NIS 2014 21.1.0.18 FULL SCAN's not completing?

Norton Security | Norton Internet Security
1

I'm on Win8.1 if that matters.

 

Along with other with the heavy HD activity, I too have had instances of a non-responsive system, even with an Intel i7 processor, 8GB's of RAM, and an SSD for the OS. This all appears to be recent.

 

In looking at PERFORMANCE and the NORTON TASKS, I noticed that on 11/20/2013 the FULL SCAN was started, and was listed as running for over 3 hours. Length didn't bother me, I've got a few TB's of disk space, but it was listed as RUNNING???? Scan is set for once a week, but no others were started? So I cancelled it. Started a NEW one. It shows 'funny' data? That is the SAME TIME and DURATION no matter when I look at NORTON TASKS?

 

Also, I can hear my mechanical drives being accessed continually, but the Norton Performance doesn't show much activity, yet Task Manager does show Norton using resources. Occasionally I appear to be locked out of disk access, and I assume it is because of NIS accessing the disk?

 

See the 3 screenshots please.

 

On the first you'll see the PERFORMANCE tab and it doesn't show much activity now but look at the second, Task Manager, and NIS is using most of the disk access (1MB) and basically most of the resource usage, but on the Performance tab it doesn't really show?

 

Last one is the Norton Tasks, the FULL SYSTEM SCAN never changes time duration and the Running unless I cancel it?

 

On our other computer, also W8.1 this isn't happening?

 

Is there something stopping the scan from completing?

 

Oops, looks like I can't add JPG's.... Put them into attached PDF, sorry.

2

Hi ispalten:

The blue bars in the upper pannel of your first image indicates that the Norton Insight Optimizer has been running on your system almost every day for the past month.  This disk defragger is scheduled to run every time you install software and you've been installing quite a bit of software this past month, but your Insight Optimizer activity still looks unusually high.  It's normal for large background Norton tasks like Insight Optimizer and Full Disk Scan to run during system idles (status Running), pause when your system comes out of idle (status Canceled), and then re-start the next time your system goes back into idle until it can run to completion, but the yellow peaks in your Preformance graph shows a high amount of activity by NIS.exe outside of system idles.  I don't have an solid state drive (SSD), but my understanding is that the Norton Insight Optimizer should recognize most modern SSDs and should not try to defrag these drives.

Do you have any other security software running in real-time protection mode, or did you have other antivirus software on your system that came pre-installed by the manufacturer or that you removed before installing NIS?  If so please let us know which AV software and we can likely recommend a removal tool to wipe an orphaned disk files or registry entires from this old software that might be conflicting with your NIS installation.

If NIS 21.x is the only AV software you've had on this computer, I'd recommend that you first try running the Norton Remove and Reinstall (NRnR) tool and immediatley disable the Insight Optimizer idletime defragger (Settings | General | Norton Tasks | Idle Tme Optimizer) once NIS is reinstalled.  If you're still having problems after re-booting and running manual LiveUpdates a few times to bring ensure NIS is fully updated, let us know and we'll provide instructions for a deeper wipe and re-install using the Norton Removal Tool (NRT).

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MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 25.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

3
lmacri wrote:

Hi ispalten:

The blue in the upper pannel of your first image indicates that the Norton Insight Optimizer (disk defragger) has been running on your system at least once a day for the past month.  It's not unusual for large background Norton tasks like Insight Optimizer and Full Disk Scan to run during system idles (status Running), pause when your system comes out of idle (status Canceled), and then re-start the next time your system goes back into idle, but the yellow peaks in your Preformance graph shows a high amount of activity by NIS.exe outside of system idles.

Do you have any other security software running in real-time protection mode, or did you have other antivirus software on your system that came pre-installed by the manufacturer or that you removed before installing NIS?  If so please let us know which AV software and we can likely recommend a removal tool to wipe an orphaned disk files or registry entires from this old software that might be conflicting with your NIS installation.

If NIS 21.x is the only AV software you've had on this computer, I'd recommend that you run the Norton Remove and Reinstall (NRnR) tool and immediatley disable the Norton Insight idletime defragger (Settings | General | Norton Tasks | Idle Tme Optimizer) once NIS is reinstalled - especially since you have an SSD.

