Do you see a 'Not responding' notification?

Thanks for the prompt response. No, there is no message at all; just a general slowdown of the whole programme, including the extra windows generated when say writing a new message. Other programmes (browser for example) are all a bit slower but not impossibly slow.

The task manager shows 35% app. usage of the processor.

Sent from my phone on the M6!

Check the Activity Monitor to see what Thunderbird may be busy with doing. At the top right of the Thunderbird window, click the menu button > Activity Manager.

Dear Christ1 Many thanks for the further prompt reply.

I am now on a coach on the A3 on my way to Portsmouth on holiday for a week.

Clearly I cannot answer at the moment but will check the Activity Monitor when I get home.

Best wishes

Peter

Dear colleague,

I am back from holiday and have waited a day or two to see what is happening and to look at the Activity Monitor (AM) and the Task Manager. There are several observations.

a. The slow down is still bad and perhaps worse, slowing right down nearly to a slop pretty often and slowing other apps, such as my image programme which I use a lot.

b. The activity manager indicates nothing unusual but that regular slow downs occur when it checks for incoming mail (there are three accounts).

c. I thought I saw a message about indexing but it didn't stay on the AM. However an indexing message certainly appeared at least once in the notification line at the bottom left hand corner of the main screen.

d. There are some slow downs observable when using the image app. which don't appear to link with checking and downloading mail.

e. It is difficult to see how it uses up to and sometimes more that 40% of the CPU time and 450 Mb of memory when it is hardly engaged in anything useful.

Clearly, I reduce the disturbance by checking for mail less frequently but it would be nice to find a fix. At age 81 I make more mistakes in typing than I used to and it is distressing to have to wait 30 seconds or so for the latest typed phrase to appear in order to check and correct it.

One other point, the excessive slowdowns seem to be relatively recent (three or four months) and I wonder if a recent modification has caused the effect.

With best wishes

Peter

What is your anti-virus software?

Kaspersky Internet Security

Try to start Windows in safe mode with networking enabled. - Win10 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode

Still in Windows safe mode, start Thunderbird in safe mode. - https://support.mozilla.org/kb/safe-mode

Does the problem go away?

christ1 said

Try to start Windows in safe mode with networking enabled. - Win10 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode Still in Windows safe mode, start Thunderbird in safe mode. - https://support.mozilla.org/kb/safe-mode Does the problem go away?

singletsigma, what are your results?

Thanks for yours.

I have had some problems with starting in the Windows safe mode so have not tried it properly yet. Also have had problems with the Kaspersky "trusted mode". I also have a pile of work to do so I shall probably not be able to do anything before next week.

However your interest is kindly and most encouraging.

Thanks for the reply.

I look forward to the results of your followup message

Dear Wayne, No progress to report. Win 10 starts in the safe mode, but NOT with an interrnet connection. On the way it says the app (getting started?? not sure) cannot be opened with the built-in Administrator's account. I ve constructed a User admin account and used that, and tried with the original microsoft account but the results are the same - no internet connection. So clearly I cannot proceed.

One thing I noticed in normal operation - in the Thunderbird activity monitor, a box occasionally appears within a slow down and even after no messages have been downloaded saying that it is indexing the inbox. the inbox has about 20 messages in it. To this it requires ~40% of the CPU for ~15 seconds. The box disappears leaving the list of usual activities (messages downloaded or none to download, or transferred etc.)

As always - help and sympathy would be appreciated!

Wayne I have managed to load the safe mode with internet connection and will report again when I have given it a proper go.

One other thing noticed: I mentioned the odd indexing - the last one said that it was determining which messages to index - but the download that had just taken place delivered no messages at all.

Cheers

Peter

Dear Wayne, I operated in the safe mode (both windows and thunderbird) for some time and did not seem to get any severe slowdowns. I am bit circumspect as I was having to do different things to usual (safe mode blocks some programmes) but I a m pretty certain that I would have noticed. I am not back in normal mode and, inevitably, things are going alright at the moment. I am now looking forward to hearing from you. Many thanks Peter

Update: the latest "no messages to download" has provoked an enormous slow down and cpu usage.

Peter

I've updated the topic title to be closer to what you are seeing. The bad news is, all the examples I find have reporters saying antivirus was causing their problems - https://mzl.la/2dlRc6x

Thanks for yours and for re-titling the query. With windows safe mode, I think it was alright.

However I'll give another try over the next few days and report back.

Best wishes

Dear Wayne,

Simply reporting with a comment about Thunderbird and Kaspersky.

Problems with slow running continue, somewhat ameliorated by collecting mail every half an hour instead of every ten minutes.

I looked at Kaspersky and found one of the "performance" tags was not set, so did so. Not much difference unfortunately.

In one or two cases of slowdown the activity manager shows (briefly) that the programme is indexing - even when it has not downloading anything or just a couple of messages.

It seems to me that the indexing is very resource intensive and presumably provokes Kaspersky to inspect all the messages that have been previously scanned. if so this is unfortunate.

I thought of abandoning Kaspersky but it seems to be reckoned to be the best AV programme - and as I am alone and have to sort out my own problems, I really don't want to risk picking up an infection.

So I am considering moving back to Outlook 7, to see if there is any improvement.

I'll let you know if anything improves with Thunderbird.

Meanwhile, thanks for your help.

Peter

Is this a gmail account? If not, what mail provider?

Singletsigma said

With windows safe mode, I think it was alright.

Working in safe mode does rather point to Kaspersky as a source of trouble.

You should set Kaspersky to exclude the Thunderbird profile directory