Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

[kats]

My Norton Internet Security 2011 has greatly slowed to a
stop in the past few days. I also noticed that my CPU meter has been stuck
between 99% and 100% while full system
scan is running. In my last attempt, I left full system scan running for
ten hours, and I have yet to complete scanning. And I have to log-off to cancel
the scan.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Norton 2011, using the
Norton removal tool and down loading NIS-ESD-18-6-0-29-EN.exe. But there was no
appreciable difference in performance.

Norton Technical Support recommended the following procedures,
which I also tried. I uninstalled non-Symantec security programs (I found
something called “Malware”). I deleted temporary files and the contents of the
Prefetch folder. I ran LiveUpdates. And I ran Check Disk to fix file system
errors.

I tried to alter the Hard Acceleration as recommended, but
my display driver did not allow changes to be made to the current settings.

My operating system is 32-bit Windows Vista Home Premium; my
machine is a Dell Inspiron 530, and up to now, I’ve never had a prior problem
with Norton Internet Security.

What has gone wrong?

[HoboNeil]

Before doing the reinstall, have you installed anything?

Try the Norton Power Eraser and scan to see if you have an infection. Check your running processes as well using your task manager and share it with us...

[CyberLife]

There are chances that your computer is infected. Let us run a scan using Norton Power Eraser and see whether it detects any threats. You can follow the steps in this Support Article:

Norton Power Eraser

if you are not sure about any entry in the Scan Results window, please let us know. We will help you.

[SendOfJive Norton Fighter]

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kats wrote:

My Norton Internet Security 2011 has greatly slowed to a stop in the past few days.

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Hi kats,

Not sure what you mean by that statement - are you referring to scanning speed?  There are a couple of things to try.  First, in Norton Computer Settings, turn off Compressed FIles Scan and then try running another full scan.  Often a malformed compressed file will cause the scan to hang, so disabling this setting might confirm this to be the cause of your issue.  If that fails, try running the scan in Safe Mode.  If it completes in Safe Mode, that would indicate that some other program that does not run in Safe Mode may be interferring with the Norton scan.  Likely suspects are other security applications.

[kats]

Thank you for your good suggestion.

I first tried running Power Eraser, but it did not detect any risks. I turned off scanning compressed files, but with no success.

Finally, I ran full system scan in safe mode successfully: 525,169 items were scanned in a brisk 50 minutes as normal for my PC.

What software could be interfering with Norton Internet Security? Do you have a suggestion as to how to proceed?

[SendOfJive Norton Fighter]

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kats wrote:
What software could be interfering with Norton Internet Security? Do you have a suggestion as to how to proceed?

---

Usually, it would be another security program.

[kats]

Thank you again for your good help. I looked at my list of programs, and did not find anything that appeared to be related to security other than a program I uninstalled earlier, Malware. But I'm not expert enough to know for sure.

Nevertheless, the only thing I noticed was that full system scan seemed to slow down about the time a window appeared which read, "Norton Internet Security is currently performing background tasks." Is that relevant?

[SendOfJive Norton Fighter]

I'm not sure about the background tasks notification - usually when that alert appears Norton is doing something that uses a lot of the PC's available resources, which will slow the computer down.  However, background tasks should cease if you start using the computer.  Also, scanning does normally run the CPU to high percentages, so that alone would not indicate any sort of problem.  Are you still unable to complete a scan in normal mode?

[floplot Norton Fighter]

Hello

That background tasks notification is usually for optimizing your hard drive. You can turn that feature off since all it is doing is running windows optimizing. You can do that on your own. I would recommend though that you defrag your hard drive  and see if that helps..

[kats]

There has been no improvement in using Norton Full System
Scan in normal mode. After 10 hours, the scan continued to run slowly and eventually stopped
one-third of the way from completion. Moreover, my CPU meter was again stuck at 100%.

I tried turning off Idle Time Optimizer, but there was no
appreciable difference. However, this time, while running full system scan, I
noticed what seemed to me to be a redundant pop-up message as follows: Norton
Internet Security is performing a background task: full system scan in
progress. Why would this be running in the background?

Am I doomed to run full scan in Safe Mode only?