LONG STORY: Norton BSOD me when I use Truecrypt

 Now I'll have to downgrade to 360 all the while my 2015 subscription is counting down every day.

Good point James. I wonder if Liliana meant to include some kind of a freeze on that. Perhaps you would raise the point when you PM her about her offer to arrange the downgrade; perhaps they have some way of freezing a subscription? 

Very good points. They knew how to handle problems with encrypted drives in NIS 2014, so why can't they solve it in NS 2015? Support costs money and does not sell products, that's why I guess they reduced it to an absolut minimum.

I bought NIS since Version 2009 or so, never had a problem with Steganos until now. I'll keep that in mind after my year of subscription.

I can't resist admitting to having, to a limited degree, what most might consider a perverse sense of humor BUT:

1) Nikhil's valiant efforts to try and solve this problem and collect sufficient info. to try to resolve it and then bringing it to the attention of Symantec's Staff has been nothing short of terrific. Nickhil is indeed a caring and tireless source of help on this Forum

2) The acknowledgement of the issue by Symantec and the "fact" that the cause of the problem had been identified was great. To me, the worse thing in using software that is giving customers serious issues, be it playing an on-line game or using Security Software, is not knowing if the Company knows about the issue and is trying to develop a fix for it.

But, while sincerely empathetic to those who are plagued by this issue, and despite my understanding that developing and fully testing a quality solution may be complex and time consuming, I have to admit that I find this thread as it stands tonight more than a a bit humorous, admittedly as sick as that might seem.

Sorry for this totally gratuitous, but honest comment, but I live very close to a home where President George Washington lived for a long period of time and "I did not chop down that cherry tree."

hok:

I can't resist admitting to having, to a limited degree, what most might consider a perverse sense of humor BUT:

1) Nikhil's valiant efforts to try and solve this problem and collect sufficient info. to try to resolve it and then bringing it to the attention of Symantec's Staff has been nothing short of terrific. Nickhil is indeed a caring and tireless source of help on this Forum

2) The acknowledgement of the issue by Symantec and the "fact" that the cause of the problem had been identified was great. To me, the worse thing in using software that is giving customers serious issues, be it playing an on-line game or using Security Software, is not knowing if the Company knows about the issue and is trying to develop a fix for it.

But, while sincerely empathetic to those who are plagued by this issue, and despite my understanding that developing and fully testing a quality solution may be complex and time consuming, I have to admit that I find this thread as it stands tonight more than a a bit humorous, admittedly as sick as that might seem.

Sorry for this totally gratuitous, but honest comment, but I live very close to a home where President George Washington lived for a long period of time and "I did not chop down that cherry tree."

Well, looks like I not only have a slightly twisted sense of humor, but also a misunderstanding of the status of who's-who on This Forum. I had gotten an incorrect impression. I admit to not have read every post on this prolonged thread.

I am informed that it was floplot that made the successful effort to bring this issue to the attention of Symantec and to have a workaround provided, not Nickhil, though I'm certain that his efforts at collecting the required data and info were of great assistance to floplot's successful effort. I am still fairly new to this board and never really understood the meaning of the titles of those who so often come to our aid when we call for it, GURUS, Norton Fighters,ets.,and all that.

My comments about Nickhil's being a caring and tireless source of help on this Forum still stand.

floplot you also can be accurately described that way in addition to your serving as a Liaison with Symantec on our behalf on such technical problems. I can't think of any issue or problem that I have posted here that you did not respond to with suggested solutions and advice.

floplot: Your frequent offers of information and suggested solutions made to us on this Forum have been made far too simply and clearly stated, not overly-technical, casual, friendly, soft-spoken, and unpretentious that I had not gotten an accurate understanding of your status on the Forums.

It is a credit to Symantec that both you, floplot, and Nickhil have been such frequent rescuers for those of us with technical issues. (Is there a Forum Sub-Title :"Symantec St. Bernard ?")

Thanks, as always, F4E :-)

I do not see either an entry for "GURU" nor "Symantec St Bernard."

BTW: I forgot to mention earlier your frequently offered solutions to me. Thanks.

