I noticed that APoint.exe (Alps Pointing Device Driver version 5.4.104.4) on my Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop running Windows XP SP3 frequently uses higher than normal CPU (>10%) which is odd since I never even use the touch pad. The Apoint.exe CPU usage jumps up and down randomly in the range of around 0% to 20%. This frequenly prevents my machine from automaticaly going into Standby since it exceeds the 10% threshold that XP checks for when the system is idle. In fact the Norton performance history shows the CPU level rarely drops below 10%, with APoint.exe using most of the CPU. The APoint.exe seems to be running as an idle thread since other programs can take the CPU away from APoint.exe
I noticed that it's frequently worse when Firefox is running (it never goes to 0% CPU), but not all the time. I used Process Explorer and saw that Norton's asOEHook.dll is hooking into it, but that's the extent of what I can see of Norton interacting with it. It gets a lot better if I disable Browser Protection in NIS 2011 (or disable the add-ons in Firefox). It then only fluctuates between 0% and 6% instead of 0% and 20%. Not perfect, but better.
I ran a few searches and see this is a common problem between APoint.exe and security programs like Norton (and Defend+ and Online Armor).
Any ideas on how to work around this (other than leave Browser Protection off)?
The problem isn't complete related to web browsers since the problem can occur when Firefox isn't running. It's just more likely to do so when it is running.
There aren't any newer drivers for my laptop (which is kind of old).
Just curious have you tried a fresh re-installation of the affected device driver as provided by Dell? Does the Apoint .exe file have fluctuating CPU usage in Safe Mode?
I noticed that APoint.exe (Alps Pointing Device Driver version 5.4.104.4) on my Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop running Windows XP SP3 frequently uses higher than normal CPU (>10%) which is odd since I never even use the touch pad. The Apoint.exe CPU usage jumps up and down randomly in the range of around 0% to 20%. This frequenly prevents my machine from automaticaly going into Standby since it exceeds the 10% threshold that XP checks for when the system is idle. In fact the Norton performance history shows the CPU level rarely drops below 10%, with APoint.exe using most of the CPU. The APoint.exe seems to be running as an idle thread since other programs can take the CPU away from APoint.exe
I noticed that it's frequently worse when Firefox is running (it never goes to 0% CPU), but not all the time. I used Process Explorer and saw that Norton's asOEHook.dll is hooking into it, but that's the extent of what I can see of Norton interacting with it. It gets a lot better if I disable Browser Protection in NIS 2011 (or disable the add-ons in Firefox). It then only fluctuates between 0% and 6% instead of 0% and 20%. Not perfect, but better.
I ran a few searches and see this is a common problem between APoint.exe and security programs like Norton (and Defend+ and Online Armor).
Any ideas on how to work around this (other than leave Browser Protection off)?