NIS CPU issues since upgrading - pulse updates using excessive CPU??

A few weeks ago I finally accepted the upgrade from beautifully-performing NIS "2011" to the latest version 20.4.0.40.

 

Unfortunately, since then my XP-SP3 computer has been very sluggish for a minute or two every 2-5 minutes (although it took me awhile to trace it to NIS).  E.g., programs locking up for 30-60 seconds, or delaying execution of a simple "delete this email" command in Outlook by 7-15 seconds, or getting an hourglass and "Program Not Responding" error when I simply try to scroll a web page.  The issue then resolves after a few minutes, but then recurs a few minutes later.

 

Looking at the NIS Performance screens, the main culprit for this very-frequent sluggishness appears to be ccScvhost hogging CPU, and specifically during the frequent pulse updates:  ccScvHost is using 80-99% of my CPU just about the time the pulse updates occur approximately every 1-4 minutes. 

 

This has only been a problem since I upgraded.  I *really* prefer not to do a "full" uninstall/reinstall (or even a downgrade), because I was absolutely delighted that for once NIS retained my custom firewall program settings during the upgrade!  Indeed, not wanting to take the time to recreate those was the overriding reason I put off upgrading for so long.

 

Any ideas?  I do not have any other real time security software running on my computer.  Thanks.

 

ETA:  I just took a longer-view look at the CPU trend screen, and if that is accurate the situation has been MUCH worse in the past 24 hours -- a veritable sea of tall yellow (NIS) spikes, vs, barely-visible yellow (in the 1-week view) before that.