Norton 360 Causing Slow Start-Up

Last month I used Norton’s Live Help to try and resolve the problem of my laptop’s slow start-up, the cause of which appeared to be Norton taking a long time to register its green ‘Protected’ status.

 

The technician who took control of my laptop concluded that Norton could only load after its sidebar icon had loaded and it was the delay in this icon loading that was causing start-up to take 8 minutes regardless of how many or how few other programmes he set as enabled/disabled either within Norton’s Start-Up Manager or from within ‘msconfig’, as well turning on and off ‘Early Load’ within Antivirus/Settings.  His recommendation to resolve the 360 Sidebar Icon issue was to upgrade from Norton 360 v.3 to v.4.  However, as his various trials and tests had already taken over an hour to reach this point I was unable to stay online any longer and we had to end the session before upgrading.

 

Yesterday, I finally got around to upgrading to v.4 but the problem remains, albeit manifesting itself in a slightly different manner.

 

The slow start-up process under v.3 happened like this:  3 minutes after commencing ‘start-up’  the sidebar would appear but the Norton 360 icon shown in the sidebar would take a further 5 minutes to change from its ‘spinning circle of dots’ status to its green ‘protected’ status.  Once the sidebar icon showed ‘protected’ a similar ‘protected’ 360 icon would appear in the bottom RHS taskbar.  Furthermore, until ‘protected’ status was shown I was unable to open/use any programme.

 

Now that I’ve upgraded to v.4, start-up is still taking 8 minutes but the order of how things appear on screen has changed.  Firstly, a ‘Protected’ icon appears in the bottom RHS taskbar after only 2 minutes but I am still unable to open/use any programme until the sidebar Norton icon appears.  However, whereas under v.3 the sidebar would appear after 3 minutes but show a spinning 360 icon for a further 5 minutes, now the sidebar doesn’t appear at all until all 8 minutes have fully passed and when it finally does appear the 360 icon is already in ‘Protected’ mode.

 

I have a Toshiba Satellite Pro A200laptop running Vista Business SP2 (32 bit) with 4GB of 667MHz RAM (256MB VRAM), an Intel Core2 Duo T7500 2.20GHz processor and 200GB HDD of which only 64GB is currently used (136GB is free).  I don’t have any games loaded and primarily use this laptop for basic Microsoft applications (Word, Excel, Windows Mail, Internet Explorer) and AutoCAD 2004

 

If anyone is able to suggest a solution I would be most grateful.

 

Regards,

 

Ian

 

 

[edit: Please refrain from posting identifying information per the Participation Guidelines and Terms of Service.]

Last month I used Norton’s Live Help to try and resolve the problem of my laptop’s slow start-up, the cause of which appeared to be Norton taking a long time to register its green ‘Protected’ status.

 

The technician who took control of my laptop concluded that Norton could only load after its sidebar icon had loaded and it was the delay in this icon loading that was causing start-up to take 8 minutes regardless of how many or how few other programmes he set as enabled/disabled either within Norton’s Start-Up Manager or from within ‘msconfig’, as well turning on and off ‘Early Load’ within Antivirus/Settings.  His recommendation to resolve the 360 Sidebar Icon issue was to upgrade from Norton 360 v.3 to v.4.  However, as his various trials and tests had already taken over an hour to reach this point I was unable to stay online any longer and we had to end the session before upgrading.

 

Yesterday, I finally got around to upgrading to v.4 but the problem remains, albeit manifesting itself in a slightly different manner.

 

The slow start-up process under v.3 happened like this:  3 minutes after commencing ‘start-up’  the sidebar would appear but the Norton 360 icon shown in the sidebar would take a further 5 minutes to change from its ‘spinning circle of dots’ status to its green ‘protected’ status.  Once the sidebar icon showed ‘protected’ a similar ‘protected’ 360 icon would appear in the bottom RHS taskbar.  Furthermore, until ‘protected’ status was shown I was unable to open/use any programme.

