Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

[arthurk]

In the last few days I have noticed that something is slowing up my computer quite significantly in the period about 2-5 minutes after boot-up, or possibly 2-5 minutes after first connecting to the internet (which is the usually the same thing). Looking at the Task Manager, CPU usage seems to be peaking at 100% occasionally during this time, but I can't see any unusual programs or processes causing this.

I usually run Live Update first (manually) when connecting to the internet, and then open Thunderbird or my browser, and these have been taking longer to open than previously, and slow to respond when I start using them, eg scroll bars don't move instantly etc. After about 5 minutes, everything seems to be normal again.

I am using Windows 7 HP 64-bit, and two things changed just before this problem started: I upgraded from NIS 2010 to 2011 (18.5.0.125) which had downloaded itself automatically; and I got the standard Windows updates issued on 11 Jan (KB2419640, KB2454826, KB8890830 & KB976902).

Is the slowing up likely to be the result of NIS 2011 doing things a bit differently from 2010, so that more is going on in those first 5 minutes? Or is there something amiss that I need to be worried about? I don't think it's any kind of malware, since NIS scans are clean and it seems to only happen in the first 5 minutes, so I'm more concerned that it's some kind of program bug.

Thanks for any ideas.

[floplot Norton Fighter]

Hello arthurk

Welcome to the Norton Communtiy Forum

There are a few settings which you can change in NIS 2011 which perhaps will speed up things for you.

Please go to Settings, Miscellaneous Settings,  Automatic Resume Delay, Automatic Task Delay,  Idle Time Out. Change those 3 items down to 1 minute.

Then reboot your computer a few times and see if it helps your problem. Before you run live update and do the other things, please wait until your computer is fully loaded.

Please come back and let me know how you made out. Thanks.

[SendOfJive Norton Fighter]

Hi arthurk,

What you describe is pretty normal.  At startup, just about everything on your system, from Windows itself to the least used small application, wants to check for updates online, so the first five minutes or so after booting is a very busy time for your PC.  The Automatic Tasks Delay in Norton's Miscellaneous Settings, mentioned by floplot, allows you to keep Norton from jumping into this fray until later, after things have calmed down.  The default is 10 minutes, which is the maximum time you can set before Norton will begin its background tasks.  I don't even think about actually using my PC until five or ten minutes have elapsed, because it just ignores me until it gets all the startup business taken care of anyway.

[arthurk]

Thanks for the replies. I don't think anything untoward is happening, it's just that this has only got noticeably bad in the past few days after upgrading to NIS 2011. I've had the computer for over 6 months and not had this issue before, and I haven't changed my normal routine after boot-up.

The NIS delay settings are currently 10 minutes, but surely if I cut them down to 1 minute, isn't that simply going to increase the load in the 2-5 mins period where I'm already now finding things slow? By keeping them at 10 minutes, at least they won't be competing with everything else.

[AllenM Norton Fighter]

Hi arthurk,

You mentioned running a scan with NIS and it was clean. Was this a full system scan or quick scan? If you have not run a full manual system scan yet I would recommend doing this also since NIS is typically pretty aggressive at getting that first full scan completed after installation.

Also doing an initial full system scan sets the stage for NIS to kick in it's once per week Idle Full Scan.

Best wishes.

Allen

[arthurk]

Yes, I've run a full system scan. My computer isn't often switched on and idle for long enough to run an Idle Full Scan, only Quick Scans, so I do a Full System Scan manually on a regular basis.

[delphinium Norton Fighter]

It may need more turn on time in order to keep the background tasks done.  If the machine is shut off for long periods and not allowed to do its background checks and tasks, that makes everything take longer when it does get a chance to do it.  If you turn it on once a day for an hour, it will keep everything up to date, and lighten up during startup.

[jarrycanada]

One thing I noticed right away after installing NIS 2011 is it was slow, but what you have to do is first run live update tell it no longer has anything new to install, reboot the computer and run all the NIS tasks.

this can be done by clicking on NIS icon, and clicking Performance, then norton tasks, click on the items and let them run and leave the computer alone for a hour or two. once all of those tasks are complete, reboot and your system should run faster.. I noticed this on all of my systems. it works, it just takes time for norton some how to fine tune it's self to run on  your system.

also if this computer is a notebook you may want to setup a clean up mode setting under power management, or power options in windows 7. create a new plan with everything turned off, and then leave the computer to sort it's self out.

[arthurk]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Seems like there's probably nothing actually wrong, and I'll just need to adjust the order in which I do things in the first 5 minutes each day so as to let all the background tasks sort themselves out. If I have any further issues with this I'll post again.

[floplot Norton Fighter]

Hello arthurk

Thanks for the update. If you consider this thread to be solved, can you please mark the post which gave you the solution so that others will know it has been solved. Thanks.