Thanks for the QUICK reply.

 

One would think the s/w could tell I had an SSD as the boot drive and NOT optimize? Anyway, I've turned that off now.

 

At one time, LONG AGO, McAfee was on this computer, over 3 years ago. Since then, NIS only. Matter of fact, my other computer that my wife uses was also on McAfee until this Sept. and been updated to NIS. That one has no problem.

 

All this started recently though. NO OTHER 'protection' program running, no Malware programs, nothing....

 

Look at the PDF, confusion it seems to me...

 

Full system scan running now, see the output and performance tab.

 

Yet on the second page shows the SAME scan both cancelled and running?

4

Hi ispalten:

 

I believe you're correct about the SSD.  I edited my original post but you must have replied before I finished my final edits.  I really need to learn how to type faster.:smileyhappy:

 

I'd suggest running the McAfee Consumer Products Removal (MCPR) tool first and then trying a fresh reinstall of NIS with the Norton Remove and Reinstall (NRnR) tool.  When you first install NIS it usually runs a deep full system scan of all your files (not just the untrusted files as later full scans do) and this can be quite resource-intensive, but you shouldn't be seeing this much activity by NIS.exe outside of system idles a month after installation.  I'd guess that some glitch occurred during your installation and a fresh install with the NRnR will hopefully fix the problem.

------------
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 25.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

5
lmacri wrote:

Hi ispalten:

 

I believe you're correct about the SSD.  I edited my original post but you must have replied before I finished my final edits.  I really need to learn how to type faster.:smileyhappy:

 

I'd suggest running the McAfee Consumer Products Removal (MCPR) tool first and then trying a fresh reinstall of NIS with the Norton Remove and Reinstall (NRnR) tool.  When you first install NIS it usually runs a deep full system scan of all your files (not just the untrusted files as later full scans do) and this can be quite resource-intensive, but you shouldn't be seeing this much activity by NIS.exe outside of system idles a month after installation.  I'd guess that some glitch occurred during your installation and a fresh install with the NRnR will hopefully fix the problem.

------------
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 25.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Yes, the MCPR was run on BOTH systems before the install of NIS (2009 on this computer, 2013 on wife's).

 

I am not sure about doing the re-install with a clean first? Like I said, this is a new problem that has started only recently. The 11/20 scan and 11/13 scan's both finished OK but the status for the 11/20 shows cancelled and I always saw it running even when it wasn't.

 

I think I'll wait for my license to expire in late Dec. and then uninstall it and start over. I've get a new copy of NIS 2013 to do just that.

 

I actually thin W8.1 is somehow involved though. It is possible all this started with the W8.1 update. Wife's machine isn't having the same problem though which doesn't add up?

6

Hi ispalten:

 

You could be right about Win 8.1, it seems to have a few glitches of its own regarding hardware drivers.  There are also a few known issues in NIS 21.x (2014) that Symantec will hopefully fix with the next product update (release date currently unknown).

 

If you'd like to try a clean wipe with the Norton Removal Tool and downgrade to NIS 20.x (2013), Phil_D has posted detailed instructions here.  Please note that his instructions ask you to select "Please remove all user data ..."  when you uninstall NIS from the Control Panel to provide the best wipe of NIS 21.x off your system.  If you use the Identity Safe feature to store login passwords in a local vault (i.e., on your hard drive instead of in the cloud on Symantec's online server) you will likely have to downgrade all the way back to NIS 19.x (2012) using the oflline standalone installer from www.norton.com/nis12 instead, re-create your local vault data, and then upgrade to NIS 20.x (2013).  Regardless, you should turn Automatic Download of New Version to OFF (Settings | Computer | Updates) as soon as you've finished installing NIS 20.x (2013) to prevent NIS from automatically upgrading back to NIS 21.x.

