Norton Internet Security 2013 is getting confused about when my XP PCs are sleeping. I have four XP PCs, all different types, running various versions of XP SP3 (fully updated). In Norton's "performance" window, all the XP PCs correctly show "sleep" following the first time the PC was put into stand-by. Subsequent stand-bys are NOT recorded by Norton as "sleep". They either show the PC was awake or idle. Where Norton thinks the PC is idle when it is actually actively being used, it ends up grinding the hard drive doing "background tasks" and the PC slows to a crawl, which is very frustrating.
PCs that have the issue with NIS 2013 waking from sleep incorrectly are as follows:
HP A630N Desktop running XP Home SP3 - ALWAYS IDLE
HP M7071 Desktop running XP Media Centre SP3 - ALWAYS ACTIVE
Toshiba Equium A110 lapptop running XP Home SP3 - ALWAYS ACTIVE
Dell D430 Laptop running XP Professional SP3 - ALWAYS IDLE
My two Windows 7 PCs do not have this issue.
All drivers are up to date in all the PCs. It seems to me this is an issue with XP and NIS 2013. When the mouse is moved or the keyboard is used, Norton should NOT be considering the PC to be idle. Screensavers go away when the mouse or kbd are used, and power management avoids shutting down the laptops while they are being used, so why can't Norton get it right? About 6 weeks ago I upgraded from NIS 2012, which did not have this issue. It is intolerable when Norton starts dragging my computers and family members start complaining, so advice to fix this issue would be greatly appreciated.
@Steveboy: Jumping to another vendor is not the sort of solution suggestion I was hoping for, though I can understand why you would have no other option if the issue remains unfixed. I guess my experience shows you were right in your decision to abandon Norton.
If Symantec have been aware of this issue for quite some time, why would they decide not to fix it? The product is not fit for purpose when a user is trying to use the PC while "Norton is curently performing background tasks while your computer is idle". Having recently paid for six licenses for another 12 months, I want this software working properly. And soon.
For me, the issue only started when I installed NIS 2013 a few weeks ago. I installed from disc "on top of" 2012, without uninstalling or running NRT. I assumed Norton's 2013 intaller would be capable of doing the job properly, and there were no instructions to the contrary. Was that a bad assumption on my part, or am I just being overly superstitious to worry now that the "install on top" could have caused the issue with incorrect recognition of the PC's activity state? After Liveupdate and restarts until there are no further updates, the product is at version 20.3.1.22.
Is anyone from Symantec able to comment or assist please?
Norton Internet Security 2013 is getting confused about when my XP PCs are sleeping. I have four XP PCs, all different types, running various versions of XP SP3 (fully updated). In Norton's "performance" window, all the XP PCs correctly show "sleep" following the first time the PC was put into stand-by. Subsequent stand-bys are NOT recorded by Norton as "sleep". They either show the PC was awake or idle. Where Norton thinks the PC is idle when it is actually actively being used, it ends up grinding the hard drive doing "background tasks" and the PC slows to a crawl, which is very frustrating.
PCs that have the issue with NIS 2013 waking from sleep incorrectly are as follows:
HP A630N Desktop running XP Home SP3 - ALWAYS IDLE
HP M7071 Desktop running XP Media Centre SP3 - ALWAYS ACTIVE
Toshiba Equium A110 lapptop running XP Home SP3 - ALWAYS ACTIVE
Dell D430 Laptop running XP Professional SP3 - ALWAYS IDLE
My two Windows 7 PCs do not have this issue.
All drivers are up to date in all the PCs. It seems to me this is an issue with XP and NIS 2013. When the mouse is moved or the keyboard is used, Norton should NOT be considering the PC to be idle. Screensavers go away when the mouse or kbd are used, and power management avoids shutting down the laptops while they are being used, so why can't Norton get it right? About 6 weeks ago I upgraded from NIS 2012, which did not have this issue. It is intolerable when Norton starts dragging my computers and family members start complaining, so advice to fix this issue would be greatly appreciated.
Hi luggerbugs
I don’t know if any of this will have any effect, but would like to draw your attention to idle time optimiser, insight optimiser, Norton Task Notification, Norton Community Watch, Detailed error data collection and Silent Mode. You can find information about them by entering these topic into the Norton website top RHS search box. They have or may have something to do with affecting the computers sleep mode.
Silent mode turns off back ground task, but for a maximum time of one day, turn the button off then click apply it opens a user interface on the drop down menu it allows one day to be selected.
If silent mode has the desired effect then manually turning off all or some of the other processes may have the same effect, turning them off manually may have the desired effect even if silent mode doesn’t.
Disable the processes to test if makes a difference and then manually perform the tasks that have been disabled. Optimisation appears to be performed to speed up boot time and as your computers are going into sleep mode and not shut down they will not be booting up.
Silent Mode can be found by clicking the Norton icon, click settings, click general, click Silent Mode
Idle time optimiser can be found by clicking the Norton icon, click settings, click general, click Norton tasks.
Insight optimiser can be found by clicking the Norton icon, click performance, click Norton tasks and click on the yellow box LHS to disable insight optimiser.
Norton Task Notification should be inactive if the background tasks are disabled but it is something that might bring the computer out of sleep mode it is on the same user interface as idle time optimiser.
Norton Community Watch and Detailed error data collection can be found by clicking the Norton icon, click settings, click general, click other settings.
It may be possible for you to go back to NIS 2012 by logging into your Norton account putting the version you have now in the bin and then downloading the 2012 version but would the latest updates for NIS 2012 have any other detrimental effects. Repost for more detailed instructions.
