From: Darryl Champagne [dgc03052@adelphia.net]
Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2006 12:17 PM
To: 'Symantec Technical Support'
Subject: RE: 'Case=002-372-278'
I can now reproduce the problem at will, using just LiveUpdate.
 
- Reboot machine
- Start Windows Task Manager (by right-click on taskbar)
- Add Handles column to display, if not already being displayed
- Symlcsvc.exe starts with 136 handles in use (on my machine, at least).
- Open Norton Internet Security
- Select LiveUpdate
- When you hit Start, the number of handles for Symlcsvc.exe grows to 178 (increases by 42).  For reference, LiveUpdate states that it is downloading 44 catalogs.  Note that nothing actually gets installed, although I see the same behavior when stuff does get installed.
- When LiveUpdate finishes, the number of handles stays at 178.
- Run LiveUpdate again.
- The number of handles grows by another 42, to 220
- Repeat again, the number of handles grows to 262.
 
After LiveUpdate has run 100 times, 4,200 handles will have been leaked, which is a significant strain on a system actually running applications.  Once the system started running out of resources, that probably started leading to LiveUpdate failing in strange ways, which is why it could get stuck just rerunning over and over - since it didn't actually succeed.
 
Note: While I expect an actual fix would take a while for a developer to investigate, fix, and propagate out, I would _really_ like some kind of response, and being told if a bug has been logged, and when a fix might be expected (better yet, be notified when a fix has been pushed out via LiveUpdate), and/or some way to check on the status of the bug.
 
dgc


From: Darryl Champagne [mailto:dgc03052@adelphia.net]
Sent: Monday, August 07, 2006 9:03 PM
To: 'Symantec Technical Support'
Subject: RE: 'Case=002-372-278'

Here is an update - I discovered that the event log was showing LiveUpdate running every 5 minutes, like it was stuck.  Perhaps that is what was causing the handles to be leaked.  See the bottom of the attached, updated, file.
 
dgc


From: Darryl Champagne [mailto:dgc03052@adelphia.net]
Sent: Monday, August 07, 2006 8:27 PM
To: 'Symantec Technical Support'
Subject: RE: 'Case=002-372-278'

Please note that most of these questions were answered in my original message.  It would have been nice for you to have included that text in your reply.  Also, the workaround for the problem is to reboot the system, but that is a pretty bad approach for something that regularly recurs.  Since I know how to workaround the problem, my expectation is for you to log a bug with the actual developers, so that maybe someday someone will fix it.
 
However, answers embedded.
dgc


From: Symantec Technical Support [mailto:Technicalsupport@symantec.iseva.net]
Sent: Monday, August 07, 2006 6:53 PM
To: Darryl Champagne
Subject: RE:'Case=002-372-278'

Hello Darryl,
 
Thank you for contacting Symantec Online Technical Support.
 
I understand from your message that, you are facing issues with Norton Internet Security(NIS)2006.
 
 Darryl, in order to provide more precise technical support, we'll need to gather a bit more information from you. By getting these details, we'll have a better chance of making a specific diagnosis and leading you to a solution. Please reply to this message with the following:  
 
[1] Exact error message or error number (if any)  
Per my original message, because the symlcsvc.exe service (YOUR SERVICE) causes the entire system to run short of resources, it causes any new action to fail once the threshold is reached.  Thus for example - Attempting to open an email in Outlook gets a dialog that there are insufficient resources, please close some windows and try again.  Attempting to open large programs, like XMLSpy, or Adobe Acrobat typically just completely fail - you get a busy cursor for a short while, and then the program fails to load.  The Microsoft knowledge base article on the problem is available at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126962/en-us , and as it describes, sometimes there are insufficient resources to open an error message dialog box, thus the silent failures.
 
There is also a good description of the problem at: http://www.ss64.com/orasyntax/desktopheap.html , and IBM describes what to do at http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21142584
 [2] Do you have any other securityprogram installed on your system?  
No. 
[3] Did you uninstalled any previous Norton program before trying to install NIS 2006?  
The NIS 2006 install uninstalled NIS2005 during it's setup. 
[4] What are the other Symantec product installed on your system and their versions?
 
In order to find the version of your Symantec program, kindly follow the document below:
 
Title: "Finding the version of your Symantec program"
Document ID: 2002111407412539
>Web URL:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2002111407412539?Open&src=con_ols_nam
 
Norton Internet Security 2006, Version 9.1.0.33
Customer ID: VVVJ2VVV3VVY10
  Norton Antivirus (from the Norton Internet Security product), Version 12.2.0.13
Norton Systemworks 2006 Basic Edition, Version 9.01, Build 19
  Norton Antivirus, as above
  Norton Utilities, Version 19.0.1.8
Norton Password Manager 2004 (shows up as part of Norton SystemWorks), no separate build number listed.
[5] Please provide us with the screenshot of the error message that you receive.
 
Follow the steps provided below to take a screenshot:
 
1. Reproduce the issue/error message.  
 
As originally described, the problems occur after the machine has been running for around two weeks.  Since I had to reboot to recover from the problem, it is not currently visible.  However, the usage of resources is shown in the attached file.
2. On the error screen/dialog box, hold down the ‘Alt’ and ‘Print Screen’ keys on your keyboard. This will copy the image to the clipboard.
3. Open a Paint application (Start—Programs—Accessories—Paint) and click on Edit—Paste and save the file.
4. You can also paste this image on a Word document and send it as an attachment. 
As shown in the Word document snapshot, upon system restart, the resource usage of the program is quite low.  This builds over time.  In the original text that I posted, I included the values from when it was having problems.  The key value is that the Handles column of Windows Task Manager for Symlcsvc.exe grows from 181, as it currently is after restart, to over 5000, after 14 days of uptime.  For the exact value, see the original post. 
 
We look forward to your reply to assist you better.
 
Regards
 
Sumesh Varghese
Symantec  Authorized Technical Support

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