While I can't state unequivocally that this is a Norton 360 issue, it seems likely: Sometimes when my Toshiba Satellite L305D laptop is idle and the top/screen closed, I open it up to find the screen on (at the login screen) and the unit warm. When this happened this morning, (after logging in) a pop-up box appeared saying Norton PC Tuneup had been run. When I checked the Norton 360 "Performance" chart, then "Norton Tasks" I saw that PC Tuneup had indeed been running a few minutes before I opened the laptop and found the screen on and the case/keyboard warm. There was no notification of Microsoft updates having been run during this idle time. The laptop's OS is Windows Vista Home Premium, Service Pack 2, 32-bit. Norton 360 version is 20.4.0.40. This behavior is at least a waste of electricity and possibly a bad thing for the laptop due to heat build-up. Has anyone else had this happen and how can I prevent it in the future? Thanks in advance
SteveK3 wrote:While I can't state unequivocally that this is a Norton 360 issue, it seems likely: Sometimes when my Toshiba Satellite L305D laptop is idle and the top/screen closed, I open it up to find the screen on (at the login screen) and the unit warm. When this happened this morning, (after logging in) a pop-up box appeared saying Norton PC Tuneup had been run. When I checked the Norton 360 "Performance" chart, then "Norton Tasks" I saw that PC Tuneup had indeed been running a few minutes before I opened the laptop and found the screen on and the case/keyboard warm. There was no notification of Microsoft updates having been run during this idle time. The laptop's OS is Windows Vista Home Premium, Service Pack 2, 32-bit. Norton 360 version is 20.4.0.40. This behavior is at least a waste of electricity and possibly a bad thing for the laptop due to heat build-up. Has anyone else had this happen and how can I prevent it in the future? Thanks in advance
Welcome,
I'm not aware that the Norton programs can turn a computer on. This would make me believe that the system was in sleep mode when puneup wanted to run. Unless you have the program set to turn the system off when it completes its tasks it will leave it in operational mode.
If electrical usage is a serious concern then the system should be shut down when you complete your tasks. You will need to take a fdew minutes extra when you power up to allow everything to update and be ready to run.
Keep us posted
Dick, thanks for your response. When I finish a session at the laptop I (typically) press the power button at which point the screen goes dark and the system goes into sleep mode (not shutdown) and I shut the lid. This is how I left the laptop before opening the cover for another session and finding the screen on, warm temp and Norton pop-up re PC Tuneup (after logging in). If Norton is awakening the computer to do its tuneup then I'd like to know if there's a setting in Norton (or Windows or Toshiba settings) that would keep the screen off if the lid is closed. I guess I'm surprised that between Norton, Microsoft, and Toshiba that no-one disables the screen if the unit is awakened during idle time and the cover is closed - just seems like good practice. I'm sure it doesn't soak up many watts - mostly I don't like the heat build-up (though I can't say I know that the display or any other hardware would be compromised because of this). My engineering side says there's a better way to do this!
Hi, SteveK3,
Many people use their laptops in docking stations when at the office or at home, in which case the lid is closed whenever the computer is active (because an external monitor attached to the dock in in use), so having such a setting would have its problems as well! Needless to say, this also requires the displays be engineered to take the heat (which is mostly from the CPU, battery, and power supply; an LCD screen generates very little heat) without any damage or performance degradation.
It's virtually impossible to arrive at a configuration that suits everyone; this is probably just a hardware standard that worked the best for most. I would imagine that the screen would go dark again after the requisite time with no more activity, so it wouldn't even be terribly inefficient. However, you might check your BIOS settings to see if there's an option to keep the LCD dark whenever the lid is closed; I've seen this from a few manufacturers.
V/R,
--DistEd2
Hi SteveK,
I may have missed something, but are you running on battery or the mains?
There is a setting Under Perfomance > Norton Tasks > Configure[+] which permits the tasks to run on either only external power or on both internal (battery) or external power. I'm not sure this would come into play - but it might be worth checking into.