I have Norton Intenrnet Security (21.1.0.18) and the past four days it keep use more CPU usage and to be exact 13% of the CPU which much and unusual. Here some specs of my PC:
CPU: Intel Core i7 4770k 3.5GHz
RAM: 16 GB DDR3
SSD: Samsung 840 pro 256 GB
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Some snapshots:
Interesting. I recently upgraded 2 PCs to NIS 21.1.0.18 but I'm only seeing this problem on one.
On my Win7 Pro x64 SP1 laptop, there is only one instance of nis.exe *32 running and I don't see the higher usage problem.
On my WinXP x86 SP3 desktop, there are two instances of NIS.exe running (one under my username, the other under SYSTEM) and only the one under my username shows an increase in CPU usage (typically 13% like yours, but it does spike higher) BUT ONLY WHEN I have the NIS Dashboard open. When I close the NIS Dashboard, Task Manager shows the usage drop to 0%.
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On my Win7 Pro x64 SP1 laptop, there is only one instance of nis.exe *32
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Hi,
Open task manager, click on the option "show processes for all users" and you will see that there are also 2 instances of nis.exe * 32 (System & User).
Regards,
Apostolos wrote:---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On my Win7 Pro x64 SP1 laptop, there is only one instance of nis.exe *32
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Hi,
Open task manager, click on the option "show processes for all users" and you will see that there are also 2 instances of nis.exe * 32 (System & User).
Regards,
Got it, thanks! 
Now to the original problem - high CPU usage. In my case, only on my WinXP desktop. My Win7 laptop is fine, unlike the OP's reported issue.
Hi,
It appears that NIS 21, as NIS 20, are not optimized for XP.
The last version whick worked flawlessly was NIS 2012.
On my XP system too, v. 21.1.0.18, when the main GUI is opened, and closed, the CPU drops to 0% BUT the additional RAM is not released. It stays at the initial value, around 50 MB, after NIS GUI was opened.
This did not happen with NIS 2012, but it happened with NIS 2013, thus my comment about lack of optimization.
Hope this helps,
Regards,
Bump.
I don't want this problem to be forgotten about.
Hi,
I already explained why this is happening, and as XP has almost reached it's life cycle, I wouldn't expect any optimizations.
Regards,
I'm hoping that's not the case and that someone from Norton will investigate. Besides, the OP has the problem on a Win7 machine. I just happen to have it on a WinXP machine. I'll bet others have the problem and may just not have found it yet.
HP Laptop with Windows 8.1, Pro, 64-bit, Quad-core i7-3630QM processor, ...Norton 21.1.0.18 usage runs from 0% to 1%. Good.
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But, HP Desktop with Windows 7, Pro, Sp1, 64-bit (recently upgraded to IE11), Norton 21.1.0.18 has been averaging NIS CPU 8% constant usage for the past 2 days. Opening and looking at Norton's Performance History for the past month confirms this is a new issue that started about 2 days ago on the Windows 7 Desktop.
The W7's i7 x 980 (1st Generation) 6-core processor usually runs at 1.5 MHz. But with this high NIS usage, it is stuck running at 3.334 MHz.
Rebooting the W7 PC does not prevent the high NIS CPU usage.
The W7's Task Manager shows 2 "NIS.exe *32"s running, one under the user name of System, the other under the user name of Admin. A posting elsewhere in the Forum says this is normal.
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So, out of curiosity, I signed on to my old HP Desktop with XP, SP3 and confirmed that Norton usage was at a relatively low level for the past week...until I just now signed onto that XP. Now, Norton is running at 20% constant usage on it.
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To the Symantec/Norton employees who might read this thread, has there been a recent NIS update that might be bringing on this high NIS CPU usage?
One thought is that within the past couple of days, the NIS Nag Screen has popped up reminding me that there are less than 30 days on the current subscription to all 3 PCs. The high usage on 2 PCs does not prompt a person to renew unless a solution is available.
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I am a lower-level techie, so I may not be able to diagnose much at deeper levels.
I had exactly the same problem on my Win 7 machine. In my case, the culprit turned out to be my hosts file. This file contained some 100,000 entries which NIS constantly scanned, thereby causing high CPU usage. As soon as I removed the entries from my hosts file, the problem was gone. I don't know if this is related to your problem; it's just a shot in the dark.
