Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

[lmacri Super Phishing Phryer]

Hi BugOutMachine:

Glad to hear NIS 2012 is behaving since the re-install.  I'll post back here if I see anyone else in the forum report a similar problem.

Two final comments:

NIS 2011 and earlier versions used the native Windows Task Scheduler to schedule custom scans, but NIS 2012 now comes with its own Norton Job Scheduler (or whatever the correct term is) (see the section Customer Experience - Custom Scans the Norton Way in the article here titled What's New in Norton Internet Security 2012).  I don't know if Idle Time Optimizer defrags in NIS 2012 are also scheduled by this Norton Job Scheduler, but if this is the case you may have uncovered a problem with the way the new task scheduler sometimes manages defrags.

Your forum profile indicates that you've used NIS for a few years now, and there is also a known bug listed in the Known Issues in NIS 19.1 post here that states After upgrading to NIS 2012, some tasks in Task Scheduler appear to be left over from NIS 2011 (see avjohnnie's thread here as well).  Based on what I've read about this bug I don't think one of these orphaned tasks could actually cause an Idle Time Optimizer defrag to run continuously after an upgrade to NIS 2012, but stranger things have happened.

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Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * NIS 2011 v. 18.6.0.29 * IE 9.0 * Firefox 7.0.1
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

[ghjbox]

I have the same situation of optimizer running continuously on my laptop (XP SP3) after having upgraded to NIS2012. I have switched off the idle time optimizer in settings, uninstalled the product (keeping the settings) and reinstalled it and optimizer is still running. It will not respond to the "cancel optimize" option. I have left the machine running for hours to see if it it will finish the task but it never does. When I shut down the GUI I have the option to end optimization and if I opt to end it seems to stop but only until the computer becomes idle. It is always running when the GUI is opened. The resources used are indicating mostly yellow (Norton).

This is a fairly elderly machine but it is a stalwart which responds well to being coaxed along. There is not much free space on the disk and when I ran MS defrag (after the initial 2012 upgrade) I needed to free up some space in order for it to run, and that ran successfully, so the disk does not need to be optimized any more at the moment.

BTW, I have also installed 2012 on a Windows 7 machine where it is behaving well and optimization runs OK.

[lmacri Super Phishing Phryer · Accepted solution]

Hi ghjbox:

Welcome to the Norton community.

First, make sure you have the latest version of NIS 2012 (go to Support | About - currently v. 19.2.0.10).  The product update delivered via LiveUpdate on 08-Nov-2011 may have fixed this problem.

Have you tried performing a clean re-install of NIS 2012 with the Norton Removal Tool?  If you tried a simple uninstall from the Control Panel there may be a residual file or scheduled task left behind on your system that's causing the problem.  It's even possible that choosing to keep the settings of the previous installation is the reason your re-install didn't work.

I provided a link at the bottom of message # 2 for general instructions for performing a clean re-install, but I'll provide step-by-step instructions for NIS 2012 below since you're new the forum and may not be familiar with the Norton Removal Tool (NRT).  Kudos to PapauZ, who posted the original instructions here for re-installing NIS 2011. Just ignore the comments about Identity Safe if you don't use this feature to manage logins and personal data on the web.

1. Backup your Identity Safe data (Settings | Web Settings | Identity Safe | Backup Identity Safe Data | Configure)
2. Download the latest NIS offline installer (download here if you want NIS 2012;  here for NIS 2011)
3. Download Norton Removal Tool here (for most NIS installations, choose the link  I have a Norton 2006/2007/2008/2009/2010/2011/2012 product) and print or save a copy of the instructions on the NRT download page.
4. Record your product activation key.  Instructions are on the Norton Removal Tool download page, but you can also click the Account link in the NIS main window or log in at www.mynortonaccount.com to view your product key.
5. Disconnect from the Internet
6. Uninstall NIS from the Windows Control Panel (e.g., Add/Remove Programs for XP; Programs and Features for Vista) and re-boot
7. Run the Norton Removal Tool and re-boot (repeat 2-3 times with a re-boot between each clean with the NRT)
8. Install NIS
9. Reconnect to the Internet
10. Activate NIS with your product activation key
11. Run LiveUpdate, re-boot, and continue to run LiveUpdate and re-boot until you get no new updates
12. Restore your Identity Safe data

You can see how the Norton Removal Tool works here in this video.  If you use Identity Safe, the Norton Removal Tool should prompt you to save your Identity Safe data, but you should back up your data before running the Norton Removal Tool just to be safe.  Also note that the Norton Removal Tool removes all Norton products from your computer, so keep this in mind if you have Norton Utilities or other Symantec products installed on your PC.

