Opinion:

I think it's irresponsible for the VP of Product Development of a software company, upon whose words many forum denizens hang, to recommend to users with far less sophistication he has, to forgo the use of security software. As I recall, the OP in this thread had, or at least thought she had, an infestation of a very nasty virus within the past couple of years.

I agree with, and follow, the same precautions you do, but a couple of times a year, my security software will alert me to a threat of some type and eliminate it. Reducing the threat to 'The majority of all virus...' isn't enough. It only takes one to bring your machine down.

A couple of other avenues for infection are Adobe Acrobat and Flash, both of which are constantly targeted and compromised. These should always be kept up-to-date with the latest, patched versions. Seems to me that a software vendor that features so many Flash-based apps would caution their customers to stay on top of this, as well.

As for 'junk software', who's the determinant of that? Seems to me that I've seen those words used here on the forum with respect to some of the products sold here. Not my words, of course.

It is not irresponsible at all! Just an opinion like yours or anyone else. You can see examples here in the forums and I have countless examples in support. When customers have problems uploading, strange crashes or slow computers, it always had something to do with an anti-virus program and not our software.

I have never had a positive experience with these types of programs and they have always caused more problems then they are supposed to prevent. Preventing a virus from infecting your system is 100% avoidable with just a bit of web common sense and that starts with not using IE and switching to a web based e-mail system.

Yes, Scott. You have scarred me for life with your irresponsible ramblings concerning your personal computer setup at home.

I just want to thank you all for taking the time to reply with lots of helpful info/tips/advice.

For now I have decided to keep Norton running. Although I'm no dumba$$, I am just too chicken to uninstall it or turn it off - lol! Okay? I'm a pansy

I am not 100% sure it is Norton that is causing my pc tower unit to make that whirring sound. See, at first I thought that winding up whirring sound was one of the fans kicking into a higher "gear", but I just don't know! I don't know what other components inside my computer are capable of making that noise.

Right now my computer is running smoothly, quietly, no winding up whirring sounds. I wanted to do a few different thing on my computer to sort of "test" what may be making my computer make that sound. So I closed FireFox and opened up a crap-load of programs:

YouTube downloader
Banner Designer Pro
Adobe Photoshop
Any Video Converter
Corel Draw
ArcSoft Media Impressions for Kodak
MS Excel
MS Word
Nokia PC Suite
Pinnnacle Studio
My Screen Recorder
and of course Coffee Cup VSD

That's just about all I have on my computer that I ever use and I NEVER use them all at once. Maybe one or two at a time and I never have any issues w/my computer running slow or the whirring sound. And right now, even w/all those progs open AND using FireFox, still no whirring up sound.

So I still need to do another "test" b/c it seems to me the problem of the revving up whirring sound only happens when I have FireFox open and have lots of tabs open at once.

I use CCleaner at least once a day and also clear cookies & all that stuff using the Tools menu in FireFox.

So at this point in time I dunno what is making my computer make that noise every now and then. Seems to me if it was Norton, it would have done that from the beginning, right?

Well, thanks again everyone - this forum rocks - well, the people who contribute rock

Love you guys!

Sounds like one of your cooling fans is simply approaching its end of life. Try to pinpoint which one is making the noise, and then replace it. They are cheap.

So do I need to replace just the black fan blade thingie or the silver funky thing behind it?

Never replaced a fan unit before. Gotta find out what brand/model # I need and I'll buy new ones. I think I just have two.

Really you would only NEED to replace the fan. However, you might find a better deal on a heat-sink (that silver funky thingy) and fan combo. OR you might find that if you purchase fan only, it MAY not fit nicely onto your current heat-sink.

Either way, please do yourself a favor and get the heat-sink compound (the white gunk under the heat-sink) and refresh it. See my post earlier with Newegg link and info on the compound.

I have replaced a few of them over the years, and they all made intermittent noises towards the end...
You probably have at least three fans, any one of which may be the problem: One for the CPU, one for the chassis (box) and one in the power supply. As for brands, I pretty much treat the fans as commodities and any brand they happened to have in the store was good enough for me...
I certainly agree with Phil, that getting the combo fan/heat sink may be a good idea for the reasons he mentions.

And say to yourself three times while clicking your heels together...I will not use too much heat-sink compound...This will do more harm than good.

So... Scott would probably blame Bill Gates for the Iranian nuclear programs recent infection.

Seriously I hate running a security app on my own machines (Norton in my opinion is the worst very intrusive and a huge footprint), and have never had an infection. But I always recommend that my clients and relatives use a security app, my mother-in-law for example manages to get an infection of some kind or another almost every other week on her machine! Of course she can't grasp the minute differences between technician and developer so guess who gets frequent calls at weird hours!