I’m running vista and just put the mew disc in and follow the instruction like you have done, since 2009 the Norton discs have a mini NRT on them. I don’t have the problems you are encountering but you have XP. So a clean reinstall with NRT may be an option.
ATB
intesec
Thanks intesec. The idle time optimiser is always set to OFF on all my computers, since I like to defrag them manually each time after patch tues updates have been installed. I can't turn it OFF any more than it already is.
Norton task notification is ON. according to the help page: "By default, the Norton Task Notification option is turned on. You can turn off this option if you do not want to be notified about the background jobs. Turning off this option does not affect the execution of automatic background tasks in any way." (my emphasis).
I've paid for 2013, so rolling back to 2012 is not an option I would like to consider. I guess I'll try NRT followed by reinstallation on one of the affected PCs as a starting point.
See if you have disabled some power saving functions for some of your devices. For me silent mode was always on after I disabled a function in the power saving setting of my ethernet adapter. After reverting back to default settings, the constant silent mode reverted back to normal after a reboot.
I haven't disabled any power saving settings. On the Dell D430, the network adapter turns off when I disconnect external power. This is correct behaviour.
Enabling silent mode when the notification "Norton is performing background tasks while your computer is idle" is displayed reduces the CPU loading from Norton processes. So that function appears to work, if it aids diagnosis. Not a solution in itself though.
Even though idle time optimisation is disabled, on the D430 the top performance window shows that Norton "optimised" yesterday. It has never done this before (to the best of my knowledge). This doesn't seem to be correct behaviour, given that idle time optimisation is disabled, and Norton "thinks" the computer is idle. A bug?
When I get the time (life is too short to be doing this sort of crap), I'll NRT then reinstall, though I don't expect that will fix it.
I logged in to my norton account and downloaded NIS 2013 to the Dell D430, which is the PC most troubled by the issue.. This gave me an installer NIS-UPGRADE-ESD-NoDefs-20-3-1-22-EN.exe, which I assume installs the latest version, unlike the installer on the CD which installs an older version that needs moe updating.
I downloaded NRT (Norton_Removal_Tool.exe) which I then ran. After rebooting I ran the system file checker by clicking start->run then typing sfc /scannow. Checking the event log, the sfc completed successfully. It did not report making any changes. Then I defragmented, as all the upheaval had left the boot drive quite fragmented.
Finally I installed NIS 2013 from the installer I had downloaded earlier, rebooting as required and running live update until no more updates available. After defragmenting again, I shut down the PC and left it overnignt (or what little remained of the night). After starting up, NIS corrrectly reports that the computer was OFF overnight, which is a promising start. Of course, it would have got thqat right even if I hadn't reinstalled, so a few times in stand-by will be needed to find out if the isse is truly resolved on this computer.
After one successful sleep session following reinstallation, the sleep issue has returned to the Dell D430. The second time the unit was in stand by, the state was not registered by Norton's performance window as sleep.
Further examination of the performance window reveals an issue with the CPU and memory monitor. On 10min and 30 min zoom levels, the PC is shown as being idle during the time it was in stand by. In 90 min and 1D zoom levels, the PC is shown as active, but with no CPU activity during the time it was actually in stand by. So Norton can't make up its mind what state the PC was in, but it is now failing to show the stand by time as sleep.
Norton did correctly report the D430 waking up, in that it is not currently shown as idle (at any zoom level). But the sleep issue and performance monitor bug need sorting out. Please help!
Idle while in standby, then not idle while in standby. Norton is confused. So am I.
This sounds like it might be related to the problem I'm having.
Basically, when I've got full screen apps running (movies, games, etc), Norton keeps deciding the computer is idle and starts scanning. Very disruptive because the resources it uses kills games even if I disable the dialogs.
Full screen detection is enabled so it really shouldn't be doing this at all.
Turning on Silent Mode is a nuisance because one of the systems doesn't even have a keyboard and mouse connected all the time (HTPC/Steambox, entirely controlled with an X-Box 360 wireless controller).
Leeguv, there might be some relationship between Norton failing to know when the computer is sleeping/idle/active and its failure to know when full screen mode is active. Both must be related to some software requirement to be clever about when to to steal system resources so as not to annoy the user. Such behaviour doesn't seem to be programmed anywhere near as effectively as we would wish for. However, I am not using full screen programs, so I am not affected by your issue.
I rechecked the D430's screensaver, delayed monitor power-off and standby behaviour in the power settings. All work fine. The PC knows when it is idle and when it is in use and when it is time to enter and exit stand-by, so why doesn't Norton?
Come on Symantec - please fix this issue.
Well, I hope you get it resolved anyway.
I ended up switching to Kapersky.
Good luck with Kaspersky. Might see you there when my protection runs out.
I note that Microsoft will be discontinuing support for XP SP3 circa April 2014. Presumably MS want to encourage XP users to spend money on their latest OS, and one way they can do this is by gradually introducing more niggles, annoyances and slowdowns as more "security updates" are automatically installed. That way they can easily claim the latest piece of bloatware is faster and more secure. I remember experiencing this with Windows 98, which literally updated itself to death. Somewhat cynically, I presume Symantec are hoping to profit from the impending demise of XP, as a new PC means a new opportunity to sell another AV subscription.
Presumably the the impending demise of XP means that Symantec won't be too concerned about putting much "quality" into their support for XP users. I'll even wager Symantec has a vested interst in helping Microsoft to bang the nails into XP's coffin! Hence I'll be left with the sleep/idle problem. I'd love to be proved wrong here.