Hello,
I wonder if anyone can help me. I am using Norton 360 v4.2.0.12 on 64-bit Windows 7 with 4 GB RAM and 500 GB disk. It's killing my laptop (and me!). I configured it to do a full system scan once a month but in spite of that I've been getting messages every day saying that a full system scan was in progress. And while those scans were in progress the laptop was all but unusable.
I saw some suggestions here and elsewhere about setting it to do a manual scan as this would reset the scheduler. Tried that but it didn't work. Then I did a full uninstall and reinstall using tools I downloaded from the Norton website. This time, to make doubly sure it would not do full system scans without my knowledge, after installation I set it do do a manual scan only. Lo and behold, a few days later, it's busy doing a full system scan again. That's not to mention the constant "Norton is running a background task" messages and the constant Norton-related disk activity. I am not a novice when it comes to computers but I am at my wits end with this. Also, if it's only supposed to run when the computer is idle why is it slowing down my laptop so much.
Feature-wise Norton 360 is a great product but why can't it just behave itself? It's just amazing that security software of all things can be so resistant to doing what it's told!!! Aaargh.
Hi TheNightfly:
I expect that you will be updating soon, per your other post. Once you have the new version, you will need to configure it immediately to not scan during idle time if you prefer to schedule scans. Once it starts to run an idle time scan, it will stop when disturbed, but will continue to try and finish. Eventually it will force a finish, if it can't get enough idle time.
I'm thinking, from your other post that there is some issue causing problems. Do you have any other scanning software on board, such as security products, or other back up scans? Was version 4.2 installed cleanly or over top of version 3?
Apologies for the delay in replying but the holidays intervened... I have no other scanning software installed and prior to installing 4.2 I completely uninstalled the previous version using the removal tools on the Norton website. I've just downloaded 4.3.0.5 now via LiveUpdate so I'll see if that makes a difference over the next few days.
I don't see any option setting for telling N360 not to scan during idle time, could that be because I have set the task scheduler to manual scan only?
Thanks for your help and season's greetings.
Hello The Nightfly
You can see the list of background jobs by clicking the "Norton tasks" icon in the bottom corner of the N360 UI (opposite to Definitions Update). Any of these jobs might give out the alert stating "Norton is running a background task"
One thing that you can do is increase the idle time out. Settings | Administrative Settings | Idle time Out -- increase it to max (30 minutes). This way background tasks begin to run only if the system is left idle for 30 mins.
You can also turn off "Idle time optimiser" (in the same window). But make sure you manually optimize regularly. And when you schedule the tasks like full system scans or backup, make sure you uncheck "Only run at idle time".
Turning off settings is generally not recommended. But given that your pc becomes unusable you can do it. (my opinion :-) )
Hope this helps!