 

Now that I’ve upgraded to v.4, start-up is still taking 8 minutes but the order of how things appear on screen has changed.  Firstly, a ‘Protected’ icon appears in the bottom RHS taskbar after only 2 minutes but I am still unable to open/use any programme until the sidebar Norton icon appears.  However, whereas under v.3 the sidebar would appear after 3 minutes but show a spinning 360 icon for a further 5 minutes, now the sidebar doesn’t appear at all until all 8 minutes have fully passed and when it finally does appear the 360 icon is already in ‘Protected’ mode.

 

I have a Toshiba Satellite Pro A200laptop running Vista Business SP2 (32 bit) with 4GB of 667MHz RAM (256MB VRAM), an Intel Core2 Duo T7500 2.20GHz processor and 200GB HDD of which only 64GB is currently used (136GB is free).  I don’t have any games loaded and primarily use this laptop for basic Microsoft applications (Word, Excel, Windows Mail, Internet Explorer) and AutoCAD 2004

 

If anyone is able to suggest a solution I would be most grateful.

 

Regards,

 

Ian

 

 

[edit: Please refrain from posting identifying information per the Participation Guidelines and Terms of Service.]

Greetings:


About a year ago, I had a similar problem with a computer running WinXP. In my case it turned out to be that part of a program which I had uninstalled was still running. I have since retired that old machine and so no longer have notes for that incident. Thus I can't be specific.


It may be that Norton360 is not the cause of your problem but the victim. Look through the list of running services for something that doesn't belong. This could be a service belonging to a program which you have deleted. Also, if there is a program you installed, other than Norton360, whose installation coincides with the onset of this problem, that program may be the culprit.


During the computer start-up routine a lot is going on. There could be a piece of orphaned software that is looking for a no longer present parent. Think of a stalled car on a busy highway..


Some programs install one or more subsidiary programs. When the main program is uninstalled the subsidiary may not automatically go with it. Check the list of installed programs for something that doesn't belong.

 

I know this isn't a specific, dead on answer for you. In my case I did a lot of searching on the internet before running across a tip that led to a solution.

 

Regards

 

seevee...

Hello imstartin

 

Welcome to the Norton Community Forum

 

What was the security program on your computer before you installed N360? How was that security program removed? If there was another security program installed, did you use the removal tool from the previous security program a few times with a reboot after each run of it.? Do you have any other real time security programs installed now? Was your computer clean of any malware before you installed N360? Sorry for all the questions, but it helps to trouble shoot also. Thanks.

Delphinium, SeeVee, Flopot.... Thank you for your messages and in answer to your questions for more information....

 

I have already tried delaying the start of Sidebar, the removal of all gadgets (of which there are only 3 - a clock, a currency converter and N360) and the disabling of Sidebar completely, but all 3 approaches have no effect on the 8 minute start-up time of my laptop.  It remains as 8 minutes.

 

My laptop is for personal use only and is not connected to a network.  Internet connection starts automatically upon start-up, wirelessly to a security-enabled British Telecom (BT) 'Home Hub' router at home.  Disabling automatic internet connection has no effect on the 8 minute start-up time.

 

Other than installing HP printer software, Nokia PC Suite for my mobile, Sony PMB for my camera and AutoCAD, all the software on my laptop remains exactly as the laptop arrived at PC World upon purchase.  I haven't added anything more than the above and haven't removed anything that came pre-loaded.

 

Norton 360 has always been the non-Microsoft security programme, it having been purchased as a deal with the laptop.  Microsoft Security Centre is present, of course, and it's firewall is set to 'off' so as not to conflict with Norton's firewall.

The N360 version first installed was v.2 and start-up times were 'normal' - 2 minutes or so.  Slow start-up times began with v.3 to which I was upgraded when my annual subscription became due.  V.3 created problems almost from day one - most notably an inability to use Windows Mail - but these were resolved by Norton technicians taking control of my laptop and changing various v.3 settings.  However, start-up times continued to deteriorate but travel from home didn't allow me to do anything about it until a month ago when, using Norton's Live Help, a technician controlled my laptop for about an hour and concluded that I needed to upgrade to v.4 (as per the details of my original post).

 

Whilst I can understand the comment that N360 might be the victim as opposed to the cause of the slow start-up I don't think I'm computer-savvy enough to determine what else on my laptop could be the culprit .  And, to be honest, the main reason why I've assumed until now N360 v.3 to be the culprit is because (a) v.2 worked hassle-free and (b) the recent Norton technician session suggested this to be so.

