Norton for Mac

[farhanb123]

I have read through the previous posts on this thread and this keeps happening to me in spite of already turning off idle scans.  Restarting the computer helps for a little while but then SymDaemon goes crazy again each time.

My sample file is attached.

[farhanb123]

Going up to the top of the screen, right clicking on the Norton QuickMenu, and selecting "Disable Virus Protection" from the Norton AntiVirus menu seemed to immediately stop the SymDaemon process' CPU-grab.  The % CPU went from 99% to 0% just by diabling the Virus Protection.

However, having Virus Protection is the entire point of having the software, so hopefully there is a better fix than this.

[Lee_G]

It looks as if the AV scan engine is encountering something that is causing it to get "stuck".  Do you know if any other software is running at the same time as this issue occurs, such as Time Machine?

If you don't mind, can you go to the Help menu and run the "Gather Support Information" command?  This will place a zip file on your desktop, I'll contact you via private message with an address to send it.

[farhanb123]

The only other software running is my web browser, my e-mail client, adobe reader, and microsoft word.  What's also interesting is the problem didn't go away even after I uninstalled and reinstalled the Norton software (I did this prior to creating the sample file and contacting you yesterday).  But what did happen after reinstallation is that the AntiVirus software now won't allow me to turn Virus Protection on (or idle-time scan, for that matter) and the Quick Scan, System Scan, and File Scan buttons are disabled.

[farhanb123]

and the gather support command isn't generating a file right now so unfortunately i can't send you that

[ryan_mcgann]

When SymDaemon gets stuck at 100% CPU, please try following these stemps to get more information for us:

1. Open the Terminal application (Applications -> Utilities)

2. Type  "sudo fs_usage -w -f filesys SymDaemon" and press return. When it asks you, enter your password.

This will tell us the file activity in SymDaemon. Let it run for 4-5 seconds, and then press "Control-C" to stop it. Then save that output to a text file and post it here.

Thanks, and sorry for the problems.

[farhanb123]

the file is 4 MB and i'm getting an error message here telling me i can't upload a file greater than 2 MB.  can you please send me a private message with your e-mail address?

[Lee_G]

Sending you a private message now.  I may have a solution for your issue with AutoProtect not enabling, but may not have time to send it right away (I need to add some info to an existing fix).  Thanks for your patience.

[farhanb123]

What I ended up doing since I never heard back was uninstalling my Norton software and downloading a 30-day free trial of Intego's VirusBarrier X6.  It, so far, is not hogging system resources like Norton did.  So after 30 days it looks like I'll just buy their software and you will have lost a customer.

[JohnHab]

Lee I have the same problem and captured the attached from sampling the SymDaemon process via Activity Monitor (I tried the sudo command but it didn't work for some reason). Time Machine is not running at the same time when SymDaemon is pegging the CPU (and note I have a Mac mini server with a 2.0 Ghz quad-core CPU). I have Locational Awarness off and I also turned off Auto Scan. I have NIS 5 for Mac v12..2 (76). Thx, John.