 

NIS 2013 Uninstall Preference Edited 18 Oct 2013.jpg

Also note that the Norton Removal Tool (NRT) will remove a wide range of Norton products, including Norton SystemWorks and Norton Utilities, so if you have any Norton products on your system other than NIS you will have to re-install them after you use the NRT.
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MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 25.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

7
lmacri wrote:

Hi ispalten:

 

You could be right about Win 8.1, it seems to have a few glitches of its own regarding hardware drivers.  There are also a few known issues in NIS 21.x (2014) that Symantec will hopefully fix with the next product update (release date currently unknown)..

.

.

.

Also note that the Norton Removal Tool (NRT) will remove a wide range of Norton products, including Norton SystemWorks and Norton Utilities, so if you have any Norton products on your system other than NIS you will have to re-install them after you use the NRT.
------------
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 25.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Imacri, thanks for the reply...

 

RATS!!!! I do have SSR 2014 also... pain to set up again...

 

I know the Norton Toolbar had a problem with W8.1, and possibly other problems as well? I recall now when I upgraded (10/18/13) that I needed to mess with NIS? I might have even re-installed it at that time. I had many 8.1 issues with device drivers as well.

 

Since I'll need to play with both products if I run the removal tool, I think I want to reconsider doing that. Although since my wife's system isn't experiencing problems, it could be my install? I might just try the Windows Remove and then re-install NIS to see if that help? Maybe remove NIS and then run CCleaner to remove and NIS stuff left? I do not want to start messing with SSR at all. I did that once before and had lost the record of old backups. SSR didn't find them when reinstalled and I didn't realize that until I ran out of disk space as it didn't delete them when the back up count per drive was reached.

8
ispalten wrote:
Since I'll need to play with both products if I run the removal tool, I think I want to reconsider doing that. Although since my wife's system isn't experiencing problems, it could be my install? I might just try the Windows Remove and then re-install NIS to see if that help? Maybe remove NIS and then run CCleaner to remove and NIS stuff left? I do not want to start messing with SSR at all.

Hi ispalten:

 

What's the make and model of your PC?  It's likely a problem with the install, but there are known issues with some third-party and factory-installed software like the Asus Network iControl or Applian Network Monitor (see lancea's post here) that still need to be resolved.

 

I'm not familiar with Symantec System Recovery so I'll do some searching for a list a complete list of all Norton products affected by the NRT.  The main information page here for othe NRT lists a separate removal tool for Norton Ghost and Norton Save & Restore so it's possible that the NRT won't touch your SSR installation, but hopefully someone else will jump in and provide an answer while I'm digging around for clarification.

 

If you had Norton Ghost on your system before installing SSR you should read Symantec employee Tony Weiss's post here in the Norton Ghost board.

------------
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 25.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

9
ispalten wrote:
I do not want to start messing with SSR at all. I did that once before and had lost the record of old backups

Hi ispalten:

 

I'm still searching for an answer on whether the Norton Removal Tool removes SSR.  If no one else in this board can provide further info you might be able to find out if you post the question in the Symantec System Recovery forum here.

 

The support article here indicates that the NRT and NRnR tools will remove Norton Ghost and Norton Save & Restore, but SSR isn't included in that list.  If we can't find a definitive answer, you could simply uninstall NIS 21.x from your Control Panel and then re-boot and re-install NIS 21.x (www.norton.com/latestnis) or downgrade to NIS 20.x (www.norton.com/nis20) and skip the extra wipe with a removal tool just to see if this helps.

------------
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 25.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

10
lmacri wrote:
ispalten wrote:
I do not want to start messing with SSR at all. I did that once before and had lost the record of old backups

Hi ispalten:

 

I'm still searching for an answer on whether the Norton Removal Tool removes SSR.  If no one else in this board can provide further info you might be able to find out if you post the question in the Symantec System Recovery forum here.

 

The support article here indicates that the NRT and NRnR tools will remove Norton Ghost and Norton Save & Restore, but SSR isn't included in that list.  If we can't find a definitive answer, you could simply uninstall NIS 21.x from your Control Panel and then re-boot and re-install NIS 21.x (www.norton.com/latestnis) or downgrade to NIS 20.x (www.norton.com/nis20) and skip the extra wipe with a removal tool just to see if this helps.

