I have been using Norton Internet Security or Norton Anti-virus for the past ten years,
either by renewing an OEM version or purchasing a retail version.
Last year for the first time, I had problems with NIS negatively affecting a working operating system. After installing NIS 2008 I had a problem with Java applets opening unless I disabled the anti-phishing feature. I spent considerable time last year with Symantec support resolving that issue.
I just updated to a retail 3 PC version of NIS 2009. Installing it on my main PC has corrupted the operating system. The PC has Windows XP service pack 2 Media Center Edition 2005. I have used this PC for five years and never had an error message during that time while using Media Center.
Recently I installed NIS 2009, ran Live Update and shut down the PC. The next day I tried opening Media Center (which I use regularly to record TV) and it was unusable.
I received the Windows error message titled, “ehshell.exe Common Language Runtime Debugging Services.” Application has generated an exception that could not be handled.
What a coincidence, I install NIS 2009 and the next day, Media Center is corrupted after working flawlessly for five years.
First thing I tried was completely disabling NIS 2009 and then each individual feature to find out if the problem was fixable. I was familiar with this procedure from having to use it the prior year with NIS 2008. Disabling everything did not resolve the issue.
I then searched the web and Microsoft support for a fix. I found some search results for the error message at various places. However, they had specific causes listed which did not match my situation. I tried some of the suggested fixes for the error message, but none of them resolved the problem.
I then uninstalled NIS 2009. That did not resolve the problem. Apparently something in the OS for Media Center was corrupted by the installation of NIS 2009.
Next I contacted Symantec support for help. I must admit that I didn’t expect them to find the needle in a haystack of what their software corrupted in my OS.
My first session (case # 495056927) had the representative try remote access to my PC to diagnose the problem. I was given two different links to input the code for the remote access, and neither of them loaded. That session ended with Symantec telling me that NIS 2009 is incompatible with Media Center 2005, that I needed to upgrade.
I asked, “upgrade to what version?” I was told that I needed to upgrade to Media Center 2007. As far as I know, there isn’t any such upgrade available for XP. I know there are roll ups available for MCE 2005, which I have already installed.
My second session started much like the first, except I was given a different link for the page to input the remote access code. This time it worked and the representative looked around in my PC. A few things were suggested, so I tried them.
I was told, “I found that we need to update the .Net framework to fix this issue which we are not sure of.”
I downloaded and installed Windows .NET Framework 3.0 Redistributable Package.
I looked for any applicable Windows hotfixes.
I ran SFC /SCANNOW (Windows file protection) without receiving any results or errors.
After finishing the suggestions, Media Center was still tainted and unusable.
For my third session, I was mainly reporting back with a follow up of my unsuccessful attempts to resolve the problem. Another remote access was done by the representative and the response was, “I see that the issue is not related with Norton.”
And furthermore, “I request you to contact the Microsoft. They will resolve the issue.”
“Not to worry, if you contact Microsoft they will resolve the issue.”
Microsoft’s support site does not have a resolution for this error, and I am certainly not going to pay for Microsoft support so that they can try to find the needle in the hay stack of what was corrupted by installing NIS 2009.
So now over a week’s time, I wasted a considerable amount of time with this.
My last resort was to recover my local disk partition to a date that preceded installing NIS 2009. I was certain that would take me back to a working OS. I recovered the partition and not surprisingly, Media Center worked again as it had for the last five years.
Now my recovered OS has an expired version of NIS 2008 which needs the subscription renewed after I already paid for a NIS 2009 retail version that doesn’t work for me.
Message Edited by Tainted on 09-28-2009
Message Edited by Tainted on 09-28-2009 04:46 PM