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Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * NIS 2011 v. 18.6.0.29 * IE 9.0 * Firefox 7.0.1
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

[ghjbox]

Thanks for your response. I will try your suggestions sometime within the next few days and report back.

[BugOutMachine]

Yes ghjbox, this is exactly what was happening with my PC.  Be sure to back up your Identity Safe file or connect it to your Online Account prior to removing the software and doing a fresh install.  I have not had any further issues since using the Norton Removal Tool but I also did not keep any of my previous settings which I think is key to resolving this issue.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who experienced this but I feel for you.  It's quite frustrating!  Especially when Norton does not even log the event that causes this issue.

[ghjbox]

Imacri

The link you provided to the latest NIS 2012 off-line installer results in "page not found". I have a saved copy of the NIS 2012 upgrade on my machine, but I'm not sure if that will work after a complete removal (file name: NIS-UGRADE-ESD-NoDefs-19-1-1-3-EN.exe. Can I use this for the re-install or do I need to get another download?

[lmacri Super Phishing Phryer]

Hi ghjbox:

The link I provided in message # 13 seems to be working fine on my machine and I get a pop-up asking me to save file NIS-ESD-19-1-0-29-EN.exe.  Try it again just in case there was a temporary problem connecting to the Symantec download servers.  I prefer posting this "generic" link because it always re-directs to the latest version available for download.

If that doesn't work try the direct link at http://buy-download.norton.com/downloads/CLT/NIS/US/2012/19.1/21219/ESD/NIS-ESD-19-1-0-28-EN.exe.  I wouldn't advise using the old installer you have stored on your hard drive just in case it's a buggy beta version or corrupted somehow.

Symantec released a product update for NIS v. 19.2.0.10 on 08-Nov-2011 but I don't think Symantec will be posting the full 100 MB installer for v. 19.2.0.29 for a few more days.  If you use the v. 19.1.0.28 installer the product update will be delivered when you run your LiveUpdates at the end of the installation process.

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Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * NIS 2011 v. 18.6.0.29 * IE 9.0 * Firefox 8.0.0
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

[ghjbox]

Imacri

I have followed your advice and it seems that it has succesfully solved the problem, thank you very much. Just one or two things to note:

1) I opted not to save settings on uninstall and then ran NRT three times in all, rebooting after each was complete, all as advised.

2) I did not need to reactivate NIS, it seems to have found the Serial Number of the previous installation and is correctly showing the subscription status of the account. I guess the uninstall and NRT did not remove that information.

3) The whole process on an old and slow machine (and with a slow internet connection) takes a couple of hours or more, so you need to do it when you have the time available.

4) The first thing I did after re-installation was to go into settings and disable optimazation. This experience has persuaded me that on a slow machine with scarce resources it is better to do your de-frags manually at a time to suit you rather than have it run automatically.

Thanks once more for your help. (NIS is happily doing a full system scan at the moment. That will take several more hours!)

[lmacri Super Phishing Phryer]

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ghjbox wrote:

I did not need to reactivate NIS, it seems to have found the Serial Number of the previous installation and is correctly showing the subscription status of the account. I guess the uninstall and NRT did not remove that information.

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Hi ghjbox:

Glad to hear you're up and running.

Thanks for your feedback about the Norton Removal Tool (NRT) and the product activation key.  I noticed the same thing myself when I used the NRT and wondered if I'd actually done a thorough job of cleaning out my old installation. Apparently the NRT does leave behind select files on your hard drive (see RichD's post here) and it must be designed this way so that you don't use up one of your available activations if you re-install your Norton product multiple times on the same computer (see Papauz's post here).  I'll edit Step 10 of my instructions next time to say "if necessary"

I have a laptop PC and 56-KB dial-up modem at home, although I have access to free public WiFi that I occasionally use for large downloads.  If you're interested, I posted a list of some common NIS configuration tweaks here in PatrickMcCabe's thread Is Norton Slowing Down My Computer? that can be used on systems with limited RAM and/or a slow Internet connection to optimize system performance without compromising security.

In addition to the items listed in Patrick's thread I also have Automatic LiveUpdates disabled (Settings | Computer Settings | Updates | Automatic LiveUpdate | OFF) because I find that some of the larger product updates delivered via LiveUpdate (e.g., v. 19.1 to 19.2) can take more than an hour to download over dial-up.  That being said, I always perform a manual LiveUpdate at least once a day, regardless of whether I'm on dial-up or WiFi.
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Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * NIS 2011 v. 18.6.0.29 * IE 9.0 * Firefox 8.0.0
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

[mikedov Regular Contributor]

The Norton key must be located in c:/programdata/Norton or c:/programdata/NortonInstaller. I tend to delete those folders after uninstallation with add remove for a cleaner reinstall and it always prompt me to reenter the key to activate the product.