VERY frustrated & perplexed. Apologies for the LONG post but hope it helps someone...
Running Windows 7 SP1 64-bit Home on HP laptop, recently with Norton Internet Security v22.5.2.15 I think it was (unless LU upgraded it & I never noticed). All was well until one recent day I got the annoying & all too common Norton error 8504,104 that requires Remove and Reinstall.
Initial attempt, using Norton Remove & Reinstall:
Used NRnR Tool. Removed no problem & automatically downloaded latest NIS 22.5.4.24 and told me to reboot. After reboot, auto reinstall of NIS 22.5.4.24 took 9+ hours, constantly using half of CPU cycles. When bottom of NIS Installation status window finally switched from "Installing" to "Starting" the installation hangs and didn't complete or finish. Interestingly, NIS 22.5.4.24 appeared in Programs list of Control Panel as installed program. Couldn't kill any of the install processes in Task Mgr. Had to power down & reboot to recover. But NIS wouldn't start, even after the reboot. NRnR Tool eventually restarted automatically & tried again to install NIS 22.5.4.24 unsuccessfully. Able to kill NRnR process in Task Mgr this time. [Other aspects of laptop, network access, & Win7 ran somewhat normally.]
Then tried 2x Norton Removal Tool + manual install, with same failures:
Used latest NRT to uninstall NIS 22.5.4.24 and rebooted. Programs list in Control Panel no longer shows NIS as installed. Tried manual reinstall by signing into Norton Account and downloading latest version of NIS (same version 22.5.4.24 at 126.51 MB). Same problem: install takes 4+ hours, while continuously using 50% CPU. Installation status window eventually changes from Installing to Starting but never finishes. Norton Download Manager window still says "Installing". Programs list of Control Panel now shows NIS 22.5.4.24 as installed. But Task Manager processes only show Norton Download Mgr & NIS 22.5.4.24 install files running. Still no NIS icon in System Tray. [Other aspects of laptop, network access, & Win7 running normally.]
Always exited other security software after reboots:
ALL other security software was exited after EACH reboot, even tho they've been running fine with NIS for years (SuperAntiSpyware, AdAware, IObit Malware Fighter, Malwarebytes -- especially because I know that the last one has a component that doesn't play nice with Norton security products in general).
4th install try takes 4+ hours but finishes!
Wow! On latest re-try, again after 4+ hours NIS Installation status window, showing "Installing" and then "Starting", finally finished, with NIS actually running (& shows in Task Manager as normal NIS.exe running process, with the processes mentioned above now gone). NIS icon now in Sys Tray, as normal.
How to fix 4+ hour NIS installations?
Can anyone help with why NIS install is taking SOOOOO long & how to shorten it to a normal install time (probably should be under 10 mins), please? If I have to go thru NRnR or manual reinstall process again, I don't want it to take 4-5 hours or longer to complete.