Hello Buddel,
I will attempt to follow thru on your suggestion. I will perform an Internet search on accessing and editing "host files" to see how that's done, and then will see if I can figure out how to do it. (I am a lower-level techie.)
In the meantime, NIS may still have a problem about all this for W7 users -?
I take it from your post that you you have not modified your hosts file. Therefore, my hosts file issue it probably not related to your problem. Modifying your hosts file can prevent your computer from accessing unwanted connections. More info here: http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm Unfortunately, NIS constantly scanned this modified file, which resulted in excessively high CPU usage. It's probably an NIS bug that has not been solved yet. The only workaround is to use a "standard" (i.e. non-modified) hosts file.
Buddel,
Thanks for your response. Some research indicates this may involve the DNS Cache. Flushing it with CCLeaner (which was also updated this past week) does not stop the high NIS CPU usage.
I have researched how to specifically access the W7 hosts file using Notepad. Upon opening the hosts file, I only see a couple of "sample" files. I'll need to confirm any more files are not hidden, thus can be read. Learning as I go.
In the meantime, some internet shopping with purchases was done a few days ago. I'll attempt to see if some website added something unwanted to the file.
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To the Symantec/NIS folks, an MS update for .NET Framework 4.5.1 was done for W7 x64-basedSystems on Nov. 27, 2013. I'm not tech-savy enough to know if this has anything to do with my new problem.
Buddel wrote:I had exactly the same problem on my Win 7 machine. In my case, the culprit turned out to be my hosts file. This file contained some 100,000 entries which NIS constantly scanned, thereby causing high CPU usage. As soon as I removed the entries from my hosts file, the problem was gone. I don't know if this is related to your problem; it's just a shot in the dark.
I use the mvps hosts file on both PCs, but I am only seeing the high CPU usage (13%) on one PC and only when the NIS UI is opened.
Hello again Buddel (& all),
I have enabled hidden files to be read and here is what my hosts file display shows:
# Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost
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From what is seen in research, this is normal; nothing out of the ordinary -?
If not, please advise. Thanks. -1mcrtd
1mcrtd wrote:Hello again Buddel (& all),
I have enabled hidden files to be read and here is what my hosts file display shows:
# Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost
---
From what is seen in research, this is normal; nothing out of the ordinary -?
If not, please advise. Thanks. -1mcrtd
Yes, that is the Windows default hosts file. Essentially all comments, no live entries.
I agree with Gary. This is what a default hosts file should look like. Consequently, the hosts file is not the culprit here. Anyway, it was just a shot in the dark. I'm sorry that that this has not helped to solve your problem.
I continued to experiment, then rebooted the W7 PC one more time. The NIS CPU usage dropped to 0% & 1% for several minutes...and is now back to 8 %. Some application must be delay-loading and starting, then aggravating NIS. I will follow up later. Thank you.
I am beginning to shut down a few applications, one by one, to see if they are aggravating NIS to cause the eventual (following reboot) & ongoing high NIS CPU usage on the W7 PC. No luck so far.
This is a new problem, and I've noticed that in the W7 PC (only) that Norton Community Watch is creating reports but not submitting them; the reports have remained in a "Pending" status for about the same length of time that the high NIS CPU usage problem has been running...now approaching 2 & 1/2 days.
I created a separate thread about Norton Community Watch submissions being stuck on the W7 PC:
And for what it's worth, the Norton Auto Fix tool has been run on the W7 PC with results showing no errors.
Hello all,
I may have fixed the high NIS CPU usage problem on my W7 PC. I mentioned in a posting above and in a separate thread that NIS on the W7 PC would not submit Norton Community Watch reports; that they were stuck in the "Pending" status for over 2 &1/2 days. (My W8.1 PC submitted the NCW reports okay, & had no high NIS CPU usage.)
I deleted the W7 PC's Pending NCW reports and rebooted (again). Now, NIS CPU usage idles at 0%, occasionally rising to 1% during misc. PC usage, for a little over 1 & 1/2 hours, now.
As stated earlier, the NCW reports were stuck in a Pending status for the same 2 & 1/2 + days that the W7 PC had suffered high NIS CPU usage.
Thank you to those who provided advice. I will let you know if the problem returns.