Everything semi-freeze while downloading

[danvina]

Hi!
I have a Dell XPS 8700 with 16 Gb RAM, Windows 8.1
The only problem I have is when downloading or copying [large files] the whole system is unresponsive for a few seconds, comes back and unresponsive again. This cycle repeats over and over until the downloading or the copying finish, then the machine goes back to normal.
McAfee tells me there is no virus.
This problem is with me for the past couple months.
Thanks for your time,
Dan

 

[carnageX]

Firstly, ditch McAfee. It's crap. Replace it with something like Avira.

Next, I'd run a disk check on your drive:

Start -> type 'cmd' (without quotes) -> right click -> run as admin -> in the console window that pops up type:
chkdsk C: /f /r
Press Enter and it will say it cannot lock the current drive and to run on next reboot. Type Y and hit Enter -> Reboot your computer and let it run through the check (it may take some time, depending on how big your HDD is).

 

[danvina]

Firstly, ditch McAfee. It's crap. Replace it with something like Avira.

Next, I'd run a disk check on your drive:

Start -> type 'cmd' (without quotes) -> right click -> run as admin -> in the console window that pops up type:
chkdsk C: /f /r
Press Enter and it will say it cannot lock the current drive and to run on next reboot. Type Y and hit Enter -> Reboot your computer and let it run through the check (it may take some time, depending on how big your HDD is).

...

 

[danvina]

I have 3 hard drives in the computer. The OS in a SSD, a 1 Tb and a 3 Tb.
Which hard drive should I check? This problem is in all of them.

 

[carnageX]

Start with the 1TB. Running the chkdsk on your SSD won't really do any good. Check to see if there's a firmware update for your SSD as well - could be a possible cause.

May also be a good idea to go into your Power Options -> Advanced Settings -> disabled the setting that turns HDD's off after a certain idle period.

Also, if you don't believe me that McAfee isn't good:
http://www.av-comparatives.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/avc_sum_201412_en.pdf

3rd party, non-biased site that does monthly AV tests and then every year puts out a summary report.

 

[danvina]

Hi CarnageX:
I have run chkdsk for the 1 and 2 Tb disks. Computer found no problems.
At Power Management HD is to never turn off.
Also, just in case that McAfee is interfering, I turn it off and try the machine again. Nothing did change. Still the same problem.
Any other ideas?

 

[carnageX]

I still recommend getting rid of McAfee because it's not highly rated...

Anyway... What does your Task Manager's performance tab look like while a download / file transfer is going? High CPU, disk, etc. usage?

 

[pokemaster]

Hey there. New to this forum but I am a computer science student so maybe I can attempt to help. Try checking your task manager. View services. Look for things that aren't neccesary and stop them. Try a 3rd party disk cleaner like CCleaner, in addition to running a program such as Malwarebytes. Both are free and will find things that disc cleanup and antivirus won't. Check your start-up programs as well and make sure they aren't bogging your system down.

 

[-RockMan-]

Hi!
I have a Dell XPS 8700 with 16 Gb RAM, Windows 8.1
The only problem I have is when downloading or copying [large files] the whole system is unresponsive for a few seconds, comes back and unresponsive again. This cycle repeats over and over until the downloading or the copying finish, then the machine goes back to normal.
McAfee tells me there is no virus.
This problem is with me for the past couple months.
Thanks for your time,
Dan

Hmm will you please give me your full system specs ?
It would be a great idea if you could tell me the hdd manufacturers and the speed of them.
When you got your machine brand new did it copy stuff back and forth quickly ?
Also think back some and tell me when you started to see it lag some.
I'll agree with carnage that mcafee isn't good for catching infections like it use to be in the past.
Still that shouldn't be the culprit if its on standby not doing anything but looking for infections.

The downloaded content you have take a file thats 1gb in size and copy it to another drive.
I want to see if you noticed it lag up, open task manager and look at performance.
If it takes too long to copy let me know how long it took and we're going to try something to see if I'm correct.

 

[carnageX]

Still that shouldn't be the culprit if its on standby not doing anything but looking for infections.

The active file scanner will attempt to scan it when any I/O operation is performed on the file. For example, if you copy a file from one folder to another, the AV scanner will kick off and do an active scan on the file in question.

McAfee was never good . Same with Norton.