High CPU Usage Noticed, possibly related to Windows Updates installed 12/11/13

Norton Security | Norton Internet Security
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- WIndows 7 x64

- Norton 360 Ver 20.4.0.40

 

Today I noticed a couple of things that I hadn't seen previously on my Desktop PC. 

 

1) My Norton Console wouldn't display on the Desktop.  It was running (ccsvchst.exe running in Task Mgr and Sys Tray icon ok) but the Console wouldn't display when attempting to open.  It showed that it was pinned on the Taskbar but I couldn't get it to display as normal.

 

2) My Desktop PC auto-updated several Windows Uptates last night, around 4am.  I noticed today, after the updates installed, that my Norton Console Persormance stats were indicating higher than normal CPU usage, approx 25%.  It usually runs <2% .

 

I restarted the PC and all looks ok now but was curious if anyone has seen these 2 things occur within the last day or so.

 

Here's the Windows updates that installed last night on my PC: ↓

 

Capture.PNG

 

Here's a couple of screencaps from the 360 Performance Console.  The first capture is the 24-hr CPU statistic snapshot indicating my Windows installs about 12 hrs ago: ↓

 

Capture3.PNG

 

 

This screencap indicates when I resarted the PC, about 15 minutes earlier in this capture: ↓

 

Capture2.PNG

 

 

All appears ok after the Restart, was just wondering if anyone else has noticed high CPU usage within the last 24 hours or so.

 

My Laptop is also running WIndows 7 x64 with the same Norton 360 Version and hasn't yet installed the same Windows updates.  I checked the CPU Performance stats today and it's been running as usual, <2% (Norton) CPU usage.

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Hi, Scoop. I did this month's Windows Updates on my other machine { a laptop } and I did get a notification  of high disc activity during the updates from svchost, one of the usual suspects !

 

Windows Updates have never been that user friendly, although it's better in Windows 7 !, so that may be the reason....

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Hi Scoop8,

 

Are you leaving the Norton Performance window open for extended periods while monitoring system resource usage?  If so, what you are seeing is sort of an observer effect - the demand being placed on the CPU by the Performance monitoring display itself.  Note in the screenshot below that all of the yellow appears when I open the Performance window and leave it open.  The lesson here is to check the performance data periodically, rather than continuously.  Or use a different program other than Norton itself, like Windows Task Manager or Process Explorer, to get a true reading on Norton's performance.

 

Norton Performance Window CPU Usage.JPG

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F4E wrote:

Hi, Scoop. I did this month's Windows Updates on my other machine { a laptop } and I did get a notification  of high disc activity during the updates from svchost, one of the usual suspects !

 

Windows Updates have never been that user friendly, although it's better in Windows 7 !, so that may be the reason....

Thanks for the info.  I agree, it's one reason that I haven't updated to Win 8(.1).

 

I checked my Win 7 laptop this morning after it had installed the same Win 7 updates last night and there weren't any issues seen so I guess my Desktop PC had one of those anomalies earlier.

 

SendOfJive wrote:

Hi Scoop8,

 

Are you leaving the Norton Performance window open for extended periods while monitoring system resource usage?  If so, what you are seeing is sort of an observer effect - the demand being placed on the CPU by the Performance monitoring display itself.  Note in the screenshot below that all of the yellow appears when I open the Performance window and leave it open.  The lesson here is to check the performance data periodically, rather than continuously.  Or use a different program other than Norton itself, like Windows Task Manager or Process Explorer, to get a true reading on Norton's performance.

 

  

Good point, I hadn't considered the effects of the Norton monitoring tool itself.

 

I usually check the Norton Performance graph a couple times a week with it open for a couple of minutes.  I hadn't seen that CPU % at that level before now so was curious.

 

You jogged my memory about Process Explorer, thanks :).  I recall looking at that CPU stat and it was indicating that all was normal, <2% Norton CPU usage, so I guess I was seeing one of those glitches in the Performace graph yesterday.