windows task manager and change the priority of the scan process to a lower setting. BitDefender have set scans to utilise as much CPU resources as possible to finish faster. There is no option to change it AFAIK.

columbo

This has been a Bitdefender issue for many years for some of us, high CPU usage during a System scan. This thread considered it as Resolved back with the 2013 version, but it never was resolved for me, until I added the "offending" files into Exclusions (same path, just a different UI than the 2013 version). It was also suggested in the link provided above to turn off AVC during a System scan-> Protection/Antivirus Settings, (gear icon) and disable AVC. You can give it a try, and see what happens. I have the BD 2015 IS on a different PC, so I haven't checked all of this out yet (just installed the 2015 version a day or two ago).

Otherwise, do as I did, run a System scan with Task Manager open, and watch for the file name and location in which the CPU spikes, and make notes of them. Then enter those into Exclusions. Granted the file/folder will be rescanned if anything is changed or modified, so you may need to re-submit it into Exclusions. In my case, it was my HP Notebook driver back up folder that caused the 100% usage. I never modified them, so I've not had the 100% hanging spike as before.

I'll have to try antikythera's creative idea

Rampant

Hello everyone! I can not change the priority, bitdefender does not allow access.

waking

I can not change the priority, bitdefender does not allow access.

Have you tried creating a Custom Scan? Using "Manage Scans" you can create s Custom Scan to scan whatever you want, and using the "Scan Options" under "Advanced" check the box for "Run the task with low priority".

columbo

Hello everyone! I can not change the priority, bitdefender does not allow access.

Hi Rampant Agreed, I just tried it myself. It was a creative idea anyway by antikythera

Have you tried creating a Custom Scan? Using "Manage Scans" you can create s Custom Scan to scan whatever you want, and using the "Scan Options" under "Advanced" check the box for "Run the task with low priority".

Great idea, waking It just may take longer with it being lower priority, but it should help save the CPU from maxing out during a scan. I guess if we only run a Custom Scan, or the normal System Scan 1-2 times a month, and let the Autoscan do it's thing, would a nice balance. The default System Scan settings (i.e. "scan everything") are below, for those who want to use the same settings creating a Low Priority Custom Scan:

Rampant

Hi, Scott! Glad you see again, my friend!

I had planned a full scan, one every two weeks, scanning lasts no more than 20 minutes, and I do not pay attention to this process, quietly working on the computer.

columbo

Thank you Valery, it's always good to see you too, my friend

Are you just running a "normal" custom scheduled System Scan, or did you also create it to "run the task with low priority", and you're still getting the fast scan time?

Nesivos

Hello everyone! I can not change the priority, bitdefender does not allow access.

You might try to run Task Manager as Administrator to change the priority.

In Windows 7 go to C:\Windows\System32\taskmgr.exe. Create a shorcut. Righ click on the shortcut and click on Run as Adminstrator

In Windows 8.1

Run command prompt as administrator from the Start Menu

Type "taskmgr" in the command prompt and strike the "Enter" key

columbo

Nice idea, Nesivos, but on my Windows 7 64-bit where I am the Admin., it didn't work, even when trying to right click Run as Admin from the file location path you showed. It may be BD protected and Rampant mentioned. Maybe someone else here will have better luck, or with Window 8?

bduser2015

Processor power management did work for me to reduce CPU usage.

Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options\Edit Plan Settings\Advanced settings\Processor power management

Windows 7

columbo

Does that change the settings across the board and after a scan, needs to be rest to your previous settings?

bduser2015

Does that change the settings across the board and after a scan, needs to be rest to your previous settings?

Power plan settings remain until you reset/change.

Just an idea to modify Power Saver plan and switch it ON during scan.

Also it will save some power. Go green

columbo

Yes, after I thought about it for a bit, your idea was pretty good, in that you could even create a whole new lower cpu Power Plan Profile called something like "BD Scan", and then just tick your normal power plan, Normal, High Performance etc. when you're done. Creative concept, bduser2015

Nesivos

Yes, after I thought about it for a bit, your idea was pretty good, in that you could even create a whole new lower cpu Power Plan Profile called something like "BD Scan", and then just tick your normal power plan, Normal, High Performance etc. when you're done. Creative concept, bduser2015

The other option would be to schedule scans in "off hours" when not using the computer. Of course there is always the possibility of having to run a contextual scan but they are usually limited to a single file or single folder which should not take very long.

columbo

The other option would be to schedule scans in "off hours" when not using the computer. Of course there is always the possibility of having to run a contextual scan but they are usually limited to a single file or single folder which should not take very long.

