I was asked to start a new thread (ref: here ) to prevent the other similarly named thread from going off-topic, so here it is.
This thread is only for people who experience high disk I/O with NIS setting "Advanced Event Monitoring" set to OFF.
Ever since I upgraded to NIS v21.1.1.7 a couple of weeks ago, my already under-powered Windows XP desktop PC (Intel Pentium 4, 3.0GHz, 1.5GB RAM) has been doing file I/O like crazy. It was OK under NIS v20. (my Internet connection speed is 50Mbps down, 5Mbps up) Culprit is NIS.EXE (according to Process Explorer, from sysinternals).
My Firewall Advanced Event Monitoring has always been OFF. Now, I've resorted to turning the following NIS Settings OFF (or at least OFF until the next PC restart):
Computer: Antispyware SONAR Protection Automatic LiveUpdate Automatic Download of New Version
General: Idle Time Optimizer Monthly Report Special Offer Notification Insight Protection Norton Community Watch
Disk I/O has gone down noticeably, but not completely. Yay!!
The very basic antivirus and firewall is still active. I might try slowly turning each of the above ON in turn to figure out which service precisely is causing that massive file i/o. Maybe Symantec will fix it, and I can turn everything back on again like it was under v20...
Just a heads up that the OP noted in another thread here that the "Culprit is NIS.EXE (according to Process Explorer, from sysinternals)."
The bug fix announced for NIS v. 21.2.0.38 links to a thread here regarding high CPU and disk I/O caused by SRTSP.SYS (Symantec Real-time AutoProtect) and the parent process shown in the Task Manager for this high activity is always SYSTEM, not NIS.exe or ccSvcHst.exe. I suspect an update to v. 21.2.0.38 wouldn't address natey2's problem.
----------- MS Windows 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox 28.0 * 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
I might try slowly turning each of the above ON in turn to figure out which service precisely is causing that massive file i/o. Maybe Symantec will fix it, and I can turn everything back on again like it was under v20...
Hi natey2:
As peterweb mentioned in message # 2, your 1.5 GB of RAM is likely contributing the the problem, although I'm not sure why your disk I/O would be significantly higher with NIS v. 21.x than NIS 20.x unless your NIS 21.x installation was corrupted during the upgrade.
It would be helpful if you could click on the Performance link in your NIS GUI and post a screenshot of your Performance Monitor graph so that we can see what your CPU usage looks like during one of these periods of high disk I/O. Any CPU consumption by NIS.exe should appear as yellow peaks in this graph. Yaso_Kuuhl has provided instructions here on how to post screenshots in the forum - I just use the built-in Paint program that comes with Windows Vista for cropping my screenshots.
----------- MS Windows 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox 28.0 * 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
Me again. I might be away from the forum for a bit so I thought I'd jump ahead and post some additional information for your consideration.
In many cases, high CPU or disk I/O caused by NIS 21.x can be solved with a reinstall of the latest version of NIS using the Norton Remove and Reinstall (NRnR) tool - especially for users like you who have used NIS 20.x in the past without incident and have Advanced Event Monitoring turned off. The NRnR tool is fairly simple to use because it manages the download and installation and retains the user's current configuration settings. The user only has to run multiple manual LiveUpdates at the end of the reinstall to ensure that NIS 21.x is fully updated.
If the NRnR tool doesn't solve the high I/O, a clean re-install using the Norton Removal Tool (NRT) and the latest NIS installer from www.norton.com/latestnis is usually the next logical step. A clean re-install is a multi-step process (see Phil_D's general instructions here) and requires users to select "Please remove all user data" when they uninstall NIS from the Control Panel to provide the best wipe of their current NIS installation. Users who use the local vault to store their Identity Safe logins or have other Norton products like Norton Utilities installed on their computer should read the warnings about performing a clean re-install here in moglie38's thread NIS.exe Constantly Using 26% CPU. User tas3086 posted an alternate method in message # 30 of that thread that allowed him to reinstall NIS 21.x and resolve his high CPU problem while still retaining his local vault.
You should also know that elsewhere has posted here about a known bug (currently being tracked as issue PB0050) related to high CPU consuption by NIS.exe that can be reproduced in NIS v. 21.2.0.38. elsewhere's screenshots (one is shown below) illustrate the impact of this bug on a quad-core processor. If your problem with NIS.exe is related to this bug, the impact on CPU and memory consumption on your single-core Pentium processor would likely be much higher.
----------- MS Windows 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox 28.0 * 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
" You should also know that elsewhere has posted here about a known bug (currently being tracked as issue PB0050) related to high CPU consuption by NIS.exe that can be reproduced in NIS v. 21.2.0.38."
Hi Lmacri,
Is the bug you describe related to the SRTSP issue, claimed as fixed by Symantec, or it's a separate issue??
Is the bug you describe related to the SRTSP issue, claimed as fixed by Symantec, or it's a separate issue??
Hi Apostolos:
I believe it's a separate issue. The high CPU / disk I/O caused by SRTSP.sys following idletime Quick Scans will be displayed as blue peaks in the Performance graph and clicking inside graph will report the responsible process as "No Activity" (assuming the NIS GUI is closed) and not NIS.exe. The following screenshot is taken from my post here on the SRTSP.sys (Symantec Real-time AutoProtect) bug.
I still use NIS 20.x on my computer so I haven't been able to confirm that this SRTSP.sys bug is actually fixed in NIS v. 21.2.0.38.
----------- MS Windows 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox 28.0 * 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
I'm using all default settings now, and NIS v21.2.0.38 appears to have solved the excessive disk I/O problem on my PC.
Hi natey2:
Thanks for the update. I noticed that iQSfX01001 posted here this morning that the v. 21.2.0.38 update also solved the high CPU and disk I/O he was seeing when Advanced Event Monitoring was enabled in his Smart Firewall settings.
I double-checked the v. 21.2.0.38 product update announcement here and confirmed that the link next to "Fixed issue where high CPU and I/O usage during Idle" still points to the thread on the SRTSP.sys bug. I'm not sure now if the link in the product announcement is pointing to the wrong thread or if Symantec has managed to address multiple bugs with the same v. 21.2.0.38 product update.
As previously noted, Patrick McCabe's thread here includes some suggestions for disabling features in NIS (e.g., Idle Time Optimizer, Norton Community Watch, etc.) that could further reduce your CPU / RAM consumption without impacting your system security. The first suggestion in that thread (i.e., turn ON Smart Definitions) is no longer relevant since Smart Definitions are now the only definition set availble in newer versions of NIS.
----------- MS Windows 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox 28.0 * 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
I noticed that iQSfX01001 posted here this morning that the v. 21.2.0.38 update also solved the high CPU and disk I/O he was seeing when Advanced Event Monitoring was enabled in his Smart Firewall settings.
Just an FYI for anyone following this thread - Symantec employee Basil confirmed here that the v. 21.2.0.38 product update has fixed the bug that resulted in high CPU and disk I/O when users enabled the Advanced Events Monitoring setting in their Smart Firewall (Settings | Network | Smart Firewall | Advanced Settings | Configure | Automatic Program Control | Configure | Advanced Events Monitoring).
Please note that this Advanced Events Monitoring bug only applied to users who disabled the Automatic Program Control of their Smart Firewall (the default setting) and chose to manually configure the Internet access settings for all inbound and outbound traffic in their firewall alerts.
----------- MS Windows 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox 28.0 * 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
