Norton System Works and XP

[Rolex]

If you are running Windows XP and have Norton System Works installed on it, you might be wondering why your computer suddenly runs dreadfully slow from time to time. Since I have some of Norton's sensors on my desktop, I can see at a glance how much RAM is available, CPU usage, percentage of hard drive fragmentation, etc. When programs slowed down I noticed that CPU usage was in excess of 85-90% without any reason for it to be that high.
In XP, hitting Ctrl, alt, del will bring up a window showing what's running and the percentage of CPU resources it's using.
NOPDB.Exe was the culprit. I did a search on it and found it to be part of Norton, starting without warning and running at the most inopportune times, checking the percentage of hard disk fragmentation. It usually runs 2 to 3 minutes, causing your computer to drag.
To stop this annoying slow down, go to Control panel, Administrative tools, Services, and locate 'Speed Disk Service'. Double click it and disable it. Changing it from automatic to manual does not stop it from running.
If you use Norton to defragment your drive, (much faster than having Windows do it) you need to restart it in the same place before you can run the defrag. When it's done, go back and disable it.

 

[Error401]

Seen it, and IMO it's not unusual. In fact there are alot of resource hogs now days. One thing that comes to mind are the drivers for those all too hip all in one scanner/printer things. Lexmark is pretty bad. You have to start some damned lexmark server service before the driver will load (and thus make the pos work).

But back to the topic at hand. Symantec loves to code resource hogging software, period. I personally do not like Norton due to said problem, plus the fact that it loads up the registry. Do a search in the registry for: symantec, norton, and live. You will be suprised at the total number of keys and values that you'll find.

Now alot of folks here know that I prefer to run OS X on a mac. I gave norton system works a shot on the mac, and guess what, it hogs resouces on a mac just like it does on windows. It brought the free ram on my powerbook to near zero, with the expected loss in system performance. Needless to say, I disabled most all of the services as you stated and performance is back to normal. It's a good thing that the different features can be run on demand without having to start the services on boot.

All in all, Norton sux. It does a good job, but the price in perfomance outweighs the benifits of having all that poop run at boot by default.

 

[kwong2001]

Yeah, Norton has always been bad on computers for taking up memory. Thankfully i've now got a really good computer and can run it without any problems. Although, my biggest problem has become my bit torrent downloads. Currently i'm running 5 of them and it's lagging the computer down a lot.

 

[Rolex]

I wouldn't be without Norton System Works. It's not just the NAV, but many other features it offers. I did do a 'find' 'files and folders' on Norton and Symantec, and it was loaded.
The Speed Disk Service was the only major system hog that caused a slow down, and didn't need to run for ANY reason. (set to run by default)
It only does it on XP, and not on 98.
I started the thread on it for all those that are running XP and using Norton who wonder why their fast computer becomes sluggish routinely. It drove me nuts for months till I finally ran it down.

For those that ONLY use the Norton Anti Virus, or NAV, you won't have this problem.

 

[Error401]

The speed disk in the background thing I understand, and yes it will bog a machine down in a heartbeat. But my latest gripe with norton is the uber paranoid way it goes about looking at everything that is happening on the system. The other day a customer brought his machine back to the shop (I had worked on it earlier) reporting that a malicious script was trying to access his system. I checked it in and later found out that MSN was trying to update the dialer software and was completely legit. The problem was that when the user said "deny this script" it would lock his machine up completely. I can understand his concern from the scarry message norton displayed, coupled with the lockup when denying. Another example is the drivers for some lexmark printers. Some of these drivers run a base VBS file that checks the OS and does the driver install. Pretty much the same reaction from norton.

IMO, the developers at some of the software companies do run the latest and greatest hardware, and probably do not see the impact that it produces on a "normal" system. Alot of the systems I work on are still Win 98, some MS and 95, a couple 2K and a bunch of XP. The hardware ranges from old as hell tofairly nice, but there are few ultra high end speed demons.

 

[StrechM]

After completing the XP fix about a week ago I've noticed a great deal of improvement in the startup time. It sure made a lot changes to the os.
I'm running Noton System Works and Norton Internet Security (talk about utra-paraniod software) on my laptop. Both programs appear to integrate seamlessly. Not much in the way of bogging down with the HT processor, it just took forever at the startup after installing both of those programs.
While we are on the N subject does anyone know how to get system works to wipe the free space and not just files or folders? I must be missing something.

 

[SkyMaxx]

Wow...would never have guessed that Norton would be such a nefarious bit of software. I run the their products on my Macs and have never had any problems. Of course I do not let any part of it go semi-auto or even full auto. So that is probably why I have not experienced any kind of bogging down of my machines.

