topic Re: CPU usage high when idle in Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

CPU usage high when idle

dbrzostowski — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:48:41 GMT

Is anyone else noticing high cpu usage for NIS 2009 when your computer goes idle? when i turn the computer on and come back to it later, my vista bubbles screensaver is very slow to respond and then norton shows that the cpu is running very high. the computer is very unresponsive and the only way to fix this is to reboot. i've noticed that when i turn the idle scan time to 30min. that it helps, as i can walk away from the computer longer and come back within 30min. and the computer is fine. so i'm thinking that the problem starts when norton or the computer goes to idle. i've attached some pics that show the high cpu usage begins at idle. i have the auto-protect set for early load as well. any help would be awesome..... thanks, d

fyi-i'm running pentium 4ht with 2gb ram, vista home premium sp1; tried using norton chat support...they deleted temp files, asked me to do a cleanup and defrag, uninstalled/reinstalled....these haven't worked; in the past i also got the error message "issue 8920, 200" but after uninstall/reinstall this seems to have stopped for now.

Message Edited by dbrzostowski on 09-25-2008 11:48 AM

Re: CPU usage high when idle

TomiRed — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:05:32 GMT

Your issue is not universal, I have practically the same system except that my processor is Core 2 Duo. The logs of your NIS ar in the NortonInstaller folder in Program Files, but I can't locate the thread where there are instructions where and how to send them. So, I guess, just wait for a Symantec employee to come here...

Re: CPU usage high when idle

athena — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:38:38 GMT

Hi there,

In NAV/NIS 2009 we have introduced the idle time scheduler. This means that Norton will perform its background tasks (like scanning and getting the latest updates) when your PC is idle. This may explain why you see high Norton CPU usage when you are away from your PC and the background task is running. Once you come back to your system, your system is not idle anymore, hence the Norton CPU usage related to background tasks should be reduced. Does this explain what happens to your PC?

Can you check your Security History to see what, if any, background task was running?

Thanks

Dora Karali
Sr. Product Manager

Symantec Corporation

Re: CPU usage high when idle

dbrzostowski — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:18:55 GMT

Hi Dora,

Thanks for writing with some ideas as to what may be happening. As you described, the Norton CPU usage should be reduced, but I'm not finding that that is the case. Unfortunately, when I come back to my computer and the computer is no longer idle, the high CPU usage continues.

Next time this happens I will certainly double check the security history to try to narrow down if this is related to a specific background task. I'll post my findings when this happens again.

As a side note, unfortunately I haven't received a response from the email support in over a week. Should expect a response from them soon? Or maybe they have dropped my case?

Thanks,

Dan

Re: CPU usage high when idle

agmns — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:09:49 GMT

I am having almost the same problem with 1 of 6 laptops I have NIS 2009 installed on. CPU usage for System goes to 100% and Norton varies between 83 and 97%. Task manager shows ccSvcHst.exe as the program using these high cpu values. Also the memory usage for ccSvcHst.exe shows 142,302k ... huge compared to anything else on the system

This does not occur only when the system has been idle. It occurs during normal use ... typing display slows in Office so that the words appear 2 or 3 behind the typing. Outlook takes forever to open e-mails. IE takes a long time to open. In general the entire system slows to a point it is unusable.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled with the Norton Removal Tool as well as full manual uninstall thru the registry etc and also used the complete uninstall option doing an add/remove programs uninstall.

Message Edited by agmns on 10-01-2008 07:09 AM

Re: CPU usage high when idle

MikeO — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:59:02 GMT

dbrzostowski,

Try turning off "Compressed File Scanning" via the options dialog. Click on "Settings" (on the main Norton dialog, with the CPU meter), then "Computer Settings", then set "Compressed File Scanning" to "Off".

Let me know if this helps resolve the issue.

Thanks,

Mike

Re: CPU usage high when idle

agmns — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:36:49 GMT

Mike as I noted in my post this situation is occuring without the computer being idle. Do you think that turning off scan within compressed files is the solution in this case as well.

Re: CPU usage high when idle

dbrzostowski — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:06:22 GMT

hey mike,

turned off the compressed file scan and let my computer run for a while (couple hours) without touching it. unfortunately the same problem happened. when i got back to the computer the cpu usage was the same...system-100; norton-99.

i tried to check the history to figure out what background process, if any, was running around the time it went wrong. it was unclear since many of them ran in the time when i stepped away and let the computer run. the ones that did run are... automatic live update, idle quick scan, norton community watch, pulse updates, norton insight scan, norton insight submission.

after thinking abuot agmns's comment as well.....i remembered that last week this problem occured when burning a dvd. can't imagine the computer was idle when burning a dvd. but not sure what requirements need to be met for norton's idle processes to kick in.

dan

Re: CPU usage high when idle

dbrzostowski — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:21:18 GMT

just turned off the early load of the auto-protect. my computer sat for hours and resumed from idle just fine....i'll let you know if this continues.

Re: CPU usage high when idle

Floating_Red — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:59:33 GMT

dbrzostowski wrote:
just turned off the early load of the auto-protect. my computer sat for hours and resumed from idle just fine....i'll let you know if this continues.

Turning this Off does reduce your Protection somewhat.

Re: CPU usage high when idle

dbrzostowski — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:34:53 GMT

i spoke too soon....turning off the early load of the auto-protect didn't help at all.

