Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

[Plankton]

Hi:

Received the NIS 2010 17.5 update late yesterday, via LiveUpdate. I was prompted to reboot and did so normally and logged in again with normal function, as I could tell.

This morning, I started up my system in question, XP SP3 and the NIS icon would not load into the System Tray.

I then clicked on the program shortcut to invoke the NIS UI, without anything happening. Went to reboot and noticed that ccSvcHst.exe process was hanging, so I had to terminate it via End Task.

Rebooted 3 additional times without any result - same situation as above.

The ccSvcHst.exe Process is listed in the Task Manager twice.

What is going on? I am basically non-functional. 

[cgoldman]

Please do the following. Shut down completely not just reboot. Wait 10 seconds and turn the PC on again. When you get into Windows either run msconfig or autoruns (from Microsoft) and disable all those startups with the exception of Norton. Disable in particular web cam, and clock applications. Restart computer and see if Norton now works and advise.

[Plankton]

Hi cgoldman:

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate it.

Funny thing is that I did all of what you had said before you had posted it, without result.

One ccSvcHst.exe (System) process was actually taking up CPU time, the other (Owner) was not. So what I did was to boot into Safe Mode (no networking!) and began a Full System Scan. It ran to completion without incident.

I then rebooted normally, logged in and voila! (to my surprise) everything worked perfectly.

Perhaps the FSS triggered something within NIS, since when I checked on both processes, they were active. I had since rebooted three times with perfect consistency of operation.

Guess it was just a weird one, but I would suggest that Symantec keep their eyes and ears open.

Thanks again for you effort!

[Plankton]

Hi:

Problem is happening again after 3 successful reboots.

Here is what is happening at the time of this post:

My XP box, as described above has been acting erratically since the 17.5 update, with ccSvcHst.exe not starting or partially starting as in one instance of the Framework. My system is noticeably slower when this happens but I cannot check the CPU Utilization. I would think that it is on the high side. When I try to restart, a box pops-up trying to end the ccSvcHst.exe task. I click "end task" and then the system restarts as requested.

I have disabled all but essential startup processes/tasks and am coming down to a single handful of items.

It would also appear that IE 8 is also acting very slow at times when all this happens. I will narrow down the variables, but I wonder if anyone else is exhibiting the same symptoms, as in my posts above.

If so, please post your comments here.

I really wonder what the exact changes are with 17.5 that would cause this and only on XP, SP3 - my Vista and Win 7 boxes work like a charm.

[floplot]

Hi Plankton

I know the thread I am about to post is from the N360 section and the problem is different. I think there is a common part though. You and the o/p in this thread both are using xp sp3 and there seems to be a problem with a Norton update or version. Maybe there is really no connection, but this other person found that his problem had to do with a Windows update that seems to have been partially blocked by Norton from what I could understand from the thread.

Any way, please take a look at this thread and see if perhaps that may be what is causing your problem also. There has been another poster who is saying the same thing as you I think also. Seems to be something happening with xp sp3 o/s and not the others. See what you think about this.

http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-360/Backup-at-risk-message-and-XP-update-KB967715-problem-solv...

[mijcar]

One of the things you haven't mentioned is if there were any problems with the original update:  no reboot requested? too long to get started after the reboot? anything else?

On one of my machines, I had to very patient, waiting what seemed like 5 minutes for the NIS icon to appear in the Notification Area (systray).  But I did wait; and that was the end of it.

I've found by bitter experience that forcing the installation by clicking hither and thither can corrupte an installation.  If this were the case, the best solution is a clean uninstall followed by a patient reinstall.

Another possibility, depending on processor speed, available RAM, other background tasks, harddrive free space, and number of executables on your computer, is that Norton is tied up in the initial process of identifying trustworthy files.  The fact that your ccSvcHst is on in the backgroun suggests that Norton is working; and that is sort of confirmed by the shutdown warning that ccSvcHst needs to be forced closed.  One possibility that causes that to happen is if the Norton scanner is trapped in a single large compressed file (usually ZIP or CAB).  This would be exacerbated if NIS is trying to extricate an apparantly infected file from a large ZIP file, which entails descompressing, fixing or quarantining the individual file, then recompressed the package.  This can take a huge amount of time.  For this reason, I've turned off the fix option in compressed files and opted for the remove infected ZIP packages (my logic being that if a single file is infected, I'm certainly not interested in any other part of the package that was sent to me -- it being quite possible that one of the other files included is also malware, but so new that NIS can't identify it yet).  I also from time to time delete all but the most recent system restore file which save tons of gigabytes (Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Cleanup, then choose any drive, then click on the second tab and opt for the choice "delete all but the most recent restore point").

There's a lot to think about above.  Let us know if any of it works for you.

[windy1840]

I have a similar problem, but with 17.1.0.19 on both Vista Business x64 and W7 Professional x64.

After a period of uptime, and with no particular repeatable sequence of apps (like Office 2007 etc) NIS2010 becomes unresponsive.  The sidebar gadget if enabled just spins, the UI process starts but never appears (it's there in Process Explorer), Windows Explorer starts to freeze and has to be restarted.  The PC continues to work OK for a while but becomes progressively slower.  Only one of the ccSvcHosts appears to be doing anything (CPU cycles), and I can't kill any of the processes or shutdown - I just have to close as much as I can and poweroff.  I'm able to switch user to another account on the machine, and it works as long as I don't try to open NIS UI - if I do then I get the same Explorer freezing issues and have to kill it.

I've done an upgrade from Vista to W7 and a clean install of W7 (lost one of my NIS2010 install licenses in the process even though I uninstalled which I'll need to address later if I ever resolve the issue).

I have NIS2010 working OK on my laptop (Vista Ultimate x64)

[floplot]

Hi Windy

Please see your other thread on this same topic.

[Tim]

Hello Plankton,

Are you able to reproduce this? If so, can you get a dump file from the ccSvcHst.exe process when it's at the crashed state?

Let me know when you have this and I'll get you further information. 

[Plankton]

Hi Tim and others: This seems to have resolved itself on it's own, but I wonder why. I think that something is still up here - as my XP system is running a bit slower. Tim, there is no crash log produced. Is anyone else running XP have a problem with 17.5? Just curious. The Forum Software is the real PITA!, IMO.