 

My apologies for not being of much more help than this but all of your efforts as very much appreciated, so keep 'me coming!

 

Ian

Hello Imstartin

 

Do you have the latest drivers etc from the Toshiba website for your model of laptop? Has everything been updated since you got the laptop? Being wireless can slow down things also. Have you tried taking the router out of the picture and see if is any faster without it? Is perhaps the firewall on the router set too high?

Did the technician actually remove N360 at any time, using the removal tool and rebooting?  When you upgraded each version, did you do a clean install by removing the previous version or were the upgrades over-installs?

 

Have you completely uninstalled N360 to see if that made any difference to the boot time?  I'm wondering if there are some conflicting leftovers.  Is there anything in Task Manager that seems unusual?

 

Vista is kind of a stinker as the boot process is so involved.  At startup, the Bios load the master boot record, which loads the partition boot record, which loads the boot manager, which finally loads the operating system loader application.There are a lot of places in there to cause issues, and it will likely turn out to be a combination of things rather than just one.

 

 

Floplot, Delphinium...... Once again, thank you.

 

Laptop is kept updated via Toshiba's 'Tempro' alert service and updated drivers have been installed when updates are issued.

 

Travel has sometimes dictated that laptop is used in situations where there's no router and/or no internet connection and the absence of one/other/both has had no effect on slow start-up time.

 

Comment on installation of N360 upgrades is interesting.  At each upgrade (v.2 to v.3 and v.3 to v.4) all I've done is follow Norton's on-screen instructions and left 'it' to do the work.  I have not specifically uninstalled the previous versions myself although I recall during the latest upgrade of v.3 to v.4 that one of the Norton progress box on-screen stating "previous version detected" then another stating "'uninstalling previous version".  Therefore I had assumed that's what it had done for me, but If this type of uninstall is not a 'full' uninstall and is classed as an 'over-install' then perhaps me uninstalling/reinstalling N360 might be the most appropriate next step?

 

My apologies for possibly asking a daft question, but..... If I were to use the uninstall facility found within Microsoft Control Panel to unistall N360 from my laptop, how is my machine then protected to connect onto the internet in order to download the v.4 programme from Norton's Website?  I'm sure the answer's staring me in the face!

 

Many thanks for all your efforts to help me.

 

Ian


imstartin wrote:

 

[...].

 

Other than installing HP printer software...

 

[...]


 

I'd suggest that it is a Service installed by the HP software, the 'HP CUE DeviceDiscovery' service that is causing the problem. I found that this service would hang every time Vista started up resulting in the slow startup symptoms you are describing. Please follow the instructions in this post to see if this particular HP Service is causing you an issue:

 

http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Security-Norton/Start-Up-Programs-Editing-in-Vista-using-Windows-Defender/m-p/121297

 

If the service is hanging, then you need to either disable it or set it to start up manually.

 

imstartin:

 

The best thing to do would be to download the Norton removal tool to your desktop, as well as the v4 of N360.  Then you can disconnect from the net, run the tool twice, reboot each time, and then reinstall N360.  Once it is in, you should be able to reconnect and just click on support>subscription status.  It should pick it up automatically.  It is always a good idea to have your key on the off chance that it thinks it needs it, though.

 

http://www.norton.com/nrt

www.norton.com/n360s_4

www.norton.com/n360p_4

Choose the correct link for N360 standard or premium as the key is specific to each.  Standard has 2 M of offline storage and premium 25 if that helps to identify your version.  Once in, run liveupdate until there are no more and then reboot.

 

Let us know how it goes.

 

That is very good information, elsewhere.  As I say, it is likely to be an unfortunate combination of things.

Hello Imstartin

 

Also before you uninstall N360, please back up your identity safe file if you use that feature of the program. Then you will be able to reinstall it afterwards.

 

Please follow these instructions to save your Identity Safe information by creating NPM file.


http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nco.nsf/0/e5a44e06f97b3f89882572260060120f?OpenDocument&seg=hm&...

Thanks to Yaso for the link.


Just wanted to add that to Delph's instructions. Thanks.

