"Windows Explorer Slow" problem w/ CA Anti-Virus from ISPs

[hommealone]

There have recently been four much-viewed posts in this forum regarding a problem with the Windows Explorer file manager (a.k.a. My Computer) running very slowly after a recent (~Sept 20, 2009) product update of CA Anti-Virus. Specifically, this regards an old version of the CA Security Suite (2007?) still distributed by ISPs (Time Warner/Roadrunner and others) as a benefit to their members.

I can confirm the existence of this problem and report on the status of my efforts to correct it. I hope that this post can serve to forward the goal of correcting this problem and function as an on-going progress report. I hope to:

• Clearly spell out the exact nature of the problem, which is still ongoing.
• Report on and maintain a log of measures being taken to correct it.
• Seek ways in which we can work together to correct it.
• Report on temporary work-arounds.

Unlike many who have posted regarding this issue, I am not advocating scrapping the CA product and buying another Security Software Suite. Let's wait and see what CA can do for us first. This thread is intended for those who feel the same way. If you want to gripe about the CA product, your ISP, etc, please post those gripes as comments to one of the related threads, instead of here. Let's please keep this post specific to those who are trying to fix this thing.

The Problem:
Beginning within a few days of Sept 20, (can anyone pinpoint the date specifically?) people running a version (2007) of CA Security Suite / CA Anti-Virus supplied by their ISPs - notably RoadRunner and others - found that the built-in file manager on their Windows (XP only??) computers, Windows Explorer a.k.a. "My Computer", was running at a snail's pace. It takes forever to view the contents of a folder. In my case at least, when you click a folder to view its contents, I often get a brief flash of the files in the folder, and then the files disappear for an extended period while the processor runs and before the files finally appear. I use Windows Explorer regularly in my work and this is a major productivity problem.

I am experiencing this problem on three separate Windows XP computers running this CA software. All ran fine prior to approx. 9/20/09 and all are now exhibiting the same Windows Explorer problem.

(My version of CA security suite is: Product Version 3.2.1.19. My version of CA Anti-Virus is 8.4.0.28.)

CA Anti-Virus and the Windows Explorer Problem:
If I "snooze" CA Anti-Virus, Windows Explorer immediately begins to function at a normal brisk speed. "Wake" CA Anti-Virus and the problem immediately returns. It has been noted in a previous post that the process "ITMRTSVC.exe" is hogging CPU usage while Windows Explorer struggles to display folder contents. ITMRTSVC.exe is a component of CA Security Suite; it is part of the real-time scanners used by both the anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. (Disabling the real-time scanner of the anti-spyware program has no effect on the problem, suggesting that it is indeed the anti-virus components which are causing the problem.)

Remediation Efforts:
I have followed all of the suggested methods of fixing this problem outlined in the CA knowledge-base document titled: System Slow with CA Anti-Virus installed as requested by the help center of my ISP (Roadrunner). None corrected the problem.

Current Status (October 6):
On Oct 5, I managed to speak to the Nation Help Desk of Roadrunner Support. Based on my report and unsuccessful remediation efforts they "bumped up" the issue, passing it on to the CA support system. I was informed that CA support would contact me "within 24 to 72 hours". (I am waiting.)

Another forum poster (kallis) reports that he/she was able to speak to a CA support person after going through his/her ISP, and that they were able to resolve the problem for him/her. (http://homeofficeforum.ca.com/homeof...2&postcount=12) Since I have three machines myself that need fixing, and so many others on this forum also need this problem resolved, I hope to stress to CA support that they need to distribute a fix via the automatic product update that will solve the problem for everyone, rather than just giving me an individual fix. I will post news of any developments here.

Other Possible Remediation Efforts:

• I hope that everyone with this problem will go to the effort of contacting Roadrunner and their own ISP help desks and make every effort to contact CA support through them. Please use this post as a roadmap of how to get through to CA. Site this thread as evidence if that will help. If the volume of complaints is high enough then hopefully CA will provide a universal fix. Please report here on your own efforts!
• Since it is difficult for CA software users who receive the product through their ISPs to contact CA support directly, and since this is a very real and specific problem, can the moderators and administrators of this forum have any effect in bringing this problem to the attention of the CA people who need to fix it? I hope that the moderators and administrators can address that question here.
• As noted by the moderator 'spud', this ISP supplied version of the CA software is quite out of date. I will be making an effort to convince Roadrunner to provide a more up-to-date product. I urge you all to do the same. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. My own plan is to get this immediate problem addressed first, and then start to squawk about the need for an update.

