Freezing my computer

Norton Security | Norton Internet Security
1

My computer is becoming almost unusable after the last upgrade to NIS 2011.  I have a Dell Inspiron 600m using Windows XP SP3, with 2 GB RAM.  While I understand my computer is getting up there in age, it was working fairly well with the last version of Norton.  Ever since Norton upgraded me a few months ago, this computer spends more time telling me the CPU usage is high and freezing my programs than actually working.  It freezes everything: Firefox, Word, any program I use.

 

I've searched online to try to find the solution, but nothing I've found yet has worked.  I tried disabling most of the features that go automatically (which really defeats the whole purpose of the program), but that didn't work anyway.  I tried using the Norton uninstall tool and then reinstalling.  Still no.

 

At first I thought it was a conflict between Firefox and the version 10 of Adobe Flash (that came out about the same time I rewnewed my subscription and Norton gave me this "new" version) because Flash sites kill me, but it's doing the same thing with any program I try to open for any length of time.  I get a high CPU usage message and when I check the Windows Task Manager, ccSvcHst.exe is always right up there using a big part of my CPU.  I can open up MS Word and just have it sit there and I'll get a high CPU usage message.

 

I"ve read enough messages in various places online to make me believe it's Norton causing the problem.  I'm seriously ready to uninstall the stupid program and eat the cost of buying a new antivirus (even though my Norton subscription is paid up until next Feb).  I have really reached the end of my rope trying to figure this one out.  I'm not a tech and I've done everything I can think of.

 

Does anyone have any idea how I can fix this?  I can hardly do anything with this computer these days!!!

 

Chalk

2

Hello Chalkbrd and welcome to the Community.  I'm clutching at straws here but maybe some ot these might help you.  First thing, have you tried opening the Norton window, clicking on Support, then click on Get Support, then click on Begin Support Session.  NIS2011 should then begin a self check, to see if there is a problem with the Norton Program.  Second, have you looked at the Performance screen and see if anything is showing up that is using all your memory?  Do you get any error messages, when your PC stalls?  And finally have any of your Norton scans showed any problems?  You could again open the Norton window, click on History, then click on the Show down arrow and click on Unresolved Security Risk.  Are there any problems there?  These suggestions may not find anything but they will help narrow down any problems you might have.

3

Thanks for the welcome. I tried the support thing with the virtual helper and the scan it did showed no problems.  The only advice was to use the Norton tool to uninstall and then reinstall it, which I did (to no effect).

 

Whichever program I happen to have open at the time is what it says is hogging the CPU.  Like I said, I've had MS Word open and wasn't even using it (or anything else at the time) and Norton gave me the CPU message and the computer ran like cold molasses.  It doesn't totally freeze it, but it's definitely in some type of time distortion field that moves at an almost imperceptible speed.  If Word is merely sitting there, with a blank document, it should not be putting the CPU at 100%.  Same is true with Firefox.  I can't even watch videos or use sites that have Flash in them because it totally freezes and I have to use the task manager to manually close the application from the processes menu.  It can take 10-15 minutes for my computer to be usable again after that happens.  The major programs I use are Firefox (I currently am using 5.0, but it did it with previous versions as well), Facebook (okay, not a program, but a site, still gives me problems), MS Word, Yahoo Messenger, and PalTalk.  I usually only use one at a time because if I bring up more than one, I know my time is limited before I get the major freeze happening.  Oh, yes, I've also used the current version of IE and it does the same thing.  It's like it does it with whatever program I have open, no matter what.

 

No error messages, just takes 300 years for anything to happen (task manager performance has CPU at 100% for several minutes).  Never had a virus that it had to remove (it's taken out a few from e-mails, but I never opened them).  I full scan once a week and do a quick scan every time after I use PalTalk (because it leaves cookies I don't want on there), which is 3-4 times a week.

 

Like I said, in the task manager processes, ccSvcHst.exe is always extremely active whenever this happens and is always second or third from the top when I sort according to the main CPU usage.

 

It seems odd to me that after getting this new upgrade from Norton, ALL of my programs would start to have such a high CPU usage when they never did this before.  If I disable Norton, I don't get that freezing effect.  That's why I'm not blaming the other programs anymore.  But then, who wants to pay for a subscription to Norton and then turn it off all the time when you're surfing?  Makes no sense.  I got the program so I could use it, not so I could shut it off when I wanted to do anything worthwhile.

 

I've been investigating this for several months now, trying to see exactly where the problem was and that's how I've discovered it has to be the Norton doing it. 

