Major Norton Internet Security 2009 Crash

Norton Security | Norton Internet Security
1

Hey everyone,

I'm having a really weird issue with my Norton Internet Security 2009 product.  I was wondering if any of you might know what is going on or could point me in the right direction.  Thanks!

 

First, here is some background information about my computer.  

HP Pavillion Media Center TV m8000n

Windows Vista Home Premium 32 

2 GB RAM

2.6 Ghz Dual Core Processor

500 GB Hard drive and a Recovery Drive

I use Mozilla Firefox 3.0.11 most of the time, but occassionally I will also use Internet Explorer 8.  I always have my Norton firewall on.

 

Okay, so what happened is I walked away from my computer for an hour or two; it was running fine before I left the room.  The desktop was showing; I cannot remember if I put in sleep mode, though.  However, when I came back, there was just a black screen as if the computer was still in sleep mode, except that the cursor was not there; my computer was completely unresponsive.  I restarted the computer, and it asked me if I wanted to do a startup repair on my computer because it did not complete its startup process.  Anyway, I chose to do that, and it found an error on my C drive; unfortunately I cannot remember what the error was called.  Next, a message popped up asking me if I wanted to do a system restore, which I wanted to do and did.  I make lots of resource points, so it was not that big of a deal.  Okay, here is where the problem comes in. 

 

Windows started up as normal, but Norton was turned off.  My anti-virus, spyware, email protection, advanced protection, SONAR protection, anti-spam, and Live Update were not working. Everytime I went to the settings to turn things back on, they kept turning off again immediately after pressing "apply."  I went down into my taskbar to see a little white Norton icon that allowed me to run Live Update on the whole product, which I guess it what made the Live Update inside the main menu work.  I apologize if I am being unclear; this is really hard to explain.

 

Anyway, I could not obviously run a scan until I had downloaded the latest updates, and it was taking forever for the new updates (virus definitions) to download and install.  Therefore, I turned on Windows Defender and ran a quick scan from that program.  All turned out well; there were not any viruses detected.  Live Update finally finished, and I was finally able to run a full system scan.  I was also finally able to keep my spyware, anti-viruses programs, etc. turned on after the product was updated.  The scan is still running, but nothing has turned up except for a tracking cookie, which was removed automatically.  My computer is running fine now, and was working before.  It was just in that block of time when I was away that something happened.  I suspect it is Norton related because that was the only product that was malfunctioning when I got back into Windows.  As I said, though, my computer is running fine right now.  I've never had this big of a problem with Norton before.  

 

So I have several questions.  Is there a virus that causes this?  Is it possible that I removed it when I did the system restore?  I'm kind of worried about it having been the Conflikter (Sp?) virus, but I got to this site, so that probably isn't the problem?  If it is a virus, why isn't it coming up on my scans with both Norton and Windows Defender?  Could it have been a flaw in Firefox or Internet Explorer 8 or did I disable an important Norton startup program by mistake?  I'm just really worried about my computer; I have not download anything recently, and I'm really careful about the sites I go to.  I do use Google, but I double-check the websites with Norton Safe Web before going to them.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Sorry about the really long post, but thank you for reading all of this. 

 

If you have any questions, just ask, and I'll try to answer to the best of my ability.  Thanks.  

 

2

Hi Somebody4563:

 

 I was also finally able to keep my spyware, anti-viruses programs, etc. turned on after the product was updated. 

 

How many and what kind of the above programs are you running?

 

3

I forgot to add something.  I just looked at my reliability monitor, and it said it was an OS failure; the error code was 0x00000117 (0xa1d9d510, 0x9060ddd0, 0x00000000, 0x00000000), which sound to me like a blue screen of death crash, but I'm not sure.  I'm fairly certain, though, that it is a Norton issue.  In fact, one-click support told me I should download the Norton fix tool.  Anyway, that is just some additional info I found.  I'll post more info if I can think of it.

 

Thanks! 

4

I was using just Norton Internet Security 2009, and I had all of the settings on. 

 

When I open Norton and get the main screen (the launcher), I check to make sure these are on:

Anti-Virus

Anti-Spyware

Advanced Protection

Smart Firewall

Intrusion Prevention

Email/Message Scanning

Identity Safe

Anti-Phishing.

