Is Norton Antivirus Slowing Games?

The other day I renewed my subscription for Norton Antivirus 2003 and then downloaded the available updates (program & common client updates etc) via live update. Since doing that, I'm not 100% sure, but certain games seem to run slightly slower - the main one being Half-Life 2. Most of my other games (SOF2, UT2004, Ground Control 2) seem ok - I'm just wondering whether I just didn't notice the slower game speed on HL2 (I've played through it once). Can NAV 2003 slow down games? Auto protect is always disabled when playing them.
Also, how do you stop reminders popping up telling you that there is an available update? I have de-selected the 'notify me of norton antivirus program updates' box in the options settings, but I keep getting that little aerial in the notification area on every boot. I receive my virus definitions automatically. The only update left is a patch for pcs with service pack 2 - which I don't have.

Thanks

 

norton has always slowed my computer even when its just doing the usual web browsing and chatting on msn so i didn't renew my subscription last year. can we have a system spec and see if that might determine and issues with norton.
sorry can't help with the notifiers, i don't use it, but you might like to try the upgrade to service pack 2....

 

ive never liked norton. i was content to oblivously sit on the family computer until one day i got fed up with it popping up duiring games. no, there is nothing you can do about the popups, other than uninstall it.

 

3.2Ghz P4
1Gb ram
256mb Geforce FX5950 Ultra
SB Audigy 2 ZS

 

Is there any disadvantage to uninstalling NAV 2003 completely and just installing the original i.e. do I still get another year of virus definitions and should it run normally without any updates (accepting future definitions etc)?

 

The only way to get another year of updates is to format your hardrive and do a fresh install. Norton has gotten sneaky with some of the files that they put on your hard drive. There is one file with an extension of stub that isn't deleted when you uninstall it, as well as various regesitry files. I just recently uninstalled Norton 2003 on this machine ( used Avast on others ) to install Avast. I still get an occasional Norton entry in my registry, although I used their removal tool in addition to removing it from Add/Remove function in control panel.

 

Norton is notorious for slowing down the entire computer! There are ALOT of better protectors out there !!!!! Sorry to hear you just paid for another year...

 

well i use NAV and NPFW on my PC and to be honest i have never noticed any kind of slowing of the PC or net lag ect.

my system is:

Win XP
AMD 2400+
1.25 GIG RAM
G-Force 5700 Ultra

in my experience its been very good for me

 

Which version of NAV do you use?

 

Norton SW2004/NAV2004/NIS2004 + Gost2003
Norton is the mother of Bloatwares....They are the future:That means minimum system requirements currently are...
>Processor:At least 3.3 Ghz
>FSB:At least 800Mhz.
>Memory:At least 786MB
>Their CCPROXY.EXE is hogging up 152MB of memory right now on my PC.


But I must say I was never attacked successfully or virus in 3.5 years, and never had to do a repair or re-install so far....



But, I am getting tired of these Bloat-Brakes on my PC which is 3.06Ghz/786MB of memory currently, and forgot.....Through in SP2 with this mix....Formula I can learn something from Symantec & MS slowing their cars by changing the rules.

>>As far as I am concerned, these BLOAT is due to hasty & poor programming by programmers.

 

so you're essentially saying, if you got the cash to fork out for these high spec requirements, then your pc will take norton with no problems!
for those of us who can't find money - students like me!!!! then avg or avast are great and can be used on any practically any pc (within reason there!!!)

 

That is what I am saying......, but if youre not connected to the net playing games you can always try this:

Go to msconfig:
>Start-Run-msconfig.....
>Uncheck all at startup.
>Go to Services, then hide all MS services.
>Then uncheck the rest of the services.
>Now apply & reboot.
>Your PC is now running without external bloat.
>Play game.....How did it go.

**If the game requires something or service to be prsent, you must allow that on boot.