Hi. I have NIS 2008 on my PC and for the past few days, it will not scan as scheduled or manually. On the main screen it has “Attention” next to Virus and Spyware scan. When I click “Fix” it goes to the scan screen and says “scanning commonly affected areas etc.” but will not begin to scan. It stays on zero. I have left it alone for an hour or so thinking it was just starting slowly but it never did anything. If I stop the scan, it will stop responding and I have to close it by ending the process. Despite this, it will scan in Safe Mode and finds nothing. How can I get it to scan normally?
If you have a valid subscription for your 2008 product, I suggest you to upgrade to the 2009 version at free of cost. 2009 products have many enhanced features compared to 2008. Many of the issues in 2008 version are fixed with this upgrade. Please let me know if you are interested to upgrade to the 2009 version, I can provide you the instructions to do that.
Vineeth--
ok, I’d like to try that. What do I need to do?
Hi -
Perform the following:
1. Download and run the Norton Removal Tool HERE - reboot, run it again, and reboot one more time.
2. Download and Install the latest NIS 2009 from HERE.
Note that you will need your original Product Key for the install.
Hope this helps. Let me know.
Compumind 
Message Edited by Compumind on 04-07-2009 05:18 PM
I have done all of that. I have the 2009 version now but the problem still persists. I started a full system scan but it still will not move past “scanning commonly infected areas…” and the Total items scanned is zero. Is there anything else I can do?
Go to your main drive in Windows explorer (usually C:) and right click on it; choose Properties. Go to Tools tab and under Error Checking click Check Now. Select (or check) Automatically Fix File System Errors and click Start. When the message about can not get acess right now comes up and askes about continuing during the next boot up select yes and reboot your system. Let chkdsk run at boot time and notice if it finds and fixes any errors. When the system boot up is finished, see if you can run a scan now.
When I selected Automatically Fix File System Errors and pressed start, the window disappeared and nothing happened. Nothing popped up or asked me to reboot. Does this mean that it didn't find any errors or that it didn't even check for them? NIS still will not scan.
Hi -
Please open a Command Prompt and type in the following:
CHKDSK /F and press enter.
Type "Y" (for yes) and reboot your system.
Try NIS again.
Let us know how it goes.
Thanks. 
Message Edited by Compumind on 04-08-2009 03:56 PM
I did as you said in the command propt, but got this message:
"Access Denied as you do not have sufficient privileges. You have to invoke this utility running in elevated mode"
I am the administrator on my computer. What does this mean and what step should I take next?
I have had the same issue. In addition my windows vista security indictes it’s not functioning. I try to start it, but it gives me a message that it is unable to start. I have already used the Norton removal tool and re-installed the software with no change.
It has been a few days with the problem and the latest development is that now on the icon in my taskbar, there is a red X. When I click to open it, it says “at risk” and when I press fix now it proceeds to try to scan with no success. I have also begun getting pop-ups from the bottom right of my screen saying Auto-protect, Norton has blocked “Suspicious.MH690.A”. What does this mean? I would really appreciate any response.
Hello defnsanity,
While I would like to be able to provide a solution to help you, I'm inclined to believe that this might be due to a hard drive going bad, or something hardware related.
I don't usually like to jump to the conclusion that it's a hardware failure, but it seems likely.
A few things you could try that might help if it is not a hardware issue:
You could try scanning using the Norton Recovery Tool for Norton Internet Security - http://www.symantec.com/norton/support/kb/web_view.jsp?wv_type=public_web&docurl=20080612122232EN&ln=en_US and see if anything is detected.
Also, you might want to try turning on Early Load and rebooting. You can do this by launching the Main UI, clicking on Settings and turning the slider on the Early Load option.
Let me know if any of these options help.
As I reported a few days ago, I had a similar problem. I spent over 6 hours with 6 different techs with Norton (very frustrating), and it turned out I had a W32.spybot.worm virus that made it past Norton. Apparently the virus has the ability to allow access to my computer and files. After removing the virus and reinstalling NIS2009, Norton Techs could not get the Norton scan working, and suspected the virus damaged other files. Unfotunately I had to reinstall Vista, but everything is working now. You may want to contact Norton to remove the virus.
Hi. I appreciate the steps you have provided, however I am still facing the same issues. I really hope this is not a hardware problem because my computer is less than 6 months old. I ran the Recovery tool and it found no items requiring attention. The only problem is that it told me the last update was in August of last year, before this computer was even purchased. So I took out the disk and ran LiveUpdate and the intelligent updater manually but when I rebooted using the disk again, it told me the same thing about the last update being August 2008. I even tried using a wired connection instead of wireless and it told me it was unable to update. Once again, I am in denial about this being a hardware issue because my computer is like-new with no other problems. I am beginning to believe jarnold60, that this may be a virus that has gone undetected because I cannot scan efficiently. I continue to seek an answer and any other steps that can be taken to solve this problem. Thanks.
If you have access to a usb stick drive, download A-Squared USB Emergency Stick files from here . Boot from the stick (instructions are on the download page) and run a deep scan after updating the definitions. If this fails to load (and you have some OS install disks) then search for ‘UBCD for Windows’ and create a bootable PE disk. There are recovery tools included with this disk; you should be able to repair your system one way or the other. Sorry you are having this trouble; keep us posted.
Oh my gosh. I ran a routine Windows update which gave me the Windows Malicious Software Removal tool. I ran it and it found malicious software and removed it and now the scan works fine. Its crazy that something so simply fixed can cause so much of a problem. Thanks for all the input.