Ever since I did the most recent version update (22.21.11.46) a couple weeks ago, I’ve had a on-going issue with a Norton process running at random. It’s called nuPerfScan.exe (and its name is Norton Utilities Advanced Scanner). Every time it runs, it eats up a lot of my CPU, generally causing it to spike by almost 50% across all cores. It doesn’t run for long, but it’s enough to make playing any game almost impossible due to how randomly it happens and causes the system to slow down. It can run mere minutes apart, or as far as hours apart. I have had no luck determining what it even does, what triggers it running or what component of Norton it’s related to. It also doesn’t respect silent mode, because I have silent mode on fullscreen enabled and I first noticed the process causing slower system performance while playing a game that was in fullscreen. I’ve tried everything to get it to go away. Changing settings in Norton, disabling certain non-essential featurs, nothing’s worked. I can’t even find anyone talking about the process or its program name online, so I’m honestly at a loss for what it is and why it’s running so often. The only thing I haven’t done yet is a reinstall, and I’d rather save that for last, because I don’t want to reinstall, only for it to not actually fix the issue. This is on a Windows 7 Professional system. The included image is one of the instances I got of it a few seconds after it started running and just past its peak of CPU usage.
I played with it some, seems that nuPerfScan.exe only comes up when a 'Smart Scan' is done. I think it triggers that Smart scan window to pop up and then it is not needed so shuts down. When I ran Quick scan, I did not see nuPerfScan.exe process at all, did a few times. For me it has not been an issue, I don't game much though.
Per Guru bjm_ suggestion, renamed nuPerfScan.exe, saved, re-enabled tamper protection, rebooted. No more scanning!! Sometimes the simple things are the solution. Thanks bjm_!! Now, if we can get an answer about WHY this is there in the first place that would be awesome.
SA
Also seen running just after boot up and at random times.
SA
Concur!! That process runs for less than 2 seconds then disappears at the start of Smart Scan.
SA
Yeah, I find nuPerfScan.exe with Norton 360 22.21.11.46
Filename: nuPerfScan.exe
Full Path: C:\Program Files\Norton Security\Engine32\22.21.11.46\nuPerfScan.exe
Sorry, no idea why - what? other than I see nuPerfScan.exe for a second at the start of Smart Scan.
Have you tried renaming nuPerfScan.exe (as test) = (for example) nuPerfScan.exe123
(temporary disable Norton Tamper Protection to rename)
Yeah, refresh Norton install is troubleshooting.
Note: I'm not sensing performance degrade. I'm not a gamer.
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