 

Then, I go to the upper left hand corner, and hit settings.  The only settings I do not turn on are:

Remove Infected Compressed Files Scan

Password Protection for Settings

Pulse Updates on Battery Power

Parental Controls

 

I actually rarely use Windows Defender.  I usually use my Norton 2009 product, but since it was malfunctioning, I temporarily turned on Windows Defender to make sure that there were no viruses.  It's off, and my Norton product is back up and running.  I don't know if it will stay that way, though, when I restart the computer.  Basically, I mainly rely on everything that Norton 2009 is packaged with, and I rarely use other programs, except in circumstances like this.

 

Thank you for your quick response.  I really do appreciate it.  

 

5

Hi somebody4563:

 

It is unlikely to be Norton caused.  It is more likely, since you are getting Windows errors, and Operating system malfunctions that something in your Vista settings has been changed or damaged somehow.

 

I have checked the error number in the Microsoft data base, but nothing was found.  Since I run XP still, hopefully one of our other Vista users will be able to assist.

 

It also doesn't sound like a malware problem, if that helps.

6

Norton Product Tamper Protection can cause problems with a System Restore. It's a good procedure to turn off Tamper Protection, then do the Restore, then turn Tamper Protection back on.

 

Computer - Settings - Miscellaneous Settings - Product Security - Product Tamper Protection

 

The problem is documented here:

 http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/sharedtech.nsf/pfdocs/2005113009323013

 

Of course, this doesn't explain why your system crashed to begin with!  Glad everything seems to be running okay.

 

7

Possibly a video card driver issue, according to About.com:

 

STOP Error 0x00000117: VIDEO_TDR_TIMEOUT_DETECTED

STOP error 0x117 means that the display driver failed to respond in a timely fashion. STOP code 0x00000117 may also display "VIDEO_TDR_TIMEOUT_DETECTED" on the same STOP message.

 This thread on The Vista Forums might be useful, especially if you have an ATI card.

8

Hi somebody4563:

 

I've had a similar problem occur twice in the few weeks on my HP dv6835ca Pavilion notebook PC (3 GB RAM, Intel 1.83 GHz Duo Core T5550 processor, 2 MB L2 cache).  I walked away from my PC for a few hours (no tasks running) and when I came back my system was frozen.  I couldn't do a soft re-boot or view the Windows Task Manager (ctrl-alt-del) so I had to a hard re-boot by turning off the power.  During startup I got the standard warning that Windows had not shut down properly, but I chose to continue with a normal start up (i.e., no repair or system restore) with no apparent damage to my system.

 

On both occasions that this problem occurred I noticed a pop-up message in the system tray that NIS was running a background idle scan, and I suspect that the NIS 2009 background scan overloaded the resources on my PC.  Full scans with both NIS 2009 and Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware were clean.  The only two changes that I made to my PC before this problem started were:

 

1)  An update of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager from v. 8.0.0.1039 to 8.7.0.1007 A (HP update sp43871.exe)
2)  Enabling of real-time protection in Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware (MBAM) v 1.38 (automatic quick scan disabled)
             - I finally broke down and purchased a full MBAM licence because I've been having so many problems with my PC since upgrading from NIS 2008 to 2009

 

A week ago I either uninstalled or disabled the automatic startup of all the other resident anti-spyware/-malware programs I had on my PC (Windows Defender, Spybot Search & Destroy, Lavasoft Ad-Aware AE) and turned off the automated One Button Checkup scan in Norton SystemWorks Basic 2009.  My PC hasn't frozen up again since then (a NIS 2009 idle full system scan ran a few days ago without any problems) and I haven't noticed any conflicts with NIS 2009 and MBAM (although I still have the MBAM automatic quick scan disabled), so fingers crossed that it doesn't happen again, because a hard re-boot can create havoc with your system.

 

I've noticed several other posts on this forum related to NIS background scans and PC freezes (see links below) but I haven't seen a definitive answer from anyone as to why this is happening, only suggestions for possible work-arounds.  I don't think my problem was related to my video card - I have a NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS and my desktop was on the screen when my PC froze (i.e., the PC wasn't in sleep mode and the display hadn't turned off yet).

 

http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?board.id=nis_feedback&thread.id=12813&view=by_date_ascending&page=1


http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?board.id=nis_feedback&message.id=56027&query.id=1252057#M56027


http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?board.id=nis_feedback&thread.id=34610

 

FYI, my PC is running Microsoft Windows Vista 6.0.6002 SP2 (32-bit) with NIS 2009 v. 16.5.0.135.