------------
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 25.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Imacri, I'm sure that NRT does remove SSR, I recall I did that the last time I had an ISS problem, right after I got SSR. I've been following and contributing to the SSR (actually the old Ghost forum) for a long time especially since W8 didn't 'like' Ghost.

 

I'll probably use the Control Panel way first at least.

 

The FULL SCAN report seems not to update completely, the file name doesn't change often :

 

See the PDF file, I can't paste in screen captures, too large it seems and forum doesn't accept JPG's.

 

 

Another bug???

 

 

11
lmacri wrote:

 

What's the make and model of your PC?  It's likely a problem with the install, but there are known issues with some third-party and factory-installed software like the Asus Network iControl or Applian Network Monitor (see lancea's post here) that still need to be resolved.


------------
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 25.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

This is a 4 1/2 year old Dell XP Studio 435T. I think I've been running Norton's ISS on it since 2010?

 

One 'problem' device is the display adapter, and ATI Radeon HD 4780. It is considered a 'legacy' adapter and hence no further development nor W8.1 driver. MS does support it though via W8.1's default video driver, but not the Catalyst Control Center which I need. A 'beta' driver for the card does work though.

 

This computer had a built-in RealTek NIC and the computer is hard wired to a router.

 

Again, up until I upgraded to W8.1, all (at least I think so) was working well.

12
ispalten wrote:
The FULL SCAN report seems not to update completely, the file name doesn't change often :

 

See the PDF file, I can't paste in screen captures, too large it seems and forum doesn't accept JPG's.

Hi ispalten:

 

I'm not sure, but I think that .ipa files are both encrypted and compressed.  Full scans might run to completion if you turn OFF Compressed File Scan (Settings | Computer | Computer Scans).  Regardless, your scans shouldn't be getting stuck on the same file.  This might be a true NIS 21.x bug but it's likely just another symptom of a corrupted installation.

 

EDIT:

 

You can insert a .JPG image in your posts by placing the cursor in the body of your message where you want it to appear and clicking the Insert/edit image button Insert Image Icon.jpg on the toolbar.  Instructions for posting screenshots in the forum can be found here.

------------
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 25.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

13
lmacri wrote:
ispalten wrote:
The FULL SCAN report seems not to update completely, the file name doesn't change often :

 

See the PDF file, I can't paste in screen captures, too large it seems and forum doesn't accept JPG's.

Hi ispalten:

 

I'm not sure, but I think that .ipa files are both encrypted and compressed.  Full scans might run to completion if you turn OFF Compressed File Scan (Settings | Computer | Computer Scans).  Regardless, your scans shouldn't be getting stuck on the same file.  This might be a true NIS 21.x bug but it's likely just another symptom of a corrupted installation.

 

EDIT:

 

You can insert a .JPG image in your posts by placing the cursor in the body of your message where you want it to appear and clicking the Insert/edit image button Insert Image Icon.jpg on the toolbar.  Instructions for posting screenshots in the forum can be found here.

------------
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 25.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Imacri,

 

The ipa extension is basically the iPad app data/executable. It is encrypted like a ZIP file.  I have too many 'compressed' files on my computer and I'd rather test them than not. Only problem is under a FULL SCAN I can't exclude any drive letter or folder. My X: drive is my original boot drive that I copied over to the SSD. I keep it assigned a letter from the day I cloned it. Don't need it, I guess I could 'hide' it, but it is another 50GB's that gets scanned (over and over again, I never write to it).

 

The scans are NOT getting stuck. The update to the dialog box just doesn't always happen. It does change, just not with every file that gets scanned and indicate the file it is working on. My PDF shows the same filename but higher count for files processed.


Duh, yeah, I knew I was able to do it before (insert JPG's), just forgot. Too many different ways in different forums to insert attachments. I know I've done it before, but the ATTACHMENTS caught my eye and on some forums that is how you do it, add one and then click on insert in-line. I honestly didn't even think at looking at the control bar! Thanks for pointing this out to me.

 

The FULL SCAN did finish this time, over 5 hours. One reason was I was playing a full screen game. Since Full Screen Sense was on, it stopped the background scan. When done with the game I had to leave so I left the system on. Came back 2 hours later and discovered a pop-up telling me the scan had stopped because of the Full Screen Sense stopped it... DID NOT see that before I left.