Re: CPU usage high when idle

BrxBy — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:56:14 GMT

I'm having the same problem. Soon after my computer goes to idle, it freezes up and the CPU Usage hangs at 100% although the Norton usage (according to it's meter) sits at 0%. I've checked the Norton security log and it's not really pointing to the problem, and I ran through the problem sequence with Task Manager open (to see if any particular Process spikes when the usage goes to 100%), but none jump out. Incredibly frustrating! Are there any other system tools/logs beyond these that might indicate what app is being accessed at the time the CPU Usage problem occurs? That would at least point me in some direction.

When I uninstall 2009 NIS, the problem goes away.

Re: CPU usage high when idle

Dieselman743 — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:16:09 GMT

NIS 2009 is designed to do 90% of its tasks at idle. This is normal. If I sit and watch my pc I am sure I get cpu spikes but I have no need to sit and watch my pc. My screensaver is on by then.

Re: CPU usage high when idle

agmns — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:43:29 GMT

BrxBy,

The process that I've found that is high when 100% System CPU or High 90%+ Norton is excessive is ccSvcHst.exe

If you want to check much deeper into the processes running when 100% occurs I would suggest downloading ProcessMonitor and ProcessExplorer from the following Microsoft Systinternals website. You may want to set your idle time scan down to the lowest wait time so you don't have a huge process list to scroll through with ProcessMonitor.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb795533.aspx

This should help you pinpoint what process is running that causes the 100% CPU usage.

Message Edited by agmns on 10-07-2008 05:43 AM

Re: CPU usage high when idle

MikeO — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:11:16 GMT

dbrzostowski, agmns, BrxBy

I have sent you additional information and instructions via the community Private Messenger system, please look for the in the upper right hand corner of any community page.

Regards,

Mike

Re: CPU usage high when idle

agmns — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:11:31 GMT

Thanks Mike for solving my problem. As we found out it was due to SpyBuddy being installed to track some "little people's" chat history.

I've posted my steps below for any other users that may be running SpyBuddy.

Although SpyBuddy is specifically listed in the Exclusions list with NIS2009 I choose to follow the SpyBuddy Help Page at this location http://exploreanywhere.com/exclusions/norton/spybuddy.html and included all exclusions listed as well as Spyware.SpyBuddy. (Since I did not try it I'm not sure if the Spyware.SpyBuddy exclusion in NIS2009 captures all the files/directories listed on their help page)

Installation of NIS 2009 with SpyBuddy.

1. If you currently have SpyBuddy installed on your machine UNINSTALL it and save on a USB Drive or other portable device your original installation / setup file for SpyBuddy as well as your License Key. Eject the USB Device (It can not be plugged in while you install NIS 2009 as Norton may detect the Setup file and delete it)

Norton will attempt to remove SpyBuddy as soon as Norton installs that is why you must uninstall Spy Buddy.
Norton will detect and remove the SpyBuddy installation file if it is detected on your machine.

2. Install NIS 2009 as you normally would.

3. Run LiveUpdate for NIS 2009 (Double Click on the NIS 2009 icon in your system tray and choose Live Update)

4. Reboot as required at the end of Live Update.

5. Double Click on the NIS 2009 Icon in your system tray. Choose Settings (top center) and Computer Settings. In the category "Exclusions / Low Risks" select the configure for Scan Exclusions. For both the Scan and Autoprotect Exclusions add the following exclusions.

NOTE: The first exclusion assumes that you are installing SpyBuddy to it's default install directory. If you choose to install it to a different directory that directory must be specified as the first exclusion below.

c:\program files\exploreanywhere\spybuddy

c:\windows\win32sb.dll

c:\windows\sbsysdll.dll

c:\windows\system32\drivers\npf.sys

c:\windows\system32\pthreadvc.dll

c:\windows\sysicept.dll

c:\windows\eacrypt.dll

c:\windows\sb32mon.dll

c:\documents and settings\all users\application data\winsyscfg

Click Apply when you are finished and the OK.

6. Do the same for Signature Exclusions using the list below.

Spyware.ChatBlocker

Spyware.ISpynow

Spyware.Ispy

Spyware.KeyloggerPRO

Spyware.Netobserve

Spyware.SpyBuddy

Click Apply when you are finished and then OK, Click OK again and close the NIS2009 Screen.

7. Plug the USB device back where you saved your SpyBuddy install/setup file into your computer.

8. Install and Configure SpyBuddy

Re: CPU usage high when idle

BrxBy — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 02:04:24 GMT

Thanks for the advice on how to fix my problem, Mike.

I reinstalled NIS 2009 last night in anticipation of following your advice and pinpointing the problem, but since then the problem has not reoccurred and the CPU usage has been fine. So I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that the original issue was an anomaly or a glitch in my original installs.

Thanks again. If it reoccurs I'll reach out to you.

Re: CPU usage high when idle

war02orc — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:08:49 GMT

This is the same exact problem I am having, and it only does it on my desktop pc (my laptop has no issues). I do not have SpyBuddy installed. The same process is eating my CPU, 90-99% CPU for ccsvchst (sp?). The only way I have been able to resolve this is to restart the pc. I don't know what the fix was they sent to you guys in PMs, but I sure could use it!

Message Edited by war02orc on 11-03-2008 10:08 PM

Re: CPU usage high when idle

dbrzostowski — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:28:04 GMT

war02orc,

i wish i could say that they sent me a fix in a PM, but i haven't gotten one. one of the techs is still reviewing my error dump files.... but still no solution for me....sorry!

but i'm having this problem on my desktop too....my laptop doesn't have any problems either....

Re: CPU usage high when idle

dalonso — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:05:05 GMT

I'm having the same issue and do not have any of that spybuddy stuff.... Once I go idle, I get pinned at 100% CPU and never lets up until I kill the service.

Running Vista Ultimate 64 bit... Please help!!