Temporary Workarounds:
Until this problem is resolved, I have installed a freeware file manager alternative to Windows Explorer (of which there are many). The slowness problem seems to be specific to Windows Explorer; other similar file manager programs are working fine on my computer.

A product which feels quite similar to Windows Explorer, and with a few added features is:
CubicExplorer (http://www.cubicreality.com/ce/). The help files are not very good, but it is a simple and intuitive program, so they are not much needed.

A more robust program which offers many more features than Windows Explorer is:
Xplorer2 [free version] (http://zabkat.com/x2lite.htm). I'd recommend this more as a permanent replacement for Win Explorer. It offers many features which you may or may not need. It takes some getting used to. If you install this, I recommend that you de-select the option to install the added browser toolbar during the installer process.

Both of these products have gotten good reviews in respectable product comparison articles.

*********

Keywords, to help others with this problem find this thread while searching:
(Many computer users don't know what "Windows Explorer" refers to, and refer to it as "My computer" )

Windows Explorer running very slowly
Windows Explorer problem
Windows Explorer takes a long time to display files
"My Computer" running very slowly
"My Computer" slow
"My Computer" problem displaying files

[hommealone]

Update, Oct 7:
It is now nearly two days since I was told that CA support would contact me ("in 24 -72 hrs"). I have not been contacted yet.

Question for moderators / administrators:
Since it is very difficult, to say the least, for CA software users who receive their product from an ISP to contact CA support, I would like to know the following -

• Can mods or admins of this forum ever bring issues like this, which are brought to light in the forum, to the attention of the CA people who would need to address the issue?
• If so, can you bring this issue to their attention?
• If not, do they, to your knowledge, ever look at the issues being raised in the forums on their own?
• Are there any employees of CA who are members of the forum? (Either support staff or software engineers?)

[spud]

Generally when you approach your ISP with CA software issues, they will then re-direct your call to CA Support to get you the help.

I will nudge CA about this. As a volunteer Mod, that's all I can do.

[OfficeManager]

Originally Posted by hommealone

Update, Oct 7:
It is now nearly two days since I was told that CA support would contact me ("in 24 -72 hrs"). I have not been contacted yet.

Question for moderators / administrators:
Since it is very difficult, to say the least, for CA software users who receive their product from an ISP to contact CA support, I would like to know the following -

• Can mods or admins of this forum ever bring issues like this, which are brought to light in the forum, to the attention of the CA people who would need to address the issue?
• If so, can you bring this issue to their attention?
• If not, do they, to your knowledge, ever look at the issues being raised in the forums on their own?
• Are there any employees of CA who are members of the forum? (Either support staff or software engineers?)

Yes some mods are CA people and it does sometimes come to their attention, depends on when they log on and what forum posts they read.
Mods and admins will only respond to what is asked on forum only.
It can take a while for a response.
To your enquiry about CA not getting back to you, contact them again and request an answer from them.

Here is a list of contacts that could be useful.
Here are links for you to use to contact CA.
Customer care USA
http://cainternetsecurity.net/Suppor...spx?lang=en-US
Call CA customer care # 8776948509

You can contact free chat support using any of these links
http://cainternetsecurity.net/Suppor....aspx?tabid=83
http://caisbuproactiveserv.ca.com/Ch...php?lang=en-US

You can also try using this link for free CA chat support
http://tinyurl.com/gh48u

If you want to speak directly to a Technician...
If you are in North America/Europe the support is charged

North America - 877-694-8509

Support contact USA http://cainternetsecurity.net/Suppor....aspx?tabid=84

Great Britain Telephone Support Services
9am to 7pm Local time Mon-Fri
(+44) (020) 7458 0053

Or try this link if you want to contact CA on customer care web support.

http://home3.ca.com/support/customer...?sc_lang=en-GB


Europe - 49 (069) 9530 7381

Australia - 1300-364-750
In Australia you must have your Licence number/Key code to get the free service support
Support contact Australia http://cainternetsecurity.net/Suppor...=83&lang=en-AU
http://cainternetsecurity.net/Suppor...=83&lang=en-AU
Customer care AUST 1800 807 062 . A FREE call

New Zealand. 0508 807 062
Then follow same procedure as for Australia.

Cheers

[hommealone]

Office Manager,

Thanks for your help, but...

