SimonCJones wrote:
Thanks peterweb and twixt for your thoughts and advice on this.
Just to let you know the problem didn't right itself after restarting the first time. I shutdown and restarted my computer several times before the Norton Antivirus protection mysteriously switched itself back on.
Hi, SimonCJones. My guess would be that you had more than one piece of "housekeeping" that needed to be done as part of a reboot. However, I suspect those items were arguing with each other about who's on first, what's on second, and so on. Sometimes, the final aspects of an update occur in the background after a reboot - and there is no indication this is happening. To the user, things just "magically" resolve - what is actually going on is the update finally completes as a background task while you are doing other things.
When "deadly embraces" occur (which is what happened to me when I upgraded my Video Drivers) - there is no recourse other than to reboot and see if that resolves the deadlock. Eventually, things sort themselves out and everything starts working properly again - what changes is how much "drama" occurs before Windows "gets its brains in order" again.
There are so many variables with PCs (different hardware, different software loads, different installation order of programs) that it's almost impossible to have everything be flawlessly compatible and flawlessly stable in all circumstances. This is especially the case during startup - when all those various "bits and pieces" of Windows are all demanding attention at the same time - and all are expecting the OS to portion things out in their favour no matter what the circumstance.
Windows actually has specific bulletproofing in its startup routines to "unblock" deadly embraces - and each of the unblock procedures requires a reboot to unblock that particular deadlock. Also, you have to wait long enough on each restart to allow whichever piece has been unblocked to actually finish its housekeeping - or you have to reboot again - at which time that piece gets another chance to complete.
Note: Part of the reason I was able to do what I did to resolve the problems I mentioned in my previous post - with only one reboot cycle in each case - was because I could tell by watching the Hard Disk indicator light that a particular install process had completed. At that time I performed a manual shutdown/restart - which allowed Windows to resolve that particular deadlock in one shutdown/restart cycle. If I had restarted too quickly - before Windows actually "got its brains in order" for that particular startup cycle - I would have had to repeat the procedure.
Knowing when exactly to perform the shutdown/restart cycle is not obvious. It comes from observing just exactly what the machine is doing during a "normal" startup. This means keeping yer paws off the keyboard and not starting programs while Windows is initializing - so you can tell what a "normal" startup delay looks like.
BTW, it is always a good idea to avoid starting up major programs (Word, Excel, MSIE, Outlook) while Windows is initializing. This allows "housekeeping" to occur more efficiently - and also avoids "deadly embraces" caused by interactions between updates and the startup elements of those major software packages.
You will quickly learn by watching the Hard Disk indicator light when Windows has actually finished initializing, because the storm of hard disk activity will slacken. You will also be able to tell - because the startup delay before the storm of hard disk activity ceases is longer than normal - when "something" is being updated in the background that you're not being informed about.
There is no "right answer" for this stuff - it's a matter of experience - along with an understanding of what Windows is actually doing without informing you that it's doing it.
Note: Those mysterious "hourglass mouse cursor" events - that magically start up and go away all by themselves - are another example of background-tasks being performed without specific user notification. Windows does lots-and-lots of this kind of "housekeeping" stuff - most of which happens "invisibly".
Hope this helps your understanding.