This is getting to be very frustrating. Nearly every time I leave my computer idle for a period of time (to run down to the corner store, for example), Norton steps in and begins performing 'background tasks'. This would be good and well, except that when I return, I discover that all of my programs freeze up and I end up having to do a hard reboot. It has gotten to the point that if I see the little window in the lower right corner announcing that it is performing background tasks, my heart sinks, as I know that I have another crash on my hands. I notice that others have had similar problems in the past. Is there a way to remedy this?
Turning on silent mode is the best thing I've found that helps. This won't fix anything, but it will stop any background tasks from happening.
This is the same problem I've had. I've re-installed windows 7 several times because of the hard boots and corruption it causes the hard drive. I wish there was a real fix to this. Turning silent mode on does not help.
I hope there is a real fix for this too. I paid good money for this product and am so far very unpleased with the way it is working. I am also underwhelmed by the response I have gotten to this issue. But it is Friday, so I will allow some time to get a response from somebody who can properly address it. But I do hope I will not be kept waiting too long. Since I wrote my initial post, I have had two more crashes. I have activated Silent Mode. I hope it will work, but also hope that it does not have to be more than a stop gap measure.
Hello all of you
Can you please tell us, each of you, which version of N360 you are running? Also what operating system and whether 32 bit or 64 bit? Are you all using Win 7?
I'm using Windows 7 64 bit, Norton 360 Version: 4.2.0.12
Hello? I provided the information requested and now nothing?
- Check if you have any entry for Norton Scan in Windows Task Scheduler. If you have, please remove it.
- Run LiveUpdate repeatedly until you receive all the available updates, and then run a Comprehensive Scan. Check if the Scan completes and detects any threats.
- If the Comprehensive Scan does not complete, then reboot your computer to Safe Mode and then try to run the Full System Scan.
You may also try to run Norton Power Eraser tool:
http://www.symantec.com/norton/support/DIY/index.jsp
Check if it detects any threats and if it does, please provide us the filename and other details. Don't fix any files now, you can fix those after getting confirmation in this thread.
Yogesh
still running comprehensive scan, but it looks like problems are being fixed automatically
Comprehensive scan finally finished (it takes quite a while to defrag 3TB, apparently). The only threats that were detected were cookies. Everything checked out fine.
I have the same problem. Every time I leave my computer idle, Norton locks up the PC. I am running Windows XP / SP3. It is unbelievable how badly this impacts my work. As a developer, I have to exit my development studio to prevent losing my information.
I'm having this problem too. I am not happy. I never had it before, so I'm thinking something that was updated in the Live Update has caused it. Symantec really needs to fix this or I'll be going elsewhere for my virus protection.
I am also running into the same problem. I am running n360 version 4.305 on Windows 7 64. I ran power eraser no problems.
James
Hi James,
I have sent you a private message. Please look for the 
in the upper right hand corner of any community page to access the message. Please check and reply to me.
Yogesh
Hi James,
It would be great if you can gather the log files and upload as requested by Yogesh. That will help us to identify the root cause of the problem. If you no longer face this problem, please let me know.
Thanks!
Sheen.
Is there a fix yet? I have been suffering daily crashes for about a month now, and finally tied it down to Background Tasks in Norton 360 ver 4.3.0.5. I have used Norton for many years but this is making me look around for alternatives.
Johng:
My daughter's computer has been doing the same thing for the past month. She has version 4.3.0.5. As far as I know, there isn't a permanent fix yet. I was able to isolate my daughter's computer problem to the "insight optimizer" (aka "idle time optimizer") that runs during the idle background scans. From what I understand, "Idle time optimizer" is a boot volume deffrager. Norton uses the Windows based defragger to perform the task.
Here is what I have done to her computer to temporarily stop the crashes until a permanent fix can be figured out..
1. I have her running Norton 360 in silent mode right now because I don't want the background idle scans to start.
2. I shut off disk optimizer in task scheduling
3. I shut off idle time optimizer (this is what was causing her computer to freeze) in administrative settings
4. Set idle time to 30 minutes
5. Keep turning silent mode on every time it expires (max is 1 day). My only concern is in silent mode the virus definitions and virus/spyware scans don't run so she has to remember to run them manually. I read somewhere that if idle time optimizer has tried to run and didn't complete, it will continue to try and run until completion even though you have it turned off. Once it completes then it will not run again since it is turned off. I don't know if this is true or not and I don't want to test it out because I don't want any more crashes.
Here is a link that I started yesterday on this site. You can read through some of the suggestions.
http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-360/Norton-360-Insight-Optimizer/td-p/321084
Thanks. I turned off disk optimizer and idle time optimizer and the computer seems to be OK. It has been running for two days without crashing. It seems like I don't need silent mode.
I have been having problems with this issue now for almost 12 months. I started on XP, upgraded that to Windows 7 and eventually bought a stand alone copy of Windows 7 and installed that from fresh.
Every time I turn the computer on the first thing I have to do is put Norton into silent mode for a day. If I don't it will seize up everything within 2 to 3 minutes. Once in silent mode it will crash the computer if there is no activity for about 10 minutes. This happens EVERY SINGLE DAY. It has happened EVERY SINGLE DAY for a year. I have spent time on line with Norton support - that didn't fix anything. I have had Norton reinstall 360. That did nothing. I have been sent reams of instructions to set the machine into permanent silent mode. The instructions were wrong and that didn't work - all that did was force a full system scan to start everytime the PC was started which results in a crash within a couple of minutes. I haven't been able to run a scan in normal or safe mode for a year.
I have demanded my money back time and again without ANY response.
I have read thousands of posts on assorted message boards all over the web and nobody knows what to do. This a VERY widespread problem that it appears Norton have no solution to. I am done with them and their products for the rest of my life.
Your support has been atrocious and has meant my computer is almost useless. There are 4 monhs worth of comments on this board and still no solution? There are thousands of people experiencing this problem but suppost staff just go silent when questioned about it.
What do we have to do to get this taken seriously?
I guess nobody at Norton either monitors these threads or cares about there product performance.
As there has been no response to this in 4 days I will now remove all traces of Norton from my computer and find a product that actually functions properly. Thanks Norton, you have lost a customer - one of many I suspect.