I went to reply to this topic http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Security-Norton/NIS-2011-s-background-tasks-resulting-in-constant-disk-activity/td-p/344658/page/2 but can't find a reply button. Are all threads closed after a length of time?
I so have praised the light footprint and have personally been the cause of sales for NIS but i now absolutely detest the thing. Please see my post from a little while ago that remains unresolved http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Security-Norton/If-i-run-LU-can-i-then-turn-the-pc-freezing-thing-off-and-be/td-p/521762/highlight/true. Norton totally hogging and stopping all operations on my computer despite my having around 80% free disc space and tons of memory available. It's gone back to it's deepest dark days of being a resource hog for me. I've felt superior for the last few years when people with other AV's have complained about theirs halting applications and operations as it interrupted. I instantly told them to switch to the new stunningly improved Norton.
My annoyance and concern specific to THIS topic is with the recent additional new problem of DEBILITATING constant disc access. My computer is pretty quiet indeed, even after 5 years, but i am able to hear when the hard drive is being accessed. Admittedly to do so i need not to have an tv or anything making a sound on and it is next to my head. With it being over five years old i don't wish to have the hard drive whirring away incessantly as it will reduce the life of it, or at least it's component mechanical parts. I thought the main complaint of the OP was the fact of the constant accessing of the hard drive rather than NIS actually creating a 'noise'? To clarify, my concern is the persistent accessing which i think this thread covers rather than start a new one?
First of all i'll address points and suggestions made in posts above that don't apply to it being a non-Norton cause for this 'problem'. I'll also list specific settings that i have made after Googling this problem which haven't helped.
- I don't have any viruses etc.
- I have a full scan scheduled weekly.
- I do not need to defrag and am optimized. Can't remember the last time i had to defrag. I have no disk errors.
- My computer is performing fantastically (obviously except for when NIS is screwing it up) with 4GB live sports streams. I can run several other applications at the same time.
- My broadband connection is fibre optic at a constant 39MB. QOS download and upload is always 100%-99%.
- Idle Time Scans is switched off.
- Idle TIme Optimizer is turned off as i rarely ever have to defrag. Confirmed when i ran a check right now before posting.
- Pulse Updates is nowadays turned off because of it's farcical interrupting/freezing everything when it frequently runs.
- I do have Automatic Live Updates on which is supposed to run hourly i think.
- Sorry but in view of the hogging by NIS i have had to turn off the voluntary Norton Community Watch off.
- Same reason the Monthly Report is now turned off.
- Automatic download of new version turned off, but i do check frequently for most current version.
- High Usage Alert turned off, yep i'm trying to avoid Norton doing anything other than security operations. Although i always thought that a high usage alert could potentialy alert me to something malicious occurring.
- The Automatic Resume Delay is set to the maximum allowed due to NIS making my accessing the internet, hell let's be honest...'anything' impossible upon turning the computer on.
One thing that does infuriate me is when i turn the computer on (not as in rebooting) and i see the dreaded 'Norton is currently performing Background Tasks' OMG! it's impossible to stop the 'background' tasks. Sometimes one has to wait several minutes before it will allow you to do ANYTHING. It defies Process Explorer, Task Manager, The 'Start' menu button everything.
Many, many, many (i could add many more 'many's) times it has prevented me from accessing something i needed to extremely urgently because of it's 'background' tasks. I thought it was supposed to perform background tasks only when one isn't asking the computer to be used. Also, i thought it was supposed to instantly accede once someone flicks the computer on. Background Tasks refuses to close and totally overrides important superior requests for several minutes. It never used to.
The culprits are at a rough estimation 95% of the time ccsvchst.exe and 5% of the time svchost.exe It infuriatingly interferes when i am doing complex spreadsheets and databases and audio or video editing. I told it not to operate during full screen modes but ignorant as hell it still will! NIS had run superbly for the last few years prior to now.
For goodness sake how many and what are these never ending background tasks? It isn't defragging, it isn't idle time scans. So what is it. I'm one of those in the i never turn my computer off rather than turn it off nightly categories. IThere are arguments 50-50 for both views. I think now my computer is relatively old i prefer for it not to be cooling down and heating up affecting the thermal compounds etc. Plus i hear that the most likely time for a computer to go faulty is during the booting up process. However, i am now finding myself having to turn it off out of annoyance at it whirring away with background tasks day and night grrRRRR.