 

Capture.jpg

 

Seems a QUICK SCAN was done during the FULL SCAN as well (set to be done during idle). It took only 12 minutes.

 

Capture1.JPG

14
ispalten wrote:
I have too many 'compressed' files on my computer and I'd rather test them than not. Only problem is under a FULL SCAN I can't exclude any drive letter or folder. My X: drive is my original boot drive that I copied over to the SSD

Have you tried creating an scan exclusion at Settings | Computer | AntiVirus and SONAR Exclusions | Items to Exclude from Scans | Configure?  This might solve one problem, but the fact that you have high NIS.exe activity outside of system idles and an Insight Optimizer defrag that seems to run continuously on your SSD still points to a corrupted NIS installation.

 

NIS Scan Exclusion.jpg

 

 

I won't be able to see your .jpgs until a forum moderator approves them so I'll post back later if anything in the images catches my attention.

------------
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 25.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

15

Imacri,

 

I have 2 mechanical drives as well as the SSD, and I assume those are why to defrag is running? Not sure it is really required, W8.x does the same in the background. I just turned on the system, no real NIS activity and I did a manual Optimze, took 4 seconds... so it doesn't do much.  This is what Windows reports for my drives :

 

Capture.jpg

 

I guess I can turn-off Optimization and not even use that feature?

 

As for the exclusions, I 'assumed' it was for the scheduled and manual scan's, that meant to me not the FULL scan. I did have some set already, but I added the X: drive now as well.

 

I guess if one uploads a JPG they can see it then, but not others? Need moderator approval, but attachments do not?

 

I actually have NIS 2013's disk and have ordered 2014 that should be here Monday. I know I d/l 2014 from my account as well, but I'll probably wait until I get some free time and then use one or the other to re-install.

 

16

Hi ispalten:

 

Regarding the image of your W8 drive Scan results in message # 13, are you certain that you haven't created a custom scan (Scan Now | Custom Scan | Drive Scan | Edit Scan)  and/or re-configured any of your scans (including your Full System Scan) to run outside of system idles?  You noted in message # 1 that your Full System Scan is configured to run weekly, but the NIS 21.x default setting is monthly, which indicates that you have customized some of your scan settings.

 

Run Scan Only at Idle.jpg

 

 

If I go to History | Show | Scan Results, all my idletime Quick Scans are labeled "Quick Scan results" in the Activity column and the expanded Items Scanned show that my Quick Scan is scanning registry entries, process & startup items, etc..  Your  W8 drive scan is only scanning files and directories.

 

NIS 2013 Quick Scan 30 Nov 2013.jpg

 

EDIT:

 

Sorry, just saw that you must have posted this morning while I was composing this message.  I can't see your image again (and yes, images have to be approved by the moderator but not attached files).  Just FYI, if you purchase a license for 3 PCs you can use the 25-digit product key to register any version of NIS (19.x, 20.x, 21.x, etc.) on 3 different computers - Symantec doesn't care what version of NIS you run as long as the subscription for the product key hasn't expired.

 

And regarding the Insight Optimizer, many users (including me) just turn off this feature and let Windows or some other third-party defragger handle their disk defrags. According to the support article here, Insight Optimizer should only defrag your boot drive when your system is idle, so it shouldn't be automatically defragging your other mechanical drives unless you have a dual- or multi-boot system.

 ------------
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 25.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

17
lmacri wrote:

Hi ispalten:

 

Regarding the image of your W8 drive Scan results in message # 13, are you certain that you haven't created a custom scan (Scan Now | Custom Scan | Drive Scan | Edit Scan)  and/or re-configured any of your scans (including your Full System Scan) to run outside of system idles?  You noted in message # 1 that your Full System Scan is configured to run weekly, but the NIS 21.x default setting is monthly, which indicates that you have customized some of your scan settings.

 

Run Scan Only at Idle.jpg

 

 

If I go to History | Show | Scan Results, all my idletime Quick Scans are labeled "Quick Scan results" in the Activity column and the expanded Items Scanned show that my Quick Scan is scanning registry entries, process & startup items, etc..  Your  W8 drive scan is only scanning files and directories.

