Norton v24 using up CPU

I have been running Norton 360 on the same laptop for 12 years (Windows 7) without any issues.
Around 5 weeks ago Norton automatically updated to the new version 24 and now I am having problems.
The new Norton version is 24.8.9372

Every day Norton starts some kind of background scan which runs for about an hour and uses all of the available CPU.
Smart scan, Quick scan, Full scan and Targeted scan are all scheduled to run on the weekends, so it is doing none of these.
I want to work out what it is doing and how to stop it or schedule it for the weekend.

I spent 90 minutes on webchat with Norton and another 45 minutes on a phone call but all they could tell me was to update to the latest Windows or uninstall and reinstall Nortons which was certainly not helpful.

I have tried disconnecting the internet so it doesn’t seem to be transferring data. I have Chrome closed so I don’t think it’s the Chrome extension. I disabled Auto-Protect and Smart Firewall for 10 minutes but neither of those fixed it.

Does anyone know what Norton could be doing in the background, and how do I turn it off?

W7 SP1 with SHA2 support?
Please clarify…you did clean reinstall N360 24.8? and you did review N360 Settings?

as test: try
Preset scans = manual
File Cleanup = off
Optimize Disk = off
Secure VPN = off
Software Updater = Auto-Update off & Ignore any/all
Cloud Backup = off
Norton Community Watch = off
Share app-usage data = off

Norton Security will continue to provide updates for Windows 7 SP1 or later with SHA2 Support
https://community.norton.com/t/norton-security-will-continue-to-provide-updates-for-windows-7-sp1-or-later-with-sha2-support/231790

I do not recall doing any install to change from the previous version (I believe v22) to the latest one v24. I think it just happened automatically one day.

Thanks for those other suggestions.
I will work through them and see if they stop this additional scan happening.

Okay…I read “or uninstall and reinstall Nortons which was certainly not helpful.” as you or support had reinstalled N360

Hi BJM

Saturday morning and it’s doing the background process again.

Preset scans are all set to monthly
File Cleanup i soff
Optimize disk is off
Secure VPN off
Software updater off
Cloud backup off

I cannot find Norton Community Watch or Share app-usage data
Could you please tell me where to find these?

Also, I have left the interface open on the Security History tab.
It says LiveUpdate completed, Startup Manager completed and a few others completed “a moment ago” but it’s still running the unknown process with the CPU maxing out.
I will wait to see what message gets put on top of that one.
Hopefully that might indicate what process it is doing that is taking so long.

Unfortunately the process finished and didn’t add any further lines to the log which seems weird.

Thanks for pointing me to those two.
They are now off.
I will take a look when it runs tomorrow to see if turning those two off has made a difference.

Any other suggestions?

are you …W7 SP1 with SHA2 support?
have you set all … Preset scans = manual

This laptop is on Windows 7 with Service Pack 1.
It has had Windows updated many times since 2019 so I can only assume it has SHA2 support due to the Windows updates in that time.
Is there a specific way to check that?

Note that I seem to be having a similar problem on a PC running Windows 10 although I haven’t dug into all the settings on that machine yet.

For the Preset scans, I have Smart scan, Quick Scan and Full scan scheduled to run on specific days monthly, weekly and monthly respectively (not every day).
Otherwise, I cannot see a specific option saying “Manual” so if there is another option somewhere please tell me where that is.

As I type this Norton (NortonUI.exe) is running at 50% CPU, but none of those three scans are showing as running in the interface.
It is not doing an Optimize Disk, it’s not doing a Software Update and it’s not doing a File Cleanup.
It’s not running a Startup Scan and I rarely use Windows Explorer so that isn’t open.

What else is there that it could be doing in the background?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/2019-sha-2-code-signing-support-requirement-for-windows-and-wsus-64d1c82d-31ee-c273-3930-69a4cde8e64f

fwiw ~ my thinking for “Run manually” is to eliminate any scheduler task running. Just as a test.

head scratch
was v24.8 delivered via Norton LiveUpdate?

NortonUI.exe calls main page = Open My Norton


Thanks again for your continued assistance with this.

Regarding SHA2 the website mentions updates KB4474419 and KB4490628.
I managed to locate the Update History in the control panel and can confirm that those two were installed successfully.

Those three scans are now set to Run Manually but that didn’t make a difference as it is doing that process again today.

To answer your question “was v24.8 delivered via Norton LiveUpdate?”, Yes I think so as I have no recollection of doing it myself.

I’m really stuck with this continual CPU usage.
It seems to me there is one other hidden process running in the background, but I just cannot seem to locate it.
My only other solution is to just leave the laptop each night and hope that it runs the process before I need to start work.

Any other ideas?

Did you try Reset to Default?
Did you try Repair Norton?

Did you try clean re-install Norton 360?
https://community.norton.com/t/norton-v24-version-seems-difficult-to-use/241189/21

Reset, Repair, Reinstall
I haven’t tried those options but I could try.

Before I do that though, do you know if version 24 has documentation in the form of a PDF or similar?
I could search through that to see if there are any other scans we have missed.

Alternatively have you seen a list of all the different scans that Nortons does?
I could check if there is one we missed.

Not that I’m aware. Would be great if Norton did have a dedicated v24 Help website with indexed help files.

@CaptainClambeard
https://community.norton.com/t/why-does-norton-have-changed-their-product-to-avast-antivir-engine/241404/6

The mystery scan seems to now be running more than once a day which is annoying.

I tried turning off the firewall but that didn’t do anything.

However, I just tried looking at the Windows Resource Monitor and can see that it is referencing files on my hard drive in my work client data folders so I can assume it is doing a drive scan, not optimizing the disk, checking browser history or updating software.
So at least that cuts down the list of what it could be doing.

I have tried adding exclusions and have selected my entire hard drive so will see if the run keeps happening.
However, that means I can’t run any scan because you can’t pick and choose for each scan type.

My colleague and I took a look at those links you sent in regards to Avast.
He suggested it might be there is another scan Avast is doing that doesn’t have a control tied into the Nortons user interface.
Could that be a possibility?
If so, any suggestions on how to track that down?

Next step after that is the repair, reset or reinstall options, hoping it may fix the glitch.

fwiw ~ LiveUpdate pulled v24.9.9452…today

I have also updated to that version. 24.9.9452 (build 24.9.9452.0)
Let’s see what happens…

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Here’s an update to this issue…

Since the later version installed last week I have not seen a single unwanted scan.
I think this may have fixed it.
So that means it was a faulty version, or maybe installing the next update did a “repair” on the install.
In any case I will give another report in a few days and hopefully this will have fixed it.

FYI the Nortons support people took about five days from my initial call and webchat to phone me, then when I said I couldn’t talk (as I was just in the process of ordering lunch) they never phoned back again and never sent me any further follow up emails. Disappointing service.
Thanks to the community and @bjm for the help!

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No unwanted scans since that update. Unless anything further comes to light it seems that the previous version had a bug.

Thanks for the help!!!

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