Good points, in that we're then still working from Bitdefeder itself, and not overriding, modifying or adding extra Windows work arounds when Bitdefender has given us some nice options, including scheduling a scan during off hours, even with low priority as/if desired.

Rampant

Are you just running a "normal" custom scheduled System Scan

That's right, the system scan.

It may be BD protected and Rampant mentioned.

Yes, it's work function of self-defense.

columbo

Thanks for your follow up Rampant, I appreciate it. I'll have to play around more with the 2015 versions scans, as I haven't even done a normal full system scan yet, let alone to follow up with a 2nd system scan to see how it preforms and the second scan speed time. I'll probably do it today.

columbo

Here are my results for a normal BD System Scan on a Windows 7 64-bit; 226 GB hard drive with 133 GB used; 16 GB of RAM, and a Intel Core i7 3770 3.40GHz processor. I ran the scans ~30-45 minutes apart form each other. I used the computer lightly with a little web surfing in between the scans.

1st System scan:

Time 1:00:43 Scanned Items: 2170415

2nd System Scan:

Time 15:15 Scanned Items: 1540529

3rd System Scan:

Time 11:26 Scanned Items 1445855

While the 1st scan was running, the PC froze when I tried to right click to change a file association. On the 3rd scan, I opened Task Manager and it did log a couple of higher spike times. Yet, it didn't hold or maintain (at least with the files on this PC) for longer periods of time like I've seen in the past with previous years builds. With the improved faster scan times and the caching, I'm o.k. with it, even to the point of saying, "well done, Bitdefender Team"

Nesivos

Here are my results for a normal BD System Scan on a Windows 7 64-bit; 226 GB hard drive with 133 GB used; 16 GB of RAM, and a Intel Core i7 3770 3.40GHz processor. I ran the scans ~30-45 minutes apart form each other. I used the computer lightly with a little web surfing in between the scans.

1st System scan:

Time 1:00:43 Scanned Items: 2170415

2nd System Scan:

Time 15:15 Scanned Items: 1540529

3rd System Scan:

Time 11:26 Scanned Items 1445855

While the 1st scan was running, the PC froze when I tried to right click to change a file association. On the 3rd scan, I opened Task Manager and it did log a couple of higher spike times. Yet, it didn't hold or maintain (at least with the files on this PC) for longer periods of time like I've seen in the past with previous years builds. With the improved faster scan times and the caching, I'm o.k. with it, even to the point of saying, "well done, Bitdefender Team"

I use BDIS on my W7-SP1 computer

Last System Scan took 51 minutes

Once a month or so I double check with Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool Last scan took 4 Hours 54 minutes

Both scans came up clean

Rohugh

I have no problems with excessive CPU use, just run the third system scan of this install of BDTS on my Win 8.1 desktop and as you can see it is pretty low.

columbo

Very nice results, Rohugh Was that the lowest impact reading of your scan? (at the 26% mark) Did you have anything spike into the 75-90% range?

It could be the types of files that people have and as in my case, some of the Dropbox folders that were using a lot of resources, let alone some of our PC configuration that can make a difference.

At least I'm happy that the scans in this years version do have a lower impact, and faster scan times after each consecutive scan.

For those of us who do have a concern, I still think this was a good idea (working from within Bitdefender itself) by, waking: http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?s=&...st&p=224989

I suppose for those of us, we should get better at setting up a Custom System Scan as we want it, considering there is no Autoscan feature in this years 2015 version, i.e. do at least 2-3 System Scans a month, with the Quick Scans in between, and maybe another "compatible with BD" vendors scan as a second opinion, as Nesivos did..but yikes, just under 5 hours :blink: I think I'll pass on that one

Rohugh

I had a few spikes but no more than 30% and they only lasted a very short time, the scan took around 50 minutes, about half the time of the initial scan on this install. I have Quick Scan set for every 3 days and they take less than a minute to complete.

I don't generally run system scans more than once a month but I will try one a week for a while and see if the time and the CPU drops even further. I do occasionally run an on-demand antimalware scan but nothing untoward has showed up for a long time, either BD is very good at looking after things or I am more aware of "safe surfing".

columbo

Nice follow up info. Rohugh, thanks

Yes, and I think with you expertise and understanding, your safe surfing also pays off

Rampant

I can assume that all the resources of the processor, is used to scan compressed files, archive files, it is resource-intensive process that uses multithreading. Antivirus unpacks the container to a temporary directory, check the contents, and then back packs. imho.