4

Hi Chalkbrd,

 

When you right-click My Computer and click properties, how much RAM does it say you have?

5

Chalkbrd thank you for replying to those suggestions, they were a starting point.  It just seems that with as many copies of NIS2011 there is out there, I don't remember reading about a lot of people having problems with stalling.   If I can ask, how do you disable Nortons?  I didn't think you could shutdown the main program, without uninstalling it.

6

I have uninstalled it using the Norton uninstall tool.  I also read somewhere that if I reinstalled it, it would clear up my problem.  Still have the problem.

 

I also read one message somewhere that said if I would disable it using the until system restart, it would clear up my problem after I rebooted.  Again, didn't work.

 

The messages I've found concerning this issue have been for older versions of this product, but the symptoms the people have listed match what I've been going through.

7

As I said in my original post, I have 2 GB RAM, the max for this model of computer.

8

Well Chalkbrd, I'm at a loss..  If you were having the problem before NIS2011, it may be an overheating problem or maybe a driver problem, but the problem only happens when NIS2011 is installed, I'm like you... It must have something to do with NIS.  I hope you keep getting help from SendOfJive. 

9

I've been dealing with this problem on a girlfriend's laptop for a while. Somewhere along the way the installation must be cluttered, maybe because of installing over version 2010.

Finally, cleaning up manually solved the problem, after uninstall and Norton Removal Tool.

 

Did you run Norton Removal Tool (NRT)  between uninstall and reinstall?

If not, please download it here :

http://www.norton.com/symnrt

Also, already download the latest version of NIS here :

www.norton.com/nis11

This link is for the English version; if you need another language, plse let us know.

 

Then :

- uninstall via Add/Remove Programs and then run NRT twice with reboot in between.

 

- Go to My documents directory and save the key text file in the Symantec directory somewhere else

- Go to Program Files and delete the Norton and Symantec directories.

- Go to Documents and Settings\Application data, and delete Symantec and Norton directories there

- Go to Device manager; tick display hidden devices under View (at the top), and go to Non Plug and Play devices tag and uninstall all devices starting with SYM or with a Symantec name.

(tip : to check if drivers belong to Norton or  Symantec, first do a Google search)

 

- Reboot your computer

 

- then re-install from the file you downlaoded before and untick Community Watch in the first installation screen.

  This may cause some problems on older computers.

 

- after install, enter your key when asked with your current Norton account and password

- afterwards run Liveupdate, untill nomore updates are found.

 

This worked for me (or better her:smileyhappy:).

 

 Success!

 

 

Hugo



10

Hi Chalkbrd,

 

I'm not sure you answered my question.  I wasn't asking how much memory you have installed.  I was asking how much memory Windows is reporting that it sees.

11

It sees 2 GB, just what is installed.  Sorry for not understanding your question the first time.

12

hey chalk....i am having the same exact issue! need help also! right when the new flash came out it started it. i then had to shut down computer and the norton said i had to re-verify my account? weird. clicked it and it verified. everytime i run norton now it freezes after only scanning about 1,000 files. if i do not run norton it seems to work fine and nothing freezes. but i want my norton to work!

13

Did you ever check the Windows event logs (Adminstrative tools, Logs)? There might be some clues there in the System or Application logs.

 

Also check the Norton CPU chart (main screen, Performance), if you can see which task of Norton was busy at the moment of stalling.

 

You might also follow the special reinstall procedure i posted in an earlier post here.

14

Hi Chalkbrd:

I had the same problem a few years ago.  It may be coincidental but I also had a Dell Inspiron 600m at the time.  The problem turned out to be related to a memory leak in the NIS software that caused my CPU usage to climb every time a Norton task such as Norton Insight ran in the background, causing the memory usage by the Symantec Service Framework (ccSvcHst.exe) to continually grow until my system eventually froze (or until I re-booted my system).  It took Symantec a few months before they finally released a patch to fix the bug.  Let's hope your problem is easier to fix than that.

Do you have any other security software installed on your computer (e.g., Spybot Search & Destroy, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, etc.)?  They may be performing background scans or running in real-time protection mode and fooling NIS into thinking that your computer is being attacked by malware because of the rapid disk read/writes, causing a rapid increase in CPU usage by ccSvcHst.exe.