I do see GURU in the link now. I get it :-) (The link to the general page that distinguishes GURU from all other titles still works. (The link to the hierarchy doesn't.)

Hello GeneJockey

Thank you for taking the time to write and type such a lovely post despite having a problem with your new Norton product. We don't see very often a post from a user who is having a serious problem with a new product take the time to thank the Norton Employee, in this case Liliana, before the problem is solved and fixed. So here is a public thank you to you GeneJockey and to you also Liliana.

we need a fix. no words, just a fix to a product that we bought and we can't use.

Dear All

I really hope that there is a solution to fix this serios Problem now. I already lost much too much time.

I am sorry, but THIS is the workaround?!

What would be the difference?

scsym:

workaround ? uninstall NS and use an older product ? great solution... :( it's more simple to use another security product.

Your scenario...uninstall NS and install a 'different' product. Sounds like the same amount of work, and as noted, will cost you for the new product.?????

OK, I am neither a Norton employee, nor a Norton expert and certainly not a Norton apologist. That said, I HAVE to believe that when it comes to base products, I doubt there is any difference in the anti-virus and anti-malware engines of any of these Norton products. I do not feel any less secure with NIS temporarily than I did when I had N360 (until last week) or NS 2015 (still running on my other non-win8 computers. After all, Norton, like every other company, has to create the illusion of new products so that its older ones do not cannibalize its newer ones. Interfaces change, some of the more 'peripheral' functions change/improve (like backup, like multi-device licenses, like PC tuneup etc) and whether or not these add value to any individual is up to what that individual uses.

My main use has always been firewall/antivirus/malware etc and the other bells and whistles are more for product distinction and providing a sense of "upgrade" path (i.e. more $$ to Symantec) than they are of real value (to me).

I seriously doubt that the "downgrade" as people are referring here is any sort of downgrade at all, at least when it comes to the basic functions I want.

Until someone proves me wrong and shows me that I actually have inferior PROTECTION with NIS than I did with N360 before it, or briefly with NS2015 (until fixed), I am OK to give them a bit of slack to solve the issue since it is costing me nothing except about 10 minutes of time for de-installation/re-installation.. .

The fact we're 3 months in and there's not even a hot fix out for this yet is very disconcerting. My company relies on Veracrypt to conduct it's business and we will no longer be purchasing Norton products going forward. Installing an older product is not acceptable.

Perhaps some of the angry TrueCrypt users should read

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/28/truecrypt_hack 

and explain why they still use it?

Or is the Register as inaccurate about TrueCrypt as it has been about many things including the current problems Norton has been experiencing.

PS There is no Norton 2015 product .....

Hello

It seems like there are several different encryption programs that produce the same thing, I gather from looking thru the thread.

I must say I am surprised by the tone of some of the regular contributors here. This is a problem caused by Norton - not by the customers who have paid for their products. Yes Lilliana has apparently offered to temporarily install another Norton product but, in my case at  least, I had already removed NS and installed an alternative after 6 PC's bluescreened. It took me many hours (not to mention the time spent resolving and researching the original problem) - I have no interest in starting again with a temporary Norton alternative which I will then have to remove to re-install NS (assuming It is ever fixed). How much more of my time am I expected to give up on this?

It has been 3 months now. That is plain unacceptable. There is no debate about that – with what other product would it possibly be acceptable for a subscription-based item to be unusable for 3 months? Even in the murky world of software, it's extremely poor.

The point of this post is to give a polite reminder to those who seem to be impatient with people who are not happy to install an alternative Norton product or are even suggesting that it is appropriate to criticise others for their choice of encryption software that you are really bashing the victims here and perhaps you need to take a step back and see the wider picture.However much assistance the regular posters may give to people here (and I fully accept that they do) you do yourselves, nor this forum, any favours when your defence of Norton teeters into the ludicrous. That is all.

Huwyngr:

Sure sounded like you were bashing Truecrypt users when you ask them to explain their useage when in fact the problem  is more widespread than a single product.

And thanks for pointing out there is no Norton 2015. I feel so much better now about my poisoned PCs.

