Hi, over the past several weeks I have been noticing these random extreme spikes in memory usage with the process ccsvchst.exe. Lately I've been noticing two of these processes in task manager instead of one like there used to be. When these spikes happen (which can last anywhere from 5-20 minutes) the memory usage which normally hovers around 20,000K will gradually spike to around 400,000K. It will then immedietly drop back down to 20,000K, but may repeat the process immedietly after that. I haven't noticed anything unusual about any of the other processes while this is happening.
At the same time my PF Usage which normally resides around 600-900 MB, will be spiking to around 1.60 GB and can stay like that for around 20 minutes. During this time my computer (Windows XP) is almost unusable. Otherwise I rarely experience any lag since I regularly defrag and run disk cleaner, etc.
I've also been noticing that Norton Liveupdate is often now having a lot of updates fail to complete when running either a manual liveupdate or have it running in the background. So I'm not sure whether these two issues are connected.
Can someone give me some insight as to why this may be happening and how to fix this. None of this occurs on my Windows 7 laptop which I downloaded the same version on to. If any additional information is needed, I'll be happy to post.
EDIT: I also came to the forum some time ago regarding my NIS Firewall being turned off upon startup. The problem doesn't happen as much as it did when I first posted, but I still haven't found a solution to that or know if its related to this.
All support for XP and Office 2003 ended last month. You will no longer receive security updates that are necessary beyond AV protection.
I highly recommend you update your XP system to at least Windows Vista, which is still supported by Microsoft, or preferably Win 7 (which you have no apparent problems with)
Once you have upgraded your operating system see if the problem persists.
.... I would also suggest you ensure you are using the latest version of your Norton product. The process has been renamed in the latest versions to nav.exe, nis.exe and n360.exe. Upgrading is free while you have an active subscription.
Thanks Krusty, I wasn't aware of the update. Will do and see if that helps.
In reply to Ballistic, I'm aware of the whole Microsoft revoking their support (as a side note, I however use MS Office 2007 which still does recieve support unlike 2003) and am currently in the process of finding another laptop to replace it. So far though I haven't found any good replacements with companies these days thinking its some great idea not to include CD drives.
In truth though, the problem I'm experiencing shouldn't have anything to do with Microsoft no longer supporting XP. The problem I'm having is 100% on Norton after repeatedly seeing the events described in my previous post in task manager.
Hi, Ringil. I would also suggest you update to the latest version of your Norton product as Krusty13 suggested, as it is much lighter on systems than earlier versions.
Not only that, but you will get the most up to date protection.
FYI, you will have two instances in your Task manager. One under System, and the other under your name.
Hi, over the past several weeks I have been noticing these random extreme spikes in memory usage with the process ccsvchst.exe. Lately I've been noticing two of these processes in task manager instead of one like there used to be. When these spikes happen (which can last anywhere from 5-20 minutes) the memory usage which normally hovers around 20,000K will gradually spike to around 400,000K. It will then immedietly drop back down to 20,000K, but may repeat the process immedietly after that. I haven't noticed anything unusual about any of the other processes while this is happening.
At the same time my PF Usage which normally resides around 600-900 MB, will be spiking to around 1.60 GB and can stay like that for around 20 minutes. During this time my computer (Windows XP) is almost unusable. Otherwise I rarely experience any lag since I regularly defrag and run disk cleaner, etc.
[...]
How much RAM is installed in the affected PC?
I'd suggest that the memory usage spiking problem problem is related to the frequency of your email updates. Please see the following post for an example screenshot of NIS v20's excessive memory usage spikes whenever email is being received:
On my system running Norton Internet Security v20.5.0.28, the excessive memory usage spikes during an email update only seem to start happening after the system has been woken from the Sleep state.
In terms of fixing the issue, you may need to make some changes to Norton's Email Protection features. Try initially disabling Norton's AntiSpam feature as this feature tends to exhibit erratic behaviour on occasion:
Date & Time
15/05/2014 10:52
Risk
Info
Activity
Submitted AntiSpam statistics to Symantec
Status
Detected
Recommended Action
No action required
Category
AntiSpam activities
Activity
Submitted AntiSpam statistics to Symantec
Date
15/05/2014 10:52
Spam Detected
0 out of 1 emails scanned
Web Query Convictions
0 out of 1 emails scanned
Total processing time:
539 Secs
Average time per email
539633 Msecs
Average web query time
539394 Msecs
Total email size
12 Kb
Average email size
12 Kb
Alternatively, you could try upgrading to NIS v21 as others have suggested to see if this fixes the issue. I can't comment on this as I can't upgrade this machine to NIS v21 to test for the issue. Symantec has removed some NIS v20 features from NIS v21 that I use on a regular basis so this machine has to stay on NIS v20 for now.