 

NIS 2013 Quick Scan 30 Nov 2013.jpg

 

EDIT:

 

Sorry, just saw that you must have posted this morning while I was composing this message.  I can't see your image again (and yes, images have to be approved by the moderator but not attached files).  Just FYI, if you purchase a license for 3 PCs you can use the 25-digit product key to register any version of NIS (19.x, 20.x, 21.x, etc.) on 3 different computers - Symantec doesn't care what version of NIS you run as long as the subscription for the product key hasn't expired.

 

And regarding the Insight Optimizer, many users (including me) just turn off this feature and let Windows or some other third-party defragger handle their disk defrags. According to the support article here, Insight Optimizer should only defrag your boot drive when your system is idle, so it shouldn't be automatically defragging your other mechanical drives unless you have a dual- or multi-boot system.

 ------------
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 25.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Imacri, YES, I did create that W8 Drive Scan, C:\, K:\, and L:\, I had forgotten about that!

 

My D: and X: are 'left over drives'. The original mechanical X: is the old C: before it was moved to the SSD and D: is Dell's restore drive (useless, this was for Vista, but I've kept it, it is only 15GB's and I don't need the space nor scan it).

 

So I have the FULL, QUICK, and CUSTOM active, probably DO NOT need the FULL SCAN even.

 

This of course begs the question of why the CUSTOM on ran so fast compared to the FULL SCAN?

 

12:26 minutes for the W8 Drive Scan which does (supposedly C:\, K:\, and L:\) and works on 453,150 files and directories.

5 hours and 9:22 minutes for the full and worked on 2,675,551 files and directories plus a lot more, registry entries, process and startup, trusted files, etc.

 

Since a FULL does other stuff, I guess if I exclude D: and X: then the Full Scan is a better choice? I don't see any option to include anything but drives and folders for a custom scan?

 

I did have scans running at a specific setting for weekly and idle not set. I've since changed that thinking it was hogging the system on me as I had the high HD activity which was slowing disk access down. Like I said, never had problems running scans at anytime until recently, probably concurrent with upgrading to W8.1 on 10/18.

 

Yeah, saw that about what Optimize really does so I've disabled it. I suspect it wasn't running if it took 4 seconds anyway, it started, discovered it was on an SSD and quit probably. It can't even analyze a drive in that short a time.

 

Know about the license thing. We've been buying NIS on Black Friday and use the license from that rather than buying it later from Symantec (renew) or in a store. Usually costs us $10 or less (free) after rebates. No deals like that other than for 360 this year for $25 but my wife found a 'special' on Amazon for $19.99 with no rebates needed, and that is what we're waiting for. Will use the included license to renew at the end of this month.

 

If I do have to re-install I'd rather use 2014 than 2013 and upgrade... for all I know it was the upgrade that caused some problems.

 

Since I've been doing this upgrade over the old copy so many times I'm not even sure what options I ever changed and probably do not even look to see if new ones came in with the new version. Only when I have a problem do I go looking.

 

18
ispalten wrote:
YES, I did create that W8 Drive Scan, C:\, K:\, and L:\, I had forgotten about that!

 

Since a FULL does other stuff, I guess if I exclude D: and X: then the Full Scan is a better choice? I don't see any option to include anything but drives and folders for a custom scan?

Since I've been doing this upgrade over the old copy so many times I'm not even sure what options I ever changed and probably do not even look to see if new ones came in with the new version. Only when I have a problem do I go looking.

Hi ispalten:

 

The amount of customized system scanning you do depends on your personal level of comfort, but I've always found the defaults perform well on my own system.  Your situation is different from mine since you have multiple physical drives, but it sounds like your custom W8 Drive Scan might be redundant and could be deleted if it's just re-scanning files and folders already covered by your Full System Scan.

