Vipre 3.1.2315 slows computer to a crawl

Gerald, something is clearly very wrong. Support will need to probably get some logs from you -- please contact them and we will get you help.

I have the exact same problem! When I run my e-mail program it slows down so far it can't get up. SBAMSvc.exe is using up to 96.33% of the CPU. I see sbamui.exe using around 4o% of the CPU. Mine ran perfectly until the upgrade.

Hello Dane,

Could you please try to disable the email protection and see if the problem still persist. Also could you please contact our support dept. so we can get some logs from you.

Please reference this Ticket#001-00-239539

Warm Regards,

Perry

email: support@sunbeltsoftware.com
Voice: 1-877-673-1153 Ext 500

I have installed VIPRE 3.1.2315 on a Windows XP 64-bit system, and Internet Explorer takes several minutes to do anything. No firewall is running (there is an external firewall.) No other antivirus program is installed. There is no virus in the system. (The deep system scan worked.) I don't know how email works - I didn't try it.

I have also installed VIPRE 3.1.2315 on Windows Server 2003, but I don't know how it works, because it prevents users from logging on successfully, except the Administrator who installed it. (See my post "users can't logon after installing VIPRE", which also has Ticket#001-00-238889.)

Gerald Stanley Tarka,

Please contact our online shop -- onlineshop(at)sunbeltsoftware.com and we'll take care of you. Or you can contact me directly -- alex(at)sunbeltsoftware.com. We'll make sure you're happy.

I experienced pretty much the same problem when I upgraded to new version.
Had issues with Thunderbird e-mail not working properly and internet access very slow. Running on XP SP3 machine. Other versions worked fine. Finally gave up and uninstalled VIPRE and installed AVG Free. Problem went away.
Would like to continue to use VIPRE as I have been beta testing since March. Was excited about the new approach to AV protection. I have new version on a Vista lap top and don't seem to experience the slow down issue. Using Thunderbird e-mail on it too. Seems like Thunderbird e-mail has had issues with VIPRE since the beginning. Hope to hear about a fix and I will reinstall VIPRE as I still believe it will be a good product. Sunbelt folks are great to work with.

Ed Erlandson
Lander, WY

I just installed Vipre. Up till then Thunderbird worked fine. Now it has slowed to almost a standstill. I use Thunderbird for web based email accounts. I use Outlook for my regular isp based email, and it works fine. But Thunderbird won't hardly move.

I have Vipre installed on four computers at home. Two have the upgrades and they are now running like dogs. Especially problematic is some kind of real time scanning of flash drives which become virtually useless whilst whatever process is going on. The CPU drops down completely when active protection is switched off but is wildly high when AP is on.

Something has clearly happened with the 3.1.2315 release. I have a variety of folders on my Vista SP1 machine with very large files in them. Navigating using Windows Explorer into one of these folders slows my computer to a crawl or pauses everything for many seconds. The SBAM service pegs one or two of my CPUs and screen updates freeze. This is exactly the antivirus/antispyware problem that I purchased Vipre to avoid. Disabling Active Protection (of course?) eliminates the problem ... but what's the point of running AV/AS then? I hope that Sunbelt will move rapidly to undo the whatever damage they did to their engine. It kills me to have to seek another AV/AS vendor ... again.

This problem has been going on for three weeks now, and I've had to do a system restore to get back to the old Vipre version (3.1.2243) + ignore all update alerts in order to avoid the Thunderbird slowdown. Vipre employees say on this blog that they are hoping for a fix in a new update..."sometime this month"...but I don't sense any great urgency to resolve the issue. Before the Thunderbird problem Vipre had been fine for me, but I'm a bit less happy now.

Sam B describes my issue exactly, and the fact that a) there is still no solution i.e. they check what they fixed between versions that wasn't broken and b) that there have been no company replies to this problem here shows how seriously they take this

What is the status of this?

Silence from Vipre!

Gentlemen,
Here is a fix from Sunbelt that was sent via another thread. I have downloaded and tried the fix after reinstalling Vipre and have experienced no further problems.

" Mike Williams, an employee of Sunbelt Software, replied to Waiting for a fix for Thunderbird conflict, a question about Sunbelt Software.
Thank you for your patience. While the new build hasn't been released yet, the development team has given us the files that will correct the problem. The following utility will update your program files and should correct the problem with Thunderbird.

www.sunbelt-software.com/ihs/vctu.exe

If you continue to see this issue, please let us know."

Hope this might help...
Ed Erlandson

Well I tried using the "fix" last night. Thankfully I was smart enough to set a restore point before I "upgraded" to the latest version and then did the "fix". Computer slowed to a crawl.
I suppose it was better than before. Those SBAM things are only eating up 60-70% of my CPU instead of the 80-90% as before!

Open an e-mail? Forget it! It took almost 8 minutes for 2 e-mails to download and almost 6 minutes to open one.

I had to shut VIPRE off just so I could open GOBACK and restore. The older version seems to work ok but I am getting tired of all this. I can deal with the delays but when the wife and kids need to work on the computer and it is sooo sloooow it is not a happy time.

I received an e-mail from Mike Williams saying that they should have a new update build coming out in the next month. Was/is this fix, vctu.exe, part of the new update? If it is, looks like I will have to revert to something else.

I can't imagine that there are only the 6 or 8 of us out there who are experiencing this problem.

Anyway, Hope you are all having a good Sunday. Off to church.

Dane

Thanks for the updates. I don't run Thunderbird. Is the fix aimed only at the Thunderbird problem or the general system slowdown caused by Vipre? Given Dane's experience it sounds like the cure is worse than the disease. And still a chilling silence from Sunbelt.

Please open VIPRE and click on File>Settings. Go to the Active Protection tab and turn off the "Check files when they are opened or copied" option. Do you still experience the problem?

I guess we've all been there and done this. It doesn't deal with the real issue - silence from Sunbelt on what they are doing apart from announcing imminent fixes which are now two months old. Now they are expected in the next few weeks. That was the same tune being played a few weeks ago.

The original premise of Vipre was a low resource using system which heralded a new departure in AV tech. Turning off the protection we bought to get around the problem is hardly a solution.

The promise is not being met and the marketing machine is as quiet as the tech machine. Credibility is now being stretched to the very limit. I just don't believe Sunbelt any more.

It's good to know that I am not alone in experiencing what I consider a critical problem with Vipre. Regarding Nick H's suggestion, I first have to echo DaveC's comment that turning off protection is not a solution. That said, I have just adjusted my settings per Nick H so I can report the impact. Given only an initial, cursory glance, it appears this change eliminates my slowdown. I'll let it run this way for a few days and report back if I experience otherwise.

Note that the problem was so acute on my system that, even after experimenting with various custom settings, I had disabled Vipre's Active Protection entirely. There are installation files on my desktop for two competing AV/AS products awaiting my finding the time to remove Vipre and try them. I keep hoping that Sunbelt will somehow salvage my investment in Vipre.

The apparent lack of urgency in repairing this problem not only tests my patience but also destroys my trust in Sunbelt. Like DaveC, I have to wonder: perhaps the claim that "we can re-architect AV/AS for high performance" is simply false.

Sam B, do you still have the problem or not after applying the work-around?

We're certainly quite interested in making you a satisfied customer, and we do treat technical issues with our products with great urgency.

alex

I also do not get the slowdown when Active Protection is turned off.

But I agree that this slmost like saying that I don't get the the slowdown when VIPRE is not running-- that's not really a "workarround."

Any slowdowns in VIPRE are almost always related to another antivirus or antispyware system running on the same machine. However, turning off the "Check files when they are opened or copied" will almost always resolve the issue. This means you can STILL run Active Protection, but without this one feature.

Installed the latest version of Vipre today. All the Thunderbird problems are resolved. The only problem I can see now is in the Control Panel. The Add/Remove takes a long time to populate. While it used to take two to three seconds to populate it now takes thirty five to forty seconds.This is not a major problem but it should be addressed in the next version of Vipre.

Gerald,

What version did you install? 3.1.2410? That seems to be the latest from Sunbelt. There is so much stuff on my computer that it takes over a minute to populate the Add/Remove anyway, Wonder if this will make it longer. I think I will wait to see if there are any other brave people like you who will have success.

Thanks,
Dane

I installed Vipre version 3.1.2416. If I check the box "Check files when they are opened and copied", the Add/Remove Programs populates very slowly. If I uncheck that same box,as we did before to allow Thunderbird to work, the Add/Remove Programs populates in a few seconds.