Norton A/V 2002 suddenly running very slow ?

[nick smith]

I have had NAV 2002 with all updates, but about a week ago it started running very slow as
if the CPU is doing lots of tasks / work.
I re-installed, re-did updates and it seemed better at first but now very slow again. OS
is W98SE but have also tried it on a XP Pro system with same results.
Example - if I drag the mouse across the screen slowly, the cursor moves a bit every
couple of seconds as if the CPU is busy doing other things.
Shut down IE6 and all is normal - OE6 is normal, done a scan and nothing found, viruses
still being trapped and otherwise all OK, its just with IE6 open I see a problem. A friend
also has noticed the same in the last week or so....
Has Norton done a bad Liveupdate - is it a known problem ?
Will it be fixed?

Thanks for any feedback
Nick

 

[Peter Thinghuus]

I also have a Norton antivirus and internet security 2002, and have also had
some problems with the PC since friday after af liveupdate.
My PC stops with blue screen error message in the SYMFW.SYS file
(protected_page_error.... af 0x0000......,, , ,)
This is not the same as for you but it is in relation to the latest
liveupdate.
I am running XP-pro
Any sugestions ?
Peter

 

[Sir_George]

Peter,

This is not intended to be facetious, but have you looked at other AV
products? Norton AV has a very well deserved reputation for being a resource
hog.

 

[nick smith]

Peter,

This is not intended to be facetious, but have you looked at other AV
products? Norton AV has a very well deserved reputation for being a resource
hog.

Thank you for the reply - but its been perfectly ok until a well defined point in time
that has been seen by others
at this same time - hence the suggestion that this update has caused the problem..

Come on Norton, please sort us out, else we'll all be off to Mcafee or something...

Nick

 

[Sir_George]

nick,

I fully understand that your problem started after an update, but my point
is, Norton AV is a resource hog. So, even if Norton provides a solution for
your current situation I would suggest trying alternative AV programs and
compare their performance to Norton when it was running at its peak (prior
to the update).

 

[nick smith]

Thanks for the reply -
I have found a local who understood what is going on - namely that I have the "Sasser"
worm, which, although I do Liveupdates daily, on Norton A/V 2002, it is hidden from view
by the updates and these do not happen successfully. There is a patch for this on the
Symantec site and the local shop has encountered many instances and sorted people with
this.
I appreciate Norton is resource intensive, but it has been working acceptably for some
considerable time, and suddenly pages taking one second to download were taking 20 seconds
plus which is apparently classic symptoms....

Nick

 

[Buffalo]

Sasser doesn't normally affect Win98, but since you dual boot, the probem
may be connected to XP.
Usually you have to disable the 'restore' feature before you can completely
remove a virus in XP or, if you just caught the virus, the Restore feature
should be able to return you to a time before the virus got on board.
I am surprised that an up-to-date Norton allowed the Sasser virus onboard.

 

[Kurnal]

I also have this problem since running live update Sunday 16 May.
I run w98se with all patches, NIS2002 and IE6. I have downloaded and run the
sasser worm fix but nothing was found. Have also downloaded the latest live
update but not selected the updated URL offered cos its 23 megs and that
would take forever.
I am getting constant security alerts about attacks by the sokets de troisv1
trojan in the evenings- up to 300 in an hour, but strangely no security
alerts at all if I operate early in the morning.
Everything on my pc runs fine except IE. There is a program I dont recognise
on the current tasks list called OSA. Dont remember seeing that before.
Any advice gratefully received

 

[Buffalo]

Try a free online virus scan.
Also download, install, update and then run one or more of these adware
finders,etc.
If you are talking about the lastest MS update, try 'uninstalling' it and
see what happens.

Online Antivirus scanners:
--------------------------
http://housecall.antivirus.com/
http://www.pandasoftware.es/activescan/activescan-com.asp
http://commandondemand.com/eval/index.cfm
http://security2.norton.com/us/home.asp

Spyware finders and preventers:
AdAware
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

Spybot Search & Destroy
http://security.kolla.de/

Spyware Blaster
http://www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareblaster.html

 

[Kurnal]

Thanks Buffalo
Did the online scan by symantec as you suggested no virus found, no
vulnerability found. But all of a sudden my PC is running fine again.
Strange isn't it. Its a bit like when I complain about poor service and
frequent drop out from my ISP , they never find anything wrong but suddenly
things improve.

 

[Buffalo]

Amazing.
When you do the online scan, Symantec dl's many files to your PC and it may
just have overwritten a 'corrupt' Norton file or updated one.
Happy to hear it's now working well.

 

[Bluedog]

I too have experienced this problem since the last liveupdate. It has
only affected web surfing (with either IE or Mozilla Firebird), and
has slowed that down to a crawl.

The only thing I've been able to determine so far is that if I disable
the Norton Personal Firewall then the problem goes away, and my web
speed is normal.

Bluedog

 

[Bluedog]

Thanks for the reply -
I have found a local who understood what is going on - namely that I have the "Sasser"
worm, which, although I do Liveupdates daily, on Norton A/V 2002, it is hidden from view
by the updates and these do not happen successfully. There is a patch for this on the
Symantec site and the local shop has encountered many instances and sorted people with
this.

I downloaded the FXSASSER.EXE tool from Symantec and followed the
directions. It did not find the Sasser worm.

I am convinced that this is directly related to the last liveupdate,
and is an issue with NPF in particular. This is the second time this
year Symantec has screwed this up. The first was with the new version
of LiveUpdate.

Bluedog

 

[Bluedog]

I guess a certain number of reboots do the trick?

After I got done with the FXSASSER tool (which told me I did NOT have
the Sasser worm) and the ensuing reboots, I no longer have the
problem. Gone. Finito.

Whatever. At least it's working again and I can get on with my life.

Bluedog

 

[Peter]

I also have a Norton antivirus and internet security 2002, and have also had
some problems with the PC since friday after af liveupdate.
My PC stops with blue screen error message in the SYMFW.SYS file
(protected_page_error.... af 0x0000......,, , ,)
This is not the same as for you but it is in relation to the latest
liveupdate.
I am running XP-pro
Any sugestions ?
Peter

Peter,

Had the same problems after an update. But today (23-05-2004)there was
another update and symfw.sys was replaced by a newer version. Up to
now all ok.
Hopefully it remains like that.
Greetz., Peter

 

[Paul]

I've had to disable my Norton Personal Firewall too. Hadn't used my
computer in 12 days as I was on vacation, but yesterday I turned it
on, and after the live update from Norton, my IE browsing and other
programs were runnning extremely slow. Disabled Norton Firewall and
everything was normal (quick responding) again.

So I'll use the XP firewall for now, until Norton fixes the problem in
a future update (if they're aware of the problem?).

I believe I have the 2002 version of System Works and Personal
Firewall.

 

[nick smith]

I came to the conclusion that it was Norton's way of saying time for you to buy
our new Anti-virus 2004 - so I bought......


another manufacturer's product......


I don't support time limited software......


I am willing to be persuaded otherwise though, for NEXT time I have to buy some
but Norton have blown it with me this time round....

Nick