Originally Posted by OfficeManager

...To your enquiry about CA not getting back to you, contact them again and request an answer from them.

Office Manager,

Note: I was never able to contact them in the first place. I was told on Monday, by my ISP (Roadrunner), that CA Support would contact me but they never have.

Originally Posted by OfficeManager

Here is a list of contacts that could be useful.
Here are links for you to use to contact CA.
Customer care USA
http://cainternetsecurity.net/Suppor...spx?lang=en-US
Call CA customer care # 8776948509

This is a $20.00 phone support call. Thanks but no thanks. And the link does not offer support for the (2007) version supplied by the ISPs, nor would it allow an ISP-supplied customer access even if it did.

You can contact free chat support using any of these links
http://cainternetsecurity.net/Suppor....aspx?tabid=83
http://caisbuproactiveserv.ca.com/Ch...php?lang=en-US

You can also try using this link for free CA chat support
http://tinyurl.com/gh48u

FYI, there is no CA chat support available to customers who receive their CA software through an ISP. The form to fill out to get started chatting, accessed via the links you supplied, asks how you received your software, and if you select 'through my ISP' you are directed to get in touch with your ISP instead.

All of your other options are pay-for-support methods; again, no thanks.

Update, Oct. 8th:
I still have not heard back from CA Support after the promised 72 hrs. The the problem is still ongoing after ~2 1/2 weeks.

I have spent another unduly long amount of time w/ RR customer support today (fighting my way up to the Nat'l Help Desk; being told to hold while they investigated; being cut off while holding; fighting my way back to the Nat'l Help Desk again; giving my personal info six or eight times to six or eight different operators during this ordeal; holding for another extended period).

I was then told that CA is actively pursuing the issue. But that neither they (RR Nat'l Help Desk personnel) nor I have any way of speaking directly to CA, but rather that I needed to wait for CA to get back to me. (Which - did I already mention? - they have failed to do within the 72 hr period I was promised.)

[hommealone]

Update Oct 8:
I was finally able to speak with a CA Support person on the phone. He took remote control of my computer and (after ~1 hr) was able to devise a 'work-around'. I will post the details of that work-around in a new thread for anyone else who would like to try it.

He ("Kevin" a.k.a. Naresh Kumar Kannan) says that CA will be working on a permanent fix of this problem which will be distributed as an automatic update. I hope they will let us know in this forum when/if that actually occurs.

There is clearly a procedural problem of how Road Runner Support deals with CA Support. Which really needs to be corrected!

After complaining yet again to RR support, they emailed me a phone number at which I could call CA Support. When I called, 'Kevin' politely upbraided me for calling them directly. He said that RR Support was supposed to call them directly while I was also on the phone. I told him that I had asked RR Support to do just that, and was told that they could not and that the support person in fact had no way to phone CA directly!

It is possible that an innocent typo occurred when the 1st RR Support person I talked to wrote down my email address to pass on to CA Support (even though I spelled it out for them letter-for-letter). This may have been the reason why CA Support did not get back to me. (Of course they had my phone number too...)

Clearly, there is a big problem of communication between RR and CA, and the customers are suffering as a result. I am still complaining about that and will report back here on what happens.

Clearly, there is a software problem which is effecting many many people, which needs a real fix. I hope that CA will report back here on the status of that.

Clearly it is also a problem that Road Runner is providing such an out-dated piece of software. I have begun making complaints about that as well. I will report any responses I get.

[OfficeManager]

Good luck on your quest, My experience with internet providers is they give out outdated software and of little support, so my only suggestion is purchase your own software and in doing so at least you get bona fida support for peace of mind.

My opinion.

[hommealone]

Well, I did indeed post the work-around provided to me by the CA Support agent - as he requested. Subsequently, the posting was removed from the forum.

I had asked the Support agent if he could post the work-around himself; I thought it would be better trusted that way. But he urged me to do it myself.

Since CA pulled it, I would hope that they could at least let me (and all of the other forum readers) know why. Did the Support agent give me bad advice? Should I be un-doing his work-around? I'd really appreciate hearing from CA about this.

BTW, the work-around he provided caused Windows Explorer to run faster than it had been, but still not at full speed.

[OfficeManager]

I personly encourage you to repost the work around as this would be appreciated by other members and my self.

Cheers

[hommealone]

I personly encourage you to repost the work around as this would be appreciated by other members and my self.

I have re-posted the work-around here:

"Windows Explorer Slow" work-around as per CA Support agent