Elsewhere, Floplot, Delphinium.... Thank you so very much.... We have a result.... Start-up time slashed from 8 minutes to 1minute 15 seconds....  I have turned my laptop off and on 20 times just to make sure I'm not dreaming and it's exactly the same fast startup time each and every time!

Looking through your suggestions I tried Elsewhere's 'HP' theory first and it solved the problem immediately.

Progressing through 'Start/Problem Report/Solutions/View Problem History' it was not difficult to spot entries named  'hpqddsvc' as there were 420 such 'Service Hung' reports listed - one for each and every day since 05.08.09 when my HP printer was first installed.  In checking a selection of these reports I found each one read the same - 'Service HP CUE DeviceDiscovery Service hung on starting' - exactly as Elsewhere explained.

Following Elsewhere's instructions I opened up 'Services', located the 'HP CUE DeviceDiscovery Service' from the list, changed it's 'Startup Type' from 'Automatic' to 'Disabled' and rebooted.

The change in startup time was immediate.  From pressing the start key to having N360 'Protected Status' icons in both taskbar and sidebar takes exactly 1 minute 15 seconds instead of the 8 minutes previously.  Simply for interest's sake I disabled the sidebar (using Norton Task Manager) to see if startup time could be reduced further, which it was to 1 minute dead.  However, for the sake of an extra 15 seconds I re-enabled Sidebar as it's easier to have it load automatically rather than me going into Task Manager to enable it manually.  What's an extra 15 seconds when I've already saved 6 minutes 45 seconds of additional startup waiting time!

I am a very happy chap!   My sincere thanks to everyone for their efforts.

Ian

 

 

imstartin,

 

I'm a great supporter, both figuratively and literally, of HP printers but I have to say that their software does seem to interfere with the operation of computer on which it is installed. In many cases it is not really necessary especially if you are prepared to check the HP Website from time to time for updates and fixes for the basics and to leave out their software for doing things you may well have other software to handle like picture editing.

 

I only just read through this thread and was about to suggest exactly what elsewhere suggested so I'm glad it worked for you.

Hello Imstartin

 

Are you still able to use the printer if you have the service as disabled rather than as manual.?

Floplot....

 

Yes, my printer works normally.  I tested it at the time of disabling 'HP CUE DeviceDiscovery Service' and I've been printing documents again this morning, all with no problems.

 

I'm led to understand that the reason why my printer is working for me even with the offending item set to 'Disabled' (as opposed to 'Manual') is contained within one of the replies Elsewhere's message-thread link led me to, namely that the 'HP CUE DeviceDiscovery Service' is a requirement of network printers.  Since I am not/never have been/never will be part of a network of printers (just my own home HP printer/scanner) then I'm assuming this is why a 'Disabled' setting can work for me.

 

For info.....  My laptop started up super-fast again this morning, so no fluke there.  Plus, checking the 'Problems Reports and Solution' list, for the first time in 420 days there is no 'hpqddsvc Service Hang' report.  All in all, an excellent result.

 

Ian

Hello imstartin

 

Thanks for answering my question. Glad that all is working now as it should be.

imstartin,

 

Normally the only thing a USB connected printer or other hardware needs in order to print is a driver and for many printers there is a basic driver as part of Windows. However these included drivers are usually not fully featured and some functions like automatic duplex printing or push button scanning may not work until you install the HP driver (or software that contains it) for your specific model of printer scanner or All-in-One device.

 

The rest of what you get with the full package of software that comes with the hardware is likely to be icing on the cake although some of it is in fact useful such as troubleshooting or checking for software and driver updates but it's rarely essential.

 

As you probably know the important thing with USB devices is that you must install the driver / other software before you plug in the USB cable connecting the device to the computer; if you do not then if there is a Windows included driver Windows will pre-empt the installation, install its driver and not the more specialized one ....

 

So when you have a problem like yours one of the first troubleshooting/fact finding steps can be to disable temporarily everything in the Startup list that may relate to the device -- or even everything -- and see if that cures the startup problem. If it does then you can start focussing in on which one or which group is the trigger.

 

Similarly, uninstalling the software that came with the device, except for the driver, can help pinpoint the source of the problem.

 

In your case pinpointing that network related device fits in with they way Windows can spend 15 - 20 minutes in some cases trying to find a network connection and since there is none .......