 

[Rolex]

The computer with XP normally takes close to 4 minutes to boot up, but it's done that since day one, and I'm used to it. Norton, of course was the first thing I installed on it. After the desktop is up, it's another 30 seconds or so before the Norton sensor panel shows up, so I know that's what slows the boot process.
As far as wiping free space, I haven't done it. I looked at it a few times, but didn't think it was that important. I defrag when the sensor reads 95%, or 5% fragmented, and it keeps everything running good.
Does anyone know why, when you sent 5 items to the Norton recycle bin, then right click it and choose Empty Recycle Bin for those 5 items, then click to empty Norton Protected Files, you might have over 100 items there?

 

[c3racing0082]

Norton Sucks Ass.............. Try AVG Its FREE. Does A Great Job And doesn't Rob Sys Recourses............ AVG.COM. Chew It.

 

[StrechM]

Personally I do not use the protected recycle bin option, just the unprotected option.

 

[HumboldtBlazer]

Norton Sucks Ass..............

I wouldn't go that far, I trust every server and workstration in my organization to it. AVG is a decent free trial product but will not offer the same level of protection that I see from my Symantec programs. I sleep sound at night do to Norton......................

Other good AV's: McAfee, and Trend Micro's PC-cillin is a great inexpensive option.

 

[StrechM]

PC-cillin is a great option because of it's constant updating instead of the weekly as in NAV.

 

[FastEddy]

NAV has Daily Updates sometimes several in one day.
Just need to set the live update to get it.

Doesn't matter what AV you have none of them are going to be 100% successful. I run NAV and will occasionally use PC Cillin online scan if I feel the need. I have also been growing fond of Panda AV. They have been around for years lurking on large corporate servers and have recently made a push to the consumer desktop market.

 

[StrechM]

The problem with NAV is that Symantec usually only realeases the updates for live update only once per week. The end user needs to visit the site and check manually to get more frequent definitions. PC-cillin updates automatically each time an update becomes available.
I know from personal experience that no av is bulletproof.

 

[HumboldtBlazer]

The problem with NAV is that Symantec usually only realeases the updates for live update only once per week. The end user needs to visit the site and check manually to get more frequent definitions. PC-cillin updates automatically each time an update becomes available.
I know from personal experience that no av is bulletproof.

On the professional stuff I set it to look for updates every hour on the hour and I could set it by the minute if I wanted too. Corporate is a different animal than the "home user's version".

 

[StrechM]

Got it.

 

[Error401]

Norton Sucks Ass.............. Try AVG Its FREE. Does A Great Job And doesn't Rob Sys Recourses............ AVG.COM. Chew It.

I was cleaning a system today that had AVG, and was totally infected. Of course, I've cleaned systems with Norton on them that were just as bad off. Simple fact is that it only takes one new viri that deactivates the protection just once and your system is unprotected. I cought 3 viri while scanning in safe mode on a drive that had been scanned with the target drive hooked up as the non-boot drive on another system. These bugs are getting harder to root out.

What really sucks is PC-Chillin. A bit better but still crapware is McAfee. IMO.

 

[HumboldtBlazer]

I was cleaning a system today that had AVG, and was totally infected. Of course, I've cleaned systems with Norton on them that were just as bad off. Simple fact is that it only takes one new viri that deactivates the protection just once and your system is unprotected. I cought 3 viri while scanning in safe mode on a drive that had been scanned with the target drive hooked up as the non-boot drive on another system. These bugs are getting harder to root out.

What really sucks is PC-Chillin. A bit better but still crapware is McAfee. IMO.

So if they all suck which one do you like?

 

[StrechM]

The one that sucks the best!

 

[Error401]

So if they all suck which one do you like?

OS X as an OS.

On my win boxes I don't run AV. I'm still trying to figure out where they all come from on the boxes I work on at work, but I don't tend to get any on mine. I precheck emails up on the ISP server and delete suspect ones up there, then d/l the others to a Mac. I don't run Kazaa, gator or any other P2P file sharing progs, and I don't click on anything I don't like. But then again, I usually surf on a mac (like now), and only test web pages and game on Win boxes. I'm not bashing MS, just answering the question.

The fact is there is no perfect AV for Windows. Like I said before, I've seen infected machines "running" just about every AV system out there. Hopefully the new predictive hueristics AV will preempt future bugs, but I can only cringe at the HP the machine will need to run them (and other apps at the same time). The way I see it, the fundamental differance between Win and Mac is that stuff can access, modify and infect core OS files and directories in Win without much effort, but in OS X the administrator must give explicit permissions to anything that attempts to modify the same things on that OS. It's nice for the OS to be able to update itself in the background such that the "supposed" good intensions of other people can heighten the internet experience, but factor in human nature and it will backfire on you. I remember when Windows would ask if you wanted to install some font or plugin, but lately I have seen it less and less, and have seen more and more viri and malware. Every user says to me "I didn't click on anything", and they're probably right.