NIS 2012 paralyzing my older computer

Hello--I recently updated my 9 year old computer (I know I know)  from NIS 2011 to 2012 using the version update in the program.  This computer is used mostly for email and browsing online and even though it only as 500MB of ram it performed quite well with NIS 2011.  However, after the update it takes at least 3X longer to run a quickscan and liveupdates take at least 10 minutes...during which time the computer is useless for anything else.  With 2011 the updates were usually under 2 minutes and I could still use the computer for other things while it was happening.   Do I need to reinstall?  Does anybody know how to turn SILENT MODE on permanently?    I dont use auto scanning OR auto liveupdate but Norton seems to want to do them anyway...