Message Edited by lmacri on 07-20-2009 02:29 PM
Message Edited by lmacri on 07-20-2009 02:51 PM
9

Do you have Diskeeper defrag utility installed by any chance?

10

Imacri -

 

Can you tell us how you upgraded from NIS2008 to NIS2009?  Did you just download the program and install over the previous version?  Or did you uninstall NIS2008 first?

11

dbrisendine:

 

I installed NIS 2009 over an older version of NIS 2008, but that was back in April 2009.  The problem with the PC freezing during an idle background scan just started about three weeks ago.

 

The version of NIS 2008 I had on my HP notebook was originally installed at the factory as a 90-day trial version and I renewed the subscription in November 2008 when the trial period was over.  I started having problems with NIS 2008 anti-phishing automatically disabling during Windows startup after I upgraded my web browser to IE8 in April 2009 (which I now realize was a common problem for other users), and when I ran One Click Support in NIS 2008 it recommended that I upgrade to NIS 2009.  I believe that I saved the executable to my hard drive before installing, but the upgrade to NIS 2009 may have been handled automatically by the Auto-Fix feature of One Click Support.

 

I'm not sure if the post from huwyngr was directed to me or somebody4563, but I don't have the Diskeeper defrag utility on my PC.  I use the Disk Defragmenter that comes with Windows Vista every few months (I have automatic defrag turned off) and always do a thorough scan with CheckDisk for bad sectors and files before defragging.

 

Further to my original post, my PC was not connected to the Internet both times that my system froze.

12

Imacri

 

Do you still have Live Update listed as a stand alone program entry in the Start Menu list?  This would not be under the NIS2009 Start Menu.

13

dbrisendine:

 

LiveUpdate is not listed as a stand alone item under All Programs of my Start menu.  I can only see it listed inside the Norton Internet Security folder on the Start menu.

 

I am currently running LiveUpdate v. 3.4.1.238.  Automatic LiveUpdate for both NIS 2009 (v. 16.5.0.135) and Norton SystemWorks Basic 2009 (v. 12.0.1, build 1) are disabled and I check for updates to NIS 2009 manually every time start up my PC.

 

I don't know if this is significant, but ever since I upgraded from NIS 2008 to NIS 2009, I noticed that LiveUpdate will no longer check for upgrades for NIS when LiveUpdate is run from within Norton SystemWorks Basic 2009.  When I run LiveUpdate from within SystemWorks , it reports that it is only checking for updates to SystemWorks and LiveUpdate (I can only presume it's checking, since it always reports that there are no new updates available).  When I had NIS 2008, LiveUpdate would check for updates for all three programs (NIS 2008, SystemWorks 2009, LiveUpdate) if it was run from SystemWorks.  I have always asssumed that this change in behavior for LiveUpdate was normal now that Symantec has introduced a new feature for automated background "pulse" updates in NIS 2009.

 

If I run LiveUpdate from NIS 2009 it correctly downloads and installs the latest updates for NIS 2009.

 

The home screen of SystemWorks Basic 2009 displays a message in the bottom right-hand corner confirming that "Your product is activated".  SystemWorks is not listed as one of my registered products or services when I log on to My Norton Account, but that has always been the case ever since SystemWorks 2009 was first installed and activated in November 2008.

14

Imacri --

 

Sorry for any confuion.

 

Consider my question about Diskeeper as addressed to anyone with the NIOS2009 freezing problem because I've been having it and it is driving my wife and I crazy.

 

Any time NIS went into idle time -- like a lunch break -- when I came back to the computer NIS 2009 was locked on 100 - 98% Norton CPU activity if I waited long enough for the NIS front screen to open up. Everything was so close to frozen -- even opening Task Manager to see if that gave a clue.

 

This is on my desktop that is set up to multiboot to XP, VISTA and WIN 7 and in each case we have two users with Fast User Switching.

 

Task Manager showed one of two ccSvcHst processes as the one using the CPUs and what I did notice is that if I had Task Maanger set only to show the active user -- me -- that process did not show but if I checked show all users then it did show the high activity level.

 

This was both with and without the second user logged in.

 

Since I had my suspicions about Diskeeper operating in the background I went into that and turned off the automatic defragmentation and its associated IFAAST module but that made no difference. I then looked more deeply into the Diskeeper options and found a setting telling it to analyse data useage all the time (regardless of automatic defrag) so I disabled that too with no visible effect.