Huwyngr:

 Bashing Norton?  I suppose thats true But I for one think they should be bashed. I paid for product to protect my PCs and in fact its just done the opposite. Dealing with support, I have encountered ignorance of the issue,denial of responsibilty, secondary disruption to my pc, lack of response to messages, and worst of all, prolonged continuance of the problem (74 days).

 I am a senior citizen who has dealt with personal customer support issues for decades and have established a well defined measuring stick for what's quality support and what is not. As a telecom technician I have also dealt with hardware, firmware and software consultations on a pretty regular basis.  As far as Norton is concerned I would have to look upwards with binoculars in search of mediocrity with regard to my experience with their support.

As far as volunteers and the community contributers, they are an oasis in a sea of frustration and I thank all for all efforts to resolve this issue. 

I did in fact  read the article mentioned. I just found quibbling over the product name a bit trivial compared to the issue at hand.

Well today I decided to run the gauntlet of online  phone support for NS and try to glean some information regarding a fix for this BSOD issue. I was pleasantly surprised and able to achieve a modicum of success. Norton staff was polite, friendly and cooperative in hearing me out. I suppose my case files history was useful in this regard as they could see I had issues back to almost day one of the patch. Wait times were moderate but not too bad.

THE GOOD:   As mentioned, polite,friendly, cooperative and paid close attention to my history, They agreed to extend my subscription since I could not use NS.  I am willing to wait on the sidelines until a fix is issued, then reinstall NS and use up the extended subscription. Seemed fair and reasonable to my situation.

THE BAD: Frontline support still did not seem aware of the issue so I wonder if new cases have to struggle through futile sessions before reaching an understanding of the situation. "Target date" seems to be verboten in Nortonese. However the manager indicated the fix was being "tested" and did not take issue with me when I suggested this was looking like a three month event. Hmmmm..........?

BOTTOM LINE: Thumbs Up!  Feels like I moved forward today instead of just spinning my wheels.

I have been following this thread hoping for a solution to this problem. I ran liveupdate today manually and found that there was a patch available. I was hoping that this would fix this issue. Installed the patch but as soon as I ran truecrypt, my machine got the BSOD again. Having been a developer and systems analyst for 20 years I am having a hard time believing that Norton is trying to fix this issue. It is obvious that one of their updates caused this problem since Norton Security worked fine with Truecrypt previously. The update changed code. Look at the changes in the code and determine which change(s) is affecting Truecrypt. It should not take three months to determine this.

Very long thread. Lots of users affected.

Has anyone been able to try to determine if there was any MS involvement in this? There was an issue a number of years ago where Norton changed their code to conform with some new MS programming rules/APIs, but in the end, MS had not changed their code as they told everyone else to do.

I'm not a programmer, but I have read many, many issues that have been related to a MS update that can affect other products, not just security software.

And to respond to huwyngr's comment: in the end it is impossible to ensure that a fix works on every possible combination of hardware and software (or we wouldn't be in the position that we are in currently with this particular problem), so you have to release a fix into the wild eventually to see how it gets on. 3+ months seems like a long time to take on preliminary in-house testing, although I acknowledge that this may indicate problems with the fix in in-house testing.

I count myself fortunate in that I don't rely on access to encrypted drives for my daily activities, but I'm still a little chagrined that I was sold goods that were not entirely fit for purpose by Norton. I do like Norton products though, and have tried the opposition and not found it to my liking, so I shall meander along being mildly inconvenienced until a fix is forthcoming. Those who cannot work with NS have my sympathy, for what it's worth...

I've gotten into the habit of running the previous years software.  It has saved me a lot of headaches.  This flaw would have been a true nightmare.  Rather than write my usernames, passwords, security question answers, financial account information, etc. in a notebook or journal, I have all this information saved in word documents and stored in an encrypted file.  I have this same procedure set up on six different friend's computers all running Norton software.  We all have one year remaining on our 21.6 subscriptions. There is no way we would consider purchasing this newest version of Norton.  Hopefully they will get this straightened out soon.