Are you running low on free disk space on your hard drive?  Regardless, it may be a good idea to run to run a Disk Cleanup (Start | All Programs | System Tools | Disk Cleanup) if you haven't done so lately.  It's also possible that you aren't clearing your browser history when you close your browser  and have an overflow on your Internet cache.  In Firefox, go to Tools | Options | Privacy - make sure Clear history when Firefox closes is enabled, and click the Settings button to ensure all History and Data are cleared on exit (unless you have a valid reason for wanting to save your Cookies or Active Logins).  If you use IE, similar settings are found at Tools | Internet Options | Browsing History - make sure Delete browsing history on exit is checked and then click the Delete... button and ensure all items are seleted for deletion on exit.

Firefox Clear History.jpg

Have you run a thorough Check Disk (i.e., including a scan to attempt recovery of bad sectors) and full Defragmentation of your hard drive lately? You will be asked to schedule the Check Disk, and you will have to re-boot your PC so that the program can run during boot-up.  Both Check Disk (chkdsk.exe) and a full defrag require over a full hour to run on large hard drives, so be patient. 

 

ChkDsk Error Check.jpg


You mentioned that you turned off most of your automatic NIS tasks but have you tried turning off all of the following simultaneously:

Settings | Computer Settings | Computer Scans | Idle Time Scans | OFF
Settings | Computer Settings | Insight Protection | OFF
Settings | Computer Settings | Automatic LiveUpdate | OFF
Settings | Web Settings | Identity Safe | OFF
Settings | Miscellaneous Settings | Automatic Download of New Version | OFF
Settings | Miscellaneous Settings | Idle Time Optimizer | OFF
Settings | Miscellaneous Settings | Norton Community Watch | OFF
Settings | Miscellaneous Settings | Special Offer Notification | OFF

This will prevent most background tasks except Norton Insight and the daily Quick Scan (which cannot be disabled from the settings).  Even after you turn off these features, you may still have a partially completed Idle Time Optimizer defrag or full Idle Time scan that will continue to run every time your system goes into idle mode until the tasks finally run to completion.  You will have to run a manual LiveUpdate at least once a day and a manual Full System Scan once a week to make sure that you don't severely compromise your security while you run this test to see if disabling these automated tasks solves the problem.

I would do as hvgsel suggests and open the Norton Tasks window in NIS as soon as you notice your system slowing down or freezing (Performance | Norton Tasks), even if you have to re-boot to get your computer working.  If you hover your mouse pointer at the far right of the top graphic (i.e., in the area of recent activity where the time scale says "min") and right-click, NIS will tell you exatcly what processe were running when your computer slowed down.  There are tabs at the top right of the graphic so that you can check both CPU and Memory activity.  If you look at the list of Norton Tasks in the bottom panel of this window, the Last Run column will tell you the last date/time that each specific background Norton task was running.

Norton Tasks Window.jpg

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Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * NIS 2011 v. 18.6.0.29 * IE 9.0 * Firefox 6.0
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS

15

Hi Chalkbrd:

If I haven't overwhelmed you with information in my previous post, here's two other things you can quickly check if you suspect your browser is contributing to your computer slowdowns.:smileyhappy:

Flush your Windows DNS Cache

There is a article on Lifehacker here with detailed instructions, but you basically open a command prompt with Administartor rights (Start | All Programs | Accesories, then right clcik on Command Prompt and choose Run as Administrator) and then run the following three commands in the cmd prompt:

ipconfig /flushdns    (be sure to leave a space before the "/")
net stop dnscache
net start dnscache

This DNS flush solved a problem I had with a slow, unresponsive browser so I installed the free version of Piriform's CCleaner and I occasionally sweep my system DNS cache using this software.

Check For Disabled Browser Add-ons

When you check your browser add-ons (Tools | Add-ons, then check both Extensions and Plugins in Firefox; Tools | Manage Add-ons |  Toolbars and Extensions in IE), are your Norton Toolbar and Symantec IP extensions both enabled?  If your NIS 2011 is up-to-date, your Norton extensions should appear as below (version #'s are current as of today - my IE9 browser currently has v. 2011.6.0.16 for the Norton Toolbar and Symantec NCO BHO and v. 9.8.1.0 for the Symantec IP).  Are there any other disabled extensions or plugins that could be causing problems?.  Don't worry if you see a disabled Java Console extension in Firefox - this is normal for FF 3.6 or newer versions of FF, as long as the Java browser extensions are both enabled.

Firefox Norton Extensions.jpg

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Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * NIS 2011 v. 18.6.0.29 * IE 9.0 * Firefox 6.0
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS