Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

[bobsal]

Beginning yesterday, I began having lockups on two of my home computers, both of which have NIS installed.  I was able to track the problem to the new NIS version 18.5.0.125.  Both computers have Windows 7 Ultimate 64

My symptoms started showing with the following:

1.  Could not shutdown the computer normally.  It would freeze on the "Shutting Down..." screen with the spinning circle.  I had to use the power button to force it down.  This could reliably be repeated every time.

2.  Random freezes when surfing the web.  We could do things sometimes for a few hours without issue, then IE would freeze and be "Not Responding".  Other times it happened within a few minutes.

3.  NIS itself would freeze when trying to do a Virus Scan.  Even a quick scan.  Would freeze on the 'scanning commonly infected areas and start-up file' phase.  Every time.

4. Disk defragmentation would freeze when trying to analyze the C-drive.  I could analyze other drives (each machine has D,E,F,G,H drives as well as C, they are all just partitions in one drive).  Since we are mentioning this, NIS is installed on the D: drive.

Some steps I took:

1.  Uninstalled and used Norton Removal tool.

2.  Now, with NIS gone, all of the ablove problems went away.  No problems shutting down, defragging, surfing, etc.

3.  Reinstalled 18.5.0.125 from a fresh download.

4.  Now, with it reinstalled, all of the above problems came back.  Exactly the same as before. 

5.  I Dsabled Auto-Protect for 5 hours and rebooted.  With auto-protect disabled at start-up everything is fine.  No issues.  Can do scans, defrags.

6.  I re-enabled, problems came back.

7.  Also, if i started up the system with auto-protect enabled, and immediately disabled it, the problems persisted.  So, simply diabling auto-protect did not make the problems go away, you had to start-up windows with it disabled for things to work.

8. Finallly, I found link to the prior version, 18.1.0.37.  I uninstalled, and norton-removed 18.5.0.125.  Rebooted.  Installed 18.1.0.37.  Immediately disabled Automatic updates to make sure 18.5 didn't come back.  Everything is working fine again.  I used intelligent updater to get latest virus definitions.  With 18.1 there are no issues.  Can defrag, scan, surf, etc. just like before.

Definitely something with 18.5.  I am staying with 18.1 until this is resolved.  That being said, is there a way to get the security updates in a download form like Intelligent updater?  Or is there a way for me to stop Program updates from coming thru on Automatic Updates?  I'd like to have the latest updates without risking 18.5 getting re-installed.

[fidelity]

I'm having the exact same problems. Also, I can't access the Norton performance or settings tabs since it freezes. I haven't yet re-installed the 18.1 version, but I might do it since I can't even shut down the computer properly because it just "shuts down"  indefinitely.

I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

[TomiRed Super Spam Squasher]

Seeing all the listed issues, even on a sprinkly fresh install.

Send logs if requested... I will have to say that this version shouldn't have passed Quality Assurance and shouldn't have been released. It's blatantly obvious.

[MrvdG]

After installing NIS 18.5.0.125 on a Vista 64 Home machine, I've experienced similar issues as the ones described above. My symptoms:

- System would not shutdown, but would remain on the 'Shutting Down' screen.

- 'Performance' Tab in NIS would display empty calendar and CPU area. The 'month' tabs would continue to show 'Loading'. Trying to move back to the main screen by clicking 'Home' would result in a 'Symantec Service Framework stopped working' crash of ccsvchost.exe

- Trying to open up Task Manager would only show the Task Manager green square in the task bar. The actual Task Manager window would not open.

- Installable files downloaded through Google Chrome would download, but when running them would display the 'Are you sure you want to run the file' window and after clicking yes, nothing would happen.

After returning to 18.1.0.37, all has returned to normal and all above symptoms have disappeared. Could it be there's an issue with the 18.5 patch on 64 bit operating systems?

[Tim_Lopez Administrator]

Hi bobsal,

We're sorry you're having these issues. We haven't seen these issues with 18.5, and definitely didn't see it during our testing. Can you help us out by sending us some log files so that we can investigate this for you?

There should be a Private Message that was sent to you with information.

[Tim_Lopez Administrator]

MrvdG/TomiRed,

I've sent you a Private Message ( icon on the top right portion of the forums). Please check this when you get a chance.

[TomiRed Super Spam Squasher]

I've uploaded the logs. When compressed in 7z, they are actually quite small in bytesize. Now get to the bottom of this... :D

[albert594]

I am running the same version of NIS 2011 [Win 7 -64], and have been experiencing the same problems as described by the original poster.  These problems, including the inability to shut down, started yesterday, 12/09/10 - in order to shut down I must now use the power button.

I just used Win 7's "Resource and Perfomance Monitor" feature to generate a System Health Report - and it reports "The Security Center is unable to identify an active anti-virus application. Either there is no anti-virus product installed or it is not recognized."    

In addition, NIS will not do a system scan, either quick or full - it goes to the scan window, and the animated graphic that reports it is scanning does appear, but no files are reported scanned - and there is no hard drive activity [no indicator light].  NIS will not allow me to cancel the scan [it goes through its warning window, and then when I confirm the cancel, it reverts to a window that reports it is "pausing".   In that window, both the "pause scan" and "cancel scan" buttons are inoperative - and I must use Task Manager to kill the window.

Various other programs on my machine are intermittently now buggy, just as reported by the original poster.

I see in this thread that a poster has reverted to an earlier version of NIS 2011, and reports that all is now well with his system.  Until this issue is resolved [I understand it may turn out NOT to be NIS], can you let me know how I can revert to an earlier version of NIS 2011, and still get AV and all the other protections that NIS provides me with?

TIA,

albert

[davidpecar]

I am having the exact same problems as bobsal. I cannot even get to a point of uninstalling anymore because of the computer freezing.  I have already tried three reinstalls with no luck.  I even get a runtime error....visualc++runtime library....c:\windows\system32\spool.exe.  Things are very erratic and unpredictable.  It started as soon as I rebooted with the 18.5.0.125 on my win7/64 professional.  my win  7/64 ultimate is not having any issues at this time.  Need help fast!  Please!

[TomiRed Super Spam Squasher]

Next time you start your computer, press and hold F8, and boot in safe mode. You will be able to uninstall NIS then.

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davidpecar wrote:

I am having the exact same problems as bobsal. I cannot even get to a point of uninstalling anymore because of the computer freezing.  I have already tried three reinstalls with no luck.  I even get a runtime error....visualc++runtime library....c:\windows\system32\spool.exe.  Things are very erratic and unpredictable.  It started as soon as I rebooted with the 18.5.0.125 on my win7/64 professional.  my win  7/64 ultimate is not having any issues at this time.  Need help fast!  Please!

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