 

Quick Scans are scheduled to run automatically after every Automatic LiveUpdate, and newer versions of NIS have an enhanced Quick Scan that scans more areas of your system where malware might reside, which is part of the reason why Symantec now feels that monthly Full System Scans are adequate.  You might have also noticed that the Full Definition set of virus definitions is no longer available for NIS 21.x (2014) and that the Smart Definition set is now the default because of the increasing reliance on real-time heuristic detection vs. signature-based scanning with definition sets in order to keep up with all the new malware variants released on a daily basis - see SendOfJive's comments here.

 

The amount of time your Full System Scan requires will hopefully decrease if you can exclude your X: and D: drives from the scan or archive the files to an external drive. If you ever want to scan these drives separately you can create a new custom scan, or simply right-click on the drive while in Windows Explorer and select Norton Internet Security from the pop-up contect menu to run an on-demand scan any time you wish.  My understanding is that a Custom Scan can only be configured to scan specific files, folders or drives and cannot scan in other areas of your system (e.g., the Windows registry) like the Quick Scan and Full System Scan do.

 

I've never had great success installing NIS upgrades over my current installation  - see my thread here about problems I had upgrading from NIS 2011 to 2013. That thread was locked before I was able to post a solution, but out of habit I now wipe NIS off my system essentially as described in message # 6 (i.e., by selecting "Please remove all user data" during the uninstall from the Control Panel followed by at least two re-boots and wipes with the Norton Removal Tool) before installing the upgrade using an offline standalone installer.

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MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 25.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

19
lmacri wrote:

 

I've never had great success installing NIS upgrades over my current installation  - see my thread here about problems I had upgrading from NIS 2011 to 2013. That thread was locked before I was able to post a solution, but out of habit I now wipe NIS off my system essentially as described in message # 6 (i.e., by selecting "Please remove all user data" during the uninstall from the Control Panel followed by at least two re-boots and wipes with the Norton Removal Tool) before installing the upgrade using an offline standalone installer.

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MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 25.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Well, the DVD came and I really didn't need it. Booted it and it suggested I use the Web to install, which I did. Of course I had to FIRST delete this computer from the account as I have used all 3 licenses allowed. Next when I uninstalled I chose to NOT remove the USER data.

 

Install went OK, but since I've disabled the cause of the HD high I/O I started getting a ton on prompts for items trying to access the Internet? I guess only the SETTINGS are saved, not the data associated with it?

 

We'll see what happens now, and if I still get a 'stalled' scan, I'll try again deleting the settings as well.

 

Thanks for you assistance.

20
ispalten wrote:
Next when I uninstalled I chose to NOT remove the USER data.

 

Install went OK, but since I've disabled the cause of the HD high I/O I started getting a ton on prompts for items trying to access the Internet? I guess only the SETTINGS are saved, not the data associated with it?

Hi ispalten:

 

I seem to recall that the Smart Firewall settings are reset to their defaults, even if you select "I plan to reinstall a Norton product.  Please leave my settings behind" during the unistall.  The first time each program on your computer attempts to access the Internet through the firewall, a new program rule will be automatically created - see Settings | Network | Smart Firewall | Programs Rules | Configure to see the level of access (Allow vs. Auto) the firewall assigns for each program depending on its application trust level - see here for more info.  Once those rules are created over the next week or so the prompts from your Smart Firewall activity should decrease.

 

That being said, there is a known bug in the NIS 21.x firewall that causes high I/O problems if users turn OFF Automatic Program Control for the Smart Firewall and turn ON Advanced Events Monitoring (Settings | Network | Smart Firewall | Advanced Settings | Configure | Automatic Program Control | Configure | Advanced Events Monitoring) - see slee2's thread here.   Untill this bug is fixed make sure that you leave Automatic Program Control set to Automatic (the default) and let the Smart Firewall control how programs access the Internet.

 

I was finally able to view your .jpg in message # 15 yesterday, and it does appear that your X: drive is detected as an system drive.  If this is the image of your old Vista computer, NIS might be wasting resources scanning extra Windows system files on this drive. If you can archive any documents and user files on X: that you want to retain over to your K: or L: drive and then remove the X: drive this might cut down on some of your NIS scanning.

 

Hope the re-install helps.  Keep us posted.

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MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * Firefox 25.0.1 * IE 9.0 * NIS 2013 v. 20.4.0.40
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS