For some reason when I installed AVG on this computer (the university-supplied one, not my laptop) AVG decided it would do a virus scan whenever the computer was turned on the first time each day. My schedule and habits mean that the computer can be turned on two or three times each day, and if it doesn’t finish the virus scan during the first session, it’ll start from scratch the next time I turn the computer on.
For some bizarre reason I just can’t figure out, the virus scan has the hard drive making a phenomenal amount of noise and slows the computer down big time. It takes about an hour to complete. I’ve never seen this on any other computer ever. The new office computer, the one I set up so that we had something useable to work on, has AVG run quietly in the background and finish its scan in ten to fifteen minutes, and my laptop does the same. Not this piece of shit.
Now, normally this is tolerable- but only just. Everything goes slowly, but it’s still useable. Apart from Monday and Thursday mornings when I start at 8 am, and therefore don’t get online until later in the day, I usually turn the computer on as soon as I get up. That way I can get myself showered and cleaned up and dressed and get breakfast ready while AVG does its thing, and I only have to put up with minimal hassle as it finishes the virus scan. But normally even when I get online or otherwise try to use the computer right from the start of the virus scan, it’s useable but slow.
Not today. I don’t feel good about it, because I could be compromising my security, but to do anything more than sit here frustrated staring at the screen of an utterly useless computer, I had to stop the virus scan. I couldn’t do a bloody thing. I had to crash Firefox so I could open AVG to stop the scan, it was that utterly useless.
Thing is, I’ve already done everything I know to get this computer into better shape, and nothing makes even the slightest bit of difference. I’ve defragged, I’ve scanned for viruses and spyware, I’ve deleted the masses of junk left by previous occupants, I’ve uninstalled all the useless software they left behind, but nothing brings even the slightest improvement.
I think I should just teach my laptop to recognise the university network and just use that.
Doesn’t it give you the option to skip the virus check before that even starts? The virus scanner on the PCs in our office skips that whole rigmarole unless you’re incautious enough to hit a key while it counts down.
Yours sounds like a bigger nuisance than it’s worth.
No. Thing is, I trust AVG,and I’m convinced it’s the computer that is reaching the end of it’s usefulness. And I think a daily scan is probably necessary considering I’m hooked in to a university network that seems to be just as chock full of malware as any other school network. I know of other university-supplied computers that are basically unuseable now through a combination of age, abuse and sheer weight of malware.
So I guess it’s rapidly approaching time to take my laptop into the office and get the boss to help me set it up it cooperates with the university network properly.