Long scan times

[Karly 1]

I start a scan when I leave the computer in the evening with the option to reboot or shut down when done; however, the scan is still running in the morning.  This has been going on for several days.  The scans are running about 7+ hours; I'm assuming that the computer goes to sleep before the scan finishes.  The screen shot shows the message that has appeared at the beginning of a scan that is new along with the extended scan time.

[itman 1,707]

1 hour ago, Karly said:

I'm assuming that the computer goes to sleep before the scan finishes. 

Your device should only be entering sleep mode when there has been no system activity for a specified period of time. The default Window setting is one hour. As such, the device should not be entering sleep mode until the Eset scan is completed. Since you have specified that Eset shutdown the device after the scan has been completed, sleep mode activation is not applicable.

To verify if your Win sleep mode is properly functioning, temporarily set the Win sleep mode time interval to 5 mins.. Then start your on demand scan w/shutdown option. After 5 to 10 mins. or so if the scan is still running, we can rule out sleep mode beginning a factor. You can cancel the on demand scan and reset  Win sleep mode time back to its initial setting.

[AGH1965 12]

 

1 hour ago, itman said:

Your device should only be entering sleep mode when there has been no system activity for a specified period of time.

Unfortunately Microsoft's definition of system activity has nothing to do with CPU load or HDD activity. Windows looks at mouse and keyboard activity. Unless you move the mouse or press keys every now and then, Windows will put the system to sleep. See the feature requests from @zeromido and myself here: link

Edited March 19, 2019 by AGH1965

[itman 1,707]

1 hour ago, AGH1965 said:

 

Unfortunately Microsoft's definition of system activity has nothing to do with CPU load or HDD activity. Windows looks at mouse and keyboard activity. Unless you move the mouse or press keys every now and then, Windows will put the system to sleep. See the feature requests from @zeromido and myself here: link

Yeah, forgot about that.

There are a few third party software utilities that basically "fake out" Windows activity monitoring and employ their own timers to control sleep activity. Can't vouch for any since I never used them.

Appears best solution for evening scanning as the OP is doing is just disable sleep mode prior to running the on-demand scan since PC will shutdown after scan completion. Then reenabling sleep mode at boot time.

Edited March 19, 2019 by itman

[E_W 0]

Is this a recent thing? I noticed performance issues with the latest version released last week.

[Karly 1]

I set the sleep time to 5 minutes and the scan was still running after 12 minutes; so the sleep setting is not the apparent problem.  I'm still puzzled by the banner at the bottom that says the scan may take a while, etc.  This is new along with the much longer scan time.  Shall I uninstall and reinstall the program?

[AGH1965 12]

4 hours ago, Karly said:

I set the sleep time to 5 minutes and the scan was still running after 12 minutes

@Karly Are you sure you didn't use the mouse or the keyboard during those 12 minutes?

If I set the sleep time to 5 minutes, then the scan is interrupted and the computer is put to sleep. When I awake it, the scan continues.

Edited March 20, 2019 by AGH1965

[Karly 1]

@AGH1965Yes, I actually left the room so I wouldn't touch the mouse or keyboard.   Sorry for the delays in answering.  Friend in hospital.  I ran defrag and chkdsk and no errors came up, uninstalled the last program I put on the computer; but no changes to long scan time. 

 

[itman 1,707]

On ‎3‎/‎20‎/‎2019 at 2:13 AM, AGH1965 said:

If I set the sleep time to 5 minutes, then the scan is interrupted and the computer is put to sleep.

I suspect something is amiss with your device BIOS power management settings.

In the Power Management section of the BIOS, look for a setting titled PME Event Wake Up or the like. This allows for the PCI or PCIe bus to monitor and control sleep activity at the hardware level. Make sure the setting is enabled. Note: the feature only works on my device for example, if ATX power supply provides at least 1amp on the +5VSB lead. Most modern power supplies conform to this requirement.

[itman 1,707]

On ‎3‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 9:28 PM, Karly said:

I'm still puzzled by the banner at the bottom that says the scan may take a while, etc.

Appears this was added in the ver. 12.1.31. I saw it today for the first time today after I changed my scan profile from "SmartScan" to "In-depth." The message is simply Eset informing you In-depth scanning takes a while; which in reality is usually the case. 

[itman 1,707]

Well, it appears I was wrong about sleep mode not activating during an Eset scan. It did so in the middle of a scheduled scan today. Upon resume from sleep mode, scan resumed automatically where it left off.

If resuming a scan where it left off is an issue, it appears the only solution is to extend your Win sleep time to be longer than the scan time.

[AGH1965 12]

7 minutes ago, itman said:

If resuming a scan where it left off is an issue, it appears the only solution is to extend your Win sleep time to be longer than the scan time.

I guess that most people want the scan to run when the computer isn't used. Resuming when they want to use the computer again is therefore an issue. Changing the power management settings before and after every scan is an issue too. I really don't understand why ESET expects users to do that. It is as if ESET thinks that no one uses the in-depth scanning of EIS.

[itman 1,707]

@AGH1965, you might want to look at this article: https://www.groovypost.com/howto/schedule-wake-sleep-windows-automatically/ . It was written for Win 7 but appears it would also work for Win10.

