Trick With Spybot TeaTimer

The most mentioned problem with the last three versions of SpyBot has been about the resident protector "TeaTimer" (found in SpyBot RC4, RC5 and SpyBot 1.3 Final) being a resource hog. One cure for that I've found (especially the ram/cpu usage problem) popped out at me today sort of by accident. I hadn't taken a look at Task Manager in about a week and when I did, I did a double take. TeaTimer had jumped from its usual 1,700K-3,200K to a whopping12.3 megs! I noticed this fact in the CachemanXP's list of running processes.(Simple to find. Just double click the CachManXP icon in your start tray and you'll see the startup panel on the right of the CacheMan window that opens.) It occurred to me that there might be a simple fix for the excessive ram and cpu usage right under my nose (Hey that's one of Cachman's mission statements, right?) So, I right clicked TeaTimer and looked at the drop down option list. Sure enough there is an option in the drop down that says "Lower RAM usage." I told cacheman to do so and lo and behold, the RAM usage dropped to 1,300K and CPU usage dropped from 25% constant to 0-2% constant. It's been three hours now and TeaTimer is still sitting at 1,300K solid as a rock. It's a bit of a workaround I know managing it with CacheManXP, but it does work. I wouldn't have bothered messing with TTimer except, since it's been running it's brought at least four or five warnings about emminant registry changes to my attention and asks if I want them to be allowed. Granted the changes were intentional on my part, but it's still nice to know the TeaCup is on the job.
Bill

 

Oh Yeah. CachemanXP is, of course, available here on MG at CacheManXP Check it out it's a nifty little bird dog
Bill

 

billH, Very interesting on a couple of points

(1) Spybot has apparently graduated to a 1.3 Final version. Have to check it out. No prior mention on MG about 1.3 Final that I have seen.

(2) I' ve been running the teatimer.exe padlock on, when I bootup for some time now. Cacheman XP only works on NT/2K/XP so I can't check what happens on my W98 system. Can anyone point me to a solution for W98? I have had no apparent problems with teatimer.exe that I can put a finger on. Baz

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hey baz (and anyone else interested) here's the spot on MG for SpyBot 1.3 About Win98, I don't know. Anyone have an answer for the bazzer?

 

Hey Baz

here's the home page of cacheman Outer Technologies . Looks like there's a version that works with Win98 from what i read. It's available here on MG at cacheman
Bill

 

That's a good tip Bill, I'm giving that a try myself, although on my machine I haven't seen TT go above 5.2MB usage since 1.3 final was released.

 

I hadn't either alan, until today. I'm wondering what caused it to spike. Maybe it really was watching something it considered dangerous. Dunno, but it's behaving fine now. Sitting at 1,444 solid with no peaks or other mischief.
Bill

 

Thanks MA, billH and alanC for the info. I guess I'm gonna hafta check out the front page every day. As I mentioned before I usually don't bother but go direct to Software link. I am surprised that with all the talk back and forth, that 1.3 Final didn't get a mention earlier. Am d/l it right now and then will d/l Cacheman (as distinct from Cacheman XP) Will try that also.

Next d/l will be LeechGet as I have read good reviews on that as a d/l manager although nothing apparently speeds up dialup d/l's. Certainly not by up to 300% as some advertise. The reason for LeechGet is so that d/l's can resume if something bombs out, otherwise I wouldn't bother. Thanks fellas, again. Baz
PS: I've made Corporal, Baz

 

Is there any reason to even install Teatimer, it can be un checked at the time of install - I only use Spy Bot for manual scans - using ver 1.2 now and wanting to upgrade to 1.3 final - your thoughts........

 

Like I said TeaTimer is nopt a problem on my rig. And it's keeping me informed of any attempted registry changes. So far it's just been me messing around but that's okay if just one time it says "Hey, do you want to let this change to happen? and it's not me then it's worth a little bit of trouble keeping an eye on it every now and then.