Microsoft Security Essentials MsMpEng.exe slowing XP system down

[Bob2010]

Hi,
    I've got Windows XP, SP3 with everything updated, PC has a Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6400+ (Windsor), 2 meg memory, with 17 gig free hard drive space.
    Back in April 2011 I had a massive attack on my PC and was lucky you guys could help me piece it back together.  I ended up having to reformat the drive, reinstall Windows XP and several programs but it saved my data.  You had me get rid of Zone Alarm, AVG and to use Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes.  Seemed to work well.
    About 8 months ago when I used Windows explorer my system started slowing down.  I saw no difference in boot time but shutting down it often hangs and I have to give the command a 2nd time then it shuts down quickly.  Under Task Manager it says MsMpEng.exe (MSE) is using up to 50% of CPU # 2 and sometimes CPU # 1 is being overloaded.  Closing all web browsers I disabled MSE and sure enough my machine ran like new. 
    Researching, the first advise was to run Malwarebites.  Doing so resulted in about 9 problems that I got rid of.  Also ran MSE scan with no negative results.  Machine ran fast for about 3 weeks and then slowed down again.  Updated and ran deep Malwarebytes scan and MSE scan again but this time no improvement.
    Researched internet some more and found to command MSE in “Tools” under “Do not scan these files or locations” to include;   C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Client      This did nothing.
    Another site said an increase in RAM solved the issue but that was with 1 meg and I’ve got 2.  Task Manager never shows using excess memory when CPU 2 is maxed and slowing the system.  However, this is not a big deal.  I can pick up used memory sticks cheap in my area and was thinking of increasing it anyway.
    On one site a Tech wrote, “...on many machines, MSE can slow things to a crawl. The cause if this is, by Microsoft's own warnings, that Microsoft Security Essentials doesn't like any other malware applications running at the same time, such as Malware Bytes or Super Antispyware. I have found this to be true on most, but not all XP operating systems.  Other XP installations seem to work fine with other malware programs, such as these installed. By the way, the other malware programs don't need to be running in the backround; just installed on the PC. When I find a PC that is adversely effected this way, I then uninstall MSE and install Avast! instead.” 

I didn’t have problems with MSE and Malwarebytes butting heads for over a year so I’m assuming it was something else.  Any ideas?
Sincerely, Bob. 

[Hoov]

Have you tried uninstalling Microsoft Security Essentials and then reinstalling it? Sometimes all the updates can leave little problems behind that end up creating bigger problems.

[Bob2010]

Dear Hoov,      November 20, 2012
       Uhhhh, so many weird things have happened since your last post.  Because of storms we lost Internet service for days and even now it comes and goes.  Then somehow I must have disabled Spywarehammers ability to notify me anyone responded to my post so a few more days past.  And finally had 2 vehicle breakdowns.
    I did as you instructed to remove, download newest version of Microsoft Security Essentials, reinstall and update.  Result, I think it may have actually made it worse.  Now when I use XP explorer both CPUs hit 49% use.  Maybe it did it before and I just didn’t notice but on worst case it takes more than 20 seconds to display a folders contents.  Disable MSE and we’re back to light speed. 
    After all the frustration, if it’ll fix this problem, I have no problem paying for Mcafee, Kaspersky or whatever you might recommend.  I’ve used Norton in the past on 2 different machines and experienced nothing but problems.
     I'm going to work out to take out some of these frustrations.
Sincerely, Bob.

[Hoov]

uninstall it again, and then use the fixit on this page to remove the registry keys. Then go to a few reputable websites and see if the speed is better. Then reinstall MSE and let me know how it went.

[Bob2010]

Will Do.

[Bob2010]

121120 Tuesday
Dear Hoov,
I uninstalled MSE and ran the auto Fixit as I’m not comfortable rummaging around and deleting things in the registry.  Again the PC sped up to light speed, nice.  After it was uninstalled I used the directions to see if Fixit had done it’s job.  Everything was gone that was supposed to be gone.  I don’t know if this is relevant but I did however notice several leftovers from programs past in the folder:  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Security Center
  Over many years I tried various security programs (see attached).  All the folders had the same thing inside them, below.
Name                Type                Data
ab(Default)      REG SZ     (value not set)


I reinstalled MSE, rebooted and it slowed down again.  To be clear I never noticed a slow down browsing the internet.  It's using XP explorer, at one point going through folders it was using over 90% CPU.

Thanks,
 Bob.

[Hoov]

There are several free AV scanners that you can try. Take a look at this list. There is also AVG. Some companies are now offering free trial versions of their pro software.  I would stick with the free version until you find one that is a good fit, then try the free pro version.

Download one, then uninstall MSE again and install the trial version and see if that makes a difference.

Let me know how that goes.

[Bob2010]

Dear Hoov,
     I used to have the free AVG but you guys had me remove it and go with MSE.  Reason stated was that AVG, and most free security software, left a door open for their advertisements leaving a risk of attack.  If not true or they’ve changed let me know and I’ll swap out for a freebe.   
Sincerely, Bob.

[Hoov]

Well for now it is best to try a free one to make sure it fixes the problem. If the problem is fixed, then you can buy the full version and that should take care of the problem. But if the free version does not take care of the problem, then we need to dig into it more.

[Bob2010]

Dear Hoov,    November 21, 2012   Wednesday
    Just an FYI.  I downloaded a free trail of the full AVG Internet Security, uninstalled MSE & installed AVG.  It asked if I wanted to use it’s toolbar, I hesitated but said yes, big mistake.  On boot up my system crashed and I had to hit the reset button.  Turns out it brings systems to almost a complete stop by a file named, ScriptHelper.exe.  Doing a search I found this has been an issue for over a year without AVG fixing it and you can’t uninstall it.  The work arounds are to disable it in Firefox, Internet Explorer or whatever you use.  I did that and it seems to be operating properly.  The other option is to uninstall AVG and reinstall it without selecting the toolbar option.  We'll see how this works out.
    Happy Thanksgiving!
    Sincerely, Bob.

[Hoov]

Go ahead and run it for a couple days and let me know how it goes. I would have told you about the toolbar problem, but I hate toolbars and don't install them.