 

Finally in dispair I have uninstalled Diskeeper which was on my First Hard drive where XP is installed and installed it in VISTA on the second hard drive. It is still set not to run automatically but of course it would only run when I'm in VISTA which is not very often.

 

So far things seem better but I'm not yet certain ....

 

Anyway that's why I asked about Diskeeper since someone else has had had this freeze problem and has Diskeeper.

15

huwyngr:

 

I'm not sure if you've been following the thread at http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?board.id=nis_feedback&message.id=56027 , but mijcar also suggested that ccSvcHst.exe (the Symantec Service Framework) under the SYSTEM user category is the likely culprit hogging all the available memory.  I didn't try downloading the process viewer as suggested because:

 

    a)  Windows Task Manager already has a built-in process viewer
    b)  When my PC freezes it's impossible to launch a process viewer or any other task.  Even if I try a soft re-boot (ctrl-alt-del) and wait for 10 minutes my system remains frozen.

 

Ragetty suggested that after installing NIS 2009, MS Indexing Service (cisvc.exe) was causing their PC to freeze (see post of 10-15-2008 at http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?board.id=nis_feedback&thread.id=12813&view=by_date_ascending&page=2).  My problem seemed to resolve itself after I uninstalled or disabled the automatic startup of all the other resident anti-spyware/-malware programs I had on my PC (Windows Defender, Spybot Search & Destroy, Lavasoft Ad-Aware AE) and turned off the automated One Button Checkup scan in Norton SystemWorks Basic 2009.

 

I'm beginning to suspect that any background process that launches at the same time that a NIS idle background scan is running can crash your system.

16

Thanks for the pointer -- I remember the thread.

 

I've downloaded sysinternals and I'll see if we get the freeze (I refer that term to crash which I associate with BSOD etc) and can use it.

 

I'm not "skilled in the black arts" as some are here. <s>

17

Do you have TeaTimer enabled with SpyBot?  This will interfere with Norton scans, idle and otherwise. 

 

Also five scanners trying to run on the system at one time will make short order of any memory available.  Is there anyway to have everything but Norton as on demand only so it doesn't load into memory on start up?  This would free up some memory and allow the Idle Time scan (I suspect this is your Full system scan) to complete.

18

dbrisendine:

 

I have never enabled the resident Tea Timer (system protection) in Spybot S & D.  When my computer was freezing the resident SDHelper (IE blocker) of Spybot S&D and Lavasoft Ad-Aware AE Add-Watch Live! real-time protection (processes only) were both enabled.  NIS 2009 always turns off Windows Defender at startup so I doubt that a Defender quick scan was contributing to the problem.  As I mentioned in a few of my previous posts, when I permanently disabled the real-time protection of Windows Defender, Spybot Search & Destroy and Lavasoft Ad-Aware AE and turned off the automated One Button Checkup scan in Norton SystemWorks Basic 2009, the problem with my PC freezing seemed to disappear.

 

The only real-time protection I currently have on my PC are NIS 2009 and a licenced version of Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware (which I added after disabling the free versions of Windows Defender, Spybot Search & Destroy and Lavasoft Ad-Aware AE).  As I reported in my original post, my system did not freeze the last time a NIS 2009 idle full background scan ran on my PC, so I'm hoping that loading both NIS 2009 and MBAM at startup won't cause any problems.

19

For Somebody4536

 

A follow up even though your problem is fixed. I had a similar situation today with Norton 360 3.0. (Computer: Dell Inspiron 530 quad core/ Vista Home Premium/ 2.50 ghz core2 Q9300/ 4 gb ram/ IE 8) Computer failed to start properly & the message popped up for an automatic repair, which was done.  Everything worked fine except that Ad-Aware Free Anniversary edition would freeze seconds into a scan. Previously I had run Ad-Aware & 360 together for at least a year with no problems. Deep scans by Norton 360, Threatfire, Malwarebytes & SpyBot Search & Destroy found nothing.

 

I finally traced the problem to a conflict with Tamper Protection in Norton 360. I can disable Tamper Protection and Ad-Aware runs fine. Enable Tamper Protection and Ad-Aware hangs up. I still don't know what caused the failed start up but after that Norton's Tamper Protection was the problem.