byUsers Forums

Hi,
Its been a few days since I followed the advice about resetting PC Guard and things
seem fine.
I have not heard back form Virgin since I told them the problem had returned however.
One point to note in my case. When I reset PC guard I ran the diagnostic test which reported some cookie problem.I dont know if this is causing any problem though.
I was able to save the diagnostic test report as a web document which I may send to Virgin.
Thanks again.

Please excuse the silly typo in my previous message - PCU, doh! - CPU.

Thanks Fabrice for your kind words and offer of support. I only used the threat of action under Consumer Protection as a means of grabbing VMs' attention. You are wise to have mentioned the EULA and solicitors, I / we might be found to be wrong and liable for VMs' court costs if I / we've overlooked something which exonerates VM of responsibility e.g. this might be an SP3 incompatibility, thinks - the evidence does seem to point in that direction. Was your PCGuard OK before 11 September Windows update?

By way of correction - in my posting #52 I said:
"BTW thanks for the fix solution Costar, It worked a treat, however I think that we are now deprived of the regular virus pattern updates etc. which our ISP's owe us - after all, we are paying for them."
In fact the virus pattern updates are still coming - so that's OK.

VM took over the cable ISPs' who used to be known as NTL, Telewest and also Blueyonder. Before the take-over I was with NTL and they gave us a *'lite' version of PCGuard for free as part of the basic broadband package, I don't know if Blueyonder and Telewest adopted PCG before or after they became part of Virgin, but it seems that they also get PCG now. VM buy PCG from a U.S. software company named Radialpoint.

* By 'lite' I mean a version with a couple of features missing, i.e. it had as follows:
Anti-Virus, Firewall, Anti-Spyware, Pop-Up Blocker and Privacy Manager, this was F.O.C. with the basic ("VM size 'M'") cheapest broadband package - Identity Theft Protection and Parental Control features were disabled but would be enabled for premium customers paying for the faster download speeds, sizes 'L' and 'XL'.

Subsequently, more recent size 'M' customers have Anti-Spyware disabled as well as the two aforementioned.
The disabled Anti-Spyware is scanning and rescanning our HDDs (in an almost never ending loop, unasked for and without producing any report at the end) and causing the RPS.exe problem. When RPS.exe is running on my PC, it hogs every last bit of available CPU and makes opening applications and files so slow as to (metaphorically) make me tear my hair out, heavier app's e.g. TV Capture won't even open properly.

The code which disables the Anti-Spyware has been botched.

Thanks for the correction Taz, yeah you're right.

I just re-googled "RPS.exe" and there are over 104,000 results, all apparently from others with the same problem, however it seems that this is the only BB/forum to have a fix solution.
So again - well done Costar for resolving this one, I reckon our ISPs' ought to award you a cash bonus of thousands of pounds.

We've already done the task manager thingy, I think you'll find that the virus patterns/definition updates will cease, which is bad. Furthermore, RPS will kick in again about 20 minutes after a reboot has been done. Costar has cracked it, see the posting near the bottom of page 2 for an easy to do fix.

Well, i'm not saying anything too soon because it took nearly 3 weeks last time for the problem to come back (see top of this page).

Following a PCG update requiring a PC restart (a few days back) RPS kicked in again. I can't say for certain if it was the update or the reboot which was the culprit. Resetting PCG and then re-flagging a couple of firewall exceptions is a small price to pay compared to the misery of having RPS slowing things down to a near standstill for up to 22 hours at a time, several times a week.

Thanks again Costar.

L.R.

I have also had the same problem with rps.exe and restored the factory settings with a cookie - RHttpDownload Manager - being reported which I have been unable to clear.  PC worked ok for about a week and the problem re-appeared. Contacted VM who gave me the same response that others have been getting re high CPU usage from rps.exe and there was nothing they could do . . Spoke to someone in customer retention area today who did not seem to be too aware of the issue, Have removed PC Guard from my PC and installed AVG Free and all is OK . Poor servce from VM

Hi
I too was having the problem with rps.exe using up huge amounts of my CPU capacity, after reading this thread I reset the PCG functions in the diagnostics option and at first glance it does seem that all is now well.
As I am fairly PC illiterate the instructions to do this were first class. so thanks to all who have helped a dimwit like me to get back to some sort of normality viz internet speed.
thanks again

There are good free antivirus, firewall and spyware programs out there which will do a better job than PC Guard

I too have this problem of CPU hogging. Looks to be related to previously having had anti-spyware via NTL Guard and being forced into PC Guard due to a lapse of use (its playing up on a laptop - NTL Guard OK on main PC). When I try to close down RPS.exe, it complains about running an anti-spyware scan even tho' being an 'M' user, I dont have this feature (anymore).... Will try resetting to factory defaults.
PS: Also had an issue that going from NTL to PC Guard on the laptop, it screwed up on the install (leaving my laptop unprotected) due to the fact that my Internet connection at the time was via a Samsung box! How can such an install be remote hardware related and surely the intial installation stages should have highlighted this PRIOR to telling me to remove all other existing anti-virus.
Technical help from Virgin is by far the worst I have ever experienced.