This article assumes the user wants to control sleep and wakeup times on his device to perform select activities. The technique could be also adapted to keeping his device always in a powered up state. For example, an "always powered on" script could be Win task manager scheduled to run let's say, 5 mins. prior to the Eset scheduled scan time. The Eset scheduled scan would be configured to shutdown the device at the end of the scan.  Finally, another task manager scheduled script would be needed that runs at boot time that resets power policy back to default policy. Problem solved as I see it.

Edited March 21, 2019 by itman

[Karly 1]

6 hours ago, itman said:

This article assumes the user wants to control sleep and wakeup times on his device to perform select activities. 

I read the article.   However, my hours are not the same everyday; and since I sometimes come down to use the computer in the middle of the night, this doesn't seem like a working proposition for me. 

I never changed the settings for scans; so it is apparently the most recent program update that has made this change to the longer scans whereas before it only took about 20 minutes or so.  I run the scan manually anyway; so I will run it during the daytime when I am at the computer and hope that ESET comes with an alternative to the long scan time with their next reiteration.

Thanks, Karly

[itman 1,707]

10 hours ago, Karly said:

so it is apparently the most recent program update that has made this change to the longer scans whereas before it only took about 20 minutes or so. 

Eset scan elapsed time durations are dependent upon:

1. Scan profile used; SmartScan or In-Depth

2. Number of drives/files being scanned on the device.

The In-Depth scan profile as its name implies will scan all files on all drives selected for scanning.

The SmartScan profile which is the default is designed to scan directories and files commonly used by malware. Additionally, the SmartSmart has a mechanism whereby once a file has been scanned, it will not be rescanned unless there has been a physical change to the file. As such, SmartScan time duration should be considerably reduced with time.

For individuals whom wish to perform daily scanning, Eset's Idle-time scan option might be a better option. This option will continuously scan files when the device is idle. The question I recently asked in the forum which is unanswered to date is if idle time scanning occurs when one signs off their user account? Idle time scanning would be a moot option if one signs off every time they physically leave their device and scanning did not occur during this interval.  

Edited March 22, 2019 by itman

[TomFace 539]

Karly please forgive me if I missed it, but what type of scan are you running? A SmartScan or In-depth?

What type of scan do you have setup as your On-demand scan?

I have my power setting to never go to sleep. My In-depth/Custom scan takes about 2.5-3 hours (scanning about 2.1M+ items).

I did adjust some settings (In-depth) to achieve the desired outcome.

My SmartScan take less than 30 mins and scan about 430K items.

 

Regards,

Tom

 

Edited March 22, 2019 by TomFace

[itman 1,707]

53 minutes ago, TomFace said:

My In-depth/Custom scan takes about 2.5-3 hours (scanning about 2.1M+ items).

Sounds about right. Mine yesterday took 1 hour 20 mins. to scan 690K files.

My last SmartScan took 12 mins. to scan 211K files.

Note: Scan times are also dependent upon ThreatSense settings. For example, the SmartScan profile doesn't scan archives by default. If that was enabled for the profile, more files would be scanned increasing scan times.

[TomFace 539]

Maybe the OP needs to look into creating a unique scan profile to suit their needs.

https://help.eset.com/essp/12/en-US/work_avas_ondemand_profiles.html

https://support.eset.com/kb2909/

https://help.eset.com/essp/12/en-US/idh_page_scan.html

Regards,

Tom

[Karly 1]

@TomFace,  You have noticed that I am listed as a "novice"....  I finally found the settings for the different scans and it appears that I am running a Smart Scan and the scan screen lists "scan all local disks and clean threats"   I need to change the sleep time to get the scan to finish without hanging out all night like some hussy.

Thanks for helping me figure out what was going on.

[TomFace 539]

Hello Karly. I meant no offense or insult.  The "novice" rating only has to do with the # of kudos received.

I am glad you found what may help you. The ESET Knowledgebase https://support.eset.com/ has a ton of helpful information as does the "HELP" section built into the ESET gui (the main ESET window of your product).  

Or you can always come to this Forum....there are many knowledgeable people who are willing to help. No question or issue is too unimportant.

"Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family" ... Kofi Annan

Regards,

Tom

 

Edited March 23, 2019 by TomFace

[Karly 1]

@TomFace, 

No offense was taken.  I only meant that I was not very familiar with the different aspects of the program even though I have been using it on two computers for a number of years.  I guess I should have explained my knowledge of the program better than my comment about being a novice which I did know meant I was a new poster.  I also use Malwarebytes and have for many years and find it interesting that the two programs don't always alert to the same problematic websites which is a good thing.  They are set up with different parameters.

Thanks again, Karly

[TomFace 539]

I used to use MBAM (have a lifetime license) alongside ESET, but when MBAM v3 launched, they did not play well together (conflicts). Using MBAM as an on-demand scanner is fine. Just don't run the two totally active in real time. These days, I use HitmanPro (not HitmanPro Alert) as my second opinion scanner.

Regards,

Tom

Edited March 23, 2019 by TomFace

[Karly 1]

@TomFace,

I also have lifetime licenses for MBAM for our computers.  I have not seen any problems between the two programs and they are both running full time.

Karly