I'm back. I upgraded Norton on my Windows 7 laptop without any problems. However after upgrading my Windows XP and hitting the restart NIS now reports that my subscription has expired even though I still had around another 100 days left.
Was unsure whether to start a new thread on this. But this is getting awfully frustrating and I'm not sure whether the issues are connected. Can someone help me with this?
In reply to elsewhere, I haven't considered disabling Antispam even though it does nothing for me really. I tried to lessen the resource usage of NIS by disabling pulse updates as well as delaying tasks to the max time and unscheduling full system scans which did help to an extent but not enough to eliminate the problem.
EDIT: My computer originally came with 512 MB of RAM, but I upgraded it to 1 GB.
I'm back. I upgraded Norton on my Windows 7 laptop without any problems. However after upgrading my Windows XP and hitting the restart NIS now reports that my subscription has expired even though I still had around another 100 days left.
Was unsure whether to start a new thread on this. But this is getting awfully frustrating and I'm not sure whether the issues are connected. Can someone help me with this?
In reply to elsewhere, I haven't considered disabling Antispam even though it does nothing for me really. I tried to lessen the resource usage of NIS by disabling pulse updates as well as delaying tasks to the max time and unscheduling full system scans which did help to an extent but not enough to eliminate the problem.
EDIT: My computer originally came with 512 MB of RAM, but I upgraded it to 1 GB.
Hi, You will need to reinstall your Norton product with the upgrade from XP to 7 after the installation click on Support -> Subscription Status and it should update that as well.If not post back and we'll try the next step
It looks to me like Windows 7 and XP are different machines.
Ringil,
On the XP machine, make sure your date and time / time zone are set correctly and accurate. Also, open NIS and click Support > Subscription Status. This will link that system to the Norton servers.
this may sound like a stupid question but when you say check date/time and time zone, is that as simple as comparing what's on the computer with a calendar and clock, or is there some special process for that. Thanks.
I'm not sure how it works with XP, but on my Windows 7 machine I can click the clock on the bottom right of the task bar and find an option to Change date and time settings > Internet time > Change settings > Update now. This will sync your system with the online clock.
It should be similar in XP. You may need to be using an Administrator account.
ok for the time and date configuration for XP I clicked the time in the bottom right hand corner --> Went to the "Internet Time" Tab --> clicked the "sychronize now" button.
It said the previous synchonization was done successfully on May 1, 2014 and this manual one I just did was also successful.
Unfortunately when I clicked support --> subscription status, it says that "Status Check Complete" with a red X. As well as:
We have verified your subscription to Norton Internet Security.
Your subscription status is listed below.
Your subscription status
You have 0 days of subscription remaining.
This can't be true as before I did the update I had more than 100 days remaining. What are my next steps?
Hey, thanks SendOfJive. I put in the product key yesterday after clicking the renew option and Norton reports that I still have 160 days left. I just wanted to wait a day and do a full system scan to make sure everything was in order.
One suspicious thing that caught my eye yesterday when doing the full system scan was that the scanner was stuck on this one file for a good half hour of the scan. I decided to stop the scan and reattempted today. The same thing happened but the scan managed to complete itself. That has never happened before, so I'm wondering if that should be a cause of concern.
Other than that for the time being everything seems to be in order, and the upgrade from version 20 to 21 was successful. For now I'll consider this problem resolved, however I have a few small questions:
1. Why were reputation scans removed?
2. What is different about Version 21 from 20 as I didn't notice anything different in the settings
3. Is it alright to delete or move the Norton Installation Files folder from the desktop
EDIT: Also one other small question that has really been bugging me is that every time now and in the past I run full system scans, Norton makes these statistical submissions of files found within system volume information, like today one called A0222141.exe. A quick google search usually brings me to virus removal forums listing these files as being viruses. The one I just listed is labelled as a FakeAV trojan in a Spybot S&D forum.
In the past I had a really bad virus infection with a FakeAV that Norton couldn't completely fix. I still have old notepad logs of the viruses/files detected by Norton. Its always worried me that I may have a sleeper virus on my computer. And these files are never quarantined or detected other than in statistical submissions. Is this a cause for concern?